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As we're looking at Nehemia Chapter 8 today and the events of September 27th,

444 BC where they had a great big giant assembly near the Watergate in the

recently rebuilt city of Jerusalem hosted by Ezra and Nehemiah, one of the great all-time literary crossover events.

As this is happening, there's a massive assembly and there's a very practical question

that I have about it that I want to explore with you.

But first let me just read the passage that we're looking at here.

It's in Nehemiah chapter 8, basically chapter 8, it's at end of 7 and 8.

When the 7th month came and the Israelites settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in the

square before the water gate.

September 27th, 444 BC, and you'll notice the language here is pretty passive.

It doesn't say all the people were assembled as one man as though someone did

it or rounded them up or like all right we finished the thing now we got to do the

thing you get the impression from the text that they wanted to be there and that this seemed like the next

natural step to take given the undertaking they had just completed.

Who knows? Maybe people put out flyers, stapled things to telephone

poles and their old phone numbers you could tear off. And like, we're have a meeting at the

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