The Covenanted Life: We Will Not Forsake the House of Our God Text: Nehemiah 10:28-39
Introduction: The Allergic Reaction to Oaths
We live in a culture that is pathologically allergic to binding commitments. We want our relationships with no strings attached. We want our politics with no permanent principles. We want our religion with no costly demands. We prefer the open-ended contract to the blood oath, the pre-nup to the covenant, the monthly subscription to the lifetime membership. Our default setting is to keep our options open. We are a generation of escape artists. And so, when we come to a passage like this one in Nehemiah, it strikes our modern ears as something alien, something severe, perhaps even something fanatical.
The people of God had just been through a great revival. They had stood for hours listening to the law of God being read. They had wept, they had mourned, and they had rejoiced. But notice what their response was. It was not, "That was a wonderful and moving experience. Let's do it again sometime." No, their response was to bind themselves. Their response to the grace of God's Word was to run headlong into the arms of obligation. They heard the law and said, "Sign us up. And make it binding." They entered into a curse and an oath. This is the polar opposite of our modern therapeutic spirituality, which seeks to remove all demands, all obligations, and all fear.
But these men and women understood something we have forgotten. They understood that true freedom is not found in the absence of commitments, but in the making of right commitments. True liberty is found under law, under oath, under God. They knew that a faith that costs nothing is worth nothing. And so they came together, from the nobles to the commoners, men, women, and children, to put their lives on the line. They were not just making resolutions; they were making vows. They were not just setting goals; they were swearing an oath, and calling down a curse on themselves if they failed to keep it. This is what reformation looks like. It is not a warm feeling; it is a cold, hard signature on a covenant document. It is a detailed, practical, all-of-life commitment to obey God, no matter the cost.
This chapter is a detailed list of those commitments. And as we walk through them, we must ask ourselves if our own Christianity has this kind of texture, this kind of grit. Is our faith something that affects our marriages, our calendars, our bank accounts? Or is it a sentimental abstraction, kept safely in the attic of our hearts, never allowed to come downstairs and rearrange the furniture? The people of Nehemiah's day show us that a revived faith is a practical faith, a detailed faith, a covenanted faith.
The Text
Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all those who had knowledge and understanding, are joining with their relatives, their nobles, and are entering into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given by the hand of Moses, God’s servant, and to keep and to do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord and His judgments and His statutes; and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not receive from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. We also set ourselves under the commandments to give yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: for the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moon, for the appointed times, for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. Likewise we cast lots for the supply of wood among the priests, the Levites, and the people, in order to bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers’ households, at fixed times annually, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law; and to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of Yahweh annually, and to bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the towns where we serve. And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse. For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine and the oil to the chambers; the utensils of the sanctuary are there, as well as the priests who are ministering and the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus we will not forsake the house of our God.
(Nehemiah 10:28-39 LSB)
The Binding Oath (vv. 28-29)
The commitment begins with a corporate, all-inclusive, and solemn oath.
"Now the rest of the people... all those who had knowledge and understanding, are joining with their relatives, their nobles, and are entering into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law..." (Nehemiah 10:28-29)
Notice who is included here. It is not just the spiritual elites. It is the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and then it broadens to include "all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God." It includes their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who had "knowledge and understanding." This is a corporate act. Reformation is not a private hobby. It is the public, visible commitment of a whole people.
And what are they doing? They are "entering into a curse and an oath." This is not a flimsy New Year's resolution. An oath is a solemn promise, calling on God as a witness. But they add a curse. This is a self-maledictory oath. They are saying, "May the curses of the covenant, which we just heard read from the law, fall upon our own heads if we break this vow." This is the pinnacle of seriousness. They are taking God's law so seriously that they are willing to stake their lives on their obedience to it. This is what it means to fear God. It is not a cowering terror but a holy awe that takes His Word as a matter of life and death.
Their commitment is to "walk in God's law." To walk in a law is to make it the path for your entire life. It is to live and move and have your being within the boundaries and direction it provides. This is not legalism. Legalism is trying to earn your salvation through obedience. This is covenant faithfulness. This is the grateful response of a redeemed people, eager to live in a way that pleases the God who has saved them.
The Practical Commitments: Separation and Sabbath (vv. 30-31)
The oath immediately gets practical. It is not a vague commitment to "be better." It has specific, measurable targets, beginning with marriage and money.
"...and that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not receive from them on the sabbath..." (Nehemiah 10:30-31)
The first item on the agenda is separation in marriage. Why? Because they understood that the family is the basic building block of society. If you lose the family, you lose everything. The prohibition against intermarriage was not racial; it was religious. It was a prohibition against being "unequally yoked" (2 Cor. 6:14). You cannot build a godly culture if you are constantly importing pagan worldviews into the heart of your homes. To marry an unbeliever is to declare that your faith is a private affair, not the central, organizing principle of your entire household. These people knew that to build a holy nation, they had to begin by building holy families.
