Originally posted 01/22/2009
I entered the building full of excitement and expectation. Others have come and likewise were exuberant. All intently listened, not wanting to miss a single note or word. Sounds like people going to a concert doesn’t it? The truth is we were attending a worship service. Have you ever went to church in that kind of mode? Excited, wondering what was going to be preached?
The people of Israel have. Nehemiah 8:5-6,7b-8, 9c “And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all people: (for he was above all people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground…caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading…For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.”
Ezra was standing at a pulpit (Nehemiah 8:4). The people stood in reverence to the reading of God’s Word, being excited and ready for worship (How many Amens do you hear in some churches today?…some many and others none). Not only did they stand for the reading of God’s Words, but also for the explaining of God’s Word (v 7). Now here is the interesting part, they cried when they heard the Words of the law. They did not grumble that Ezra and others took too long, that their feet hurt, that they were hungry, or anything like that. They were overcome being able to hear God’s Words and understand them. Wow, talk about a revival service!
We have the Word of God today that is no less powerful than it was in Ezra’s day. In Isaiah 55:11 God states “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” The Word has not left us. Isaiah 40:8 tells us “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
So, are you ready to receive God’s Word at the next worship service that you attend? I am ready and excited. Hoping you are too.
