NEHEMIAH 10 “A Covenant with GOD!”

INTRODUCTION:

1. Verses 1 – 27 are a list of 83 people who signed the Covenant mentioned in Nehemiah 9:38.

2. This list includes the names of Nehemiah, the Governor, 22 priests, and 60 Levites.

3. While there is not a lot of theology in verses 1 – 27, the many lists of names that occur in the Bible teach us much about GOD, HIMSELF, and about HIS people…

– GOD knows everyone of HIS people by name!

– GOD knows what everyone of HIS people are doing to serve HIM!

– It takes a lot of people to do the work of GOD!

– It takes a lot of different people doing a lot of different things to accomplish the will and work of GOD!

– GOD will not overlook anything and everything that anyone and everyone does to further HIS Kingdom work!

Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”

Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

1^st Corinthians 3:11-14

(11) “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (12) Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

(13) each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. (14) If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.”

THEOLOGICAL NOTE: Why should a Christian want to have rewards in Heaven!

Revelation 4:9-11

(9) “And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, (10) the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, (11) “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

EXPOSITION Nehemiah 10:28 – 39

10:28-29 Entering into a Covenant with GOD is a very serious matter!

(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.

(10:30) The Covenant involved how they would raise their children!

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

(31a)  The Covenant involved a commitment to keep the Sabbath!

“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.

(31b) The Covenant involved a promise to obey GOD’s commandments! “And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.”

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.”

10:32-39 The Covenant involved a commitment to sacrificial giving!

(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.               (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.

(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;

(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.”