The second item is Sabbath economics. They committed to keep the Sabbath holy by refusing to engage in commerce. The Sabbath is a weekly declaration of independence from the tyranny of the urgent and the love of money. By stopping their work and their buying, they were declaring that God, not the economy, was their ultimate provider. They were trusting Him. Furthermore, they committed to the Sabbath year, letting the land lie fallow and forgiving all debts. This is a radical economic vision. It is a built-in reset button that prevents the accumulation of permanent, crushing debt and reminds the people that the land, and all its wealth, ultimately belongs to God. A people who practice this cannot be easily enslaved, either by foreign kings or by their own creditors.
The Practical Commitments: Supporting the House of God (vv. 32-39)
The longest section of this commitment deals with the nuts and bolts of supporting the central institution of their life: the temple, the house of God.
"We also set ourselves under the commandments to give yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God... Likewise we cast lots for the supply of wood... and to bring the first fruits... and to bring... the firstborn... We will also bring the first of our dough... and the tithe of our ground to the Levites... Thus we will not forsake the house of our God." (Nehemiah 10:32-39)
Talk is cheap. Revival services are cheap. True commitment shows up in the budget. The people here bind themselves to a series of practical, financial obligations to ensure that the worship of God can continue in an orderly and glorious fashion. They commit to a temple tax for the basic maintenance and supplies. They set up a system for providing wood for the altar fire. They recommit to bringing their firstfruits and firstborn, acknowledging God's ownership of all their increase and all their posterity. And they recommit to the tithe.
The tithe is God's tax. It is the ten percent of all our increase that belongs to Him by right. It is the practical acknowledgment that He is Lord over the other ninety percent as well. They set up a system to ensure the Levites, their ministers, would be provided for, so they could devote themselves to the service of the temple. They even established an accountability system, ensuring a priest would be present when the tithes were collected. This is not a spontaneous, emotional outpouring of generosity. This is a structured, organized, disciplined plan for funding the kingdom of God.
The application for us is direct. The local church is the house of God in the new covenant, the pillar and buttress of the truth. It is the center of our corporate life. And it must be supported. Tithing is not an Old Testament relic that we have graduated from. Paul is clear that the ministry of the gospel is to be supported in the same way the old covenant priesthood was (1 Cor. 9:13-14). A failure to tithe is not just being stingy; it is robbing God (Mal. 3:8). These people understood that a healthy temple required the faithful, consistent, financial support of the people. A healthy church requires the same.
Their commitment culminates in a magnificent summary statement: "Thus we will not forsake the house of our God." This was the point of all the preceding details. The separation in marriage, the keeping of the Sabbath, the paying of the tithe, all of it was designed to ensure that the central place of God's presence and worship would not be neglected or abandoned. Forsaking the house of God begins with small compromises. It begins when you marry an unbeliever, when you start doing business on Sunday, when you decide your money is your own. These people drew a line in the sand and said, "No more."
The Unbreakable Vow
As we read this, we should be stirred and challenged. We should be moved to examine our own lives and our own commitments. Is our faith this practical? Is our support for the church this intentional? Have we made our own vows before God?
But as we do so, we must also remember the rest of the story. The tragic reality is that Israel did not keep this oath. Within a generation, the very sins they swore to abandon had crept back in. Nehemiah's own last chapter is a sad record of Sabbath-breaking, mixed marriages, and neglected tithes. Their sincere, passionate, self-maledictory oath was ultimately not enough to overcome the sinfulness of their own hearts.
And this is where the gospel shines with blinding brightness. For what we could not do, God has done. There was one Israelite who kept the whole law perfectly. There was one who walked in God's law without stumbling. There was one who never forsook the house of His God, but rather declared that His own body was that temple. That one is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the ultimate oath-keeper. The new covenant is not based on our flimsy promises to God, but on God's unbreakable oath to us, sealed with the blood of His own Son. "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen" (2 Cor. 1:20). He is the great High Priest who did not need our tithes, but who tithed Himself, giving His all for us. He is the true Sabbath rest, in whom we cease from our own striving. He is the faithful husband, who has separated us, His bride, from the world unto Himself.
Therefore, our commitments to Him, our oaths, our tithes, our service, are not the desperate attempts of sinners trying to make themselves right with God. They are the grateful, joyful, disciplined response of a people who have been saved by an oath that cannot be broken. We do not tithe in order to be blessed; we tithe because we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing. We do not forsake the assembly of the saints because we will never be forsaken by Him. Let us, therefore, having heard His Word, bind ourselves to Him anew, not in the strength of our own resolve, but in the strength of His finished work. For He has sworn by Himself, and He will not forsake the house of His God.