THE PURPOSE OF BUILDING THE WALL WAS TO CREATE A COMMUNITY OF TRUE WORSHIPERS.

TRUE WORSHIP IS OBEDIENCE

10:1, 28-31, 32 Now on the sealed document…

28Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, 29are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given through Moses, God’s servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of GOD our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes; 30and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. 31As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. 32We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God 35...bring the first fruits of our ground... fruit of every tree 36...of our cattle, ...of our herds and our flocks  37...our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil. ...and the tithe of our ground to the Levites. 38...and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God 39...the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers, and the singers. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.

TRUE WORSHIP IS THE ECSTASY OF A PURE AND HOLY SACRIFICE.

12:27-30 Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem so that they might celebrate the dedication with gladness, with hymns of thanksgiving and with songs to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28So the sons of the singers were assembled from the district around Jerusalem, and from the villages of the Netophathites, 29from Beth-gilgal, and from their fields in Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30And the priests and the Levites purified themselves; they also purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

43and on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy, even the women and children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

9:2, 3 And the descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

TRUE WORSHIP RIGHTS WRONGS FROM THE PAST.

8:17, 18  And the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. 18And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

TRUE WORSHIP IS THE RHYTHM OF PASSIONATE WORK AND CELEBRATING REST.