A Hunger to Hear God's Word

Adapted from Call to Worship on Sunday, July 22, 2007.

Last week I drove by a local bookstore and noticed a long line of people flowing down the sidewalk. They were waiting for a ticket to be able to purchase the much-hyped new release in a popular series of juvenile fiction.

Seeing that line led me to ponder our hunger for reading the Word of God. Do we have as strong a desire to read the Holy Scriptures as these have to read a work of fiction?

It also reminded me of the scene recorded in Nehemiah 8 when the people of Israel returned from exile in Babylon:

Nehemiah 8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel. 2 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. 3 Then 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.

Can you imagine being so hungry to hear the Word of God that you would gather with a throng of people "as one man" to hear "the Book of the Law of Moses" read "from morning till midday"? Some of those in that square had gone years in exile without hearing and understanding the Word of God. They were starving to hear a word from the Lord.

Each Lord’s Day when we gather for worship we are declaring to the world that we hunger to hear and receive God’s truth. May God make us attentive to the hearing of his Word.

JTR

Evangel article 7/24/07.