So, Today there will be no cute folksy storytelling Garrison Keeler style introduction.

No, no, no, we're getting down to business.

It's one of those business days.

Even as I'm sitting here telling you how much we're getting down to business,

I'm reducing the amount of getting down to businessness that we're actually doing,

so we're just going to need to get after it. We're in Nehemiah Chapter 8,

but we're in one of those parts in Nehemiah chapter 8 and one of those parts of these

seasons that we do where it takes us on this rabbit trail all through other

parts of the Bible which I think is super handy because then we learn together

how the Bible all fits together, how it all works together,

how it's all cohesive.

In Nehemiah Chapter 8, we are seeing an event that is occurring on September 27th,

444 BC, and it is a great assembly of all of the people all of the living descendants

of Abraham sometimes called the Jews the Hebrews the Israelites throughout the lengthy Old Testament story and now here they are all gathered together back in Jerusalem

The temple's been rebuilt after it was destroyed a century and a half earlier. The walls of the city have been rebuilt and now

it's time to finish the task of rebuilding the people and it looks as though the way

we're going to do it is we're going to call a great big assembly of everybody. We're going to

refamiliarize ourselves with the covenant, the deal with God, the law of God, and

then we're going to make a big loud public proclamation in front of everybody

that we are all going to honor the covenant and the commands of God moving

forward. Looks like that's how it's shaping up here in Nehemiah 8 that's what we're

going to find. But before we get into all of the events of

...