“Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”
Nehemiah 8:7-8 (ESV)
Last time we saw the listening people who had stood as Ezra opened the scroll were now face down to the ground worshipping and waiting. Today we see the first section of Levites who help our crowd understand God’s Holy Word.
The first Levite listed has a name we’ve seen before: Jeshua. Yeshua, Joshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus. No greater High Priest, and here representing the temple workers, the Levites. So grateful He Himself came not to be served but to serve. A King never above practical service.
The next helper listed is Bani, from banah (built, construct, fortify, rebuild, restore). This name seems particularly significant for our gathered crowd, with a recently built wall and a determination to know the God of Scripture. They had worked hard to construct and rebuild the physical aspect of their vulnerable city. They were now turning their attention to their vulnerable souls.
How are our souls, friends? One glance at the news can confirm our collective soul is in trouble. What is being played out on a national (international?) stage right now only reflects the broken state of our smaller, more local stages. There are so many beautiful examples to the contrary, but by and large, we have forgotten how to treat each other with dignity. More pointedly, from the helpless unborn child to the precious mother desperate enough to end his or her life, we have somehow lost our capacity for empathy. From the diligent but privileged saver to the hard-working, never-enough single parent being evicted, we cannot seem to come together. From those who have benefited from generations of race majority and supremacy to those still struggling to have their stories and worth acknowledged, we are far from one another.
Indeed, rebuilding is necessary. Like the wall of Jerusalem, some areas might simply require restoring. Others, however, may need new construction, rebuilt from the ground up. A baptism – dead to the old, alive to the new. I’m so grateful our Creator God specializes in doing New Things.
“For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19
Our next Levite listed is Sherebiah whose name means “Yah has sent burning heat.” It comes from sharab – land, burning heat, parched ground. After a gorgeous verse of rivers in dry land, this is a shock to the system. But how often does it take a scorching fire to get our attention? If the ground is not parched and our souls dying of thirst, would we look to Him?
As our gathered crowd begins to look to the Word to know their God, we can rest assured this same God never promised our road forward would be without struggle, burning heat. If anything, the rougher the go, the greater the persecution, the more this God made Himself and His salvation known in the Scriptures. I’m sorry to say, friends, but it will not be any different in our day. If we are waiting for the right formula of ease and abundance to move ahead, we are likely trusting in princes who cannot save. The God of Angel Armies, Jehovah-Saboath, knows how to use a parched ground to surface heart idols, and burning heat to melt away the dross.
Which is a perfect segue to our next Levite name, Jamin. His name comes from the Hebrew yamin meaning “right hand.”
“Your right hand, Lord,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
shattered the enemy.”
Exodus 15:6
This verse, nestled into a worship song by the Hebrews after their salvation at the Red Sea, reminds us how perfectly capable Yahweh is. It seems, too, how perfectly capable He has made His people to help one another in His strength. After all, Jamin was a temple worker whose task was to explain God’s Word to those who did not understand. It makes me smile that this morning I read:
“So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked,
‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”
Acts 8:30-31
Only as we come together, offering our capable hands to each other, can we fully understand the meaning of His Word. We were made for community, we sin as a community, and we repent, grow into maturity, and learn about the God of the Bible in community. But more on this as we travel forward.
For now let’s see our next Levite listed, Akkub, whose name comes from aqeb – heel, hind part, footsteps, rear guard, trail. It gives the impression of someone in the back. For some of us, that position is a relief; for others, a burden. What would it look like to come together in such a way? To have each other’s backs, be a rear guard for one another, even at the expense of our own position or comfort? Apart from the Holy Spirit, this is only possible in limited ways. But those of us who have the Yahweh living inside us, as fully as He abided in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the only thing holding us back is our pride. We can use our voice, experiences, and relational trust to have the backs of our brothers and sisters. Even (especially?) those with whom we disagree. As we do that for one another, those areas are covered in sacrificial love.
The next Levite listed is Shabbethai whose name comes from shabath – to, cause to, make to cease, desist from exertion, leave, celebrate. This is the name in our verses today which personally challenges me daily. That is because it often does not take much for me to cease exertion in certain areas. If I am tired of a fight or weary from lack of fruit or allowing fear and hurt take center stage, leaving or ceasing is, unfortunately, often not far behind. Oh, but celebrate is part of this equation, too.
I experienced this just two days ago in a stand-off with my son. I didn’t want to fight him to get in the car, and he wasn’t coming. I left and took the other 3 boys in my charge to school, planning to come back and have a major talk. In the meantime, he had run out of the house in tears and a neighbor took him to school. But when I came back 7 minutes later and he was gone? So was my breath.
The God Who leaves the 99 to go after the 1 filled my soul when I finally saw him again several long minutes later in the school entryway. Both of us fearful and apologetic and adrenaline-filled, we embraced, and I could only imagine the kind of love our Good Shepherd feels when He reunites with His lost sheep. Pure celebration, along with all the hosts of heaven.
We cannot cease or desist from exertion, friends. And, trust me, I’m talking to myself. Whether it is losing hope, leaving a sticky situation when we are called to stay, or ceasing to fight the good fight, we must stay in the race. We will all suffer in this life. May we finish our race in His power.
Our final Levite helper today is Hodiah whose name means “my splendor is Yah.” It comes from the Hebrew word hod – splendor, majesty, vigor, beauty, authority, glory.
Accurate name, don’t you think? One that is the true state of all believers in Jesus. Any beauty, all authority, the vigor comes from Him. It is to Him we point and from Him we experience splendor. A distant lighting storm held my gaze on an evening drive this past week. Who of us can control the lighting? If we were suspended above the Pacific Ocean, in all its vastness and depth, who of us could change the tide? All majesty is His. We join Him.
Our splendor is Yah.