In this episode we examine Nehemiah 10 to see what it can teach us about false and true repentance. To help us see the relevance of Nehemiah 10, I want to ask you to use your imagination a bit. Suppose that my wife, Sandy, and I had decided to adopt a very disciplined budget and had agreed together that we would both live within its parameters. Then suppose one night when she wasn't around, I went on an unauthorized shopping spree and bought myself an EGO cordless blower for 200 bucks. I tried to keep it hidden and just use it when she was not around; but eventually I got caught. She demanded an explanation: “We agreed we were going to stay within this monthly budget.” Let's suppose I was really convicted and restated my commitment to the budget and asked for her forgiveness. Should she grant me forgiveness? Certainly.
Suppose she does. Then two months later I spot a Weber Genesis 435 grill for $350.00 off, down to $1250. “Our grill is starting to rust, and I’ll never see this good a grill at this price again,” I rationalize. I bring it home when she’s not around, get rid of our cheap grill and squeeze the old cover down over the Weber and wait for a day when she is really in a good mood to explain it. But she notices it and is NOT in a good mood. She begins to cry and says, “Are we a team or not?” When my wife cries, I know I really screwed up. I realized that I was disrespecting her by doing this on my own, how much that hurts her and promise not to do it again.
But then, in late fall, I spot a top-end snow blower on sale at Home Depot for $500.00 off and talk my neighbor into buying it with me and storing it at his garage. But she finds out about it from my neighbor's wife and comes after me with a frying pan. I'm really contrite this time. I realize my marriage is in trouble. “I’m really, really, really sorry honey. I’m so stupid for getting drawn into this. Please, please, please forgive me.” How many times do we have to go through this before my wife begins to question the sincerity of my repentance? After all, what is the proof of repentance? Are tears the ultimate proof? Is self-denigration the ultimate proof? Is pleading for forgiveness the ultimate proof? No.
As we all know, the proof of sincere repentance is changed behavior. What Sandy would have had the right to say was, “Gary I'll believe you are genuinely sorry for what you've been doing—that you have genuinely repented—when you stop doing it. Don't look at me with those sad blue eyes and say you're sorry, you're sorry, you're sorry, because evidently, you're not sorry enough to stop. If you were repentant, you'd prove it by a change in your behavior.” And Sandy would be right. The word repentance itself means a change in direction. It's METANOIA, literally a change of mind about your direction and choosing to go the opposite way.
When I worked for the Labor Department I'd talk to many employers to see whether they'd hired a person we sent them. Often I'd hear an employer say something like this, “Bill? Yeah, he told us he wanted the job loading our trucks real bad. We told him he had to be at work at 6:00 AM, so the trucks can get on the road. He said he understood that; so, we gave him the job. A week later Bill starts coming to work at 6:15, then 6:20, then 6:30. We tell him again, “Work starts at 6:00 AM sharp; that's a requirement.” Bill pleads “Sorry, I just overslept.”
The employer continued “That's warning #1.” A few days later Bill is late again. He pleads, “I want to keep this job. I need this job.” The employer says, “If you really need this job, show up on time.” But a couple weeks later, the boss has to meet with Bill to fire him. Bill argues, “How can you do this to me? You don't know how much I need this job.” But evidently Bill didn't need it badly enough to show up on time. Is that so difficult? The adage is true; actions speak louder than words.
In Nehemiah chapters 8 through 10 we have been studying the tremendous national revival that took place in Israel among those living around Jerusalem under the preaching of Ezra and leadership of Nehemiah. As we've seen, there were three stages to it:
- The reading, teaching, and understanding of God's Word in chapter 8. To an unprecedented degree during the month of Tishri the Israelites had gathered to listen to the reading of the Law,
- The second stage, which we covered last week in chapter 9 was the brokenness of the people over their sin. We saw in their confession the contrition of the people as they acknowledged their stiff-necked rebellion and that of their fathers to God. But Nehemiah and the other leaders realized that tears and pleadings, self-degradation, and other dramatic rhetoric is not really ultimate proof that they were sincerely repentant. It's just too easy to say, “I'm sorry.”
- So, a fascinating thing happens after the prayer of confession. In Nehemiah 9:38 we read, “In view of this we are making a binding agreement putting it in writing and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seal to it.” The third stage of revival, where the rubber meets the road, is a commitment to change behavior. This word for binding agreement was a renewal of Israel’s covenant with Moses, although the actual word is not the normal word for covenant, berit. It is amanah, a rare word, which carries with it an even stronger heart-felt intentionality to keep their vows.
The Bible argues forcefully that when it comes to God’s chosen people’s standing with God, that standing is by God’s grace, never by works. God’s love for us is unconditional. “It was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.” However, when God regenerates us and draws us to come to himself by faith, with that grace to believe comes repentance. As the Apostle John made clear,
And by this we know that we have come to know him (Christ), if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 Jn 2:3-6.)
Through the same Holy Spirit who brings repentance to those who come to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit brought repentance to his people living around Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah. The people committed to obey the moral law of God.
