Living Under God's Word Analysis

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Title: Living Under God’s Word
Text: Nehemiah 8
Audience: Lecturers and seminary students
In the year 1517, one major event that happened in the history of the church was the Protestant Reformation. One of the prominent figures that led this reformation was Martin Luther. He began by criticizing the practices of the Catholic Church which he thought were unbiblical. So his fight was basically to restore the Bible and its teachings into its proper place as he began to see that the church was degrading the Bible and placed it at the same par with the Church’s traditions, sometimes even lower than it. I think Luther was right when he argues that Scripture alone should be the authority of every Christian, not the Church’s traditions, not even …show more content…

By right, it should be either Ezra or the other teachers of the Law who should initiate it in order to spiritually restore the people of Jerusalem. But that is not the case here. Can you imagine the people who are standing there in an open area listening to the reading of the Law of Moses, probably under the hot sun? They do not care about their own comfort. And yet in verse 3 it says that they ‘listened attentively’! Their eagerness to learn about the Law reminds me of a mission trip in one of the rural areas in which I was part of a few years ago. When the villagers received the news that we are coming over, they were so eager to learn about the Word of God that they even travel for hours from neighboring villages just to come to listen to us! Some of them were walking, some came by boat. I wonder how many of us here really have that eagerness when it comes to learn about the Word of God. As Christians we need to devote ourselves in reading and studying of God’s Word. Nothing is more saddening than to see a Christian with no understanding of his own faith. And as current and future pastors and preachers, all the more we need to immerse ourselves in reading and studying of the Word, just like Ezra did. Getting ourselves deeply rooted in the Word will not only revitalize us, but also the flock that we are