NEHEMIAH
Lesson 15, Chapter 10
We concluded chapter 9 last week and will study Nehemiah chapter 10 today. We’re going to
deal with some interesting nuances that continue to connect some dots, so we’ll weave
around a little today. The last few verses of the long prayer of repentance that characterizes
chapter 9 made a statement that we discussed last time but I want to emphasize it to begin our
lesson because I think it is that important to our faith. It is from verse 32.
CJB
Nehemiah 9:32 "'Now therefore, our God, great, mighty, fearsome God, who keeps
both covenant and grace: let not all this suffering seem little to you that has come on
us, our kings, our leaders, our cohanim, our prophets, our ancestors, and on all your
people, from the times of the kings of Ashur until this very day.
I want to focus on the clear statement of fact and truth that God keeps both covenant and
grace. And the reason is that there is an unfounded, erroneous, destructive doctrine that has
crept into Christianity; it is that in times past God kept only covenant, but now since the advent
of Christ He keeps ONLY grace. And thus Believers are asked to choose: Covenant or Grace.
Covenant, which is referring to the Covenant of Moses (the Law), or Grace, usually referring to
the free gift of salvation offered by Christ. Naturally this false doctrine leads to yet another false
dichotomy that says we must also choose between the OT (with a foundation of covenant) or
the NT (with a foundation of grace) as our Bible, because this doctrine sets up a premise that
is rigid, uncompromising, and an either/or matter. Bottom line: Christianity today says that
Covenant is wrong; grace is right.
Yet here we have a Biblical statement that God keeps BOTH covenant and grace. That is, it is
not an either/or matter and it is not an issue of choice; the two governing dynamics of covenant
and grace operate together in God’s hand. So should we be startled by this statement? Is this
the first time we’ve heard in the OT about God’s grace being in operation pre-Christ? Actually,
the fist mention of God operating in grace is found far earlier in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 6:7-8 CJB
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7
ADONAI said, "I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the whole earth;
and not only human beings, but animals, creeping things and birds in the air; for I regret
that I ever made them."

8
But Noach found grace in the sight of ADONAI.
So here we have the first recorded act of God directly described as “grace”, and it is with
Noah, before the Great Flood. The Hebrew word used is Chen, and it means favor or grace. It
has no other meaning and so of about 20 English Bible versions that I researched, ALL use the
word “grace”; there is no disagreement. So why is it insisted upon that grace is an exclusive
NT dispensation that replaced the OT dispensation of Covenant?
Thus the Levites’ recitation of this prayer of Nehemiah 9 proves that they fully understood the
concept of God’s grace as not only being active in their lives, but also active right alongside
the Law (covenant). Since the Levites had just a few days earlier concluded reading the Law,
the Covenant of Moses, to the people it is no wonder that they chose to include this statement
of confession about the Lord keeping both covenant and grace in their prayer of repentance
because of all places in the Bible, we also find mention of active grace in the Law itself.
CJB
Deuteronomy 7:9 From this you can know that ADONAI your God is indeed God, the
faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and
observe his mitzvot, to a thousand generations.
So we find God extending grace during Noah’s day, before the Law was created. We find Him
extending grace as a principle contained within the Law itself, and now in Nehemiah we find
grace as a fully understood characteristic of the Lord 900 years after the Law and 400 years
before Christ was born. I intend this not only as a faith builder for you, but as instruction that
you can use to challenge what must be challenged in our day: the false Law versus Grace
doctrine that has so weakened the Church and placed an impenetrable (and intentional) wall of
separation between Jewish and gentile God worshippers.
After a long confession and statement of repentance, chapter 9 ended with a request of God to
once again save the Jews from their predicament. And their predicament is that even though
they are back living in Judah, Judah at this time is nothing more than a Persian province. And
their king is not a Jew of Davidic descent but rather is a gentile pagan; a Persian. So in their
minds they remain as slaves of a foreign power.
Let’s read Nehemiah chapter 10 together.
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NEHEMIAH CHAPTER 10 all
The opening words of this chapter are typically described as a covenant renewal ceremony.
