Peculiar Promises Nehemiah 10:28-39

When was the last time you promised someone something? Maybe it was a commitment to be on time at a particular event, or to cook a favorite dish for a loved one’s birthday dinner, or to check on someone who was not doing well. Perhaps when you think about promises you remember those commitments you made to your kids silently at night as they slept in their crib or those that you shared before witnesses on your wedding day. Promises can prove to be powerful agents that can either make or break relationships (depending on whether or not they are kept). In fact, broken promises that accumulate over a long period of time can erode intimacy between two parties, leaving very little room for reconciliation. This is exactly what had happened between God and the Jewish people leading up to Nehemiah’s time with one difference—there was still plenty of room for reconciliation. After a long period of broken promises and failing to keep the commitments they had made to God and His law, the people of Nehemiah 10 decide to make things right again by repenting. In an effort to continue the program of distinction God was working out in Jerusalem, her people decide to make some peculiar promises that, if kept, would set these citizens apart from the rest of the world. Interestingly enough, similar promises made by God’s people today accomplish the very same thing.

PROMISE #1:“I Promise Not to Intermarry” (To Keep Myself Equally Yoked)-10:28-30

Last week we observed the passionate confession of God’s people in Nehemiah 9. This week, the Jewish people of Nehemiah’s day repent (change direction), by means of three promises that place them on a trajectory toward distinguishing themselves as God’s people on the world’s stage. Before their path was marked with ignorance and neglect of God’s law, leaving them headed in the wrong direction. Now their knowledge of and commitment to the Law of God demanded that they change course. This is what they set out to do in Nehemiah 10 with these three peculiar promises.

The first promise involves intermarriage. Those who make this promise include,… well,…everyone,  “…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 kinsmen, their nobles, and are taking on themselves a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given through Moses, God’s servant, and to keep and to observe all the commandments of God our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes;…” (10:28-29).

Specifically, these promise first “…that we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons…” (10:30, see also Ex. 34:16). What made this command so important to the program of distinction among God’s people in Nehemiah’s day? Let us read (from a primary source) exactly what was to be prevented in this ordinance:

Deuteronomy 7:3-4-“Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.”

For God’s people to be distinct, they had to maintain a higher standard, even/especially in the area of marriage.  Failing to uphold this command would lead to all kinds of calamity. Just look at the fate of Solomon!

1 Kings 11:1-4-“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonion, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been…”

Though you might be tempted to believe that this kind of a law and even its spirit is limited to those in the Old Testament, think again. If marriage played a role in keeping God’s people distinct in the Old Testament, should we not also believe that marriage is one way for God’s people to remain distinct today? In fact, there is a compelling biblical case from the New Testament that says as God’s people, we are NOT free to marry whomever we please.

2 Corinthians 6:14-“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?”

You might say, “but I’m attracted to Him/her or I fell in love with him/her.” However, God wants the best for His people and desires to make you distinct from the world. Therefore, mixing your life with an unbeliever is settling for less. In fact, it has the very real potential of bringing you down and stealing your attention away from your first love—God.

However, what if you are already married to an unbeliever, does this mean you are required to divorce that person? 1 Corinthians 7:12-16-“…if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband…For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?” It is not recommended in scripture that you flee a marriage in divorce based on a wrong decision in the past. Instead, Paul encourages those in these kinds of marriages to allow God to move and even potentially use a husband or wife to help lead the lost spouse to Him!

However, the biblical parameters of marriage do not stop there. Listen to these words about how another kind of union does not qualify for God’s high standard of marriage for His people,

Romans 1:26-27- “For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

1 Corinthians even suggests that this kind of union is like all kinds of other wicked behaviors that keep men and women from enjoying a right relationship with God,

1 Corinthians 6:9-10-“Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor 

effeminate, not homosexuals, not thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Those who practice (i.e. make it their habit to indulge) in these kinds of behaviors reveal that they are not of God and therefore belong to the world.

In order for God’s people to be distinct, they must enjoy marriage properly defined. And just so everybody knows what page I’m on and what page this church is reading from, for all people, marriage is designed for two people of the opposite sex. Anything falling outside of this purview is NOT marriage (I don’t care what court says what). Homosexuality, according to God, is a “degrading passion.” People might say, “but I love him/her or am naturally attracted to him/her.” However, with this kind of precedent, it is logically possible to endorse nearly anything based on how it makes us feel or what our natural proclivities lead us to do. You could justify nearly any kind of behavior, no matter how nefarious, in this kind of way. Ultimately, to indulge in the practice of homosexuality is to settle for less than God’s best. For God’s people, the best kind of marriage one can enjoy is with a fellow believer of the opposite sex. To endorse any other kind of intimate relationship is to put oneself at risk of being at least distracted from God and at most pulled away from Him.

Ultimately, marriage is one way for God’s people to demonstrate their relationship with the Lord. It was for the Jews in Nehemiah’s day and it is for Christians today. God’s people cannot just marry anyone they want. They live by a higher standard and should settle for nothing less. However, the principle here is even more general. Ultimately, the promise made in Nehemiah 10:28-30 is to be in the world but not of it. Marriage is one way of accomplishing that. Even if worldly courts change its definition, the standard for God’s people will be the same.

