Calling All Ezras

Nehemiah 8

¹And all the people gathered as one man into the square before^(A) the Water Gate. And they told^(B) Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. ²So Ezra the priest^(C) brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard,^(D) on the first day of the seventh month. ^3(E) And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. ⁴And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.

⁸They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly,^[b] and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

⁹And Nehemiah, who was^(L) the governor, and Ezra^(M) the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people,^(N) "This day is holy to the LORD your God;^(O) do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

Summer went so fast. School's almost ready to start again. Crazy.

I heard Chuck Swindoll talking on the radio about a week ago in his overview of the Bible about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. He called Ezra a true worshipper. Being a guy who leads worship at church from time to time, that intrigued me. I read Ezra, then I read Nehemiah. This passage jumped out at me. Not-so-ironically, this passage appeared again in a book I was reading yesterday about what else...worship. I've been absolutely struck by the profound simplicity of this passage - how simple the act of reading from the Law was and how profoundly the Spirit of God grabbed hold of the hearts of the people.

I mean think about it. Imagine a guy standing up and reading from the Bible for four or five hours. It says everyone was listening attentively and that by the time he was done, they were all weeping. If you ask me that's nothing short of a miracle. Of course, this is in the days before iPods, smartphones, and Facebook. Now it's hard for us to sit still for 45min. of preaching, let alone to set aside 5 minutes for private Bible study and prayer. Is this why we're struggling as a Body of Christ? Is this why the spiritual drought continues?

Ezra, where are you?