Transcript: Verse by Verse Study – Nehemiah Chapter 9:1 to Chapter 10:39 – Zac Poonen

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Perhaps there was a celebration, but it wasn’t an exact keeping of God’s commandments.

So we find in Nehemiah Chapter 8 an advance on what we see in Ezra Chapter 3, in this sense: they took every single detail that God had given through Moses and kept it exactly in a way that was not even done in Ezra Chapter 3. That’s one of the things that God is seeking to do in these days. We saw that the building of the wall is a keeping of all the commandments of Jesus exactly as it is written.

We find that spirit through the book of Nehemiah, and we find it even here that it’s not enough that there is a keeping of the commandments generally, but exactly, exactly as it is written.

Fasting, Separation, and Confession

Further in Chapter 9, on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dirt upon them. The descendants of Israel stood, separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Here was fasting, separation, and confession of sin. Then they stood up and began to pray.

We noticed in our study of Daniel and Ezra how there has been this emphasis on fasting in this movement from Babylon back to Jerusalem. This emphasis on confession in Daniel Chapter 9, in Ezra, and here again in Nehemiah Chapter 9, we see this emphasis on confession of sin. This is a very important thing that we must bear in mind if we are to preserve the purity of Jerusalem as it is supposed to be.

There must be in the Church of the Living God a continuous spirit of repentance, a continuous spirit of repentance. That is the emphasis, that is the meaning of these three prayers of confession that we find in Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

The Spirit of Continuous Repentance

We see here fasting, verse 1, separation, verse 2, and confession of sin. This emphasis on a clear conscience. In the Church of the Living God, as I said, there must be a spirit of continuous repentance. Because there is always something that we can find in ourselves to cleanse ourselves from until the day comes when we have become like Jesus Christ.

Now, when a person is not living in a spirit of continuous repentance, he is actually saying, whether he says it with His mouth or not, what he is implying is that he has become like Jesus Christ already. We may think that is blasphemy, and it is, because none of us have become like Christ. But when a person is not living in a spirit of continuous repentance, he is assuming there is nothing more that I have to repent from.

The Bible says judgment begins at the house of God. There is no place in the Old Testament where there is so much public confession of sin as in this movement from Babylon to Jerusalem. That is what built Jerusalem finally, this spirit of repentance that was found in the leaders.

That is how the devil has penetrated so many movements that have started out well. Pharisaic pride and arrogance came into the leaders. They did not live in a spirit of self-judgment, cleansing, and continual repentance. Therefore, what started out as the building of Jerusalem very soon ended up as another Babylonian denomination.

A Six-Hour Meeting with God

That is a very important lesson that we have to learn from these three books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah: this public confession. We see here in Chapter 9, while they stood in their place, verse 3, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day.

Now, the day was twelve hours, so a fourth of the day means for three hours they read the word of God. Then for another three hours they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God. They had a six-hour meeting. That is another thing we see in the book of Nehemiah: they really had long meetings. They were willing to deny themselves. They were not like the comfort-loving Christians of our generation.

They were willing to spend six hours in a meeting, and they didn’t think the meeting was long. Three hours listening to the word of God and three hours in prayer and seeking God. No wonder God moved in revival and blessed them. No wonder that God does not move in revival and fill with the Spirit and make strong in the Spirit believers who seek a comfortable, easy way through life. That’s a tremendous challenge to us, what we see there.

Praying Together with Loud Voices

Then it says here, on the Levite’s platform, verse 4, stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and all of them together cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Just picture this in your mind. They were all praying together. They were not praying one after the other. They were all praying together. And they didn’t whisper. It says they cried with a loud voice. They prayed aloud and jointly, together. It’s a good example for us to follow.

Then the Levites, all of them, said, “Now let’s stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.” These Levites prayed together, praised the Lord, and then they said to the congregation, “Let’s all stand up now and praise the Lord.”

The Longest Prayer in the Bible

Then follows from the middle of verse 5 onwards to the end of the chapter, the longest recorded prayer in the whole Bible. This prayer is primarily a prayer of praise to God, of honoring Him, and of confession of sin. It’s a very good prayer for us to look through, an example for us to follow.

We see here, first of all, they begin with praising God for who He is. “O may Thy glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise.” It’s good to begin praising God. “Thou alone art the Lord, Thou hast made the heavens, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them. Thou dost give life to all of them, and the heavenly host bows down before Thee.”

First of all, they begin to praise God for who He is. Then, from verse 7 onwards, right down to verse 31, they begin to praise the Lord for what He has done. Two things we have to praise the Lord for: one is for who He is, and the other is for what He has done. First of all, they praise Him for what He has done for them, for the Israelites in the past.

