How long do you prefer worship services to be? Do you get antsy if they last more than an hour? How long do you think the sermon should be? Do you lose focus if it goes longer than fifteen minutes? How long can you sit to read the Bible?
Our attention spans have become short. Though we can sit down to watch television for hours, it is only because there is continual action, or we are changing the channel regularly. For some, we are doing something on our phone while the television is on. Continual brain activity.
I can remember a Saturday morning in the Spring of 2003. I woke up with an urge to read the entire book of Job in one sitting. Job is broken down into forty-two chapters and contains 12,674 original Hebrew words. As you might imagine, it took a while to read the entire book, roughly three hours.
Nehemiah records the prophet Ezra was instructed to bring the book of the law of Moses and read it before the people of Israel. This likely would have been the book of Deuteronomy, which contains more than 23,000 Hebrew words. It is estimated, based on Nehemiah’s recording, the reading lasted between four and six hours. Yet, the people were attentive.
Why would the people be willing to listen to someone reading Scripture for so long? They had just returned from exile in Babylon. They knew their ancestors had offended God and had been punished for it. They wanted to part of going back into exile. They wanted their freedom and their own country.
Today, Scripture still sets us free. When we take time to read God’s Word, study it, and understand it, we find that we are set free from the shackles of this world. It is not until we spend time with God that we will know that we have been set free. So, read and study God’s Word. Discover that you are set free.
I pray we all spend time reading God’s Word. I pray we take time to study Scripture. I pray each one of us come to know that God has set us free, that he has removed the shackles of this world. Read God’s Word. Study Scripture. Know you are free. You no longer wear the shackles of this world.
Nehemiah 8:3 He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
Marty Pressey 