“…and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law…” Ezra 10:3
Laws are only good if people observe them. Laws are only good if people see breaking them as bad. We live in a world today where many people see the laws of the land as mere suggestions. If they have a personal problem with the law, they simply ignore it. You needn’t look farther than gross political corruption, grand scale corporate embezzlement, and open rioting and looting on our streets to find your proof. People see the law as someone else’s recommendation. A recommendation only. And unfortunately, it is no different when it comes to the Law of God, the Holy Bible. As we continue to follow the journey of Ezra, we find out how God’s people should react when the Holy Spirit of God interprets God’s Law in their hearts. They tremble. Not just once but three times in the short ten chapters of Ezra we find this word, they “trembled” at the Word of God. Now folks, when you tremble and quake at the mere mention of the law, that law has been given great respect indeed. You see, the Israelites knew of the power of God’s Words. They had seen it bring plagues upon Egypt, part an entire sea, and rain bread from Heaven for 40 years. And they also knew what happened when you blew it off, rejected it, and did what you wanted instead. Four hundred years of slave labor in Egypt. Forty years wandering and plodding through the desert. Seventy years of slavery in Babylon. The Israelites in the Old Testament knew what it meant to ignore the Law of God. It meant righteous judgement, correction, and a drawing to confession and repentance. And when it came to the latter, they trembled to think of the power of God’s Law. Today, amongst the few pockets of people who hold disdain for the general law of the land, lies a much bigger group that holds derision and disrespect for the Law of God. The Bible is seen by most as an antiquated collection of arcane and out of touch rules. A bunch of storybook non-sense that can be taken and interpreted in any way the reader chooses. Reader-based interpretation with absolute disregard of the original author's intent. Can you imagine someone reading through the tax laws of the I.R.S. and deciding whether or not they will do them? Yet that is what you see a majority of lives doing in our world today. Whether it be living with another out of wedlock, homosexual relationships, cheating on a spouse, living in selfish pride, or flippant divorces, much of the world is operating completely independent of the Law of God. In fact, if you asked many people on the street today about the Laws of God most would more than likely reply, what laws? As Ezra and the people were convicted of the sin of breaking God’s Law they trembled. They repented and turned from their sinful ways to instead walk in the ways that God’s Law instructed them. A call of confession and repentance that still cries out to each of us today. I challenge you today to become a Law student. That is, a student of the Law of God, God’s Word. Accept the 5-minute challenge and commit to read God’s Word for 5 minutes a day for 30 days in a row. After you read, be still and meditate on what you read. Maybe even quickly journal the thoughts that God places in your heart as you read. And if you encounter something in God’s Word that doesn’t line up with what you see in your own life, fix it. Cry out to God to forgive you and empower you to walk in His ways, not your own. Then simply continue to do this daily. Not just reading what God’s Word says but doing what God’s Word says. If you accept the challenge, soon you will find your life looking much different. You see, the result of a life spent studying God’s Word is a life spent repenting and growing closer to Him. A life spent trembling at the power of the very commands of the God of the universe. A life spent not learning more about the Bible, but more about the one that wrote it.
“I have stored up your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11
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