Rebuild: Nehemiah 10:

Covenant Renewal:

Everyone was “all in.” All ages.

Gary Smith: “Each person who printed his name (with a seal or in his handwriting) was sending a message to his family and friends that he was setting a new direction for the extended family.”

Curses and oath!

v. 31: The sabbath: Time Separation

31b. Sabbaths!

Exodus 23:10–11 “10 “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.”

Free Slaves: Exodus 21:2–6 “2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.”

vv. 32-39: Worship Economy

Much longer section on money!

All aspects of worship

vv.32-33: Temple Tax

Over 20 years old. Exodus 30:11–14: “11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering.

vv. 34-39: Offerings in Kind

Wood?? Not mentioned in the Torah.

vv.35-36=First Fruits and first born sons and cattle

Rural tithes (37b).

Properly supervised.

Need wood like fuel in a car!

v.38: The Tithe of the Tithe

Contribution of the Levites is the 10th of a 10th.

Money is an interesting thing!

Commitment to doing something.

Get plugged in.

Challenge to our children: Commit to Christ today!

What does it mean to give generously?

Nehemiah 13:11 “11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.”

Ralph Klein: “Hearing the Word can never be a spectator sport.”

What area do you need to donate to the Lord?

Your marriage?

Your time?

Your treasures?

What does it look like strategically to Love God and Neighbor?

What areas are you weak in?

Worship attendance?

Support of worship.

Stewardship

Reminder of Church Vows about worship and work

Covenant Renewal:

Not really a covenant renewal

More of a very serious agreement, in writing

Try and try again:

Losing to Heather at Horse 6 straight games.

Drinking coffee with a frozen lip.

Why don’t people evangelism from a Jewish perspective?

Galatians 3:13 “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—”

The people bind themselves to a curse.

Recommitment to God’s Law

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…

Earlier this month:

Law read in Nehemiah 8

Law is interpreted to the People.

Nehemiah 9:38:

“firm agreement” rather than covenant

NIV: Binding agreement

Recommitting to that which God has already covenanted. Like getting remarried.

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

Now people recommit themselves, bind themselves on oath (and a curse) to the Mosaic Law.

Who’s all in?

People, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, those who separated from the lands, their wives, their sons and daughters, “all who had knowledge and understanding.

“Join and enter into a curse and an oath.” To what? To walk in God’s Law given through Moses.”

Binding themselves to what God has already done.

Commitment Content:

Marriage

v. 30: Oaths: Intermarriage: Marital Separation

Derek Kidner: “not on racial but on religious grounds… hence the ready acceptance of Ruth as a convert.”

Binding themselves around who they will bind to

Sabbath

Tithe

How to