Articles
They Understood The Words
The scene in Nehemiah 8 is both inspiring and sad. As a consequence of persistent disobedience, God had warned Israel: "'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord God, 'that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord'" (Amos 8:11).
This was fulfilled by the collapse of the priesthood and the whole religious structure of the nation. After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and about 90 years of hardship back in their homeland, the people are starving for comfort and guidance from God and His word.
“Now all the people gathered ... in the open square ... and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses. ... Then he read from it ... from morning until midday ... and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law” (Neh. 8:1-3). Note their dedication: They stood for hours listening to the Law being read (8:5, 7; 9:2-3).
When we are truly filled with awe toward God and His word, we will endure minor discomforts to hear His words of wisdom and instruction. And to the contrary, when we lose sight of the grandeur of the scriptures, we can be easily distracted by things that are insignificant.
Note also that the people were overcome with grief when they heard what they should have known and should have been doing (8:9). This leads Nehemiah and others to say: “Do not mourn nor weep. ... Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:9-10).
Then the people “rejoice(d) greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them” (8:12).
There should be in this ancient story a modern wake-up call. Is it possible that we might have a casual attitude toward hearing God’s word? Are we diligent about attaining a greater knowledge of the scriptures so that we can serve God more abundantly? Do we truly re-examine our understanding and practices to ensure to the best of our abilities that we are in harmony with God’s will?
Worship: In order to accommodate everything we wish to do in our Lord’s Day gathering, our service on Sunday morning usually runs about 75-80 minutes. Does this amount of time breed impatience? Do we chafe in offering to God what is far less time than we spend on any number of worldly activities during an average week? Israel begrudged God the Sabbath Day (Amos 8:5) and the sacrifices (Mal. 1:6-8), which was a sign of what was truly in the people's hearts. It led to their downfall.
Bible study: It is not uncommon to hear “I forgot my lesson book,” or “I left my Bible at home,” or “I was out of town and didn’t know what lesson to do,” or any number of other reasons for not being prepared. While unforeseen obstacles occasionally arise for all of us, with some it seems indicative of a lack of genuine interest.
Personal devotion: We all know that our society is filled with a multitude of distractions, from electronic wizardry to sports, to travel to [fill in the blank]. The bottom line is that deliberate effort must be made to spend personal time with God, either in study or prayer or quiet meditation. And time may not be the only issue: Our addiction to various media likely has destroyed our ability to concentrate on any one task for a period of time. Someone wondered aloud recently if we had the capacity to mediate for an entire hour -- just think and ponder something of substance. How about you? Would you pass the test?
If a special study opportunity came up outside our assembly (say, a four-week study of a particular topic), would you be excited to attend it? Or would your reaction be, “Oh no, another activity to cram into my already busy schedule!”? I ask this because some may be forthcoming.
May we not have to lose the scriptures in order to truly appreciate them.
