A special Fast day-how spent.
This chapter and the next contain an account of the proceedings of a day set apart for special fasting and humiliation These three verses give a general description of the proceedings.
I. The DATE. The 24th day of the month Tisri; only one clear day having passed since the rejoicings of the feast of tabernacles. So joy and sorrow succeed each other in life; in the religious life also. No inconsistency in the indulgence of each in turn. The people had shown a preparedness for special humiliation at the beginning of the month, at the feast of trumpets, when, the law being read to them, they wept. But they were bid to restrain their grief at that time because they were keeping a festival. Since then, on the tenth of the month, the day of atonement, the only fast day prescribed by the law, had doubtless been observed. But services of a more special kind were felt to be desirable, in which, by the united expressions of repentance and renewed covenant with God, the foundation should be laid for a life more in harmony with the law.
II. The SEPARATION from aliens effected. The meeting and its exercises were to be strictly for "the seed of Israel." Others could not really have fellowship with them in their recital of God's dealings with their fathers and their nation, nor share their sorrow or new resolutions. The Jews therefore "separated themselves from all strangers" for the time, and held a meeting of Jews only. Such seems to be the meaning of the words. Observe that community of faith and feeling is essential to united worship, and the deeper and fuller it is, so much the more real and profitable will the united worship be. The mixed congregation has its advantages, but earnest Christians will desire a closer fellowship than it affords, and which can be found only in meetings of those like-minded, apart for a time from the formal and halfhearted.
III. The EXTERNAL SIGNS Of humiliation adopted. Fasting, abstinence from food, more or less rigid. A practice sanctioned by our Lord, and employed not only as an expression of humiliation, but as an aid to intense devotion (see Matthew 4:2; Matthew 17:21; Acts 13:2, Acts 13:3). Whether its very general disuse amongst Western Protestant Christians is to be attributed to a decreased devoutness, or an increased spirituality to which such methods and instruments of piety are alien, or to the experience that in Western climates fasting does not aid devotion, is worthy of consideration. What is certain is, that it is of no worth as a religious observance except as it promotes or expresses spiritual religion. In addition to fasting, these Jews wore sackclothes, and put earth on their heads—usages not uncommon with them in similar circumstances. Such signs of humiliation as these are, however, distinctly forbidden by our Lord, at ]east.in the case of private devotion (Matthew 6:16), as savouring of ostentation; and, doubtless, the more the spirit of the gospel prevails, such external signs become distasteful. And at any period they were valuable only as expressing and promoting real feelings of penitence. We can easily imagine how, where they were recognised signs of mourning, a whole assembly appearing in them would excite each other to deeper grief, as in fact among ourselves is done when hundreds or thousands meet, on some occasion of general sorrow, all clothed in black.
IV. The RELIGIOUS EXERCISES of the day. 1. The worship of God. Including—
V. The TIME OCCUPIED (Nehemiah 9:3). It was a "protracted meeting." For six hours the congregation kept together. Half the time was employed in the reading of the law, doubtless with explanations similar to those recorded in Nehemiah 8:7, Nehemiah 8:8, and half in worship. Perhaps the two alternated with each other throughout the service. In times of general religious feeling very long services may be held without weariness; ordinarily they are undesirable; but the demand for very short ones is usually a sign of the decay of spiritual life. In conclusion—
1. The foundation of a new or improved religious life must be laid in genuine repentance.
2. Knowledge of God's word is essential to an intelligent, acceptable, and lasting piety. The reading and exposition of Holy Scripture should therefore be prominent in public worship.
3. The reality and worth of our religious knowledge is to be estimated by its influence on our heart and life. Does it work in us repentance and a more godly and righteous life?