Can the Word pierce down into the inner thoughts and intentions and motives of a person? Well, yes, we'd answer, of course it does. So when it comes to the reading of the Word in the worship service, you're bringing all that the Word has to say to bear, and they're only hearing the Word. You're not making any comments on it. Now, there are different examples of that very thing happening in the Bible.

When King Josiah, some of his men rediscovered the law, and they had this great time of public reading, and all the people fell down and wept because they hadn't heard the word of God in such a long time, and so it impacted them greatly. And then another time during the time of the return of the exiles from Babylon you have the walls all finished Nehemiah is there in Jerusalem, Ezra the priest stands up and he reads the law. It's been a hundred and eighty-five years from the time of Josiah to Ezra standing and reading the law. And what happens? The people all fall down and weep again.

And the Levites have to exhort them to, no, this is a happy day. We're hearing the law of God. We're hearing the scriptures. And so the word of God is powerful. So you'll find also in scripture New Testament passages where Paul will say to an individual church, well make sure you read the letter from Laodicea and you make sure in Colossae that you share with them your letter.

Or in 1 Timothy 4, Paul exhorts the young pastor Timothy, he's at Ephesus at that time, And he says, make sure to have a public reading of the Word of God. And the implication is every Lord's Day. It's not just an occasional thing, but it's a regular thing. What about in your own home? If you're a head of household, You have all this flock of little children and your wife.

You're to wash your wife in the Word. You're to do the same to your children. And so all of these, whether it's in a public service or in your home worship, family worship, or in some sort of other setting, the reading of the word of God can be very, very powerful. That's why I think it's important. And it is a scriptural element, I believe, that the Bible gives us for the worship of God.