“Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law…. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” (Neh 8:2-3, 7-8).
In this passage, we read about one of the greatest moments in our spiritual history. Israel’s spiritual leaders were helping God’s people understand and apply the word of God. But I recently followed a discussion on social media by several Bible scholars lamenting the fact that most sermons put far too much emphasis on relevancy. Since the Bible is not all about us, they claimed, God’s people must learn to learn the Bible for knowledge’s sake alone.
Literary But Dead Sermon
But why in the world would the man whose wife just left him and the young lady sitting next to him with an eating disorder come to hear a sermon about literary devices in biblical Hebrew poetry or the rather infrequent use of the Greek imperfect tense? A sermon filled with historical, literary, and grammatical details for the sake of filling our heads with more knowledge is not only boring, it’s completely DEAD!
…to come hear the living, active, and life-changing word of God.
Are literary devices and Greek grammar important? Well actually they are. And it’s the preachers’ job to convince the hurting, lonely, frightened people sitting in the pews why. When a speaker explains how the Holy Spirit uses this particular literary device to communicate God’s grandeur and power, and how that verbal tense in the Greek New Testament proves God will never leave us nor forsake us, then literary devices and Greek grammar will really matter to God’s people who will be really glad they’ve gotten up an hour early on their only day off to come hear the living, active, and life-changing word of God.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isa 55:10-11).
