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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Of all the contracts and commitments, you’ve made and perhaps signed in your life, I wonder which ones have been most significant and have required the greatest effort on your part to uphold your end of a binding agreement? Perhaps your marriage covenant, or your home mortgage, or your advanced education loans, or business loans?
Join me again back in Jerusalem in late 445bc as Nehemiah and the Jewish exiles who were rebuilding Jerusalem enter into a ‘binding agreement’ with each other and with God!
Yesterday we watched as Nehemiah recounted for us the earnest prayer of the people, while in deep remorse for the sins of their ancestors. Now today, in Nehemiah 10, Nehemiah invites us to witness the people taking a courageous step of entering into a ‘binding agreement’ that would call them and their children to live their lives radically differently from the shameful legacy their ancestors had passed to them.
Nehemiah reports that the people prayed to God with these words: “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing and our leaders, our Levites and our Priests are affixing their seals to it.” (Nehemiah 9:38) This was serious business, my friends!
That ‘binding agreement’ is then recorded, word for word in Nehemiah 10:30-39. But before the document itself, comes the names of those who signed the document and affixed their seals to it. The first name on the list is “Nehemiah the governor, son of Hakaliah.” Once again Nehemiah leads well by example not simply with words! Then came a line of priests who signed the documents as spiritual leaders of the people, and there are 22 names listed. Then a list of 16 Levites and finally 44 names identified as ‘leaders of the people.’ I imagine this signing process was viewed as a significant commitment to the people and to God.
Reflect for a moment on how you felt when you signed the most significant legal documents of your life. Now add to that the weight of signing a document you felt engaged you into a covenant with Almighty God!
Nehemiah summarized this process with these words: “…all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles and bind themselves with a curse and an oath 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.” (Nehemiah 10:29) So this ‘binding agreement’ was written and entered into as a holy commitment in response to several days of Ezra’s public reading of the Laws of God given to Moses found in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
This ‘binding agreement’ is then written in Nehemiah 10:30-39 and involves six (6) very specific commitments by the people to honor the God of Israel:
First, Nehemiah 10:30 declares purity in marriage: “We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.”
This had been a serious and repeated failure by their ancestors. Remember what Ezra had to do to deal with this infidelity problem? (Ezra 10)
Secondly, Nehemiah 10:31 declares their commitment to honor the Sabbath day weekly and the Sabbath year every seventh year!
That also had been a problem for a long, long time for the Israelites. Is it a challenge for you and me to honor the Sabbath as a day for rest and spiritual refreshment?
Thirdly, Nehemiah 10:32,33 declares their commitment “for carrying out the commands” regarding the offerings intended to care for the ongoing needs of the Temple.
Fourth, Nehemiah 10:34 is a very practical commitment based, I believe, on what they learned in their working shoulder to shoulder to build the wall around the city.
They declared: “We have cast lots to determine when each of our families is to bring to the house of our God, at set times each year, a contribution of wood to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.”
The huge altar for sacrifices and burnt offerings in front of the Temple was a major part of the daily worship for God’s people which took place at the Temple. The wood supply for this altar was a massive undertaking.
Fifth, Nehemiah 10:35 was a personally sacrificial commitment from every family.
They declared: “We assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the LORD each year the firstfruits of our crops and of every fruit tree. As it is also written in the Law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, our herds and our flocks…” The consecration of the first yield of the reproductive process was a major part of honoring God as the giver of all life and giver of everything needed to sustain life.
Sixth, Nehemiah 10:37-39 was their renewed commitment to bring their tithe, one tenth of all their income be it from their crops or flocks or business revenues or earnings from other work.
This tithe was to be brought to the Temple regularly as their recognition that all we have as human beings comes from God… our time, our talents, our treasures, even our very breath!
The closing statement of this ‘binding agreement’ was a sweeping commitment: “We will not neglect the house of our God.”
By God’s design the worship of God was the very centerpiece of life for the people of Israel. Everything in their lives emanated out from their vibrant, honorable relationship with Holy, Almighty God. When that relationship suffered, when their focus was drawn away from God, when their spiritual vibrancy cooled and their alignment of their hearts with the heart of God drifted… trouble always began to root in their lives, their families, their communities and the nation of Israel. It was true then and it is true now, for God’s people everywhere. It’s a foundational truth, isn’t it my friends?
So, while you and I have probably never signed such a ‘binding agreement’ with the church we are part of nor the community in which we live nor even with God Himself… Nehemiah 10 causes us to pause to consider how we would describe and evaluate the depth and magnitude of our relationship with God?
If you were to write a document that described the core values which are highly significant in your relationship with God, what would they be?
What are the methods by which you evaluate the authenticity, the genuineness, and the uniquenesses of your relationship with God as compared to any other important relationship in your life?
How do you measure the power and vitality of your relationship with God?
What would be missing from your life if suddenly you stopped praying, stopped reading God’s Word, stopped attending worship, stopped associating with followers of Jesus?
For the people in Jerusalem as 445bc came to a close, they were confident in the security of their city because of the wall they had built. They were delighted with the prominence of the great Temple of God in their city and their lives. They were deeply committed to live by this ‘binding agreement’ and thereby prioritize the spiritual vitality of their city and their lives.
They were delighted with the leadership of Nehemiah, Ezra, Hanani and others who were all men of integrity who trusted God fully and sought to honor God with their lives. It was a glorious moment in Israel’s history. How does that compare to how you and I feel about our lives these days?
Let’s ponder that, and here’s a worship song to help us consider how things are in our lives and our world, as compared to what was happening in Jerusalem in 445bc…
Today’s Scripture: Nehemiah 10.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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