This chapter comprises of a long list of names. It can also feel like a laborious section of text to work through, and lays out for us a long set of promises that the people of God were making. They were renewing a covenant, with obligations to commit to.
Some churches have a Members’ Covenant to explain what members are committing to before God. Why would we do that? When we do so, we are binding ourselves, even a future version of ourselves, to a promise made in the present/past. Circumstances may change, but this promise will change a future you. These words have power.
In reading this covenant, the people of God renewed their covenant and laid out specific affirmations and denials. What can we learn about God’s character and from the people’s response?
(A) Together, the people of God renewed their covenant (Neh 10:1-27)
In Nehemiah 9:38, we learn of a sealed document and in Nehemiah 10:1, we are told that there are names on this seal. This physical document is akin to a public statement that the people all affirm and agree to by signing it. And they are binding future versions of themselves to this commitment.
There are groups of people identified on the seals of the covenant. They are the governor (Neh 10:1), the priests (Neh 10:1b-8), the Levites (Neh 10:9-13) and the chiefs of the people (Neh 10:14-26).
What’s the significance of these groups? Why single out the priests and the Levites instead of recording by tribes or highlighting all the heads of the household? Though the covenant was made with the people of God and this list is meant to reflect the totality of the people of God, this covenant also has a specific character, bound up with ritual worship. These people are being singled out because of their special responsibilities. This is not a generic agreement between God and His people, but has to do with God and His people’s worship. After all, the rebuilding of the wall and rehousing of the people in the city is for worship.
Is worship your priority as you think about a right relationship with God, as you think about what needs to stop and what needs to start in your life?
The most important thing about us as Christians is not about our job success, how close we are to God, or our relationships. Rather, we are made for worship. The God of the Bible is one who deserves our worship.
Why does God need to be worshipped? Because He said so.
Why is it important that we have the specific names of individuals who renew the covenant? These are the people who gather who covenant together and pledge to worship God differently. They were individual people who committed themselves not to private worship but corporate worship. The God of the Bible has ordained that worship be corporate. They were obligating themselves to come together to worship God.
And it is important that we have their names, and know that they were men (and not women)? They were representatives of their household. Worship is not about what we bring, but is about who we are worshipping. We worship as part of a corporate body, with representatives in place.
Notice that some in the list of names had disagreements with one another and Nehemiah (c.f. Neh 6). This did not stop them from coming together to renew the covenant. In the same way, this should be how we think about ourselves. We may have disagreements with another in the church but as the people of God assemble and think about our identity before Him, we put down our disagreements and focus on Him, not us.
(B) Covenant denials to be one with the world (Neh 10:28-31)
Nehemiah 10:28 tells us that all the people gathered, but it also highlights two groups. There are those who have “separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God”. They separated from the world and bound themselves to the Book, committed to being people of the Book.
Another group is summarised as “all who have knowledge and understanding”, i.e. those who understand what they are doing.
They “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” (Neh 10:29).
All serious covenants have the terms of agreements and the consequences laid out for unfaithfulness. This is what makes a covenant, a covenant. Here, they are not just covenanting with a generic law, but a historic one. The terms of the law are from the one that God gave Moses. This is the 10 Commandments given at Horeb, and the ceremonial, moral and civic law. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119:106, God’s people here swear an oath and confirmed it to keep His righteous rules.
What three denials are laid out as part of the renewed covenant? (v30-31 c.f., Ex 34:16, Deut 7:3, Ezr 9:12-
14, Ex 20:10, Lev 23:3, Det 5:12, Neh 13:15-22, Ex 23:10-11, Lev 25:4, 2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Rom 12:1-2)
As part of the renewed covenant, they laid out three denials. They pledge not to:
Intermarry with the people that surround them (Neh 10:30). Notice how it’s being written of here, with a sense of giving and receiving. With intermarriage, syncretism would creep in. They did so with full knowledge that they could end up with no descendants. Holiness trumps pragmatism.
Work on the Sabbath (Neh 10:31). It is not just resting on the Sabbath but they were more specific with a contextualised application of the Sabbath. They pledged not to trade with others on the Sabbath and other holy days, committing to holy rest.
Forgoing their right to the crops and debt in the seventh year (Neh 10:31b). On the seventh year, the crops can be taken by the poor or the creatures. In forgoing the collection of debt, the debt collector is not seeking justice. God has mandated mercy in Israel’s civic law. He desires for His people to show mercy, even in economic terms.
They committed themselves to holy relationships, separated from the world. They maintained holy rest. They also sought to practice holy generosity and mercy.
This is our application right here. What would it look like if God’s people renewed our commitment to not date or marry non-Christians, rest in Jesus and not strive in our jobs and not pursue money and achievements the way the world does? What will it look like if we live a life of radical generosity, seeking to give our money and time away to those who need it? What kind of a name would we be winning for Jesus? If God’s people understood and lived out their commitments, all in the name of Jesus, what will the world see?
There is a fourth denial in Nehemiah 10:39, but it can also be understood as obligations.
(C) Covenant affirmations to sustain Biblical worship (Neh 10:32-39)
There are also 3 obligations that they resolve to take upon themselves. They are to:
Give yearly for the service of the house of the Lord (Neh 10:32). The temple is sustained by this giving and Nehemiah 10:33 tells us what this offering is used for. Sometimes we take for granted that corporate worship costs us something. The people are to contribute and give something to this worship.
Ensure that through the gift of the wood offering, the altar of God will always burn (Neh 10:34). God’s people would always smell the aroma of this offering.
Bring the firstfruits of ground, fruit of tree, the sons, cattle, dough etc (Neh 10:35-37). God deserves the first of everything. As God’s people receive from God, they take the first of what they have received to give back to God. In doing so, they recognise that they have received all things from God. And as they give back, they show that what they have received is not theirs to keep or own, but is merely to steward.
All that they have is from God and of His own they give back to Him.
What is our practice as we receive from God? Do we think of it as something for us to keep? Or do we recognise that it is not ours to keep, but we are to give it back to Him? These obligations are what God’s people commit to to sustain biblical worship.
The priests and Levites are to be responsible (Neh 10:38-39). Spoiler alert: These men did not do what they are told, as we will see in Nehemiah 13.
What’s the point of this chapter? In Nehemiah 6, the wall was rebuilt, but that is not the end. Nehemiah 7 records for us the uncovering of the genealogy and in Nehemiah 8, the people gather to hear the Law read. They realise they have not been obeying the law, repent and also observe the Feast of Booths. Nehemiah is moved to lead the people into a prayer of confession in Nehemiah 9. By the time we reach Nehemiah 10, they formalise their commitment to worship God in a right and true way.
Are you worshipping God? Does your life reflect that your worship is for God, in teh way that you deny yourself in the way you say no to certain relationships, work, personal gain and the way you sustain worship? Does it show that your heart is with the Lord?
If not, go back into Nehemiah 9 and camp there. Nehemiah 9 is where you need to be. Pray Nehemiah 9 then come back to Nehemiah 10.
Do not offer God false worship, but offer holy and pure worship.
Hear these words in Hebrews 12:26-29, which are a warning, reminder and also good news: “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”