Bible Talks: Nehemiah 10

From: Messages of God's Love: 1959

These chapters remind us of how it is revealed in the Scriptures that God is jealous over His people. We have that wonderful passage in Hebrews 12:28, 29²⁸Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: ²⁹For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28‑29), “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.” This is His character in righteous judgment of evil. His hatred of sin He has proved in the cross of Christ. Sometimes He may pass us through the fire in order to purge away the dross in our lives. Notwithstanding He is our Father and loves us with a perfect love.

We also read that “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Rom. 10:12, 13¹²For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. ¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:12‑13).

In chapter 10 we have a list of those who put their names to the covenant which they had made before the Lord. Just as their fathers had done long before when they came to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24), so now they place themselves under a curse and an oath, to walk in the law of God. They pledged themselves not to give their daughters to those of the nations around, nor to take their daughters for their sons; not to profane the Sabbath by buying food or other things from the heathen on that day, or any holy day; to keep the seventh year, when they were to let the land rest, and not to demand payment of debts from the poor; to bring in their first fruits to the house of the Lord; and to observe the law in respect to redeeming the firstborn of their own sons or of their cattle. But in iheir zeal they went beyond that which the law required, for they charged themselves with the yearly payment of a third of a shekel for the service of the house of God, and cast lots to bring wood for the altar of God at appointed seasons. Finally they resolved “not to forsake the house of our God.”

That the people were sincere in making this covenant, we do not doubt, but it only shows that they had not learned the lesson of the deceitfulness of their own hearts. Had not the prophet Jeemriah told them years before that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). Only the Lord could know it as it really is in His sight. There were some individuals, like David, who seemed to have learned this, but the nation as a whole never really did so. We do not find Ezra’s name as one of the signers of this covenant, but we may be sure that it was not because he did not agree to the things which they pledged themselves to carry out.