Scripture Daily

Context No. 1871 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Context · Reflection

Nehemiah 10:28-39: in context

28The 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—everyone who had knowledge and understanding— 29joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath, 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 ordinances and his statutes; 30and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; 31and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year crops and the exaction of every debt. 32Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 33for the show bread, for the continual meal offering, for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts, for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. 34We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, cast lots for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed year by year, to burn on the LORD our God’s altar, as it is written in the law; 35and to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all kinds of trees, year by year, to the LORD’s house; 36also the firstborn of our sons and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God; 37and that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, our wave offerings, the fruit of all kinds of trees, and the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all our farming villages. 38The priest, the descendent of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites take tithes. The Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms, into the treasure house. 39For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the wave offering of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil, to the rooms where the vessels of the sanctuary are, and the priests who minister, with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not forsake the house of our God.

After hearing the law read and confessing their sins, the returned exiles bind themselves in a solemn, written covenant to obey God. And it is not vague. They spell it out in detail: they will not intermarry with the surrounding peoples; they will keep the Sabbath, not buying or selling on it; they will let the land rest and forgive debts in the seventh year; they will support the temple with a yearly contribution, with wood for the altar, with firstfruits and tithes. And they conclude with a summary vow: we will not neglect the house of our God.

What is notable about this covenant is how concrete and specific it is. The people do not merely resolve, in a general way, to be more faithful, to love God more, to do better. They commit to particular, spelled-out things: this is how we will keep the Sabbath; this is what we will give; this is what we will not do. Their commitment is detailed, concrete, and therefore accountable; you could tell whether they were keeping it or not. There is wisdom in this that our vaguer resolutions lack. We are prone to make general commitments to God, vague good intentions to be more devoted, more faithful, more generous, that are so unspecific they can never quite be kept or broken, and so tend to evaporate. I will be a better person, we resolve, or I will grow closer to God, and nothing concrete changes, because nothing concrete was committed. The people of Nehemiah's day did better: they turned their devotion into specifics, particular practices, particular gifts, particular things they would and would not do. Real commitment tends to be concrete; it names what it will actually do. If we would follow God more faithfully, it often helps to move, as they did, from vague intention to specific commitment: not merely I will pray more, but I will pray at this time; not merely I will be more generous, but I will give this; not merely I will honor God, but I will do these particular things. The concrete commitment can be kept and checked; the vague one dissolves. And notice how their covenant ends: we will not neglect the house of our God, a summary that turned their whole detailed commitment toward keeping God at the center. Real devotion is not only felt but specified, turned into concrete practices we actually undertake, rather than left as good intentions that change nothing.

Are my commitments to God vague good intentions, to be more devoted or more faithful in general, so unspecific they never quite get kept and tend to evaporate, or can I follow the example of Nehemiah's people and turn my devotion into concrete, specific commitments, particular practices I will actually undertake, that can be kept rather than dissolving into good intentions?

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