Celebrities — including Candace Cameron Bure — and other prominent Christian and government leaders plan to take part in a week-long reading of the Bible in the nation’s capital.
TheAmerica Reads the Bibleevent will take place at the Musuem of the Bible in Washington, D.C., starting on April 18, and is tied into the 250th anniversary year of the nation’s independence.
It is inspired by the public reading of Scripture recorded in Nehemiah 8 and 9, when the books of the law, first handed down by Moses, were read by Ezra, a religious leader of the day.
This reading took placeabout 445 B.C., after many Jews had returned to Jerusalem following their people’scaptivity in Babylon.
Ezra’s reading of the law cameabout 1,000 yearsafterMoseshad first delivered God’s law to the people.
The book of Nehemiahindicatesthat the Jews who had returned from Babylonian captivity had not previously heard the Word of God, so Ezra and others reading the Scripture “helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”
For example, immediately after learning about the Feast of Booths — regarding which God commanded the people of Israel to commemorate each year in remembrance of their 40 years in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land — the people built booths and lived in them for a week around Jerusalem.
“And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule,” Nehemiah recorded.
The people then repented for going astray in many ways and recovenanted themselves to God, pledged to follow His law.
In like manner, the organizers of America Reads the Bible said on the event’s website, “Just as Ezra read the Word aloud to the people of Israel (Nehemiah 8:1–3), awakening revival and repentance, inspiring them to rebuild the temple, and working with Nehemiah to mobilize the people to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, America Reads the Bible is a sacred opportunity to call our nation back to itsspiritual foundations.”
Source: VidNews » Feed
