What Impact Does the Preaching of the Word Make?
Passage: Nehemiah 8.1-12
Date: December 11, 2022
Over the past few months, Nehemiah has taught us that the people of God are marked with a three-dimensional view of life and a heart of prayer. In chapters 8 and 9, we see that the people of God are also marked with reverence to the preaching of the Word of God.
This reverence is implied throughout the passage. They begin listening to the Word at sunrise all the way till midday (~6:30 am to 12 pm). Additionally, this passage might be the first instance of an actual pulpit, which stresses the importance of God's Word. Throughout Scripture, there is a recurring emphasis on the preaching of the Word (e.g., Ezek 37.4-5, 10; Mark 1.35-38; Rom 10.13-17; Heb 3.7-8; 5.11). In short, how one receives the preaching of the Word determines both their salvation and their further sanctification in the Lord--it is absolutely critical!
According to this passage, there is a progression in how we should respond to the preaching of the Word. First, the people are attentive (8.3), then they receive it with reverence (8.6), then they understand it (8.7-8), and then they respond with repentance (8.9-10) and joy/faith (8.10-12). Similarly for us, those who have been experiencing many breakthroughs in their lives have been responding the preaching of the Word! And this is why we respond to every message with a time of repentance and faith.
Lastly, one of the key emphases of this passage is the need to understand. The original Hebrew of Nehemiah 8.8 indicates that this understanding is not merely intellectual. It is more about insight, wisdom, and discernment. In many ways, hearing the preaching of the Word is easy to understand because its logic and content should be simple; in other ways, it is difficult to understand because the depth and range of meaning are vast. Oftentimes, it takes things like taking notes, sharing with others and in small groups, and going through life experiences to have a true understanding.
