Revival in Judah

    

     What does it mean to experience revival? The book of Nehemiah describes a revival in the nation of Judah by the men and women who had returned from captivity in Babylon and Persia. Many had not heard the Word of God proclaimed all their lives and now they had a chance to hear it for the first time. The Scripture tells us:

     “So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the LORD, and the great God. Then all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:2-3, 5-6)

Do you notice any similarities between the way they worshiped 2,600 years ago and today?

  “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, who was the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to the people,  ‘This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.” Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our LORD. Do not sorrow for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:8-10)

      When we talk about the Law, or the Book of the Law in the OT, the Hebrew authors were talking about the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. They had to read the books in Hebrew and then translate it into Aramaic because the great majority did not know Hebrew, having lived in Babylon/Persia all their lives. Then, as verse 8 tells us, they were given the sense of the Scripture to help them understand what Moses had written in these books. We don’t know if Ezra did  this, all by himself, or whether other scribes moved among the crowd translating and explaining, but we do know that the people understood what the Scripture said, because they were profoundly moved and began to mourn and weep at all they commandments that God had given His people and they had not obeyed.

  Today, we gather again to hear God’s Word and to learn what the Scripture has to say to us. Will we feel repentant and sad because we have not been obedient to what God has told us to do in his Word? Things like: forgiving those who have done us wrong, loving our neighbor as our self, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, giving to the poor, visiting the prisoner, clothing the naked, telling others the Good News, bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse, loving our wives like Christ loves the Church, seeking first the kingdom of God, and a multitude of other things. Let today be the day we turn from our evil ways, and seek to be obedient to the One who loves us unconditionally, and died on a wooden cross for our sins!

   “When you know you should do a thing and you do it, immediately you will know more. I you revise where you are stodgy spiritually, you will find it goes back to the point where there was one thing you knew you should do, but did not do it ….and now you have no perception, no discernment. Instead of being spiritually self-possessed at the time of crisis, you are spiritually distracted. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to go on knowing.” (Oswald Chambers, As He Walked)

Pray:

1.     That today Christians will stop playing church and start serving God with passion and obedience.

2.     That the unsaved will admit that they are sinners, in need of a Savior, and start living their lives for Him, Jesus Christ.

4.     That we will never get over what Christ has done for us on the cross and that we will live every day sold out completely to Him until He calls us home, or He returns in glory and power.