The books of Ezra and Nehemiah also set before us very strikingly, in many ways, the blessedness of returning to God, and acting obediently to His word in an evil time. Ezra, like others we have seen, not only sought the law of the Lord for himself to act on, but he spread the truth among others—66 he taught Israel statutes and judgments.” The priests and the Levites had their places, “as it is written in the law of Moses.” They also kept the passover on the day it was ordered in the holy scriptures, and also the feast of unleavened bread seven days, as it was written, ‘with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful.’ They also found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwelt in booths in the feast of the seventh month. This the people acted on at once. They made themselves booths, and sat under the booths, for since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, had not the children of Israel done so; and there was very great gladness How encouraging to us are all these examples of the blessing which is always connected with obedience to His word!
We shall only call attention to another instance before closing our remarks on the blessing connected with obeying God’s word, and the terrible consequences of despising it. Jeremiah lived in a day when truth was trodden down in the streets, when the people had forsaken the Fountain of living waters, and had hewed unto themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which could hold no water. A sense of this gave the faithful prophet much suffering, yet he speaks of having much gladness and rejoicing. How was this? He says, “Thy words were found,” it would seem they were so seldom heard that he had to search for them; and “I did eat them”—not merely look at them, and admire them, but receive them into his heart by faith; “and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Observe, they were not his own thoughts, or circumstances, but God’s thoughts as revealed in His holy word. But there was another man who lived at the same time, not a man in poverty and seclusion, but in wealth and prominence; it was Jehoiakim, the king. We read that “the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Nevertheless, Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them. But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord: thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not. Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the month of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.” What a very solemn thing to reject the word of God! How fully all these instances exemplify the words of Jehovah, “Them that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” (Jer. 36:21-32; 1 Sam. 2:30.)
How important it is to have in constant remembrance the fact that we have a revelation from God, and that “forever, Ο Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” This alone is the authority for faith; we receive the divine testimony, and set to our seal that God is true. The infallibility of the word of God stands, then, in widest contrast with the traditions and commandments of men. In the days of the prophets, as we have seen, the great point of controversy was whether God’s word was to be believed and acted on, or not; and, even to this day, as we may consider when we look at the New Testament, the point still is, whether man, either a rationalist, a ritualist, or an infidel, is to be believed, to the rejection of the divine authority of scripture. Before leaving our examination of the Old Testament, we shall hope to consider what is the great subject of its marvelous instruction.