Nehemiah 10

The scene in is beautiful, with God’s people

restored,

united, and

acknowledging God’s Word

in the most crucial areas of life and worship.

At the conclusion of their prayer, the people made a renewed surrender to the God of the covenant.

Those who belong to Him must behave as He demands, and

the time had come to affirm their loyalty in the presence of their families, friends and neighbors.

Their commitment to God took the form of a series of written promises:

38 "In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement in writing on a sealed document containing the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.” ()

Following the public confession of sin that took place Israel entered into a written covenant.

I’m going to read vv28-29 and then we’ll consider the contents of the whole chapter.

28 "The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God—29 "join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God’s servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.” ()

Let’s pray...

Father of all glory. We pray for and ask for a fresh filling of Your Holy Spirit. May You grant power from on high to take the book of God and press it home to our hearts this morning. May we be changed, challenged, and may we grow in Christ today, and it’s in Christ glorious name we pray, AMEN.

I’ve entitled this message “When a church makes an agreement with God!”

What else can a church do, once convinced by the demands of Scripture?

What else can a church do when congregational and personal sins are exposed?

It’s not enough to just say sorry. A church needs to express the sincerity of their desire to serve the Lord wholeheartedly and passionately.

Repentance, after all, includes both a turning from and a turning toward:

Repentance unto life is a saving grace, where a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and

a apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does,

with grief and

hatred of his sin,

turn from it and turns to God,

fully purposing of, and endeavoring after, new obedience.

But how was this intention and desire to be expressed?

The answer lay in a covenant-renewal treaty.

In other words, the answer lies in the reality that a church like this, needs to make an agreement with God.

This passage invites us to consider four aspects of when a church makes an agreement with God.

The important of the agreement.

Covenants are important from a biblical, historical and contemporary perspective.

First, written agreements of this kind have figured prominently in biblical history.

God made different covenants with Noah and Abraham, and later initiated an agreement with his people through Moses, committing himself to them as their unique God.

They in turn were to demonstrate their response to him by obeying his law.

We have already seen that, although the Lord was utterly faithful to His people, the Israelites frequently broke their part of the agreement.

At specific times in their history they realized with sorrow how serious that disloyalty had been, and leaders such as

Joshua and kings like Hezekiah and Josiah framed their people’s renewed commitment in written covenants.

25 "On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people at Shechem and established a statute and ordinance for them. 26 "Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God; he also took a large stone and set it up there under the oak at the sanctuary of the Lord. 27 "And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone—it will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord said to us, and it will be a witness against you, so that you will not deny your God.”” ()

10 "It is in my heart now to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel so that his burning anger may turn away from us.” ()

29 "So the king sent messengers and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 "The king went up to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people from the oldest to the youngest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple. 31 "Then the king stood at his post and made a covenant in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book. 32 "He had all those present in Jerusalem and Benjamin agree to it. So all the inhabitants of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.” ()

These accounts recorded in Chronicles certainly would be known by Nehemiah and thus he’s moved to make an agreement with God like that.

Down through history agreements have been important. Following the precedent laid down by the biblical covenants,

a number of sixteenth-century congregations prepared written accounts of their corporate commitment to the Lord and to one another.

Some of the English Puritans recorded their personal promises of love and loyalty to the Lord.

Hence you have in our modern age, people write up church covenants. (look at what we as people to promise by the grace of God)

as you read these, think through as to whether you are keeping up with your obligations.

SO there’s an importance to making agreement’s with God (biblically, historically, and in our day).

During the preaching of God’s Word, identifying certain areas in our lives where it is helpful to make a definite commitment to Christ

about such matters as your

daily communion with him,

your lifestyle,

priorities,

relationships,

possessions,

being a witness for Christ.

We ought to take time and funnel our desires into practical decisions, putting them in writing.

The structure of the agreement.

Political covenants were drawn up historically before the time of Moses even.

The format seemed to always follow the same pattern. Typically these covenants were drawn up between a stronger power and a weaker nation.

They usually began by outlining the historical relationship between the two parties in the agreement,

paying special attention to the generosity of the stronger nation.

Then followed the covenant’s basic stipulations, before a description of the specific and practical ways

in which this more general commitment is to be applied.

Those who signed went on to agree to blessings and cursings which would follow the keeping or breaking of the covenant,

and the covenant concluded with a brief recapitulation of its terms.

This is the same pattern found in this agreement.

(READ vv. 30-39)

The extensive prayer in chapter 9 eloquently describes the relationship between the Lord and His people

and appropriately emphasizes the generosity of God.

The basic stipulation of this Nehemiah covenant is that His people promise to obey God’s Word.

They publicly agree to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord (10:29).

This general statement is followed by a series of specific ways in which this commitment to God’s law is to be applied in various aspects of their lives:

domestic (mixed marriages) v30

commercial (Sabbath trading) v31

agricultural (seventh-year laws) v31

social (cancellation of debts) v31

religious (support of God’s house) v32 and

economic (regular contributions) v38.

Finally, Nehemiah’s covenant concluded with an appropriate summary:

We will not neglect the house of our God (10:39).

The relevance of the agreement.