The People’s Pledge
Nehemiah 10:28-29. The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes.
Before we can understand how the specifics of this commitment of God’s people to obey God’s Word apply to us, we must remember the difference between God’s people, Israel, who were a theocracy, and the radical change that took place after the resurrection and Day of Pentecost for God’s people the NT church. Because Israel was a theocracy, God gave Israel as a nation, three categories of law, the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments, ceremonial Law, which included the death penalty for worshipping a false God or practicing witchcraft, but had mostly to do with sacrifices and the temple, and civil law, which had to do with controlling contagious diseases, civil disputes, and caring for the poor by limiting the land owners from harvesting more than once, requiring them to leave what was left the first time for the poor.
When the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world died as the atoning sacrifice for his people’s sin, (and the temple later destroyed in 70 AD) the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ, which the book of Hebrews explains. When Israel was destroyed in 70 AD, Israel’s theocracy was destroyed. Thus, the civil law and ceremonial law being enforced by the government came to an end. Jesus was clear in repudiating the spread of his kingdom through the state: To the political ruler, Pilate, he stated, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Then Jesus went on to explicitly repudiate the use of political or military coercion to spread his kingdom. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world,” (Jn 18:36). Both Paul and Peter made clear that civil government, not the church, was given the power of the sword to restrain evil. Thus, the civil laws of Israel are not binding upon the church. However, Orthodox Christianity has always maintained that they do “provide general equity” i.e. guidance for governments to follow. There is currently a hot topic that requires such “general equity guidance.” It is social justice.
Many caring Christians have been hood-winked into supporting the evil ideology of cultural Marxism aka critical theory because they rightly want Christians to care for the disenfranchised and marginalized, as Jesus would. But the way to express that concern is not to ignore the anti-biblical components of cultural Marxism. Karl Marx fomented cultural unrest by dividing all society members into two economic groups, the oppressor land and factory owners and the oppressed proletariat “workers.” This ideology was used to justify the brutal overthrow and slaughter of landowners that took pace under Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.
Cultural Marxism applies the same oppressor/oppressed lens not to economic power but to cultural power. Today’s cultural oppressors are: whites, males, westerners, born US citizens, the founding fathers, the Constitution, America, cisgender people, Israel, business owners and Christian patriarchy. This ideology justifies violence against these “oppressive” institutions, which ultimately must be torn down. Thus, violent riots against ICE, the burning of cities by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, assassinations like that by Luigi Mangione of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, are celebrated by those embracing this evil worldview. Such anti-biblical ideological blindness blames the massacre of 1200 Jews by Hamas on Israel. It refuses to condemn the IRG’s slaughter of 42,000 dissenting citizens. It refuses to admit the intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leadership to get a nuclear weapon and use it to bring in the world devastation that will serve as a precursor to the return of the hidden 12th Imam who they believe will return to force Islam on the world.
The evils of cultural Marxism are legion. Scripture clearly refutes defining justice as “equal outcomes,” but defines it as “equal opportunity.” At the very least, we know that God’s concern for the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the sojourner never means being partial to the “oppressed” group.
- Leviticus 19:15: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
- Exodus 23:3: "Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit."
- Deuteronomy 1:17: "You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike.
Back in Nehemiah 10, we see Israel repenting over three failures to keep the moral law. Let’s examine these and see how they apply or don’t to us as Christians.
A. Separation from unbelievers. Nehemiah 10:30: “We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.” This promise not to intermarry with the peoples of the lands around them was not racial prejudice. Moses had married an Egyptian. Rahab of Jericho and Ruth the Moabitess were in the line of the Messiahs descent. Rather, the Israelites were affirming obedience to the command given in Exodus 34:16 not to intermarry with pagan peoples lest they turned the Israelites to worship pagan gods. Of course that's exactly what happened to Solomon. Paul picks up on this principle and commands Christians not to be unequally yoked together with non-believers in marriage (2 Cor 10:14) If you sat on the session of the church as I do and got to hear the sad stories of adults who grew up in Christian homes, ignored this command and married non-believers you would understand why this principle is so important to God and was so important to the apostle Paul.
But having said that we need to be absolutely clear that the Bible does not command God's people to separate from the lost. Quite to the contrary, there was a radical reversal of this OT principle for Israel of separation from the nations around it that was hinted at in God’s original call to Abraham, “that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.” Jesus’ final words to his followers were to “go and make disciples of all nations.” This reversal was reinforced 50 days later on the Day of Pentecost, when the Apostles were empowered to supernaturally speak the tongues of other nations. Jesus’ three metaphors for Christians to impact their world through their influence all require close proximity to lost folks and the lost culture, salt, light, and leaven.
B. Keeping the Sabbath. “And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forgo the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.” This was a costly commitment to allow themselves economic harm by not participating with the rest of the world in Sabbath commerce. This text reminds us of Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, who made this decision about Sundays. There is, however, great complexity in understanding how our Lord would like his people to celebrate the fourth commandment for at least five reasons:
- The fourth commandment is listed among the Ten Commandments, which is God’s summary of the moral law, the rest of which comes into the NT.