Stirring Up Faith Through Remembrance

Now here we see, right down from verse 7 on down to verse 31, it’s really a recounting in prayer of all the wonderful things that God had done for the Israelites in past days. That’s a very, very good thing for us to do in prayer because that is what stirs up faith in our hearts. When we remind ourselves of what God has done in previous days, that stirs up faith in our hearts concerning the matter we are praying about now.

Whenever we find ourselves weak in faith, when we come to the Lord in prayer, here is a good example to follow. Go over in your mind and repeat before the Lord and say, “Lord, You are the one who did this and this and this and this and this and this and this in these past years of my life.” That’s what they did there.

“Thou art the Lord God who chose Abraham.” They started right at the beginning of the nation of Israel. They said, “You are the one who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham, meaning father of the great multitude, and here we are part of that great multitude.”

Already faith was beginning to come in their hearts that God was going to listen to them and that God was going to answer their prayer because they have a request now at the end. We’ll come to that in a moment. But first of all, they are stirring up faith in their hearts so that they can ask God in faith for that request that they have to ask Him for.

God’s Covenant with the Faithful

Here we read in verse 8, “Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee and didst make a covenant with him.” That teaches us the reason why God made a covenant with Abraham. As far as I know, there is no other verse in the Bible that tells us the reason why God made a covenant with Abraham. God did not make a covenant with Abraham without any rhyme or reason. He is not a God of partiality; He is no respecter of persons.

If He made a covenant with Abraham, there was a very good reason for it. The reason is given here: “Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee; therefore, Thou didst make a covenant with him.” That is the basis on which God makes a covenant with any human being, anywhere, at any time.

When He looks into the hearts of men, men look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. When He sees in the heart of any human being, anywhere across the face of the earth, a faithfulness in the hidden life, a faithfulness before God’s face, where other people cannot see, God even today makes a covenant with such a man and brings him into a life with God, brings him into a ministry in His church.

That’s the way any one of us can enter into a life in God and enter into a ministry from God. “Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee; therefore, Thou didst make a covenant with him.” That’s a challenge for us.

God’s Faithfulness to His Promises

The covenant was that God would give to Abraham the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Jebusite, and Girgashite, to give it to his descendants. “Thou hast fulfilled Thy promise, for Thou art righteous.” That’s a covenant God has made with us too, to give us all the land that there is in our flesh. Every one of the lusts in our flesh are going to be our slaves. That’s a covenant.

If He finds our heart faithful before Him, He will fulfill that promise in our case too. Verse 9: “Thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,” and it’s a description of what God did for the Israelites at the Red Sea. “Thou didst perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against his servants.”

“Thou didst know that they acted arrogantly, and Thou didst make a name for Thyself.” Verse 11: “Thou didst divide the sea.” You see, they are recounting all the wonderful things God has done for His people in the past. They passed through the midst of the sea, and their pursuers sank in it.

With a pillar of cloud, Thou didst lead them, and a pillar of fire by night. Verse 13: “Then Thou didst come down on Mount Sinai and didst speak with them from heaven.” And Thou gave them, look at the attitude these people had to God’s commandments.

The Goodness of God’s Commandments

Notice how they describe God’s commandments. The way a man describes God’s commandments from his heart is a pretty good test of whether the man knows God or not. They describe God’s commandments as righteous ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.

“Lord, all Your commandments are for our very best. It is only for our good that You gave us all these commandments. None of those commandments are burdensome.” That is the spirit that takes people out of Babylon and puts them in Jerusalem. When they see God’s commandments as not only righteous and true but also good—the very, very best for us.

So, “Thou didst make known to them Thy holy Sabbath and didst lay down for them commandments, statutes, law through Thy servant Moses. Thou didst provide bread from heaven and water from the rock, and Thou didst tell them to enter into the land which Thou didst swear to give them.”

Confessing the Pride of Their Fathers

But, verse 16, and here is self-judgment: “Lord, our fathers acted arrogantly.” Arrogantly means in pride. It was the pride of their heart which prevented them from entering the promised land. Here is the reason given for it. Not just unbelief—we know it was unbelief—but here we are also told it was because of their pride.

They acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments. They refused to listen, did not remember Your wondrous deeds, and they became stubborn and appointed a leader to go back to Egypt.

“But Thou art a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and didst not forsake them.” Even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, “This is your God,” verse 19, “Thou didst not forsake them.” Yes, God did not. The pillar of cloud did not leave them. The pillar of fire, to light them on the way, did not leave them.

God’s Good Gifts: Commandments and the Holy Spirit

Not only did God give His good commandments, here is another good that God gave: “Thou didst give Thy good spirit to instruct them.” The manner, Thy manner, Thou didst not withhold from their mouth. God has given us good commandments and a good Holy Spirit, and it is the combination of these two through which He leads us out of Babylon into Jerusalem to build the Church of the Living God.

