Covenant

Things changed in Jerusalem under the governorship of Nehemiah and the pastoring of Ezra, and they did so radically. I have been calling it a revival, because that is what it was. Revival means coming to spiritual life again. The people had been spiritually dead. Now they revived, and the changes that came transformed their nation and culture permanently. Some of these changes lasted more than four hundred years up to and even beyond the time of Jesus Christ.

Change for the sake of mere change means nothing, of course. What matters is the direction of the change. So, before we examine the specifics of the covenant, it will be helpful to see its characteristics, which indicate where the people saw themselves to be heading. There are three of them. We will look at the first two today and the third tomorrow.

The third striking characteristic of this covenant is the people’s strong sense of responsibility. Nothing in the covenant looks to other people to do what they should do. Nothing sets some of them apart from these responsibilities, or assigns specific tasks to one group and other tasks to another. The dominant word is “we,” referring to the whole people together. It was as one whole people that they took it upon themselves to keep God’s entire law.

The second specific commitment of the people on this great covenant day was to the Sabbath, to keep it by abstaining from all commercial activity, and to observe the seventh year Sabbath of the land in which the fields would not be worked. The requirement has precedent in God’s resting from creation on the seventh day and goes back to the Ten Commandments which say, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exod. 20:8).

I suggest that you formally covenant to put God first in everything you do: order your marriage or family according to the Bible’s standards, set aside one day in seven to worship and serve God in the company of other Christians, tithe your income for the Lord’s work—and do whatever else God’s puts it upon your mind to do for Him. And make it a lifetime commitment!