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ELEMENTS OF CONGREGATIONAL SERVICE (X)
LORD’S DAY, MARCH 15
Nehemiah 10:1-27

Joshua 24:16-28

 

“So Joshua made a covenant
with the people that day,

and set them a statute…”

 

ELEMENTS OF CONGREGATIONAL SERVICE (X)
 
With regard to the biblical responses under the third element of congregational worship, namely, the congregational response, Nehemiah 8 emphasised the Word, and Nehemiah 9, prayer. In Nehemiah 10, we have another biblical response: commitment and consecration to God. The prayer of Nehemiah 9 was not just a recounting of history and knowledge of God’s Word, nor was it a theological discourse on the attributes of God and sinfulness of man. It was a renewal, commitment and consecration of a people who, through attending to Scripture, had not only known their God in His attributes and their sinfulness, frailty and weakness as man, but had also known what they ought to do and their responsibility and duty. Despite their frailty, they sought by covenant with God, to endeavour (trusting in God’s leading and help) to walk with God and fulfil all that was their duty to do.
 
And because of all this we make a sure covenant (Neh 9:38). The covenant being made was a national commitment to God, with the spiritual and civil leaders representing the people. They put down in writing what they, through the ministry of the Word, had resolved in their hearts. They had purposed to walk in the law of God and obey His commandments as revealed to them in Scriptures. Communally, they signed and sealed an agreement, intending to fulfil their commitment and hold one another accountable in the process, trusting God’s mercy and faithfulness. But they were also aware that they too, like their fathers before them, would be liable to chastisement from God when they strayed and rebelled. The list of those who signed began with
 
(i) Nehemiah and Zidkijah as civil leaders (Neh 10:1): Nehemiah was identified with the Persian title “the Tirshatha” as those who would have governance responsibilities over the people;
 
(ii) followed by the priests (Neh 10:2-8) and the Levites (Neh 10:9-13): They had the duty and responsibility of reading and expounding the law; a duty which they performed willingly and joyfully (Neh 8-9);
 
(iii) and the chiefs of the people (Neh 10:14-27): They were representatives of the clans that returned to Jerusalem.
 
THOUGHT: (Read Proverbs 14:34.)

PRAYER: (Pray as instructed by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1-4.)

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