Sermon Tone Analysis

The center of any real reformation is the Word of God.

This was true in Nehemiah’s day.

It was true in the sixteenth century.

And it’s true today.

Anything that does not change the thinking and beliefs of the people may be called a religious reorganization, perhaps even a housecleaning, but it most certainly is not a reformation.

On the other hand, a real reformation must go beyond mere doctrine.

Its purpose is to change the hearts of men.

The Holy Spirit does this through the preaching of the Word.

Changed hearts eventually manifest themselves in changed lives, and changed lives sooner or later start to change church and society.

President Ronald Reagan used the phrase “trickle-down economics” to summarize his economic policy.

If the wealthy, he argued, are allowed to keep more of their money, they will invest it and thereby create jobs for others.

What we see in today’s text is similar to this, except that we might call it “trickle-out sanctification.”

The work that the Spirit of God begins within an individual gradually works itself out into more and more areas of his life and service.

This inevitably happens when men become serious about renewing the covenant and serving the Lord.

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Men Who Sealed the Covenant

The first twenty-seven verses of Nehemiah 10 gives the names of those who sealed this covenant (cf.

9:38).

Not surprisingly, the very first name in the list is Nehemiah the Tirshatha or governor.

Nehemiah understood the importance of leading by example as well as by precept.

Thus, he was the first to affirm his whole-hearted devotion to the Lord.

This kind of leadership has always been exceedingly rare.

In our own, for example, it’s far more common for civil leaders to minimize the exclusive claims of Christ by acknowledging the so-called good of all religions, as if Christianity were only one among many ways to God, or by treating it positively as a religion the produces hate and fear in those who embrace it.

But this is not leadership at all.

Rather, those who do such things take the authority that Christ himself has given them and they use it against him.

This is treason, and it can only have one result.

Psalm 2 says that the Son of God will /break them with a rod of iron/ and /dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel/ (v.

9).

On the other hand, the Lord promises to bless rulers like Nehemiah who govern in righteousness.

Proverbs 16:12 says, /It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness; for the throne is established by righteousness/.

After Nehemiah, the names of those who sealed the covenant appear in three groups: the priests (vv.

1–8), the Levites (vv.

9–13) and the leaders (vv.

14–27).

In the first eight verses, we find the names of twenty-four priests.

Several of these names also appear in the list of priests in chapter 12 (vv.

12–21); however, two names are conspicuously absent.

One is Eliashib, the current high priest (cf.

3:1, 20).

Another is Ezra, Nehemiah’s older colleague.

Why are these two names missing?

It’s probably because most of the names in this list are representatives of families.

For example, Seraiah, whose name appears in verse 2, was, according to Ezra 7:1, Ezra’s father.

This suggests that there were more than twenty-four priests in Judah in Nehemiah’s day.

The list of Levites begins with verse 9. Again, it seems to include the names of individuals as well as family representatives.

Six of the individual Levites mentioned here were involved in reading the law in chapter 8 (v.

7).

The family names, on the other hand, were mostly men who returned with Zerubbabel in the first returned from the Babylonian captivity several decades earlier.

The third group of names consists of chiefs of the people, i.e., leaders or heads of families.

There are forty-four names in this list.

Twenty-one of these names parallel a list in the second chapter of Ezra (cf.

Neh.

7:8–25).

The remaining twenty-three are harder to classify.

A few of them helped to rebuild the wall in chapter 3. Some of them seem to be older families, possibly families that had remained in Judah during the captivity.

And there are a few new names as well.

These may represent families that had returned from Babylon either during the reconstruction of the wall or after it was completed.

Beyond this brief survey, we know very little about most of the people who sealed the covenant in our text.

But the recording of their names is a witness to their devotion to the Lord and is, therefore, an encouragement to us.

It illustrates what the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, viz., that /whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope/ (Rom.

15:4).

The recording of the names of those who sealed the covenant also establishes a strong sense of a worshiping community.

In the previous chapter, Nehemiah made it clear that the Jews of his day saw their reformation as paralleling the exodus and conquest, except that they had a greater determination to obey the Lord.

They read the law, observed the feast and sacrifices and even dwelt in tents to commemorate the wilderness wandering.

To show that this was not a meaningless exercise, they came together immediately afterward as a covenant community to embrace the entire law of God.

The rest of this chapter, which we’ll look at in a minute, identifies some very specific ways in which they began to implement their radical obedience.

In fact, the rest of the book shows them continuing to wrestle with the implications of the covenant.

Beloved, if your old man has truly been crucified with Jesus Christ, then sin must not reign in you.

If your new man has been raised to new life in the Messiah, then you are now servants of righteousness, obeying the Lord from the heart.

As God’s covenant people, you must be as committed to the revealed will of God as were the Jews of Nehemiah’s day.

Their commitment was a heartfelt and sincere love of God that made them joyously cast off all beliefs and practices that were contrary to Scripture.

The apostle John wrote at length about the need for believers to adopt a way of life that is wholly in submission to the Lord.

When he said that we do not sin, he meant that this is not our habit to sin.

Rather, the work of Christ has put an end to this.

John wrote, /Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God/ (I John 3:6–9).

There are two concerns that believers always struggle with in their obedience.

On the one hand, we do not want to isolate ourselves completely from unbelievers, which would destroy every opportunity to testify to them of God’s love and mercy.

On the other hand, it would be just as bad to adopt their lifestyles and practices just to get along with them.

This would destroy the effectiveness of our testimony.

The answer is not to try to balance cultural isolation and cultural immersion, but to commit ourselves entirely to the Word of God.

We should go as far as it commands and stop wherever it stops.

This is what the Jews of Nehemiah’s day pledged to do.

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The Covenant

The remainder of chapter 10 explains how the people tried to carry out their radical obedience.

According to verse 28, it seems that there were a lot of people who were not present for the sealing of the written covenant.

The text mentions /the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding/.

But verse 29 makes it clear that even those who were not present bound themselves to the same radical obedience as their leaders.

They agreed to keep /all the commandments/ of the Lord, as well as /his judgments and his statutes/.

There is even the mention of a curse for those who fail to keep God’s covenant.

This is a reference to Deuteronomy 28:15–68, where the Lord himself explains how he will deal with those who turn away from his Word.

Here we see the effectiveness of the leadership of Nehemiah and the others, for they not only committed themselves to walk according to the law of God, but they also /clave to their brethren/.

In fact, Nehemiah mentioned this first because it was through the brethren that they were encouraged to embrace the entirety of God’s law.

This illustrates the fact that God is pleased to use the instruction and example of leaders to arouse his people to renewed commitment and zeal, and it reminds the people of God to follow the godly example of those who are over them in the Lord.

Hebrews 13:17 says, /Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you/.

The specifics of their obedience begin with verse 30.

The items that follow are, for the most part, things that had been neglected for a long time.

They sought to correct these things first.

In verse 30, they agreed to separate from the surrounding nations, specifically promising not to intermarry with pagans.

Both Ezra and Nehemiah had to deal with this matter frequently.

In fact, it comes up again at the end of Nehemiah.

Some who, having not been serious about this covenant, needed a stronger rebuke.

Next, the people agreed in verse 31 to keep the Sabbath by not buying food from foreigners on the Sabbath day and by observing the sabbatical years (cf.

Exod.

23:11), including the canceling of debts.