Meeting God in Scripture

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

4 Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion... 

5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

7 The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. 8 They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.

9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”

12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8:1-12, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
In this passage, the Hebrew people have returned to Jerusalem and Judah after generations of captivity. Among their number are priests, Levites, and temple servants, and in their possession are the temple utensils taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar; but the people themselves have lost touch with their religious traditions. They no longer know how to live as a holy people. Their leaders, Ezra the priest and Nehemiah the governor, address this problem first by making plans to rebuild the Temple. Once the people are established in their towns, the Israelites lay the foundation for the Temple and, despite opposition from the other inhabitants of the land, reconstruct it as best they can. There Ezra, who "had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD," serves as priest and reads the law to the people from a wooden platform specially built for that purpose (Ezra 7:10; Nehemiah 8:4).

Before Ezra reads the law, the people worship, and Levites help the people understand the law as he reads. At the end of the reading, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites tell the people, "'This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.' For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law" (8:9). Presumably, they wept because upon hearing the law they realized how greatly they had failed to keep it. This reading of the law is a watershed moment in Israel's history. Fresh from exile, the people needed to be reminded of how to live as the People of God, and the law—the Scripture—was the means for doing that. From then on, the Israelites were known as the "People of the Book."

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We notice several things in this passage. First, reading Scripture was a vital part of worship in the restored Temple. It was the primary way for the people to pass on the traditions associated with the Mosaic law, to hear how God wanted them to live, to listen to his promises. Reading from the Torah was also central to the order of worship in synagogues during the first century. Jesus stood and read aloud from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth when he visited his hometown at the beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:16-20). Similarly, readings from the Bible are still a central element of worship in Christian churches.

We also notice that Ezra's reading from the law had a profound effect on the listeners. Words have power. And it was through the written word of God that the Israelites learned who God was and who they were. Even today, the living, active, written word of God has the power to form our spirits. "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

Another fact now becomes apparent: the written word of God is to be respected. The people stood as Ezra read the Scriptures. Jesus, too, stood as he read the passage from Isaiah and the Nazareth synagogue, as do many Christians today. This standing was a sign of respect and reverence for the word of God—a recognition that the Scriptures have come straight from the heart of God, as an expression of his will and desires for us.

Finally, the Scriptures have staying power. They were relevant to the lives of the people after Moses received the law, when the Hebrews returned to Jerusalem after the exile, when Jesus walked the earth, today, and during all of the centuries in between. The passage makes clear that people knew they were hearing from God when the Scriptures were read and studied. This understanding is highlighted in a letter the apostle Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy to advise him on leading the wayward church in Ephesus:  

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

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The people to whom Ezra read wept when they heard the powerful words of Scripture. Countless Christians—including one of Christianity's greatest and most influential thinkers, Augustine—found faith simply by reading Scripture. As a young man, Augustine read the Bible with his friend Alypius and was overcome by his own sinfulness. He left his friend, and wept, pleading with God to forgive him. Then he heard a child's voice chanting from a neighboring yard, "Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it." Not being able to recall any child's song with such a peculiar verse, he wondered if it might be a message from God. He picked up a Bible and opened it at random to read, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh" (Romans 13:13-14).

 

Many years later, Augustine wrote about the experience in his Confessions: 

I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away. Closing the book, then, and putting my finger or something else for a mark I began—now with a tranquil countenance—to tell it all to Alypius. And he in turn disclosed to me what had been going on inside himself, of which I knew nothing. He asked to see what I had read. I showed him, and he looked on even further than I had read. I had not known what followed. But indeed it was this, "Him that is weak in the faith, receive." This he applied to himself, and told me so. By these words of warning he was strengthened, and by exercising his good resolution and purpose—all very much in keeping with his character, in which, in these respects, he was always far different from and better than I—he joined me in full commitment without any restless hesitation.

Augustine was quite familiar with Christianity and with the Bible before that day in the garden. But on this occasion he no longer looked at the Bible from an abstract, intellectual point of view; instead, he regarded it as a living document that could be understood in terms of his own experience, in relation to him. We too must remember that all the people whose experiences are described in the Bible are real live humans, just like us. To profit fully from the teaching of Scripture, it is right and good—perhaps even essential—to put ourselves in their shoes, to seek to understand their thoughts and emotions. It is the only way we can open ourselves to experiences of God similar to theirs! Think of Augustine's story and those of countless others who became believers just by reading the written word of God. If God can use the Bible to reach those who are not yet believers, just think what lessons he can teach those of us who approach the Bible with an open and eager heart, ready to meet him.

 

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The Bible is God's gift to us, to be used in worship, study and meditation to learn more about him and to become as much like him as we can. For many of us, our greatest failure is failing to read and study the Bible enough, or even at all. But there are other dangers that we must consider when studying the Bible. Like Augustine before he heard the voice chanting, "Pick it up, read it," we sometimes approach the Bible solely on an analytical level, rather than as a means to learn about and encounter God. As we discussed earlier, one key to avoiding this pitfall is to relate the Bible to our own experiences.

 

Conversely, it is possible to take this too far and experience the Bible only on our own, without the help of the Holy Spirit. In Bible study, we should always focus on listening to God, not on confirming our own biases. An extreme example is the way slave owners cited the Bible as support for their practices. It is possible to find an isolated phrase or sentence in the Bible to buttress just about any argument, but reading the Bible this way does not help in spiritual formation. We always must ask God to help us understand.

 

A final danger is worship of the Bible itself—"bibliolatry" or what Dallas Willard calls "Bible deism," putting the Bible ahead of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Although the Bible is a manifestation of God's word, it is only one of them. Jesus Christ was, of course, the living manifestation of the Word. The Bible is only an avenue to God, not God himself. But it remains a most reliable guide for our own spiritual formation.

 

 

POINT OF ACTION:

There are a number of ways to approach Scripture—reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating upon the Bible are all valuable spiritual exercises. I'd like to encourage us all to try the practice of lectio divina, or holy reading. A few suggested passages are Psalm 19:7-14; Psalm 119:9-16; and Psalm119:33-40. Howard Macy offers some helpful advice for beginning this practice:  

"Usually it helps to begin 'holy reading' with silence, partly to quiet ourselves to listen and partly to consciously choose to read in a way much different from the other reading we do. Then we can read, proceeding prayerfully, ready to stop, to soak in a word or a verse as God opens it to us, to brood gently over it, to take it in slowly like a mint melting in the mouth. This kind of reading invites God to teach us in direct and transforming ways."

Finally, seek to memorize one or more of the verses on which you meditated. As you read, study, meditate, and memorize, ask the Holy Spirit to heighten your understanding of how the written word of God shapes your spirit.

 

 

PRAYER:

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.

“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, do I seek.

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

 

WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I apologize for being so long-winded. This was a convicting study for me. Despite reading and writing devotionals on a regular basis, I must confess that I oftentimes find myself lacking a zeal for God's word. I catch myself simply going through the motions. I sort of drift into reading the Bible with a ho-hum attitude, forgetting that the Scriptures are a God-breathed gift from the One who loves us more than we can begin to imagine. I want to publicly acknowledge and confess my tendency to read the Bible as if it's just another book. And to ask for God's grace to work powerfully within me and within our church family to fill us with a passion for his word, that we might know him and love him with all our hearts and so that we might grow into a people who increasingly resemble the Lord Jesus Christ.