The passage in Nehemiah 8-9 is probably the
closest we see in Scripture to our modern-day worship services on Sunday
morning. It starts early in the morning and goes to about mid-day. The leaders
read and explained the Scriptures. The people listened, understood and
responded. If they didn’t understand, someone else was there who explained it
to them.
Neh. 8:6 even says that the people responded
with saying “amen,” raising their hands and bowing their heads. Some wept;
others rejoiced. They confessed their sins; they prayed. They brought
casseroles.
Okay, maybe not casseroles, but they did eat and
drink and shared their meals which is pretty close to a pot-luck meal (Neh.
8:12). Most of all, they studied the word of God and responded accordingly.
Like the society was in Nehemiah’s day, our
society has drifted far from God’s word and obeying the lessons clearly
proclaimed in the Bible. If there is anything that is shown from the Bible and
in our personal lives, it is that we do not grow in a straight upward line, but
rather like waves of the sea or as a pendulum which swings back and forth. One
of the best ways we can keep from swinging back and forth or from being as
unstable as the shifting waves of the sea is by studying the Bible daily.
In Nehemiah’s day and even until relatively
recently, people did not have the Bible to study in their own homes. Think
about how many ways we can read, hear, study, memorize and meditate on God’s
Word. Even within our own generation our options have grown: we can now have
the Bible on our phones, listen to it over the internet, buy copies or even
portions of it, with commentaries and devotionals (like this one). But there is
only one thing that no app, no commentary, no amount of studying or reading can
make us do: apply and obey what God’s Word says.
Do something today. Find something in the Bible
and purpose in your heart to do it.
