An Oath and a Curse

An Oath and a Curse

 

Nehemiah 10:28-29

 

 “The rest of the people—priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, 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— 29 all these now join their fellow Israelites 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."

 

The book of Nehemiah is a wonderful account of a great leader in the life of the Nation of Israel during the time of their return from exile and rebuilding as the distinctive people of God.  The book revolves around Nehemiah's concern for the people and trouble and disgrace that was upon them.  Though once again by God's mercy and mighty hand they were redeemed, Jerusalem remained broken and in in need of help.  Nehemiah, with the blessing of the king took it upon himself to go himself to the people in order that he could see what needed to be done.  

 

Nehemiah, inspected the wall and devised a plan in his wisdom to build and repair what would be the protection for the city.  Through opposition and persecution he stayed the course and succeeded in his work.  He also brought reform within the city as well, this was reform within the people.  With the help of the Ezra the priest, he taught the people the ways of the Lord and how they had failed to uphold the covenant.  There was grief.  There was repentance.  There was reform and renewal to the covenant.  There really was a great revival in the land under his leadership, in fact while the people made actual changes in their behaviors they also recommitted themselves to the covenant.  The whole nation from the greatest to the least, bound themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of Moses.  This binding agreement was sealed by the heads of the people, the priests and the Levites.  Signed, sealed and delivered to God as an oath and under a curse if not faithfully adhered to.  

 

Nehemiah was a great leader.  He moved the hearts of the people and helped them understand the goodness, mercy, graciousness and love of God who had been faithful to His word and covenant in spite of their failures.  He was able to speak to the people in ways that allowed the goodness of God lead them to repentance.  He was able to bring them to the strong desire to finally be faithful to God and to bind themselves to His laws with an oath and a curse...but what he could not do was enable sinful man to accomplish what they had promised to do.  What Nehemiah was able to do was to bring behavior modification to the nation but he could not bring heart transformation, only Jesus can bring that to a person.

 

Nehemiah was a type of Christ.  There is incredible love and concern for mankind in the broken and disgraceful state that it is in because of the unfaithfulness of the fall and every sinful man since.  As Israel was unfaithful over and over in spite of God's goodness and faithfulness so does mankind fail over and over to be who He calls us to be.  So like Nehemiah and the king, Jesus is sent by the Father out of love for us to help us in our awful situation.  Jesus came to us, walking in our midst and in spite of opposition and persecution from man and all the forces of hell, He accomplished what He came for.  He finished the work he set out to do, the building of a people and a nation...a kingdom under His protection and favor.

 

Now like the Israelites, the law brings condemnation, grief, sorrow, mourning and brokenness.  It brings a renewed resolve to follow God and His commands.  It is committed to over and over and then broken again and again.  Unfortunately, it still comes with an oath and a curse, "For the wages of sin is death", and every one of us has fallen under that curse.  That's the bad news.  But there is good news!  Christ Jesus did for us what Nehemiah could not do for the Israelites.  Nehemiah could not remove their guilt and he could not change who they were no matter how much he wanted to see them succeed.  He was a sinful man himself as he rightly confessed (see chapter 1:6).  All the oaths, seals and commitments fall short with man.  But Jesus, our heavenly Nehemiah took it upon himself to come and to do for us what we could not do.  He Himself was the fulfillment of the Law.  He who knew no sin became sin for us receiving the just penalty for our sin and bestowing upon us His righteousness in the divine exchange of Calvary.  His substitutionary death removed our sin and took it away as far as the east is to the west.  And He sealed the deal for all of us.  Signed, sealed and delivered in the blood of Jesus.  

 

Now because of this Gospel, we are redeemed from the curse of the law and from sin and death.  We are FREE to live in Him and He in us.  Striving to meet the conditions of the law can cease and we are brought to repentance simply by His love and GRACE.  Because we are in Christ Jesus we are forever and completely righteous!  We are a new creation, the old is passed and the new has come.  We are crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us.  There is a change in us.  No longer must we try and strive which only brings, at best, behavior modification; we can believe and receive HEART TRANSFORMATION!  Come and rest in the salvation that only He can provide.   

 

 

Grace to you,

 

Pastor Tony

Freedom Church, USA