PROMISE #2: “I Promise to Keep the Sabbath (Rest)”-10:31

The second promise that the people make is to keep the Sabbath, “As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt…” (10:31). This outlines a commitment to live on a divinely-inspired schedule of work and rest. Just as God worked for six days and rested on the seventh, these Jews would do the same (see also Ex. 20:8). However, not only that, but every seventh year they promised to allow their land to lie fallow and to cancel all outstanding debts. This is in keeping with the law found in Ex. 23:10-11 and Lev. 25:2-7.

Ultimately, the spirit of this law in the Old Testament is something that applies to New Testament saints as well.  When a question is raised about the Sabbath in Mark 2, Jesus ultimately concludes the following,

Mark 2:27-“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath…”

This revelation given later concludes that in the end, Sabbath rest is a gift from God for humans to enjoy. In the Old Testament, the prescribed way to enjoy this gift involved a rigorous program of rest and planning centered on the seventh day of the week and every seventh year. However, in the New Testament, Jesus concludes that the Sabbath is a rest God prescribes for men and women to take and use more freely, i.e. without the cumbersome regulations used in Old Testament Judaism. This allows Christians to keep the spirit of the Law while preventing them from being enslaved to its minutia. Ultimately, God’s people are to be those who take time to rest—this is another way to distinguish themselves from the world around them. Men and women were not created to work 24/7 (like the world seems to promote). Therefore, not only should their intimate relationships look different from the relationships enjoyed in this world, but God’s people should also be well rested in a world that suffers from exhaustion. This particular promise would have been especially important for these Jews who had just finished rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, had kept enemies at bay, and had scraped to feed their families.

PROMISE #3: “I Promise to Contribute to the Ministry”-10:32-39

The final promise given in Nehemiah 10 involves contributions made to the many ministries involved in the worship of the Lord in the temple.  First, the provisions for the temple service are promised, “…We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute yearly one third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God…” (10:32). This involved a relatively small yearly donation that would have been used for the logistics of the church.

This is not unlike the yearly Annie Armstrong offering our church gives to help provide for the needs of those church plants in North America. All of those donations go to help fill the logistical needs of the churches who receive them.

These yearly gifts were used “…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 so that they might bring it to the house of our God , according to our fathers’ households, at fixed times annually, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the law…” (10:33-34). All of these items were meaningful and necessary for the worship services held in the temple.

Another provision that was promised involved the first fruits of everything acquired, “…and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually….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 rural towns…” (10:35 & 37). The first of everything that was earned, reaped, or picked was donated to the “house of the Lord” in order for it and its ministers (like the “priests“ and “Levites”) to have all that they needed to perform their prescribed work. However, these first fruits not only applied to that which was acquired or earned; it extended to those who were born!

 “…and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flock as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God…” (10:36). As prescribed by the law in Num. 18:15-17 and Deut. 12:6, even these “firsts” were offered to the priests and Levites for the ministry! Obviously, God’s prescription was given so that priority to His work would supersede all others. Requiring the first of everything for the ministry was a practical way for God to help the people demonstrate His place in their lives and consciousness (a principle echoed by Jesus in Matthew 6:33-“Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.”)

The provisions promised also extended to income and regular tithes, “…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…” (10:38). That these tithes were integral to the daily life of the temple is seen in how these tithes were used in verse 39, “…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; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers…” (10:39).

All of these provisions were promised in an effort to demonstrate their support for the ministry, “thus we will not neglect the house of our God.” (10:39b). This is a radical change from where these Jews were in Ezra & Nehemiah’s day (building their own homes to the neglect of the temple). Ultimately, there was no reason the temple in Jerusalem should have need for anything to accomplish what God wanted it to accomplish through its priests and Levites. If everyone was living up to the promise to provide in these ways (practical provisions, first fruits, and regular tithes), the temple of Jerusalem should have want of nothing!

The same is true of churches today who are in existence to do the ministry of God. If everyone prioritized God, His ministry, and the mission given by seeing to it that the practical needs of His church and its ministers were met through giving, then the church in any one locality and universally should have want of nothing! We have all that we need to do all that God wants to do through us. The problem is that in many cases, it has not yet been handed over to be used appropriately!

So What?

These three promises mark a significant turn in the people’s lives in Nehemiah’s day from sin to sanctification. Though it is one things to confess sin before God (see Nehemiah 9), it is another thing entirely to actively pursue godliness through specific actions that are endorsed by God’s Word. This is why the promises in Nehemiah 10 are made: The promise to abstain from intermarriage, keep the Sabbath, and contribute to the Temple services. More generally speaking, the spirit behind these commitments apply to those who repent of their sin today: do not be distracted from God in the relationships you pursue, take time to rest, and contribute to the ministry of God. Your distinction and my distinction as God’s people shows up in these kinds of activities.

So how distinct are you living today? Are you actively keeping distractions at bay (specifically in the relationships you enter into)? Anyone can justify any behavior by blaming it on genetics, environment, etc. However, God’s people don’t settle for anything less than His best. Are you taking time to rest? It is so easy to give oneself over to the world’s 24/7 demands with a 24/7 workload. However, you are going to reap a 24/7 heart condition and real spiritual burnout doing so. Are you committed to contributing to the ministry here and abroad? So much more could be done here and elsewhere if everyone gave as they should. If the answer is “no” to these questions, repent, make these same commitments today, and keep these peculiar promises.