Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for Tomorrow You Live

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 27, 2013

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for Tomorrow You Live

Nehemiah 8:9-12

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Roughly 500 years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, the King of Babylon (modern-day Iraq) destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple that Solomon had built. He carried off many Hebrews into exile, men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then several generations later, a new king allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. This little remnant of the tribe of Judah returned home and built a new Temple in Jerusalem and built new walls around the city. Leaders like Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were instrumental in this difficult work of rebuilding the physical city of Jerusalem and the spiritual rebuilding of her people.

When the modern-day Israel was restarted in the late 1940s, perhaps many Israelis pointed back to Nehemiah's time as an example of starting over in their own country. But to modern Jews rebuilding was the end goal. This contrasts with Nehemiah and his generation. For them rebuilding was merely a means to an end.

Nehemiah and his fellow Judeans were reminded of the true goal on one remarkable day. After years of rebuilding their country, the people heard the Word of God proclaimed to them. Their reaction at first to this preaching was sorrow.

Tears of joy would soon follow, but their natural reaction to the Word of God was fear, shame, and sadness. They heard the Books of the Law of Moses preached and read and translated so that they could understand how deep their sin went.

Something that must have been hard on their minds was their low esteem of marriage and of God's Word. When the Jewish people had returned to the Promised Land, many of them married foreign men and women. The Lord had explicitly told them not to do this.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations… and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you… Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:1-4)

Instead of honoring the Lord's command that He had given them to keep them safe, they intermarried with the local people because it made them happy. Instead of respecting God's command to only marry other Jews, they followed their hearts and married those who would lead them away from the promise of the coming Savior.

By your sinful DNA and then reinforced constantly by your own mind and by your environment you firmly believe that all people, and most of all you, deserve to be happy. This is a lie from Satan. I repeat, this is a lie directly from the Devil himself. The right to be happy has destroyed more souls than Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and this accursed slaughter of babies in our land. Refute it. Reject it. More wedding vows are broken by it, more families are destroyed by it, more children estranged from their parents by it, more churches torn apart by it than by any other lie of our generation.

But it's not unique to our time. The reason the people wept in Jerusalem was that they were guilty of the same deception. Be happy. And so they cried. They saw themselves clearly for the first time in a long time on that special day. It was a day of sorrow. But not just sorrow.

But the Book of the Law of Moses—the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—is not simply a list of judgments and threats. It is also filled with promises and hope. The people would also have heard Ezra reading about the true goal and the reason they had returned to Promised Land.

The Lord had said to Abram… “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

And this,

Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups… you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’” (Genesis 32:9-10,12)

And they would have heard this promise made to their ancestor Judah about Jesus, the coming Savior.

“Judah, your brothers will praise you;

your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons will bow down to you…

The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until he comes to whom it belongs

and the obedience of the nations is his.

He will tether his donkey to a vine,

his colt to the choicest branch;

he will wash his garments in wine,

his robes in the blood of grapes.

His eyes will be darker than wine,

his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8,10-12)

Judah's father was saying that a descendant, a son of Judah would be born who would be no ordinary man. He would be the Savior. So therefore, rebuilding the nation of Israel wasn't an end in and of itself. They returned as part of Jesus' special plan, so that Judah's son would be born in His own land, not in far away Babylon or Persia or Egypt.

But just as God's threats make Nehemiah and us weep, His promises fill Nehemiah and us with joy! And we see that our families, our marriages, our churches, and our children are not end goals in and of themselves. By faith we see that they are blessings that bring us comfort, but sometimes sorrow and disappointment. But we also know that we are here to serve them by confessing Jesus.

One of the ways we confess Jesus means eating, drinking, and being merry. We can enjoy this life and its blessings because we know that tomorrow we will live, whether we live or die. So that instead celebrating birthdays as countdowns until death (have you ever got black balloons for a 50^th birthday?), we celebrate birthdays with joy that this person whom Jesus has created, has also been forgiven and looks forward to an endless string of birthdays both here on earth and forever in heaven.

So do not grieve. Do not mourn. Build up your family and spouse and children and church, knowing that we belong to the Lord. And be still in the presence of Christ and rejoice in Him and His sacred promises!

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.” Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8:9-12)

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.