READING: Nehemiah 7-10
From an elevated position over the crowds, Ezra read from the Law of the Lord. The people’s response? They answered with uplifted hands and choruses of, “Amen! Amen!”—and then they “knelt low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground” (Neh 8:6). With their entire bodies, they revered God. Indeed, as one writer concluded, this picture pointed to “the main facets of worship: salutation, or yearning, by the uplifted hands; self-abasement, or entreaty, by the gesture of prostration.”*
Here, then, is the simple question for today: when was the last time God so moved you through His Word that you could only kneel low and worship the Lord from the ground? If it’s been a long time, ask God to give you ears to hear and a heart to obey when you listen to (or proclaim) His God-breathed Word this weekend. May He drive you to your face, and may you celebrate His goodness there.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: How do you answer the above question? How long has it been?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, I worship You. Amen.”
MONDAY’S READING: Nehemiah 11-13
*Kidner, D. (1979). Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, p. 116). InterVarsity Press.