However the word “covenant” is not used here, it is only assumed. Even though our CJB and
almost all other English versions say in verse 1, “In view of all this we are making a binding
covenant…” or something similar, the word that is being translated into covenant is amana and
not the customary word for covenant, berith. Amana more means a statement of faith, or an
agreement. Many scholars say that used in the way it is here that amana and berith are
virtually synonymous; I don’t at all agree with that. They are two quite different words used for
quite different purposes. A careful reading of the terms of the agreement doesn’t allow for this
being a covenant renewal. Further an amana doesn’t carry the weight of a berith (a covenant).
And thus we don’t see any of the standard covenant making procedures that usually involve
salt and/or blood. So what we have here is not a renewed covenant per se, but rather a
manmade agreement among the Jewish people (backed up with signature seals and a vow) to
a newly written statement of faith. And that statement of faith is expressed beginning at verse
28 and concluding at verse 38.
It has become customary in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah to refer to the people, the
leaders, the Levites and the Priests as various parts that together form a group, in order to
signify that every level of Jewish society is participating. And so in verse 1 we see that this
written document was signed (sealed) by the leaders (meaning the lay leaders), the Levites
and the Priests. Together they represent all of Jewish society (at least the part that resides in
Judah). Please note that the 95% of Jewish people living in that day lived NOT in Judah, but
rather lived in various parts of the Persian Empire, and they are today they are known as the
Diaspora. And they had no representation in this agreement.
The first signatory mentioned is Nehemiah. He is given his usual Persian title of Tirshita, which
roughly translates as governor. He is given the honor of being the first to sign, but what
immediately follows is the list of priests. This presents us a bit of a head scratcher to find
Nehemiah listed in the same list as the Priests. And especially so when we find that Ezra’s
name is nowhere mentioned as a signatory to this document. Some scholars say that whoever
wrote this section was a poor historian and mixed up Ezra with Nehemiah (in other words,
Ezra’s name should have been here instead of Nehemiah’s, especially since he was a priest).
However Nehemiah is specifically called the Tirshita, a title that can not be ascribed to Ezra.
So whatever the purpose of putting Nehemiah here and omitting Ezra was on purpose and not
accidental. We’ll not speculate.
Next the Levites are listed and then starting in verse 15 the lay leaders of the people. Then in
verse 29 we’re told that the rest of the lay people, the priests, and the Levites, gatekeepers,
singers and temple servants who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands
joined in swearing an oath to the terms of this statement of faith. So why aren’t these other
Levites and priests named instead of just lumping them altogether as “the other”? We can’t
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know for sure, but since this part of the book of Nehemiah is obviously written by later editors
who took documents and information and formulated a kind of summation of what went on,
they apparently didn’t have everyone’s name and/or found no reason to include everyone as
it may have been far too lengthy. Perhaps the names we do find recorded were the most well
known or senior lay leaders, Levites and Priests. However by saying that all the rest of the
people and the religious leadership participated in the vow ties up loose ends to make it clear
that this was a unanimous decision of everyone present and not the leadership foisting
something upon the people without their consent.
But now we are reminded of a statement that has caused so much heartburn among Bible
translators, Pastors and Rabbis that it is hard to quantify. Verse 29 speaks of “all who had
separated themselves from the peoples of the land”. This is referring back to chapter 9. There
we read:
CJB
Nehemiah 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Isra'el, wearing
sackcloth and with dirt on them, assembled for a fast.
2
Those descended from Isra'el
separated themselves from all foreigners; then they stood up and confessed their own
sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.
The heartburn over this revolves around what is seen as a forced division of people that is
purely along racial lines. That is, hereditary Jews can participate but all others cannot. Further
it almost universally assumed by Bible scholars, many Rabbis (even Rashi), and Pastors that
this is essentially a repeat of what happened in Ezra chapters 9 and 10. Let’s revisit that for a
few minutes. Turn to Ezra chapter 9.