“Thou didst give them water for their thirst,” and the Holy Spirit is described here as a teacher. The Holy Spirit was given to them to instruct them, and we must always see that the Holy Spirit has been given to us to instruct us, not primarily to do miracles, but to instruct us.

That is a great necessity, particularly for those who speak about the baptism and the fullness of the Spirit these days, to realize that the Holy Spirit has been given primarily to instruct us. He is a teacher of righteousness. Indeed, verse 21, “Forty years Thou didst provide them in the wilderness, and they were not in want. Thou didst give them clothes, and their feet did not swell.”

“Kingdoms, peoples. They took possession of lands. Thou didst make their sons numerous,” verse 23. Then finally, verse 24, “Their sons entered and possessed the land. Thou didst subdue before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites,” verse 25. “They captured forty-five cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses, and they ate and were filled and grew fat and reveled,” verse 25, last part, “in Thy great goodness.”

The Cycle of Blessing and Rebellion

But this is a sad story that is repeated again and again in the history of Israel. God does all this good to them, but they are not faithful. Then they repent and come to Him, and again He blesses them, then they get puffed up.

The history of the children of Israel teaches us one thing: that it’s very difficult for a man to stand God’s blessing. When God blesses us, if we want to learn something from the Israelites, our biggest danger is spiritual pride. When God begins to use us, our biggest danger is spiritual pride.

But they became disobedient and rebelled against Thee, cast Thy law behind their backs. There are two things they rejected. Notice this: whenever God’s people have the spirit of rebellion, one, they will reject God’s word; they cast Thy law behind their backs. Secondly, they despise and rebel against God’s prophets.

There are two ways through which God speaks to His people. One is through His word, and the other is through His prophets. When there is a spirit of rebellion in a person, it is identified by two things: one, a despising of God’s word, and second, a despising of God’s messengers.

“They killed Thy prophets who had rebuked them and corrected them, so that they might return to Thee, and they committed great blasphemies.” Therefore, because they rejected God’s word and God’s messengers, God delivered them into the hand of their oppressors.

But they repented and they cried, and again Thou didst hear from heaven, and Thou didst give them deliverance to deliver them. Now notice, this is just what I said, verse 28: “But in trouble, as soon as they had rest, when they were blessed, they did evil again.” You see the history of man?

“Therefore Thou didst abandon them again to the hand of their enemies, and when they cried again to Thee, Thou didst hear from heaven, and many times this was repeated.” That’s a warning for us, to be careful when God blesses us.

God’s Faithfulness Despite Man’s Unfaithfulness

“Many times Thou didst rescue them,” and how did God warn them? Again through God’s word, and admonish them in order to turn them back to the law, but, verse 29, middle, “They acted arrogantly; they did not listen to God’s word, which if they had listened to, they could live.”

And secondly, verse 30, “They despised the prophets.” Notice the emphasis again: they rejected God’s word, and they despised His messengers, and admonished them by their spirit through Thy prophets. They would not give ear to the prophets, and when God’s word is rejected and His prophets are rejected, then again God gave them up to the people of the land.

Nevertheless, in Thy great compassion, Thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them. You see, here is a group of people who are praising God for His faithfulness, in spite of the utter unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. That is repentance. Repentance is not saying, “Lord, but we had a reason why we did like this.”

Those who justify themselves do not have the spirit of repentance. They say, “Lord, You are absolutely right in what You did. We deserve this judgment.” Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, awesome God who does keep covenant, don’t let all this hardship seem insignificant before Thee.

Their request is so small: “Lord, just think of this hardship we are going through, which has come upon us and our kings and our prophets and princes and fathers and all that.” However, and here is what I was saying, verse 33: “You are righteous in all that has come upon us. You have dealt faithfully; we have acted wickedly.”

True Repentance: Acknowledging God’s Righteousness

The way that we can know whether we have got a real spirit of repentance or not is when we can say that: “Lord, You are absolutely righteous in what You have done. We deserve this judgment. We deserve this chastisement. We deserve this chastening. We deserve to reap this because we have sown this in the past years. You are absolutely righteous, O Lord.”

The trouble with lots and lots of believers is this: that they think that they deserve something from God. Now, I will tell you something, brothers and sisters, as to what we deserve from God, and I hope none of us will ever forget it till the end of our lives.

There is one thing, and only one thing, that you and I deserve from God. You know what that is? Hell. Hell. Hell. If you want to get what you deserve, it’s hell. If I have got anything better than hell in my life, I have only got to be thankful. And we have all got millions of things better than hell.

Think of the spirit of grumbling and complaining that is found in so many believers. When we grumble and complain, we think we deserve something. “Oh God, I have been going to the meetings and I have been doing this. Why have You allowed this sickness to come into my home?” Do you ever sense that spirit in us? That’s the spirit of grumbling.

There is no spirit of repentance in such a believer. No, he is a million miles from repentance, even if he talks spiritual language. A truly repentant person will say, “Lord, You are righteous in everything that You have done.”