- It is also part of the ceremonial law which is fulfilled in Christ and part of the civil law which only applied to Israel as a theocracy. Violating the Sabbath in Israel’s theocracy was a capital offense.
- The reasons given for keeping the fourth commandment are different in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
- The early church stopped keeping the Sabbath.
- They instead met before and after work on the first day of the workweek, the Day of the Resurrection. Sunday did not become a day off until the 4th century under Constantine.
I have been practicing a NT view of “sabbath keeping” that is anything but legalistic and a rich blessing in my life for over 45 years. Indeed, my life is proof that the Sabbath was made for us, to enrich, restore, and revitalize us and to enable us to stay focused on our mission. I have discovered that God has revealed principles of rest and renewal in each of the Sabbaths we see revealed in Scripture. The origin of this idea is Bruce Ray, in Celebrating the Sabbath, where he explains,
“Just as an acorn grows and develops into a mature oak tree so concepts that are introduced in seed form and early revelation grow and develop progressively throughout the Old Testament scripture until they come to full flower and fruit in the New Testament, we can distinguish in scripture 4 distinct stages of Sabbath revelation.”
I believe these four can be called the CREATION Sabbath, REDEMPTION Sabbath, RESURRECTION Sabbath, and FINAL Sabbath. The Final Sabbath does not occur until Christ returns but for Christians there is great wisdom for is in carefully studying the other three. In a new book that we hope to publish in August, Extreme Allegiance, I have written an entire chapter, entitled, “Recovering a Lost Treasure” that addresses what these 3 Sabbaths reveal.
C. Tithing. The third sphere of life marked out for special attention by the Jerusalem Jews, who were renewing their covenant vows, was financial giving for the ministry. Nehemiah 10:32-39 illustrate their commitment to the temple ministry:
- Verse 32 is the temple tax.
- Verse 33 is food for offerings at the temple.
- Verse 34 is firewood to keep the altar fires going.
- Verse 35-36 is the pledge to give God the first fruits.
- Verse 37 covers the tithe to support those in ministry.
- Verse 39 is the summary: “We will not neglect the House of our God.”
The law commanded that every Israelite give 10% of everything he received to the Lord—wages, tips, and gifts and inheritance. It was for everybody, young and old, poor and rich. 10% was the minimum. In this Nehemiah 10 text, the Israelites are saying, “Not only do we promise to give you our 10% but if that's not enough we'll give the extra that is needed to take care of the House of God and keep its ministry going.”
In the New Testament the percentage changes from 10% to 100%. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and pile up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. But of course, the question for us all as Christians is where I should start with my giving. The answer actually is quite clear because it is a pattern established by Abraham the father of our faith, not by Moses in the Old Testament Law. In Genesis 14, Abram is returning from a great victory over kings who had taken captive his nephew, Lot. A mysterious priest/king, Melchizedek, (who the NT says prefigures Jesus) meets him. We read, “He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him (Abram) and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” This ten percent was a gift to God out of gratefulness for Abram’s victory. Only later did Moses spell out the requirement of the Law to tithe.
God reinforces this practice for his people in Proverbs 3 when he says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” A wise man knows he can’t outgive God. Giving God the firstfruits of our labor is a way of fulfilling the first commandment, keeping him first in our affections and allegiance. Tithing sets our hearts on the kingdom of God. This was the reason Jesus said not to invest in earthly treasure, “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.”
Final Note
Although we see in this historical account that true repentance leads to a fervent commitment to express our love for our Redeemer by obedience to him, it is sobering to realize that the story of the OT is that even being broken by their sin, seeing that obedience to God always leads to life, and signing a contract with God promising to obey him are not enough to overcome their sinful nature. At the time of Jesus’ birth, they were again politically oppressed because they had forsaken God and the religion practiced in Jerusalem was so utterly corrupt that its leaders put the Messiah to death.
But remember the blessing of the New Covenant. We have far more power to obey God and spread righteousness over the land. Jeramiah reflecting on the failure of the Old Covenant, wrote;
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
As always in the Covenant of Grace we are loved unconditionally regardless of our sin. But this reference is to the powerful help of the Holy Spirit who now indwells us. So, let’s set the bar of obedience high, because we have the Spirit to help us.
For Further Prayerful Thought.
- Why is saying “I’m sorry” easier than true repentance?
- How would you summarize these words of John? And by this we know that we have come to know him (Christ), if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 Jn 2:3-6.)
- Although we no longer live in a theocracy as God’s people did before Jesus came, why might Israel’s law that warned that oppression of the poor was not to be compensated for by partiality towards them in court help inform our thinking about how best to show mercy to the poor.
- How does the example of God’s repentant Old Covenant people stepping up to fully fund ministry challenge you?
- What have you learned about walking in the Spirit, i.e. experiencing his power in your everyday life?
