Nehemiah 9 and 10: Confession and Covenant

The last time we were in Nehemiah

We were in chapter 9, but we didn’t get very far

But, if you remember, we stopped and talked about the importance of confession in the lives of Believers

But now this morning, I’d like to continue on from verse 4

English Standard Version (Chapter 9)

4 On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

6  “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

9 “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, 10 and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. 11 And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. 12 By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. 13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, 14 and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. 15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love

Aren’t you thankful for that this morning?

As we continue reading here, we see this:

How the people were so stubborn and stiffnecked, and rebellious

But how God was always ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love

Steadfast love—hesed—Covenant love. His love that flows out of who He is.

Because of who He is, He did not forsake them

He continued to draw them back. He did not lose patience with them or punish them out of anger

This is who our God is.

I’m reminded of when Moses was on Mount Sinai, after he had broken the first two tablets of stone

And God told him to cut two more tablets like the first, and then it says this:

Exodus 34:5–7 “5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

I love that God introduced Himself as a God merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love

And God showed that to His people in Christ Jesus

18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22 “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23 You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. 25 And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26 “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. 27 Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 28 But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. 29 And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.

30 Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.

Did you notice this? “Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly”

You know, most times we thank the LORD and praise Him for His faithfulness and righteousness when we feel blessed in life

How do we respond to the correction of the LORD?

Maybe I should ask, do you experience the correction of the LORD? Do you know what it feels like to have Him correct you?

If you do, then the next question is, how do you respond to the correction of the LORD?

Do you say, like these people did, “LORD, you are right in chastising me. You have dealt faithfully and we, or I, have acted wickedly”

Do we believe in a God who is always faithful and will always do what He says He will do?

Do we believe in a God who does all things lovingly, and justly.

Even punishing us, correcting us when we need it

In Hebrews 12, the writer quotes Proverbs 3 when he says this:

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

And then the author of Hebrews adds this commentary:

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

You know, we tend to look negatively at discipline

a lot of times when I think about being disciplined, i think of being punished for doing something bad

But that’s not all there is to discipline

It’s also about being trained to do good

As parents, we don’t just punish our children for wrongdoing.

We also try to train them to do good

And that’s what God would like to do with us

We can expect that He would allow us to reap the consequences of wrongdoing

But we can also expect Him to bring things into our lives that will train us in righteousness

Persecution is one of those things

And when He does that, what is our response?

Do we resent it?

Or do we say, God you are right and just in all that you do and I receive from you all that you have for me

34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. 35 Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. 37 And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

38  “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

Chapter 10 The People Who Sealed the Covenant

1 “On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah,

Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, 7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these are the priests.

9 And the Levites: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel; 10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, 12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, 19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, 22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

The Obligations of the Covenant

28 “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, 29 join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes.

A curse and an oath

Meaning that they called down calamity and judgement from God if they did not follow through with what they had said they would do

That’s pretty serious stuff

They were saying, “God if I do not follow through on this commitment that I am about to make, you can do with me whatever you like”

And if you believe in a God who never would do any harm to anyone, there’s no teeth in that

But if you were one of these people who had indeed experienced the judgement and wrath of God and knew good and well that God could and would take them up on their commitment, this is quite a thing to say

This speaks to the absolute seriousness in their minds of this covenant that they were about to make

Now, again, we are under the New Testament, not under the OT like these people were

We are not under the law. We are under grace

But I think that Jesus is still looking for those who say, “No matter what, I will follow through on my commitment to you, Jesus”

Jesus said, “Whomever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy to be my disciple”

He’s looking for men and women, boys and girls, with the same kind of drive and determination to be faithful to Him

Men who are fearless Kings, Warriors, Lovers, and Friends

Men who love their wives, who fight for their kids and families

Men who lead their churches and communities with strenght and integrity

Men who are willing to lay down their lives for the Kingdom of God

He is looking for those who are willing to place themselves under the Kingship of Jesus and the control of the Holy Spirit and say, “I’m in this for life, no matter what”

30 We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.

They pledge to remain a holy people, set apart for God’s glory

31 And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day.

They pledge to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest, an extremely important thing to do, not only on a physical level, but on a spiritual level

And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.

That is, the year of Jubilee

This is also part of the concept of rest, and allowing God to supply our needs

32 “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 33 for the showbread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

A pledge to support the Temple work and the work of the Levites

34 We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise cast lots for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.

a pledge by the Levites to be extra vigilant in making sure that the alters always had wood to burn for the sacrifices

35 We obligate ourselves to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD;

36 also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks;

They pledge themselves to giving the first and best of all that they had back to God

37 and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. 38 And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. 39 For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the house of our God.”

The people pledge to make sure that they tithe from their increase

And the Levites also pledge to tithe on the tithes that they received

And their final pledge, which sums up most of these pledges is, “WE WILL NOT NEGLECT THE HOUSE OF OUR GOD”

The house of God is where the dwelling place of God was, where His presence dwelt

And so, in a sense what they are saying is, “We will not neglect seeking and pursuing the presence of God”

You know, all of these things that they pledged were good and right and were acording to the law

But the ultimate goal was not just that they did the right things

The ultimate goal was the presence of God. The worship of God

And shouldn’t that be our desire as well

To experience and dwell in the very presence of God

We do have the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God dwelling in us

But too many times we block Him out and cease listening to Him and being guided by Him

And a lot of times, we don’t block Him out by doing bad things

Rather, we block Him out by doing good things!

We do all the right things:

We tithe

We come to church

We support the ministry of the church

We do what we are supposed to do

But it’s easy for us to forget about pursuing HIM.

Spending time in worship

Spending time in prayer and adoration and supplication and intercession

Just

And we stop saying “I will not neglect the house of my God

So, the question in front of us this morning is

Have you neglected the house of God