Verse 33: “You are absolutely faithful, and we deserve this. We deserve this punishment. We deserve this reaping of what we have sown in past years. We have no complaints. You are absolutely righteous in punishing us like this.”

Building the Church with Repentant People

Then God does something. We have hope when we come to that place of repentance. It is impossible to build a church with people who do not have this spirit. It is impossible to build a church with people who think that God owes them a living or they deserve to get some blessing from God.

It is impossible to build a church with such unrepentant people. The most important requirement in the church is people who have a poverty of spirit, a mourning, a brokenness that has come because they see that they deserve nothing but hell, and therefore they are thankful for every little thing and big thing they have in their lives.

Their complaining and murmuring has disappeared from their life altogether, just because of one reason: that is they haven’t gone to hell. That’s all. Let’s never forget that. “Thou art righteous,” and no wonder God used these people who have the spirit to do a fantastic work in their day.

Because they were so exact. Saw how they kept the Feast of Tabernacles? They saw something that Joshua and Zerubbabel had missed out in their time, and they said, “We are going to keep it more exactly,” and the Holy Spirit records it that they did it in the best way. For one thousand years, there was never a group of people that obeyed God’s commandments so exactly as them.

Just think of that, brothers and sisters. If God can write that about you and me, that in one thousand years God couldn’t find people who took God’s word so exactly. There were people who did it sort of eighty percent, ninety percent, but here were a group of people who wanted to obey it one hundred percent.

They were not these interdenominational compromisers and diplomats who just left out a few commandments saying they are not important. They had a spirit of repentance because they feared God, respected His word, and submitted to His prophets. Therefore, God blessed them and built Jerusalem and the walls of Jerusalem through them.

Confession: We Are Slaves

They say in confession, “Our kings, our leaders have not kept Thy law or paid attention to Thy commandments,” but verse 35, “With Thy great goodness Thou didst give them this broad rich land.” They did not serve Thee.

Now, Lord, verse 36, “We are slaves.” Twice: “We are slaves.” If only believers, instead of saying, “Yeah, yeah, we cannot have victory over sin in this day,” if only they would stop saying that and say to God, “Lord, we are slaves. We are defeated by bitterness. We are still losing our temper after being believers for so many years. We get irritated, Lord, so difficult to forgive some people. We have all dirty thoughts in our mind. We are slaves. We are slaves.”

You never meant us to be slaves; You called us to be kings. We are slaves. We are slaves. The spirit of repentance, God would be able to do something for them. But as long as they justify themselves and pride themselves on all their religious activity and going for meetings and their Bible knowledge and don’t realize that God wants to free them from sin in their daily life, God wants to bring them to rest in their life, in their home situations.

If they are not willing to confess that they are slaves, “Lord, all our land is ruled by heathen kings,” verse 37. “Kings whom You have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies.” Verse 37: “Anger rules my body. Lust rules my body. Bitterness rules my body. The spirit of gossiping rules my tongue. I tell lies when I am found in a tight spot in my office. When I am in a difficult situation, I am willing to tell a lie to get out of that difficult situation because lying rules over my body. Lord, the love of money rules over my body.”

So what? Well, these people, it says in verse 37, “Because of that, they were in great distress.” “Lord, because of this, we are in great distress.” Those are the type of people God is looking for—those who are in great distress because sin is ruling over their bodies, who are not just sitting back and saying, “Oh well, as long as we are in this world, we have to be like that.”

No, they are in distress. There is a spirit of mourning in them because they are defeated by sin in their daily life. They are not just content to live the substandard life of the believers around them. They are not bothered by the fact that they have a good reputation in the church they go to. They live before God’s face, and they see that God sees that sin rules in their bodies, and they are distressed by that.

If God can find a few people like that in any part of the world, He will build Jerusalem all over again today. Therefore, they said, “Because of all this, because of what? Because You are faithful, Lord, and because we deserve this, we acknowledge our bodies are ruled by sin. Therefore, we are making a new covenant now in writing, and on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites, and our priests.”

Nehemiah: A Leader Who Led by Example

The first person to sign this, here is a good example for us to follow, was the leader of the whole lot. On the sealed document, right at the beginning, the first signature is Nehemiah. He says, “That’s me; that refers to me first of all.”

Think of that spirit. Think to be able to find leaders who say, “I am number one there. I am the one who sees my need more than anybody else in this area.” You see, the tragedy in Christendom is it does not have leaders like that who see their own need first of all. It doesn’t have leaders like that.

No wonder God could use Nehemiah. Yes, he was a strong man. You read later on how strict he was with people who disobeyed God’s word; he pulled out the hair from their face and all, but he was a broken man before God. The confession of sin—he was standing right at the head of the list and saying, “I am the one in need. Ya Lord, that’s true of me.”

