Tonight I wanted to start off by talking about that well known fact that men don’t do directions of any kind. If you have ever wondered why men can’t ask for directions I have the answer for you here tonight. Just watch…
***Play commercial clip of man asking woman for directions to be met with pepper spray and a taser gun***
Obviously that clip isn’t real and I would hope that nothing like that has ever happened. Although, knowing some of the crazy things that go on in today’s world, you never know. Nevertheless, the issue of guys with not reading, asking for, or using directions happens every day.
The classic example that has probably been used more recently than others is the Christmas gift that needs to be assembled. Commercials use this idea year after year.
The scene starts out with a Dad and a bunch of parts, usually a bike for some reason. The directions are left on the table because “the man doesn’t need directions.” Out come the tools and the man gets to work. Part after part begins to be put “in place” and before you know it the bike is finished, the dad stands back to admire his work and then heads off to bed.
The scene then switches to morning, as a little boy sits up in bed realizing that it’s Christmas. He runs in to his parent’s room all excited and wakes them up so they can go see what Santa brought. The boy runs down the stairs, gets to the bottom and then just stops and stares. Before him, sits a beautiful red bike with a bell and everything. He runs to it, hops on and begins to ride it around the room. Within seconds though, the bike falls apart as he is riding it and the boy ends up on the floor crying.
This is what happens when we don’t follow directions for things most of the time. Often, if someone does not follow directions and succeeds, it is because they had prior knowledge and know how on building bikes. We could have used a similar story when it comes to following directions such as cooking, driving, or any other example we could think of.
The other issue I want to talk about tonight when it comes to not following directions is something that not only men, but women as well struggle with. That is reading the directions that come to us in form of the Bible. Sometimes the Bible is called “Life for Dummies” or “Directions for Life” but yet so often we ignore what it says and choose to try it on our own. We think, “We don’t need God or the Bible, I got it. You know, I am a human being. It’s second nature to live. I can figure it out on my own”
But yet, just like the bike, when we ignore the directions and do it ourselves, eventually things are going to fall apart and not work properly because we didn’t follow the directions. This is the exact same thing that the men and women of Jerusalem learned in Nehemiah 8:1-18.
***Read Nehemiah 8:1-18***
Before we jump into the text and what it teaches us about God’s Word, the Bible, it is important to understand some history of the people of Jerusalem. Before the people came back to the city, they were living in Babylon as slaves. Years before, King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came and attacked the people and city of Jerusalem. The reason for all of this was because the people refused to follow the directions that God had laid out for them.
2 Chronicles 36:11-16 tells us of the last king who reigned before the Babylonians attacked. His name was Zedekiah and the Bible tells us that “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” and ignored the prophet Jeremiah’s warnings. At that time, the priests and the people also turned their backs on God and began following other religious traditions. They too, ignored and mocked the prophets that God sent to warn them. Finally, in the end, verse 16 tells us that “God’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done.” Thus the book of 2 Chronicles ends with the Babylonian’s attack and the fall of Jerusalem. If the people had listened and followed God’s directions, none of that would have ever happened.
Now, back in Jerusalem, the people turn back to God and do what they should have done 70 years earlier.
The first thing they did was what any person needs to do in order to understand directions. That is to read them. As we talked about last week, all the people came together “as one person” and asked Ezra, the priest, to read the Word of God to them. As Ezra opened the book, all the people stood in respect and awe for God and prepared themselves to listen.
All the people, the men, women, and children old enough to understand, listened to the Word from early morning until noon. This would have possibly been about 6 hours of time spent listening to Scripture. They made reading God’s Word a very important part of their lives and, in fact, as 8:18 tells us, they made it a daily part of their lives.
This is a commitment that we need to make in our lives as well if we are going to see spiritual renewal in our own lives and in the people around us. Otherwise, we won’t know the directions that God has asked us to follow. Now, a huge part of me feels like a hypocrite saying this because I have not been doing well at all in reading my Bible daily. So this message is as much for me as it is for anyone else in this room. It is hard to set aside time and to make it a priority but we need to keep working at and keep trying over and over again throughout our lives.
The second thing the people did was to make sure they understood what they were reading. This is probably the hardest and most difficult thing when it comes to the Bible. There are a lot of scriptures in the Bible that are really confusing and hard to understand at first glance. Let me ask you guys a question though; if you were reading some directions for something and you came upon a part you didn’t understand, what would you do? You would ask for help from someone how knows more or perhaps call the 1-800 number for help.
That is the same thing that the people of Jerusalem did. In verses 7-8, it tells us that the Levites, the men who had studied God’s Word and knew more about it, taught the people “the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.”
When we read Scripture, we need to make sure we understand it. We are in a much better spot today than the people in Jerusalem because we have so much today that can help with understanding what the Bible teaches. Like the Jews, we have people who are older and more experienced that we can ask questions. We have books like Commentaries or How To Read the Bible Book by Book. We have notes in our Bibles to help. We have devotionals like The One Minute Bible and we have the internet. It is so important take advantage of these things to help understand what we are reading.
The third and last thing the people did was they put what they read and understood into practice. This is what is told in verses 14-16. As they read the book of Leviticus, they learned that during this particular festival that they were celebrating, God had commanded them to live in shelters during it. So the people immediately, went out and built shelters out of branches all over the city.
James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” This is the most important step when following directions for something. It would be stupid and pointless to have read the directions and understood them but to then just throw them aside and did it your way. Yet, we do this all the time with the Bible because we are a stubborn and prideful people. We need to put our selfish desires aside and put what God teaches into practice.
Read it, hear it, do it! Those are the things that need to be happening in our lives when it comes to Scripture. We need to start by challenging ourselves to set aside time and read the Bible. We need to really hear what we are reading and work to understand it. We can’t be afraid to ask people questions or to search for answers. Then we need to put it into practice. Let us not end up with a bike that falls apart, or like the Israelites in a mess because they didn’t follow directions. But instead, let us do our best to follow the directions laid out in The Bible that will lead to a truly joyful and glorious life that will never, ever fall apart.
