Celebration and the Everyday

Nehemiah 12:27-47, 축제와 일상


Thinking and Understanding

The city wall was finally complete. The Levites and the priests purified the gates and the wall(27-30). Nehemiah gathered the leaders and the choir and had them climb up onto the wall(31). After dividing the choir in two and instructing them each to walk around half of the wall while singing praise, Nehemiah had the two choirs brought together to sing in the temple(31-42). Even the weak rejoiced(43). Also on this day of celebration men were appointed over the store rooms to help with the routine tasks of regular worship(44-47). It is almost as if the passage is telling us that the joy of the celebration could not be maintained without the stuff of everyday.



Who is God?

God gives us joy. God gives great joy even to the helpless. God rejoices when he sees us rejoice. Where God rejoices, so do his people(Psalm126:3).



What lesson Is God teaching us?

The stuff of everyday became the foundation of Jerusalem's celebrations. When dedicating the completed wall, the people were as happy as could be. But for celebrations like this to take place, the unacknowledged, repetitive elements of everyday life are required. It wasn't enough just to have a choir; people were needed to maintain the store rooms. Are we regarding as precious and faithfully handing the work that has been entrusted to us, even if is not visible to others?