Ezra 8:5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them and as he opened it all the people stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God: and all the people lifted up their hands and responded Amen! Amen! Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
What a powerful picture of reverence! The book is so sacred that in the moment of opening it up the people were so moved they could not remain seated. This was a moment that required them to stand in reverence because Ezra was going to read from the book of the great God. The moment so moved Ezra, he lifted up words of praise and the people lifted up their hands in reverence to the great God and said the only thing they felt was appropriate, Amen! Amen! And then the worship was done in a position of bowing down with their faces to the ground, because they knew they were unworthy to remain standing before their great God and worship him in that position.
I have to believe the reason the people were so reverent was because they knew how great their sin was and how it had grieved the great God so deeply that he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take them captive all the way to Babylon. They understood that their sin was so egregious that the great God did not even want them to remain in Jerusalem, and he allowed the king of Babylon freedom to come in and plunder the city and take the people captive. The great God wanted the city to be empty, rather than let any of a sinful people occupy it.
Yet, years later their repentance caused their great God to allow them to return to the place their hearts yearned for, home. It was not of their doing that they had returned home, but by the pleasure of the great God and they no doubt understood this and believed this deeply in their souls. When a person looks intently in the mirror and sees what he has done that grieves the great God and realizes that God let me live and God let me return home, it must be the most humbling moment an individual can experience. Then when all the brethren are gathered together and the book is opened for the first time in decades, how can you remain seated before the great God? Some worship requires I bow down and put my face to the ground, because my sin is so egregious. I have not been reverential in many years I think. I have had moments of revelation that pricked my soul and brought tears to my eyes, but I never felt the need to hide my face from the great God. I need to be reverential Father, because you are the great God and I am the created. Prick my heart and let it be softened by my sorrow so that I will remember all the time that you are the great God and I can only approach you in reverence or I cannot approach you at all. Grace should cause me to stand during moments of sacredness and bow in moments of worship, because grace was beyond my reach, but I was never beyond its reach. Oh great God! Thank you!
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