Nehemiah 8:12 "and all that the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions, to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them."
I. INTRODUCTION: Down through the centuries, God's people have gone through cycles were His Word has been neglected and the spiritual condition of His people deteriorates. In His Grace, God sends renewal. Inevitably, one of the main marks of such renewal is a renewed emphasis on God's Word.
II. A. Hearing God's Word sparks revival
1. The people gather and ask Ezra to read God's Word (v.1-3).
a. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law. This demonstrates that the Spirit of God was at work even before the reading of the Word of God. People do not gather together as one man for the things of God unless the Spirit of God has moved them, and they do not desire God's Word unless the Spirit of God has moved them.
a-1) If you attend to the hearing of the Word of God, it is evidence the Spirit of God is working with you.
a-2) But it is still important to cooperate with that work and to not resist it. We need to cooperate & flow with the work of Spirit if the Word of God is going to do its full work in us.
b.) The Book of the law of Moses - These refers to the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) This was Israel's instruction manual for how to walk before God.
c) Ezra the scribe.. Ezra the priest. Ezra was the man response for having the temple rebuilt and for returning God's people to worship. Nehemiah, in all his work for rebuilding the wallls and just carried on the work Ezra had begun.
c-1) We know ezra cared about God's Word because he was a scribe-someone who coped the Bible by hand.
c-2) We know he was a man devoted to God himself, because he was a godly priest.
d) All who could hear with understanding. This shows us who needed to hear the Word of God. Everyone who could understand it needed to hear it.
e) Then he read from it in the open square. Ezra read God's Word from daylight to midday. For some six hours he read God's Word and the people listened.
e-1) This was move of the Spirit of God. People who will be attentive to the Book of the law for some six hours are people touched by the Spirit of God.
e-2) From morning is literally, from the light.
Some people come to church with reverence for God and His Word, saying "God, teach me! I want to know You more!" They are ready to respond to the Word. They profit from the teaching. But others come to the same service with sin in their hearts that they don't want to deal with. They are turned off by the very same message that helps others grow. If you want spiritual renewal, check your heart. It comes when responsive hearts read and reverently hear God's Word faithfully proclaimed.