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THE COMMITMENT OF GOD’S PEOPLE!

One fine Sunday morning you wake up, really wake up, and realize that as a believer in Christ Jesus you ought to be attending church. In this decisive mood, a non-procrastinating mood, you turn to DEX and he tells you that there are 437 churches in the East Valley. As you continue to stare at him sitting up there on your kitchen counter he narrows that down to 83 churches within a five mile radius of your home.
In bewilderment, you now stare with your mouth open while he tells you that 56 of the 83 are considered Protestant and of those 56, nine of them are non-denominational. You nod, and he then gives you the crossroads of the nearest non-denominational church to your home. He tells you that it is on the NW corner of Guadalupe RD and Hwy. 101, the church is Bethany Community Church with a traditional service beginning in twenty-five minutes at 9:00 am. Then as you head out the door he yells, I also know of 47 hair salons! But, by that time you’re already on your way.
So you attend, like what you see and hear and quietly make a commitment to coming back the following Sunday. You then begin to attend on a regular basis and before long find yourself sitting in the DISCOVERY III class, the one required for membership. The first thing that comes out of the teachers mouth, the first thing that really causes you to sit up and think, is the statement: “We don’t need more members. We need committed believers.”
Ouch! In a world where everyone likes to keep their options open, where couples cohabitate, where students procrastinate about declaring their major, and where people take a job while keeping their resumes out, the thought of commitment sends chills up our spine. Why? What would cause this fictional person who has been attending Bethany think twice about becoming a member?
He or she would think twice, you would think twice because:
– It means you are finished with church hopping.
– It means more will be expected of you.
– It means financially supporting your church.
– It means exercising your giftedness.
– It means risking being hurt by others.
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In short, commitments always cost us something; money, time, energy, and sometimes our life. In regards to the high cost of commitment someone said, “Commitment is not all that hard to understand. It is as simple as having ham and eggs for breakfast. The chicken is involved but the pig is committed!”
The cost of some commitments are clearly spelled out in black and white. We pick up a pen and sign on the dotted-line when making a major purchase. Our signature, our word, commits us to writing a monthly check for “x” number of months. We may or may not regret such decisions but either way we can’t say that we didn’t enter them with our eyes open.
The cost of other commitments aren’t always so easy to quantify. We commit ourselves to a particular career, project, or hobby only to discover that it cost far more than we anticipated. For example, I was surfing in California many years ago enjoying the thrill of riding the waves. But one day as I was paddling out to catch the next big wave I felt myself being lifted up by what I thought was simply a larger than normal swell - but this swell swell turned out to be a whale. And that whale was headed west; as in toward Hawaii. Well, I rode that whale all the way to . . . well, my point is that commitments always cost us something and sometimes they cost us more than we ever imagined.
In Nehemiah’s day, through the reading of the Word of God, through being reminded of all that God had done for his people, many were ready and eager to make a real commitment to God. Believing that God was for them and not against them, led them to express their commitment to Him in writing. Beginning in 9:38 thru 10:30, we read:
“ In view of all this (in view of all that God has done for us), we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”
Those who sealed it were:
Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah.
Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests.
The Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel and their associates: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, Zaccur, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Bani and Beninu.
The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Jack Elam, Zattu, Bani, Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, Malluch, Harim and Baanah.
“ The rest of the people – priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand – all these now joined their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.
“ We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.”
It is important to note that this was first, and foremost, a personal commitment. It wasn’t a commitment being made by some organization. Nor was it a commitment being made by Nehemiah on behalf of others who would benefit by making such a commitment. For in fact, this type of commitment cannot be made by someone for someone else. No, these were real people choosing for themselves to obey the Word of God.
Second, it was a public commitment. We know it was public for these people put it in writing and signed their names! I don’t have to tell you that it is tempting to skip over any long list of names, especially when we we have so little chance of pronouncing them correctly. But, I think we honor these brave souls by reading each and every name.
I also think their mother’s will excuse us for mangling the pronunciation. They will relax judgment on us in the joy of having their son, and his family, lifted up in praise by us. For these men and women were not simply committing themselves to a new career, a new hobby, or a new chariot. No! They were making a much more significant commitment; they were taking a vow to fully obey the Law of God. They were promising to honor God.
Third, it was a down-to-earth commitment. They committed themselves to some very specific actions; actions that were spelled out in such a way as to cause no confusion. They weren’t just acknowledging intellectually how they ought to behave in certain situations. They were vowing to behave in a particular manner so as to honor God. They knew, as we all know, that belief ought to impact our daily walk.
In particular, they knew it ought to affect one’s walk down the aisle. Hence, the promise not to give their daughter to some pagan boy who only had one thing on his mind or to take some gold-digging valley girl for their son. This promise wasn’t made out of smugness - a sense of ethnic superiority. For there were biblical, historical, moral, and contemporary reasons as to why a pagan partner was ill-advised.
First, there were clear biblical warnings about the dangers of corrupting their faith, their testimony, through unsuitable marriages. After all, when two people get married, they bring their past, with all of its baggage, to the marriage. In Nehemiah’s day, as in ours, this meant giving each other’s idols a prominent place in the home. For Israel’s neighbors, this wasn’t a problem - the more gods the better. But the Lord’s people long ago had entered into a covenant, an agreement, that began by affirming God’s uniqueness. They had vowed not to recognize, let alone worship, other gods.
Second, history told them over and over again that marrying foreign women meant nothing but one problem after another. Kid Samson, for example, insisted on marrying a valley girl and it turned out to be nothing but trouble. And good old Ahab married Jezebel who proceeded to successfully promote Baal worship in the northern kingdom. So without even mentioning Solomon and all of his unwise “political alliances” through marriage the disastrous affect of a forbidden marriage is evident to anyone who studies history.
Third, there were moral reasons for avoiding the wrong marriage. The presence of idols within the home inevitably drew married couples into detestable practices. This often included cult prostitution, sexual perverseness, and the literal sacrifice of children.
However, the people in Nehemiah’s day didn’t have to look far from home to see the disastrous affects of a mixed marriage. For in Nehemiah 13:23 - 27 we read:
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”
These children were growing up in an environment where they could not understand God’s Word. For the language it was written and spoken in was not known to them even though they lived in Judah! Right under the nose of Nehemiah, Israel’s distinctiveness, her message to the surrounding nations, was being undermined by mixed marriages! On the plus side however, there was hope for many had committed themselves to obeying God’s Word.

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