The Day Everyone Heard God's Word

The wall was finished! Now all the people came together in a big square. They asked Ezra, who was a teacher, to bring out God's special book—the Law that God gave to Moses.

Ezra stood up on a tall wooden platform so everyone could see him. When he opened the book, everyone stood up to show respect for God's Word!

Ezra started reading. He read from early morning until lunchtime! That's a LONG time!

But the people didn't get bored. They listened carefully to every word. Other helpers walked around explaining what it meant so everyone could understand.

As the people listened and understood God's words, something happened. They started to cry! They realized they hadn't been obeying God the way they should.

But Nehemiah and Ezra said, 'Don't cry today! This is a special, happy day! Go home and have a party! Eat yummy food! Share food with people who don't have any! The JOY of the Lord is your STRENGTH!'

So that's what everyone did! They went home and had the biggest, happiest celebration! They understood God's Word, and it made them so joyful!

The next day, the leaders came back to learn more. They discovered that God wanted them to celebrate a special festival. So they built little shelters—like camping tents—and lived in them for a week! Every day Ezra read more from God's book.

They hadn't celebrated this festival in hundreds of years! But now they were doing it again, and they were SO happy!

When we listen to God's Word and understand it, it should make us happy! Even if we realize we've done wrong things, God's Word shows us how to live better. And knowing God loves us and helps us gives us JOY and STRENGTH!