LISTEN ONLINETime was running short for special agent Doug Carlin in the film Déjà Vu. Whoever was responsible for the devastating explosion might strike again. So to help identify the criminal, Carlin tapped into top-secret but mind-boggling technology that he hoped would send him back in time to prevent the tragic explosion from ever having happened. But on asking the experts to explain how it worked, he received an avalanche of scientific jargon.
“I said, explain it to me,” he protested. “Not talk science.”
I was so challenged by that line that I stuck it in my Bible for those times when I needed to explain God’s Word, as had happened back in Nehemiah’s day. After years in exile, the Israelites were eager to hear Scripture (Nehemiah 8:1), and for many hours “all the people listened attentively” (vv. 3–4). But evidently, they also needed someone to explain it, so the priests “[made] it clear” by translating obscure words into modern-day language and pausing and “[giving] the meaning so that the people understood what was being read”. Only then could they apply it to their lives.
Our family, friends, colleagues and social-media contacts may have read or heard quotes from Scripture that they don’t fully understand. For many, God’s potentially life-giving Word is as perplexing as high-brow science. As we explain it with God’s help, however, His Word will be sown in their hearts where it can produce kingdom fruit.