A Remarkable Chant

They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had given for Israel to obey.   Nehemiah 8:1

A few years later, God raised up Nehemiah, a brilliant planner and organizer. He came to Jerusalem and saw that although the Temple had been completed, nothing had been done about the walls. The great city of God had no defenses and precious little infrastructure. God put it into Nehemiah’s heart to do something about this.

More than five hundred years had passed since the cloud of God’s glory had filled Solomon’s Temple. By the time of Nehemiah, these events were ancient history! So how could the people be molded into a worshiping community who loved the Lord and were committed to obeying his law? The answer was the Word of God!

On one remarkable occasion, fifty thousand people gathered in a public square to worship God, and they requested that God’s Law be brought out. Now, how do fifty thousand people make a request? They chant! This crowd, gathered in high spirits and with a great hunger for the Word of God, grew impatient for events to get underway. So they began to shout, “We want the Bible! Bring out the Bible!” or something similar.

It must have been a great joy for Ezra to bring out the Scriptures and to teach the Word of God to this vast crowd. These people had been starved for Bible teaching for most of their lives, and now they were committing themselves to a new life of faith and obedience to God, and they were hungry for his Word.

Ezra brought the Word of God to those assembled, “men and women and all the children old enough to understand” (Nehemiah 8:2). It is a powerful thing to bring children into an environment where they see adults worshiping and taking the Word of God seriously. I am grateful for programs that are geared specifically to our children and young people, but there is something special about allowing the next generation to witness Mom and Dad’s commitment to the Word of God. If you have children, let them see your love for and commitment to the Word of God.

For further reading, see Nehemiah 8