Continuing on in Nehemiah . . . My last post was on the need for us to preach assurance of the forgiveness of sins for all who are in Christ, based on that portion in Nehemiah 8 where the people began to weep over their sins when they heard the Word of God, but they were instructed to rejoice. After that time of rejoicing, however, there was a clear call to confession and repentance of sins. Conviction, confession and repentance of sin is a necessary proof of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ; there can be no true worship of the LORD our God apart from circumcised and softened hearts, hearts which are broken, contrite and grieved over our sin. And let us always remember that conviction, confession and repentance of sin comes as God's Holy Spirit works through the reading, preaching and teaching of His Word. In addition to this post, please see my related prayer from Ezra 9 as well as these:

• May we gather as one man to hear Your Word (Nehemiah 8)
• Give us ears to be attentive to Your words alone (Nehemiah 8:3)
• one sign of revival: attentiveness to the Word of God (Whitefield's Journals)
• "People cannot take preaching...People are dying through lack of knowledge." (ML-J)
• pray for ministers to read from the book clearly, give the sense & understanding - Neh. 8:8
• Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching (accounts of revival in Virginia in the late 18th c.)
• Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You, for not paying attention to Your Word
• Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word
• May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word (Neh. 8:13)
• "not only in word" - send Your Holy Spirit so we might proclaim Your Gospel in power

I would encourage you to read through Nehemiah 8 before continuing reading here.

Nehemiah 9 [1] Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. [2] And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. [3] And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

O Lord our God,

How often do we assemble together with such a solemn attitude as we see here? How often do we see the depth of our sin in light of Your holiness? How often do we confess our sins? How often do we confess others' sins rather than seeing the planks in our own eyes? How often do we live no differently than the world? Are we not to be separate from the world? Are we not to be holy as You are holy?

How often do we assemble together and not have Your Word read? No wonder why there is often no difference between those of us who are in the Church and those who are not. No wonder why there is no conviction of sin. No wonder why there is no confession of sin. No wonder why there is no repentance of sin. Be merciful to us. Forgive us for neglecting Your very own Word to us, Your God-breathed words. Restore to us the reading, right preaching and teaching of the Word in our churches, O Lord. Give us pastors and teachers who know the vital necessity of making Your Word put in the central place. Give Your people a hunger to hear Your Word preached and taught rightly, rather than settling for second best, for drinking from broken cisterns and stagnant water.

We've been focusing on Nehemiah 8 and praying the Word of God might be restored to its proper place in our lives and in the life of the Church as a whole:

• May we gather as one man to hear Your Word (Nehemiah 8)
• Give us ears to be attentive to Your words alone (Nehemiah 8:3)
• one sign of revival: attentiveness to the Word of God (Whitefield's Journals)
• "People cannot take preaching...People are dying through lack of knowledge." (ML-J)
• pray for ministers to read from the book clearly, give the sense & understanding - Neh. 8:8
• Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching (accounts of revival in Virginia in the late 18th c.)
• Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You, for not paying attention to Your Word
• Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word

Continuing on again in Nehemiah 8...

Nehemiah 8:13 And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. (KJV)

On the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. (ESV)

The word translated understand (KJV) and study (ESV) is the Hebrew word sakal  (saw-kal'). Here's what Strong's Concordance says about the word:

We read in II Timothy 2 (KJV) that we are to

Lord God,

Your Word is breathed out from Your very mouth, it is Your gift to us from Your Spirit, written by men who were carried along by Your Spirit and preserved and protected by Your good Providence.

We see how your leaders gathered together to understand and study Your Word, and it is true that those who are leaders among us will be held to greater account. We thank You for those You have called and appointed to teach and lead us and we pray You would continue to guard and protect them so they might take heed to themselves and the doctrine.

However, in addition to Your divinely appointing and gifting such members of Your Body to lead, feed, instruct and teach us, we are a holy priesthood. We need no human mediator to teach us. Because Your Holy Spirit dwells in all of Your people, any one of us can all open Your Word to study and to understand so we might know You more. You are not a respecter of persons in that. Lord Jesus, You told the little children to come to You. In the Kingdom of God, the wisdom of men has no true bearing in terms of understanding what is spiritual. Many of those whom the world considers are unwise and foolish are enlightened through Your Spirit while the wise and strong and powerful remain in darkness and reject You and Your Word. The most incapable in the world's eyes are made capable to understand the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned and can only be understood through the Spirit. The Spirit alone can open our hearts and minds to teach us of You. And though the Spirit does graciously reveal these things to us as You will, yet You still use the means to do so.

May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word.
May You and Your Word be a delight to us.

We confess how often we neglect to really study Your Word and seek to understand. We confess our laziness and lethargy and lukewarmness. O, to consider we can meet with You, the living God, in Your Word. We can meet with You, the holy God who sent His Son to die for us and redeem us as a people to Yourself! The God who set His love on us when we were still sinners and Your enemies.

O, great God, we confess those times when we sit and read or listen to Your Word, but we are not thrilled by it, by You. We confess those time that we listen and do not take the time or energy to really focus to understand or study Your Word. We confess those times when we have one eye on the clock or on our to-do list, with the other eye on the Scripture. We confess how often we bow to expediency and the urgent, rather than the things of first import, the one thing most necessary. We confess how we are tempted to be like Mary rather than be Martha. How we busy ourselves with countless other things, not saying they are all bad, but yet we do not take the time to sit and ponder and soak and abide in Your Word at Your feet. We cannot serve two masters. Ever! Yet so we confess we so often merely read our assigned verses or chapter(s) for the day and then walk away like those You've described in James 1:

May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word.
May You and Your Word delight our souls!

