Day 26: To Recover Everything – Part One

And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in tabernacles in the feast of the seventh month, and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go forth to the mountain, and get olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make tabernacles, as it is written.” So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves tabernacles, everyone on the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And the whole congregation of those who had returned of the captivity made tabernacles and sat under the tabernacles; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. (Neh. 8:14-17)

Christians (and churches) who pursue God intently and seek to obey his Word will find that He shows them new things all the time. Many times these are actually old things which they hadn’t noticed or understood before.

Nowadays Jews still celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, but here the Bible tells us it had once been “lost” and not observed for some 800 years. Why? Perhaps the people had failed to value the Word, failed to value preaching and teaching ministries. But once there was a new platform for the Word and a new commitment to transmit it to the people, they recovered something very precious and powerful – and the result was great gladness.

(Today is the 15th of Tishri, 5769 on the Jewish Calendar, the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles.)

Lord, give us a new platform for Your Word. We ask not for our own sakes, but for the sake of Your Name. Enable us to reach more and more of the people of this region, that they may learn more of You and recover the joys they have lost.