The people, who had not heard the Law for years, stodd silent in the assembly called by Nehemiah. Men and women listened attentively as Ezra spoke of obedience, repentance, and turning their faith back to the Most High. They had returned to Jerusalem, to the Temple, with the walls and the gates erected again.

Yet even if everything was restored to how it had once been, their hardened hearts still needed to be completely changed. The Word of God is the only way to truly and definitively transform humankind. Once it is spoken and practiced, it serves its purpose: to save. It was through the Word that the people recognized their errors and knelt before the Eternal One.