The People's Hunger for God's Word Precedes Reform

Maclaren observes a remarkable reversal in the chronology of Nehemiah 8: the people themselves initiated the reading of the law, not the leaders. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah originated this gathering—they obeyed "a popular impulse which they had not created." This is extraordinary because Ezra, who had labored thirteen years in Jerusalem fighting corruptions among the returned captives, had never before promulgated the law publicly, though it "lay at the basis of the drastic reforms which he was able to carry through."…