That’s the spirit of the leadership that is found in Jerusalem. It’s the type of leaders God is looking for all over the world even today. We see here, after he signed, all the other leaders signed there. We read in verse 8, the priests—they were the leaders—they signed.

Then the Levites, verse 9, they were also leaders. And the brothers of the Levites, verse 10. Finally, after this big list of all the leaders, right down to verse 27, it says in verse 14, the leaders of the people—all the leaders’ names are listed right up to verse 27 of Chapter 10.

Leaders Must Judge Themselves First

Then, the rest of the people, they also signed. It was the leaders first. It was the leaders who judged themselves first. No wonder God could do a work. It must always be like that in the house of God: that the leaders are the forerunners in judging themselves, in cleansing themselves, in confession of sin, in humbling themselves.

As we have often said, if two people have a difficulty, the one who is most spiritual has to humble himself first and confess his failure first. Always. That’s the principle. We see that principle down there in the book of Nehemiah.

The Covenant of Separation and Obedience

Then the rest of the people, we read here, and I want you to notice here what they did. First of all, it says, the people who signed were the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves.

Here we see what separation is. I want you to notice here that separation has got two sides. Here we see the two sides of separation mentioned very clearly in verse 28. First of all, a separation from the peoples of the land. Secondly, a separation unto the law of God.

Always, separation is not one-sided. It is from worldliness to obedience to God’s word. Now you may think, “Yeah, that’s a very simple thing.” But there are many people who, when they think of separation, they say, “We’re going to separate ourselves from these unbelievers and all that.”

They think only of separation from. They come out from some dead denomination, and they have separated themselves. Then what do they do? They have separation to obedience—total obedience to God’s word. So this group ends up as another Babylon, Babylon the second.

Then another group comes out of there and says, “We are separating from this corrupt thing,” and build Babylon the third. It will keep on becoming Babylon the fourth, fifth, sixth, until we have those who separate from something unto, also unto, the other side of the coin: total obedience to the law of God.

That’s what we see here. Their wives and their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, right. They are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath.

The Seven Points of the Covenant

Now here is a further description of what all these leaders and the Levites and the priests and the people and all those who separated themselves—the covenant they made. I want to just go through this covenant which is described in verse 29 to verse 39 here.

There are seven things they stated in this covenant. It’s very interesting to see these seven things that these people made a covenant with God in that time.

# 1. Total Obedience to God’s Word

Number one, verse 29: “We make a covenant and an oath to walk in God’s law.” In other words, to walk in obedience, in total obedience to God’s word. Not just to listen to it, but it says here, to observe—the last part of verse 29—to observe what?

There’s a very important word there, a word which many Christians ignore. It’s a small three-letter word. You know what it is? All. To observe, the last part of verse 29, “all the commandments,” that is the walls of Jerusalem. All the commandments of God our Lord and His ordinance and His statutes.

Do we want to build a church of Jesus Christ today? Observe all the commandments. There’s no other way. The number one thing of the new covenant. They signed it. They said, “Lord, we’re taking this seriously.”

When Jesus passed the bread and cup around, He said, “This is my blood of the new covenant.” That’s the only time He spoke about the new covenant. That breaking of bread—people don’t realize the seriousness of it. It’s a serious covenant we are entering into with God.

It means I want to keep all of God’s commandments, and I’m willing to pour out my blood like Jesus poured out His blood in order to keep the commandments and never to sin. That’s number one.

# 2. Separation from Worldly Alliances

Verse 30: They made a covenant to separate themselves from all worldly alliances. They said, “We will never give our daughters to unbelievers in marriage. We will never give our sons to unbelievers in marriage.”

In other words, we’re not going to just see a heathen person who says, “I’m a Christian” by name and comes to church. Is he really born again? Has he repented of his sins? Has he turned with his whole heart to the Lord? If not, we will not give our daughters to those people.

Even if our daughters have to remain single, that’s quite all right. We will separate ourselves from all worldly alliances. We don’t want any worldly alliances for our sons or our daughters.

It’s amazing how many believers become first-rate compromisers when it comes to the marriage of their children. Churches and funerals are the time when you see even people who appear to be wholehearted become absolute first-rate backsliders and compromisers, lowering the standards of God’s word because we’ve got to get our daughters and sons married.

Never mind God’s word. We’ll compromise it a little bit here and there. No wonder Babylon is built by such Christians. No, they said, “We will never give our daughters or our sons to any unbeliever.”

No, our daughters and sons are going to be wholeheartedly in Jerusalem, and we’re going to find wholehearted Jerusalemites for our sons and daughters, not Babylonians. We don’t want any Babylonians for our sons and daughters.

I tell you, we may think that’s easy to take a stand when our children are small; just wait till our children grow up and come to marriageable age, and then we’ll find how costly a thing it is to take a stand like that. It really is costly. It really is.

