A Word in Season: Giving the Sense (Nehemiah 8:8)

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It was one of the little evangelistic meetings that we hold as a congregation. My normal practice was to print out the text from which

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I'd be speaking and hand it out to the people who were there so that they could see what we were working from. And I gave it to two of our regular attendees, two ladies sitting on the front row.

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One of them, not a great reader, certainly not that familiar with her Bible. She looks at it and she whispers, one of those stage whispers to her friends, what on earth does this mean?

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And her friend looked at her, and she's not a great Bible reader either, and she just said, don't worry, he's going to explain it to us.

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And the weight of responsibility hit me as she spoke those words. Don't worry, he's going to explain it to us.

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He's going to make this clear to us. He's going to tell us what the words mean, what the sense is, how it holds together, and why we need to care about it.

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Something like that happened in the days of the return from the exile. In Nehemiah chapter 8, the people gather together, and Ezra the scribe brings the book of the law of Moses, which the

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Lord had commanded Israel. Now the people who'd returned from the exile, they were not familiar with God's word as once they had been.

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Perhaps even the language had become strange to them. So how are they going to know what

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God says? Ezra opens the book in the sight of all the people. In verse 5, he's standing above all the people.

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When he opens it, all the people stood up, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And in verse 8, together with his companions,

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Ezra helps the people to understand the law, reading distinctly from the book in the law of God, and giving the sense and helping them to understand the reading.

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It's a beautiful picture. Yes, there's attention on the part of the crowd who are gathering.

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Yes, by God's grace, there's an awareness that this is the word of God, and the spirit of God is at work to give these people hearing ears.

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But you also have this group of men who are going to explain what the word of God says and what it means.

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They're going to read distinctly. They're going to speak very clearly, very evidently, very crisply, so that the people who are gathered around them can hear what the words are, and then they're going to give the sense.

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They're going to explain the weight of those words and what they really mean, and they're going to help the people who are listening to understand the reading so that it doesn't just float over them or bounce off them or wash around them.

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That it penetrates into their hearts, that they grasp it with their minds, that they fix upon it with their hearts, that they follow it in their wills.

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And that is a fearful responsibility and a glorious privilege.

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So when that lady just says, don't worry, he's going to explain it, that's the responsibility that the preacher of God's word has

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Sunday by Sunday, day by day, he needs to study the word of God under the influence of the spirit of God to make sure that he knows what the sense is and what we are to understand from whatever passage he's going to explain.

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And then with distinctness, with clarity of speech in his words and in their meaning, he needs to bring that word of God to bear upon those who are gathered before him.

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Now, do you understand the privilege and do you feel the responsibility? Do you understand that if you have a pastor preacher who cares for your soul, that one of the things he's going to be wrestling with day by day and week by week is the word of God in order that he may bring that truth to bear upon your soul.

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He's not going to stand up and wing it, at least not under normal circumstances. He's not going to come shoddily prepared and careless.

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He's going to come conscious of the fact that he is speaking on behalf of the Lord God whose word he is handling, that he is an ambassador called to bring its meaning to bear upon your soul.

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And however much and however gratefully you might say, he's going to explain it.

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We don't need to worry about this. Bear in mind that it will cost him much toil in order to reach a point where he can speak clearly and effectively, give the sense and help you to understand what is read.

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So pray for him that he might do that and pray for ourselves that we, if we're sitting under the word of God, may hear it and receive it from a man who is going to explain