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The second important point is the employment of the Levites, who were "more upright
in heart", to act for the priests, who were too few in number for the work. This too must
be remembered in days like those in which we live. Even in the epistle to the Philippians
we discover that there were "bishops and deacons", but we doubt if such exist in
sufficient number or of sufficient sanctity to-day. Nevertheless the worship of God is
acceptable.
A further illustration of this principle is found in II Chron. 30: 15-19. Here, as
provided by the law of Moses, the Passover was observed on the fourteenth of the
second month (see Numb. 9: 6-13), the Levites killing the passover lamb of every one
that was not clean.
"Yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for
them, saying, the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the
Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the
sanctuary" (II Chron. 30: 18, 19).
In the eyes of the Lord "preparation of heart" counted far more than ceremonial
cleansing, a word of grace to many in these distracted days in which we now seek to
worship Him.
We now come to the last of this series of references where "bowing the head" is
associated with "worship", and to the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, when the Word of God
was opened in the sight of all the people (Neh. 8: 1-8). Though neglected, Hezekiah's
temple did still stand, but in the days of Nehemiah the temple and city of Jerusalem were
in ruins. The rebuilding of the walls had commenced, and the foundation of the new
temple had been laid, but just between the two great works comes the story of Neh. 8:
Hezekiah "opened" the doors of the temple; Ezra "opened" the book. In the revival of
Hezekiah's day the worshippers assembled in the courts of the temple. But in the revival
of Neh. 8: they "gathered themselves together as one man in the street". Here was
no altar, no singing, no music, but instead of the elaborate ceremonial enjoined by the
law, we have the "book of the law" and a "pulpit of wood". The Levites were here, but
not to flay the sacrifices or to offer Passover lambs, "the Levites caused the people to
understand the law" (Neh. 8: 7). The great central feature in this moving story is
"The pulpit of wood". Ezra the priest is not seen officiating at an altar, but standing upon
a pulpit of wood where he "opened the book in the sight of all the people". When the
book was opened, the people "stood up" in token of reverence:
"And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen,
Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord
with their faces to the ground . . . . . So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly,
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading" (Neh. 8: 6-8).
The days of Nehemiah are in many respects like our own. Organized religion has
failed. The externals of the faith have gone. Like a bulwark in a flood stands "a pulpit of
wood, which had been made for this purpose", and gathered around the "opened book"
stand the worshipping multitude. To-day our High Priest is in heaven. We have no altar
on earth. The Sacrifice has been offered, never to be repeated; the central point of our