But they made a covenant. If they go and do that on their own, that’s their business. But I will never give a sanction to any of my children to be married to Babylonians. And that applies to all types of worldly friendships that lead us away from God.

It may not be marriage; it may be all types of worldly friendships, gossip clubs, sitting around with other people, just sitting, gossiping, worldly friendships, instead of seeking the friendship of holy men and women of God. We waste our time in useless club-type meetings.

But forsaking of all that, because we want to be wholehearted for God.

# 3. Respecting the Sabbath Day

Then thirdly, verse 31, they said, “We are going to respect the Sabbath day.” The people of the land who bring their wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day.

Now you know in the Old Testament law, in the Ten Commandments, there was a commandment which was specially given to the Israelites. The Sabbath was a covenant God made with the Israelites. It is not with all people, as we read in Exodus 31, the last 5-6 verses of that chapter.

There we read that God told them, “You must not do any work on the Sabbath day. You must not sell anything.” You know how the shrewd people say, “Ah, it doesn’t say there that we cannot buy anything.”

So they took advantage of what they thought was a loophole in God’s law, and they bought from other people. Yeah, these are ungodly people who are selling; we will go and buy from them. But if they understood the spirit of the law, they knew not only were they not to sell, they were not to encourage other people to disobey God’s word either.

Now you find the same spirit among some Christians today. When they want to do something to please themselves and they have a feeling there is some word of God that sort of forbids them from doing it, they are so clever, they have got ways and means of finding some other scripture or interpreting the scripture in such a way as to suit one’s own convenience.

Beware of that. That is the spirit of Babylon, to interpret a word of God to suit my convenience. You see, for example, if you were by some misfortune, Friday evening has come and you are a Jew living in Jerusalem and you have forgotten to buy some grain for cooking food for yourself.

There is nothing available for Saturday. What to do? Now if you are going to be a wholehearted person, you will say, “Well, we are not going to buy anything from these people who come selling their wares here. We should have thought about it on Thursday, but it is too late to think about it now.”

“Well, maybe we should fast now. Maybe we should deny ourselves, but we are not going to disobey God’s word ourselves, and we are not going to encourage another person to disobey God’s word.”

Now today we don’t have a law for physical Sabbath for Christians, but there are many other laws for which this principle applies, where I can seek to find a way around God’s law to suit my own convenience.

No, there they decided to deny themselves and to discourage the covetousness there was in other people who wanted to sell even on the Sabbath day, as if six days was not enough. They wanted to do business on the seventh day also to make more money.

They decided to respect the Sabbath day, to give time for God, and to deny themselves.

# 4. Leaving the Land Untilled in the Seventh Year

Then fourthly, in the last part of verse 31, they decided to obey God’s word to leave the land untilled in the seventh year. We will forego the crops in the seventh year. Now that was a commandment that God had given. In Exodus 23, you read of it that for six years you must plow the land, and in the seventh year you must just leave the land without tilling it. Don’t raise any crops; don’t grow any crops; don’t plant anything in the seventh year.

Let the land also have a sabbatical year of rest. That was, of course, that these people would have more time for God. But you know the covetous Jews, they said, “If we till in the seventh year, we’ll make more money.”

We read in the history of the Old Testament, we studied that in the beginning of Daniel and Ezra, that for 490 years these covetous Jews had grown their crops in the seventh year, and therefore they had not obeyed God’s law for 490 years.

In 490 years they were supposed to leave the land untilled for 70 years. So God said, “Alright, I’ll catch up on you. I’ll send you to Babylon for 70 years; then how will you grow the crops in Israel?”

So the land had rest for 70 years. Amazing how God can square the accounts with us. We think we are really clever, and God squares the accounts with us in one way or the other. That’s what happened.

These people said, “No, Lord, none of all that covetousness, none of all that spirit of money-making, no.” But these people would have said, “How are we going to provide for our families in that year?” God said, “In the sixth year you’re going to have an abundance that will last right through not only the seventh year but into the eighth year and beyond.”

There they had to trust God. They had to live by faith. It’s not only the full-time worker who lives by faith; the Bible says the righteous shall live by faith. If you’re not living by faith, you’re not a righteous man. A righteous man is to live by faith.

To trust God to provide my need, that if I honor Him in some situation, He’ll honor me. If in some situation, in order to honor Him, I have to lose something financially, “Lord, I’m willing to lose it. I’m willing to lose it because I have to honor You. I have to go here to serve You.”

“Alright, because of that I’m going to have some financial loss. You’ll take care of that.” That’s the principle of leaving the land untilled in the sabbatical year. We’re not farmers, and we can sit back and say, “Yeah, we would have done that if we were there.”