If you say that the terms of this agreement in are not relevant to us in our world, I would be in agreement with you.

Yet, when we look more carefully at the distinctive features of this covenant,

we begin to realize that its topics do not belong exclusively to the fifth century bc.

Its themes are prominent in our world: they relate to crucial contemporary issues such as the

authority of Scripture,

Christian witness in a pluralistic society,

the sanctity and stability of marriage,

employment conditions,

human and animal rights,

conservation, ‘green’ issues and money management.

Here is teaching for our century as much as for theirs.

Think of how we follow Christ today. You know we don’t follow Him literally right?

Meaning, we’d all have to

become carpenters,

wear first-century clothing,

enlist a dozen helpers,

attend synagogue worship and

travel throughout modern Israel.

So when we speak of following Christ we’re not talking about imitating Him in those ways...

Most of His early followers didn’t become homeless itinerant preachers.

But they did become His most devoted followers.

We follow Him by knowing what Jesus did, to what He would do if He were in our changed situation.

The overall shape and character of His life, becomes our pattern by which we

test the Christ-likeness of the same components of our own lives.

So in looking at this covenant, we find that it has some very important things to say to us.

Looking beneath the Israelite legislation to WHY these people were committed to act in these particular ways.

Many in our culture and even in the church body itself find commitment to be exceptionally difficult.

Binding yourself to an agreement ups the anti now. People prefer not to be tied to firm allegiances.

People fear, if I ‘belong’, perhaps more will be expected of me. More that I’m willing to give.

I think back to before I was saved and even our culture at large,

couples are unwilling to commit themselves in a marriage relationship

because they want to be free to experiment or to break it off if they become dissatisfied with their partner.

As a church we discover that, although willing to attend worship, even on a regular basis,

they are not so willing to join the membership of the congregation.

preferring to drift from church to church whenever they feel “led”.

Unreserved commitment, both costly and sacrificial (the kind that Jesus called for) is decidedly unpopular in our day.

The nature of the agreement.

The nature of the agreement.

29 "join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God’s servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.” ()

The covenant made by Nehemiah and his contemporaries opened with a vow of total allegiance

to what the Lord had said to them through Moses the servant of God (29).

The initial promise to obey God’s Word was of a general and introductory nature:

they promised to follow the Law of God … and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord.

This was, first of all, a personal commitment.

The names of Nehemiah and fifty-seven other leaders (10:1–27) were appended to a written document.

To this agreement they fixed their seals in token of their promise to abide by its conditions;

they signed not only on their own behalf but as priests, Levites and leaders

who were representatives of the people.

It’d be like pastor Joel signing a document for this congregation.

These representatives would have ensured that those they represented

shared their determination to please God by honoring and obeying his Word.

After I sign, then you sign. v28, “The rest of the people”. The rest of the people were fully identified with their leaders.

All these, established believers and recent converts, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand—

all these now join their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God (10:28–29).

Secondly, this was a public commitment.

We find the word, “we” some 10x’s from vv30-39

It was affirmed and recorded in the presence of many witnesses; the people who had prayed publicly now made their promises public as well.

Though personal it was not individualistic, as if it were a matter which merely concerned the individual/ isolated believer.

The issues affected the whole assembly in general, and

everyone was testifying openly to their neighbors

that they had presented themselves afresh to God.

Commitment of that kind is an important part of effective Christian testimony.

Baptism provided the early Christians with a form of witness which publicly declared to their neighbors their resolute loyalty to Christ.

Thirdly, it was practical.

The people did not merely assent to a series of generalized statements in carefully chosen words.

They committed themselves to specific actions which would characterize their lives and authenticate their witness.

The agreement would radically change their lifestyle and affect every aspect of their daily conduct.

Being a Christian is something more than giving our intellectual assent to a series of doctrinal suggestions.

It means committing ourselves to the way of life which Christ has determined and exemplified for us.

In biblical teaching, doctrine and deeds are inseparable; belief affects behavior.

In Christian life and witness so much is lost because we are vague and unclear.

The devil is not worried by our pious aspirations.

He is troubled when,

in obedience to God,

for the glory of Christ and

in the power of the Spirit,

we make firm practical decisions to do specific things for the Lord.

Here’s our vision statement. Very clear. (on screen)

The Israelites’ initial promise in Nehemiah’s covenant to obey God’s Word was the general stipulation.

It was followed by five promises (vv30-39) of how that obedience was to be worked out in precise issues of

personal,

family and

community life.

In this covenant, though given in summary form, the details and extent of the commitment and sacrifice of the people of Israel are breathtaking.

They made promises—oaths—that were of the most serious nature.

Their relationship with God was not a trifling matter.

It was not something to be engaged in on Sunday mornings and then quickly forgotten.

It was life-changing and total in its scope.

Their children’s marriages, their personal time and possessions

—everything was held in stewardship to the Lord,

to be used for Him and His kingdom.

This is how that prayer of repentance is expressed in practical action.

But of course we must read on, looking and longing for the joy of final restoration,

the full obedience to God’s law that comes only with the Son of God

the One made sin even though he “knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” ().

Through him, believers are assured that one day they will be swept up into the perfect and final restoration of all things ().