Perhaps, like Israel, you have experienced revival in your life. You have returned to a realization of Who God is and, as a result have worshipped, repented, and renewed your commitment to doing right. But what should this commitment look like? Nehemiah 10 gives us some insight into making a commitment that is built to last.
In Nehemiah 10, we see that their commitment was personal but contagious! The chapter begins with the names of the people who were “sealed,” or signed their names to this covenant with God. Guess whose name is at the top of the list? That’s right—Nehemiah. He took the initiative to sign his name on the dotted line. His leadership inspired others to take the lead in their spheres of influences. It began with the “chief of the people,” (v. 14) and trickled down to “the rest of the people.” (v. 28) This commitment to God didn’t stop with Nehemiah and a few leading men of the community. It spread to “their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge and having understanding.” (v. 28) In other words, this was not just a whim. This was a real and contagious change.
What does it take for a family, or a church, or even a nation to experience revival? Sometimes we look around at our families, churches, and our nation today and shake our heads in dismay. It seems they are too far gone to be revived. Surely, some major miracle would have to strike in order for these institutions to be revived, we may think. However, the story of revival in Nehemiah 10 shows us that revival starts with one person, just as fire starts with one spark. All it takes for a family, or a church, or even a nation to be revived is for someone to take the lead. If other people can see our commitment, this will not only be a blessing to them but to us as well. And this leads us to the next aspect of the commitment in Nehemiah 10.
Their commitment included accountability. Nehemiah 10:29 says that the signers “clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law.” Here again it is obvious that this was not a casual decision. They didn’t give themselves an easy exit from this covenant. The signers of this covenant demonstrated to God and to other people that they were serious about keeping their commitment
If we are serious about our commitments to God, then we should also seek out accountability. Allowing other Christians to know about and encourage us in our decisions for Christ is a Biblical principle. Accountability sometimes sounds like a menacing word, but it is meant to be a comfort, not a terror. When we have a Christian community that “keeps us accountable,” that means we have fellow-laborers who will help us bear the burden of the Christian life. Galatians 6:2 commands us to, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And what is the law of Christ? Well, Christ told His disciples in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” True biblical love is simply doing what is right by another. Romans 13:10 says, “Love worketh no ill to his neightbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Doing right by others can look like many different things. Sometimes it looks like encouraging them as they follow Christ. Other times it looks like confronting them when they are disobeying Christ. James 5:16 says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another.” Now, this does not mean that you need to announce in front of your entire church your every failure. This does mean that you should have a trustworthy godly group of Christians with whom you can be honest about your struggles and your decisions for Christ. When we confess to each other, and pray for each other, we draw closer together as the body of Christ and closer to our Head, Jesus Christ. This accountability will help our commitments to last.
While their commitment included accountability, it was also liberating. When they were living in sin, they had fancied themselves free to do as they pleased. However, they soon found out that they were slaves, not just to sin but to foreign captors as well. Confessing to God, Nehemiah records in chapter 9, verse 16 and 17, “But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage.” Their rebellion was their return to bondage. How senseless and needless to return to bondage when they had been freed by God to live under His provision!
This principle that sin brings slavery but righteous bring liberty is seen in the New Testament as well. Romans 6:16-18 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” We were created to walk with God, just as Adam and Eve did in Eden before the fall. Yet our fallen natures kept us bound by Satan to walk in sin. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we were recreated to walk with God again, to walk in His Spirit and in His light! What wonderful liberation! Every time we make a commitment to God, we are walking with God. We are liberating ourselves from the sin that no longer has any right to dominate us. While fear of being restricted might hold us back from making needed commitments to God, this passage helps us to see that righteousness is true liberty. The psalmist understood this, saying, “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” (Psalm 119:45). The truth is that rebellion to God’s laws is about as productive as rebellion to the law of gravity. It drags us to the ground! Rebellion to God always leads back to bondage. Surrendering to God always leads to true liberty.
Last and perhaps most importantly, we see that their commitment was specific and based on God’s Word. The people had heard the Word of God read to them (Nehemiah 8), they had been convicted and repented (Nehemiah 9), and now they were making their commitment to do right official (Nehemiah 10). The children of Israel’s covenant with God was composed of three specific commitments. They were not whims or ideas from Nehemiah. No, these commitments came straight from God’s Word. As the latter end of Nehemiah 10:29 says, the people chose “to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.” Nehemiah 10:30-39 continues, “and that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: and if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath . . . Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the House of our God . . . And we cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law: and to bring the firstfruits of our ground . . . also the firstborn of our sons, and our cattles, as it is written in the law . . . and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage . . . and we will not forsake the house of our God.” Did you notice the phrase “as it is written in the law” sprinkled throughout that paragraph? The three commitments written in the covenant were: to avoid unequal marriages (believers with unbelievers), to keep the Sabbath (not buy or sell), and to take care of God’s house and God’s ministers. Each of these decisions were specific and they came straight from God’s Word.
Just as the children of Israel’s were, our commitments should be specific, based on what God has already commanded in His Word. A vague commitment is not really much of a commitment, and a commitment to something that we have made up is not honoring to God. Commitments that are specific and based in God’s Word are the ones that are most likely to last.
In Nehemiah 10, the children of Israel did business with God. We can learn many things from their written covenant with God, but one of those lessons is about our commitments to God. Our commitments to God should look like theirs did. They should be personal but contagious to those in our sphere of influence. They should include accountability. They should liberate us to walk with God, just as we were created to do. And they should be specific based on what we’ve been convinced about from God’s Word. Those are commitments that are built to last.