Bring out The Book

Yesterday we talked about how the wall was never the final goal. The people were. And today we really start to see why.

    The wall is standing, the gates are in place and the people have been gathered and counted. After everything they've been through to rebuild Jerusalem, they come together and ask Ezra for one thing, Bring out the Book.

      They wanted to hear the Word of God.

“All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law.” Nehemiah 8:3 NLT

    And what a picture this is. Men, women and children old enough to understand are all gathered together listening. We've talked so much throughout these books about generations, and here they are again, generations standing together around God's Word. It's so exciting isnt it.

     If we're going to build something that lasts beyond us, the next generation needs more than the walls we build for them. They need to know what we built them on. So Ezra reads the Word, but they don't stop there. The Levites move among the people, explaining what they're hearing and helping them understand it.

“They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.” Nehemiah 8:8 NLT

    That part is really importan to me. Working with kids and students and teaching God's Word I don't just want the next generation to be able to repeat a Bible verse because somebody taught it to them. I want them to understand it. I want them to know why it matters, how to live it and, most importantly, know the God who gave it to us.

    And as the people begin to understand what they're hearing, they start to weep.

                        Isn't that something?

We started this whole journey with Nehemiah weeping because he saw what was broken around God's people. Now the wall has been rebuilt, and the people are weeping because God's Word is revealing what still needs rebuilding inside them.

              But God doesn't leave them there.

   The Word convicted them, but conviction wasn't meant to leave them hopeless. God was showing them what needed to change because He was still rebuilding them.

    And then they do something really important. As they continue studying Scripture, they discover something God had commanded that they hadn't been doing. So they do it. Simple as that. And I think that's where this chapter really hits home for me.

    I can read my Bible. Highlight verses. Fill notebooks. Write devotions. Teach lessons. Talk about Scripture all day long. But eventually God's Word is going to ask something of me.

And then I have to decide if I'm going to live what I just read.

   We've spent the last eight days talking about what God has called us to build, but today I'm asking myself a different question, What am I building on?

    I don't want to build something beautiful for God and then discover that somewhere along the way I started building it on my own ideas instead of His Word.

So before we pick up another stone...

Bring out the Book.

    Lets Read it, Understand it, Teach it to the generations coming behind us. Let it correct us when we're wrong. And when God shows us something that needs to change, lets obey Him.

    They had rebuilt the wall around the people.

Now God was using His Word to rebuild the people inside the wall. And that's the kind of rebuilding I want Him to keep doing in me.

Love Pastor Mandy 

MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope 

Daily Reading Nehemiah 8