Forgive us for not being single-eyed toward You. We confess those times we do hear or read Your Word but yet we do not receive with meekness that implanted Word. We confess that we not take the time to soak wholeheartedly in Your Word like the Psalmist described:

Certainly we can trust that as we devote time to press on to seek You and to know You more in Your Word, You will provide the time we need for all You have called us to each day – to fulfill all the family, personal, ministry and work obligations You have called us to, as well as allowing us for time to rest.

How can we expect to know You if we do not avail ourselves of this precious means of grace You have provided for us to do so?

May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word.
May You and Your Word delight our souls!

Holy God,

Forgive us for not delighting in Your Word as we ought.
May You and Your Word delight our souls once again.

Forgive us for so often letting the study of Your Word to our leaders only and learning of You secondhand.
Forgive us for being hearers only and not doers and so quickly forgetting what we've heard.
Forgive us for not taking the time to study to show ourselves approved.
Forgive us for not meditating on Your Word day and night.
Forgive us for our laziness.

Cleanse us from our sins, Lord God, for Jesus' sake.

Increase our hunger and zeal for You and Your Word and our desire to know You more.

May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word.
May You and Your Word delight our souls!

May we value and treasure any opportunity we have to study and understand Your Word.
May we give You the firstfruits of our time in this, rather than letting it go until the end of the day (if at all).
May we show we value and treasure Your Word by making time to plant ourselves there and soaking there.
May we be excited as we anticipate meeting with You in Your Word.
May we protect and guard the time we set aside for Your Word as we would an important appointment.

Make us once again the people of one Book.
Have mercy on us, O God.

May we increasingly desire to understand & study Your Word.
May You and Your Word delight our souls!

I've been focusing on Nehemiah 8 for the last several weeks in these posts/prayers:

• May we gather as one man to hear Your Word (Nehemiah 8)
• Give us ears to be attentive to Your words alone (Nehemiah 8:3)
• one sign of revival: attentiveness to the Word of God (Whitefield's Journals)
• "People cannot take preaching...People are dying through lack of knowledge." (ML-J)
• pray for ministers to read from the book clearly, give the sense & understanding - Neh. 8:8
• Awaken a hunger for Biblical preaching (accounts of revival in Virginia in the late 18th c.)

Earlier this week in Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You, for not paying attention to Your Word
I reminded us that the Bible is God's very own words breathed out to us through His Holy Spirit, Who also inspired and carried along the writers of the Bible, and how the Holy Spirit Himself must be grieved and quenched when we do not pay attention to the Word of God as we should. Along those same lines, I'd like to return to Nehemiah 8 so we might put ourselves in the light of the Word to have the Holy Spirit might examine us and our attitudes toward God and His precious Word. I know I've covered some of these things in my previous posts, but believe we should return there again today.

Father, Son and Spirit, as we open Your Word and consider Your Word to us now, we know we have no vision and insight apart from Your opening our eyes and showing us the truth about ourselves. We ask You would send Your Holy Spirit to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts toward You and Your Word, particularly in light of the example of the Israelites here in Nehemiah 8. Open our eyes and ears and hearts to hear and see and receive from You now. We pray also that You would help us especially be taking time to prepare ourselves to hear Your Word this week in worship. And for those out there who will be teaching or preaching, we pray You would guard and protect them as they seek Your face and prepare to give out Your Word to Your flock. May Your Spirit fill them and empower them so Your Word go out with boldness and assurance. Amen.

Nehemiah 8:1  And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and asked that Your Word be read in the time of Nehemiah.
We confess how we so often gather together as Your Church and we have no interest in having Your Word read.
We confess that we often do not even ask to have Your Word read, but settle for cheap substitutes.
We confess we do not love You and Your Word as we ought.

2  So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and made Your Word primary and central.
We confess how often we have grieved You, Holy Spirit, because we have not made Your Word primary and central.
We confess that we read from so many other books, we listen to so many other words.
We confess that we do not give You and Your Word the preeminent place in our gatherings.

3  And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and listened to Your Word for hours on end.
We confess how when we gather together we don't listen to Your Word for a few minutes, if that.
We confess that we do not give You and Your Word the preeminent place in our churches and in our lives.

4  And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5  And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people...

Lord God, we see how Your Word was lifted up to its rightful place because Your Word stands alone for You stand alone.
We confess how when we gather together we do not lift up You or Your Word to the rightful place.
We confess how our eyes are on all other things but You and Your Word as we gather together.
We confess how in many churches today Your Word is not even opened up in the sight of all the people.

5 ...as he opened it all the people stood. 6  And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

Lord God, we see how Your people gave the glory and honor due to You and to Your Word.
We confess how we often do not give You and Your Word the glory and honor we ought.
We confess how we often do not see You as high and lifted up and holy and Your Word as holy.
We confess how we often come to You and Your Word too casually and have little or no sense of reverence.

7  Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law while the people remained in their places. 8  They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Lord God, we see how Your appointed leaders helped Your people understand Your Word.
We confess how so many of our leaders and we ourselves sometimes do not help Your people to understand Your Word but bring confusion.

7  ...while the people remained in their places.

Lord God, we see how Your people remained in their places as Your Word was read and taught.
We confess how often our attention wanders and wanes as we hear Your Word read and taught.