Our Bread for Breakfast

#1. “A Pulpit with a Purpose” (Neh. viii. 4).


Just as the epistles of Paul written during the period covered by the Acts, and the record of his public ministry which constitutes the bulk of Acts ix. - xxviii., must be taken together and considered as one work, so the written ministry of The Berean Expositor, and the spoken ministry at “The Chapel of the Opened Book” are one. Naturally the two phases of ministry differ in the method adopted to make known the truth, and each appeals to a different circle of hearers, but, apart from the previously written ministry, the Central Witness would have no existence, even as the doors of the Chapel of the Opened Book would have remained closed, so far as our witness is concerned, were it not for the generous fellowship of many readers who can themselves entertain little or no hope of ever attending its services.

As a means of strengthening the link that binds us all in one unbroken fellowship, we hope to reproduce in these pages some of the ministry already accomplished at the London Centre, and, as an introduction to the series, give the following gist of the address delivered at the inaugural meeting on 30th September, 1943, on “A Pulpit with a Purpose” (Neh. viii. 4).

As one listens to the account of the experiences of Nehemiah and Ezra in their endeavour to fulfil the will of the Lord in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the Temple, and follows the efforts of their successors, one hears an echo of those experiences right down the centuries, for, while manners and customs change, humanity remains the same, and from one generation to another the conflict between truth and error follows much the same course. Those of us who sought to put into effect the will of the Lord as we understood it, met with many experiences parallel with those of Nehemiah and Ezra. There were those who “laughed” and “despised” (Neh. ii. 19), and those who “mocked” and reminded us of our “feebleness” (Neh. iv. 2), and intimidation, if not reiterated “ten times” (Neh. iv. 12), was nevertheless repeated. We are never so susceptible as when the enemy appears conciliatory and invites us to a “conference” (Neh. vi. 2), and we are peculiarly vulnerable to the insidious attack of the “open letter” (Neh. vi. 5), besides having to bear the charge of seeking to exercise lordship over the Lord’s heritage (Neh. vi. 6, 7). This is the dark side of the picture, but neither Nehemiah, Ezra nor ourselves would be true to fact and experience if we did not testify to the bright and blessed side of the conflict too.

There were those who recognized that the time had come and said, “Let us rise up and build” (Neh. ii. 18), and there were those, like the nobles of the Tekoites, who, while not falling into line with their brethren, nevertheless “repaired another piece” (Neh. iii. 27) and so helped forward the work in unexpected ways. Then there were those who “gave unto the work” not only in labour and prayer, but in kind (Neh. vii. 70, 71). In either case, both lines, whether of opposition or help, converge, in the book of Nehemiah, in chapter viii., in the “Pulpit erected with a purpose” and the “Opened Book”, even as our own experiences of 1943 converged in the opening of “The Chapel of the Opened Book”.

“And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose . . . . . And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people” (Neh. viii. 4, 5).

The purpose of that pulpit was not to magnify Nehemiah the Tirshatha nor Ezra the Scribe. Most certainly it was not erected to enable a priestly cast to establish an ascendancy over the people, for its prime object was expressed in the words, “Ezra opened the book”.

Let us consider three aspects of this theme that must be true of the work now inaugurated, as it was true in the days of Israel’s return from captivity.

(1) The Opened Book must be read.

“So they read in the book in the law of God DISTINCTLY, and gave the SENSE, and caused them to UNDERSTAND the reading” (Neh. viii. 8).

To the Ethiopian riding in his chariot, Philip the evangelist put the question, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” (Acts viii. 30). To Timothy Paul wrote, “Till I come give attendance to reading” (I Tim. iv. 13), and even our Saviour, Who spake as never man spake, “stood up for to read” (Luke iv. 16).

It will therefore be the duty of all who minister in the Chapel of the Opened Book to see that the reading of the Word finds a prominent place in its services. But “reading”, to be a service and not a soporific, must be clear for “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle?” Reading therefore must be “distinct” and this lowly feature of public ministry will not be forgotten in the training of students in the days to come. Distinctness of enunciation, however, covers more than the emission of the sounds of words: it also has a bearing upon the sense of the words read. We have heard Luke xxiv. 25 so read as to make it seem that our Saviour rebuked the disciples for being such fools as to believe all that the prophets have spoken! or Rom. vi. 17 so read as to make the Apostle thank God that the Roman Christians were the servants of sin!

The first lesson then that we learn is, that in the ministry of the Word the Book must be “read”, and so read that its message shall be given “distinctly” and its “sense” preserved.

(2) The Opened Book must be “divided”.

At the beginning of His ministry our Lord entered the synagogue at Nazareth and stood up for to read, “And when He had opened the book” at Isa. lxi. we find that He read one verse and the one sentence following, and then closed the book, sat down and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke iv. 21). A perusal of Isa. lxi. 1, 2 will show that the Lord put into operation that great principle of interpretation entitled “right division” (II Tim. ii. 15), for He concluded His reading at the words, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord”. Had He read on to the next line and said, “and the day of vengeance of our God”, He could not have also said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”, for those two sentences, though divided in our version by but a comma, belong to the two different advents of the Lord, at least 1900 years lying between them.

Therefore the second lesson that we learn is, that not only must the reading be “distinct”, to give the sense, but that it must also be “rightly divided”, otherwise passages that belong to differing dispensations will be confused and the hearers misled.

(3) The Opened Book speaks of Christ.

“And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke xxiv. 32).

If we enquire what it was that caused this glow within the breasts of the saddened disciples, we discover that it was not eloquence, although we are sure that when He read the Holy Book. He, as none other, read “distinctly” and “gave the sense”; neither was it right division, although He could never confuse the dispensations that He Himself came to fulfil. No, He made His disciples’ hearts burn within them because,

“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things CONCERNING HIMSELF” (Luke xxiv. 27).

So we, too, in type and shadow, in prophecy and in doctrine, shall see Him, and we shall preach Him, otherwise all our “distinctness” and all our “division” will be dead and fruitless. If, on the other hand, the ministry of the Opened Book follows the lead given by these three examples, we may confidently expect the sequel, “Their eyes were opened” (Luke xxiv. 31); “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke xxiv. 45).

It was announced from this “Pulpit with a purpose” at the inaugural meeting, that for the first six months the theme at the Sunday morning service would be the basic doctrine of the inspiration of all Scripture, so that there should be no uncertainty on the part of new-comers as to our attitude to the Word of God. We do not, of course, propose reproducing these thirty addresses on this one great theme, but we believe every reader and every supporter of the Central Witness would appreciate some idea of the way in which this theme has been presented, and we trust that the record may not only indicate the position taken up by the Central Witness, but that it will prove a blessing to those who read the outlines, and possibly provoke further testimony in the hands of those who are already engaged in public ministry. We therefore look forward to meeting the reader again in these pages, there to repeat the testimony given from the “Pulpit of the Opened Book”.

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 32, page 162).

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