But let’s ask ourselves whether we are doing it in our own situation. That spirit of covetousness that can make us want to make more money. I can say, “Yeah, that’s not important to go to the meeting. If I work a little overtime here, I can get more money.”

What’s that spirit? That’s the same spirit as the Jews had who said, “We’re going to work the seventh year.” We don’t have time for God and all; we’ve got to make money; it’s not enough for our children.

Brother, you’ll always be in need. All your life you’ll be in need until you learn to honor God and put Him first and say, “Lord, I’m willing to deny myself. I’m willing to lose financially in order to honor You,” and then see how God blesses, not only financially but spiritually too.

It’s a principle. So that’s another thing in which they decided to honor God.

# 5. Forgiving All Debtors

Then number five, in the last part of verse 31, they said, “We will forgo the exaction of every debt.” That means they said, “We will forgive all our debtors, all the brothers who owe us money; we release them.”

We’re not going to go and sit on their head and say, “Pay up.” We’re going to be merciful to all our brothers and sisters, and we’re not going to make demands on anyone. Think to make a covenant like that with God: “Lord, what is a debt? A debt is something that fellow owes me. It may be money; it may be respect; it may be anything. But I say, ‘Lord, I make no demands on any human being. I make a covenant with You from this day onward; I’ll never make a demand on a single human being. I expect nothing from anyone. I release everyone of whatever they owe me, or what I think they owe me. They owe me nothing. They don’t owe me any respect or gratitude or anything. I’m a happy man. I release all of them.'”

That’s a good covenant to make with God—to forgive all our debtors and never to make demands on anyone.

# 6. Supporting God’s House

Then number six, from verse 32 to 39, right through those eight verses, we find them saying, in simple words, “We will support God’s house.”

That means we will support God’s work today. Today God’s house is not a physical building; it’s the church, and it’s the work of the church. Notice this: verse 32, nine times in these eight verses, nine times in these eight verses, you find the phrase, “the house of God.”

In verse 32, verse 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, we will support God’s house. In other words, we will pay the contribution, verse 32, for the service of God’s house, for the bread and for the grain offering, for the offerings, for the holy things, verse 33, and we will supply the wood, verse 34, for the sacrifices you need wood, and we will bring the first fruits, verse 35, to support the Levites who needed to be supported by the tithes of the offerings of others.

A Sevenfold Covenant of Commitment

We will bring our dough, verse 37, and our contributions and the fruit and the new wine and the oil, and the tithe of our ground, and the priests will receive the tithes along the Levites, verse 38, and we will bring, verse 39, the contribution of grain, new wine, oil—everything—in the last part of verse 39, to sum it all up in one word: we will not neglect the house of God.

We will not neglect God’s house and God’s work. That’s going to take priority in our lives. That’s a covenant, brothers. That is the meaning of seeking the Kingdom of God first in His righteousness and having all the other things in life added to us.

The Purpose of Tithing

Now, why did God tell the Israelites to tithe? This is a very important question because so many believers are confused concerning the tithe. Why did God ask the Israelites to give one-tenth of their income to God? One-tenth of their crops, one-tenth of their salary, one-tenth of everything they earned was to be given to God. Why?

I will turn you to a verse in Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 23, that explains the reason. In Deuteronomy 14, verse 23, it says in verse 22, “You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow.” And verse 23, in the last part, it says, “So that reason you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.”

The meaning doesn’t come out as clearly here as it is paraphrased in the Living Bible, where it says, “The purpose of tithing,” listen, very beautiful translation in the Living Bible, “The purpose of tithing is to teach you to put God first in your lives.” Did we get that?

The purpose of tithing, Deuteronomy 14:23 in the Living Bible, is to teach you to put God first in your lives. That’s the purpose. “Lord, I received this salary; it’s You who gave me the health to earn it; it’s You who gave me the wisdom to be able to do this job, to earn this money. I don’t want to think it is my cleverness and my health that did it; it’s You, Lord, and to honor You, I give You ten percent.”

The New Testament Standard

Now in the New Testament, Jesus has raised the percentage to a hundred percent. “Whosoever he be of you that forsakes not a hundred percent of all that he has,” Luke 14:33, “he cannot be my disciple.” You can be a believer, but you can’t be a disciple.

You don’t have to give up a hundred percent to go to heaven, but you’ve got to give up a hundred percent to be a disciple. That’s why I say disciples are few; the way to life is narrow; few there be that find it because it costs everything.

That means to say, “Lord, I give all my money to You because I want You to be first in my life. All that I have is Yours; there’s no material thing I have which I want to say is mine; it’s Yours. Everything is available for You, for Your work, for Your use.” That is to put God first.

God allows—that doesn’t mean to come and put it all in the offering box; it just means that we have to give everything to God so that He has absolute right over everything in our life. But it also means that we use some of that to support the work of God, as God lays it on our hearts.

