In yesterday’s study we looked at the first two steps to revival as seen in our passage. Today we consider the third step.
3. The explanation of God’s Word (vv. 7- 8). One of the most important parts of Nehemiah is the statement in verses 7 and 8 of this chapter that the reading of the law was accompanied by interpretation or explanation. The text says, “The Levites … instructed the people in the law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.”
There is some difference among scholars as to whether the work of the Levites—not the same ones as those who were on the platform with Ezra—was that of translation or explanation. It may have involved translation since the law was in Hebrew and the people who had returned from Babylon now spoke Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew. Without a current, running translation they may not have been able to understand the text Ezra was reading.
But, on the other hand, the normal meaning of what the New International Version translates as “making . . .clear” suggests something much closer to what we would call an exposition or sermon. Explanation does not have the same authority as the Word of God itself. But it is important, since the Bible is not meant only to be heard and revered but also to be understood, assimilated and obeyed. This is the reason for the prominence of sermons in Christian worship and, to speak personally, why I do expository preaching. It is not that other things are not valuable. Liturgical elements of worship can be quite beautiful. Topical sermons can be relevant and often moving. But what God has promised to bless and what He has most used to bring blessing is the strict teaching and preaching of His Word. Will the preaching of the Word alone bring revival? Not necessarily, at least not in a mechanical way. Revival is God’s work. If we think we can produce it by this or any other mechanical means, we are actually only being manipulative, as many Christian orators have tried to be. But although revival does not follow mechanically upon faithful exposition of the Bible, God nevertheless does bless exposition. And it is through such Bible preaching that times of renewal and reformation characteristically have come.
First, prayer. Second, the public reading of God’s Word. Third, the exposition or preaching of it. These were all elements of what was achieved in Nehemiah’s day in Jerusalem.
