Nehemiah, Ezra and the Word of God

Day 169

OT Reading: Nehemiah 7-8

NT Reading: Acts 3

We won't read across this verse for quite some time, yet I think it best describes what we read today, "For the word of God is living 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, NIV) I think the people in Nehemiah's day would agree.

For hours they stood...listening and taking in everything that had been written down as God's command. For hours they heard about all the things that God wanted them to do, which they had not been doing...and they heard of all the things God did not want them to do, which they had been doing actively. They stood and they listened...and what they heard, broke their hearts. Here we see that the people who have returned to the city of Jerusalem are openly weeping...disheartened from what they have heard. The priests and Levites even have to send them away commanding them not to mourn or grieve, but instead to rejoice that they have heard the word of the Lord on that day. Yet I'm betting even as they 'celebrated'...some of them still quietly, even silently, mourned.

For 169 days now we have been reading through the Bible. It's quite possible that you, like me, have missed a day or two and had to make them up. It is also quite possible that you, again...like me, have some days approached this as just a task that you need to accomplish. Let's just say it would surprise me if you hadn't had days like that. And yet, amidst all the names, people places, lists and chapters...I hope you have not lost track of the fact that you are reading from the very Word of God. The Word that has the power to cut to your soul and judge your heart.

As you are reading, I hope you have days where you rejoice in the goodness and grace of God. I also hope you have days that absolutely break your heart and turn you into a complete wreck because of how strongly you are convicted by what you read. Because this is not just some novel, history book, self-help book or biography...it's the living, active, painful, powerful, overwhelming penetrating message of redemption that God has shared with the world.