Honoring God Despite Heavy Taxes

That’s a very important principle. Now, notice when they make this covenant. They make this covenant at a time when they’re already paying very heavy taxes to the kings of Persia. We read that in an earlier chapter; the taxes were so heavy they could have excused themselves saying, “Oh, we’re paying so much taxes to the king; difficult to pay our tithe also to God.”

There are people who make all types of excuses when it comes to giving to God’s work because they say we’ve got so many taxes to pay, so many other things to pay, and these are the people who are always in financial difficulty. For the next 50 years, they’ll be in financial difficulty because they have not yet learned to put God first in their lives.

They’re always thinking of paying their taxes and paying this and giving that and getting this other thing, and for the next 50 years they’ll be thinking about that, and they’ll always be in financial difficulties, forever and ever and ever and ever. They’ll never get out of it because they’ve never learned to honor God; that’s all.

These people, though they were paying taxes, they said, “God, You are first, and we honor You; we’re going to honor You.” Financially, we’re going to honor You. Later on, you read in the book of Malachi chapter 3, verse 10, just a few years—just about 120 years after this—you read in Malachi 3:10, just 120 years after Nehemiah’s time, the Lord says in Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. You have robbed me in tithes and contributions,” and the curse came upon them again.

The Blessing of Putting God First

Because they didn’t honor Him, they suffered; they suffered. It says in verse 10 there, “If you had brought your tithes, there would have been abundance in your life.” Now, as I say, the tithe is not a commandment in the New Testament, but the principle remains the same: the principle is there, put God first in your financial matters.

Don’t relegate Him to a corner; put Him first. “Lord, You are first in every area of my life.” In their poverty, these people could give to God. These were not rich millionaires; the rich millionaires all stayed back in Babylon. These were the poor believers who came to Jerusalem from Babylon.

Out of their poverty, after paying their taxes, they gave to God, and God blessed them abundantly.

Dedicating Our Children to God

Then seventhly, the seventh part of the covenant, back to Nehemiah chapter 10, they said, “It’s very interesting, verse 36, we are going to bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons.” They gave their children to God.

You know the Old Testament, there was a commandment which says in Exodus chapter 13—I don’t know whether you have noticed this—do you know what was the last plague in Egypt? Out of the ten plagues, what was the last one? The killing of the firstborn of all the children in Egypt.

Who were the ones who were spared? The firstborn of the Israelites. Then God tells them, Exodus 13:2, “These firstborn should also have died, but I spared them; therefore, they belong to me.”

All your firstborn must be dedicated to the Lord, verse 12. “You shall devote to the Lord the firstborn of your womb,” and when your children ask you what does this mean, you are to tell them, verse 15 of Exodus 13, that in Pharaoh’s time, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; therefore, I sacrifice my firstborn to the Lord, and I say, “Lord, my firstborn did not deserve to live; You spared him; he’s Yours.”

The Principle of the Firstborn

Just like the tithe, the tithe was only a 10% to show that all of our money belonged to God. In the same way, the firstborn is only to show that all of our children belong to God. There we have a very interesting principle of why we are to offer ourselves and our children to God.

Because we deserve to die. Those firstborn deserve to die in Egypt; they were spared only because the lamb died in place of that firstborn. If a lamb had not died in the place of that firstborn, those firstborn would have died.

It’s the same thing today: we say, “Lord, I deserve to die, but because I have not died, all of my life is for You. All my children are for You.” That is the seventh part of the covenant: I give all my children to You. I don’t want to train my children to be big shots in the world.

I don’t want to be excited and puffed up when my children are doing well in some worldly thing. I want my children to be wholehearted for You, Lord, just like I give my money to You; I give my children to You. That’s wholeheartedness.

That was the covenant that they made in Nehemiah’s day, and you can see the reason why God could bless them so mightily at that time.

Summary of the Sevenfold Covenant

Let’s turn back to Nehemiah chapter 10; we look to this sevenfold covenant. Let me go through it quickly.

First, they decided to obey all of God’s commandments. Second, to separate from all worldly alliances. Third, to respect the Sabbath day, discourage covetousness, discourage others who were disobeying God’s word. Fourth, not to be covetous themselves, to trust God for His provision by leaving the land untilled in the seventh year.

Fifth, to forgive all their debtors and make no demands on anyone. Sixth, to support God’s house financially and God’s work, to honor Him in financial matters. And seventh, to give their children to God.

They made a covenant with God and summed it all up with this statement that we saw right at the beginning: “We will not neglect the house of our God.” That’s a good example for us to follow, dear brothers and sisters.

If we follow in the footsteps of these men and are just as wholehearted as them, in our day too, the Lord can again build Jerusalem and the walls of Jerusalem high, as He gathers together a people who are poor in spirit, mourning, repentant, and who are wholehearted to give their money, their children, and themselves to God to accomplish His purposes in these last days.

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