Study Desk

So my God put it in my heart to have all the people meet together. I called together all the important people, the officials, and the common people. I did this so that I could make a list of all the families. I found the family lists of the people who had been the first to return from captivity. This is what I found written there:

The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most holy food until a priest could use the Urim and Thummim to ask God what to do.

Ezra praised the Lord , the great God, and all the people held up their hands and said, "Amen! Amen!" Then all the people bowed down and put their faces low to the ground and they worshiped the Lord .

They read the Book of the Law of God. They made it easy to understand, and explained what it meant. They did this so that the people could understand what was being read.

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher, and the Levites who were teaching the people spoke. They said, "Today is a special day to the Lord your God. Don't be sad and cry." They said that because all the people had begun to cry as they were listening to the messages of God in the law.

They stood there for about three hours, and the people read the Book of the Law of the Lord their God. Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and bowed down to worship the Lord their God.

Then these Levites stood on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani. They called out to the Lord their God with loud voices.

Then these Levites spoke again: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah. They said, "Stand up and praise the Lord your God! God has always lived and will live forever. "People should praise your glorious name. May your name be lifted above all blessing and praise.

You are God. Lord , only you are God. You made the sky and the highest heavens and everything in them. You made the earth and everything on it. You made the seas and everything in them. You give life to everything. All the heavenly angels bow down and worship you.

You are the Lord , the God who chose Abram. You led him from Ur in Babylonia. You changed his name to Abraham.

They refused to listen. They forgot the amazing things you did with them. They became stubborn. They decided to return to Egypt and become slaves again. "But you are a forgiving God! You are kind and full of mercy. You are patient and full of love. So you didn't leave them!

"But you are so kind! You didn't completely destroy them. You didn't leave them. You are such a kind and merciful God!

Our God, you are the great God, the awesome, powerful soldier! You are kind and loyal. You keep your agreement. We have had many troubles, and our troubles are important to you. Bad things happened to all our people, and to our kings and leaders, and to our priests and prophets. Those terrible things have happened from the days of the king of Assyria until today!

But God, you were right about everything that happened to us. You were right, and we were wrong.

So all these people now make this special promise to God. And they all ask for bad things to happen if they don't keep their promise. All these people promise to follow the law of God. That law of God was given to us through Moses his servant. These people promise with an oath to carefully obey all the commands, rules, and teachings of our Lord God . Now, these are the people who are making this promise: The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, Temple servants, and all the Israelites who separated themselves from the people living around them. They have separated themselves to obey God's law. Their wives, sons, and daughters who are able to listen and understand also did this. All these people joined their brothers and the important people to accept for themselves the promise to obey God's law. And they accepted the curse that asks for bad things to happen to them if they don't obey God's law.

"We will accept the responsibility for obeying the commands to take care of God's Temple. We will give 1/3 shekel of silver each year to support the Temple service to honor our God.

This money will pay for the special bread that the priests put on the table in the Temple. It will pay for the daily grain offerings and burnt offerings. It will pay for the offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moon celebrations, and other special meeting days. It will pay for the holy offerings and for the sin offerings that make the Israelites pure. It will pay for any work needed on the Temple of our God.

"We, the priests, the Levites, and the people have thrown lots to decide when each of our families is to bring a gift of wood to the Temple of our God at certain times each year. The wood is to burn on the altar of the Lord our God. We must do that just as it is written in the law.

"Just as it is also written in the law, this is what we will do: We will bring our firstborn sons and our firstborn cattle, sheep, and goats. We will bring these to the Temple of our God, to the priests who are serving there.

A priest from the family of Aaron must be with the Levites when they receive the crops. Then the Levites must bring the crops to the Temple of our God and put them in the storerooms of the Temple treasury.