Understanding Your Bible

Ezra praised the LORD, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.   Nehemiah 8:6

God had spoken these words to Moses a thousand years earlier, but when Ezra read and explained them, the people believed that God was speaking directly to them. They recognized that when they heard this book read and explained, they were not listening to the words of a man, but to the Word of God, so they gave it their full attention.

They did not ask Ezra to visit Mount Sinai to see if there was a new word from the Lord. They asked him to open the Book of the Law, which was a thousand years old, because they believed what God had said then was still his Word to them now.

Ezra and the Levites who assisted him “read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage” (Nehemiah 8:8). Ezra did not decide on a message and then come to the Bible to find some verses to support it; he came to the Scripture and allowed the Scripture to determine the message.

The Levites were interspersed in the crowd. Ezra would read part of the law and explain the meaning, and then he would stop. The Levites would then ask the smaller family groups gathered around them if there were any questions. People had some break-out time to work through the application of the preaching, and when everyone in the group was clear, Ezra would continue (see Nehemiah 8:7-8).

If we lose confidence in the power of the Word, we will soon be trying just about anything to hold on to our young people, attract our neighbors, or make our services more interesting. God still speaks through his Word, so if we want to disciple a community of people, then reading and explaining the Bible must be central to all that we do.

For further reading, see 1 Thessalonians 2