READ EZRA CHAPTER 9:1 – 4
So here Ezra is said to have found out that many of the wives of the Jews living in Judah were
foreigners and not Jews. This news caused Ezra to come unglued and fall into despair
because he understood the gravity of the situation from both a spiritual and a Torah
perspective. Notice that at the end of verse 1 it speaks of the foreign peoples and their
disgusting practices. In other words, these foreign wives that the Jews married did NOT give
up their pagan beliefs or false religions and make Yehoveh God of Israel their one and only
God. They were not at all like Ruth who as a Moabite (and Moab is one of the listed people
groups that these illegitimate foreign wives were taken from) said in her famous
pronouncement of conversion:
Ruth 1:14-17 CJB
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14
Again they wept aloud. Then 'Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Rut stuck
with her.

15
She said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god; go
back, after your sister-in-law."

16
But Rut said, "Don't press me to leave you and stop following you; for wherever you
go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your
God will be my God.

17
Where you die, I will die; and there I will be buried. May ADONAI bring terrible curses
on me, and worse ones as well, if anything but death separates you and me."
So completely unlike our situation in Ezra chapter 9, the foreign women that the Jews married
did NOT make the Jewish people their people, and did NOT make the Jewish God their God.
They did not become Jews. What to do? We read that in Ezra chapter 10.
READ EZRA CHAPTER 10:1 – 6
The lay leaders of Judah decided there was no choice but to divorce these pagan wives. But
this wasn’t really divorce in the technical sense because it was not considered a legitimate
marriage in God’s eyes for a Jewish man to marry a foreign woman who refused to convert.
Nonetheless, this was painful beyond imagination and would have created hardships, in some
cases very severe, for these cast off women and the young children that went with them. Some
commentators say that this was a matter of choosing between the lesser of two evils: to remain
married in an ungodly marriage or to divorce; both of which God hates. I don’t fully agree
because this would not have been a true legal divorce because there was never a true legal
marriage. However, it certainly violates the fundamental God-principle of loving your neighbor
as yourself (that is, loving your fellow human beings and treating them well). Ezra recognized
that the Jews had put themselves in an impossible predicament by their sinful choices. But if
they were going to move forward away from rebellion and into obedience to the Lord, what
choice was there but to separate themselves from their pagan, foreign wives who were not
God worshippers?
Now; is that essentially what is happening again in Nehemiah chapters 9 and 10? Many Bible
scholars say yes; I say unequivocally no. There is no divorce happening here. First, in Ezra
this matter was specifically concerning marriages. It directly speaks of wives and their children
being separated from their Jewish husbands and fathers. No such mention of wives is present
in Nehemiah 9. Rather those descended from Israel (a general group) are to separate
themselves from all foreigners (another general group). Because of what happened a few
years earlier with Ezra, and the sending away of the foreign wives, we can safely assume that
there WERE no foreign wives present here in Nehemiah 9 and 10. And if they were at one
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time, these wives were no longer considered foreigners but had converted. Even so, these
converts would not have been “descended from Israel”, meaning biologically descended from
Jacob. And there is NO mention of anyone being sent away; it is only that those participating in
the ceremonies had to be separated from foreigners. The foreigners (including non-hereditary
Jews) didn’t have to leave Judah they just couldn’t participate in the prayer of repentance
(Nehemiah 9) or in the vow ceremony to adhere to a new statement of faith (Nehemiah 10).
Let’s take a look now at the statement of faith that the Jews are making. From a broad
perspective what they seem to be doing is picking out certain elements of obedience to the
Lord, as based upon Torah Law, and highlighting them. Why these particular things? Probably
because these are things they have NOT been doing, recently or historically, and thus they
vow to reverse the trend. And also because this list consists of foundational behaviors needed
in order to live (they believe) the lifestyle of a redeemed people. And there is a third angle to
this as well: they are adapting the 900 year old Torah to a much more modern life under a set
of circumstances that weren’t contemplated by the Law. More on that later.
Here is the list of subjects addressed by this statement of faith:
1.Obedience to God’s Torah as the source of Law and truth.
2.Marriage.
3.Shabbat.
4.Shmittah (Sabbatical year)
5.Supporting the Temple and Priesthood
6.Providing for the Altar
7.Firstlings
In their minds these were the most important subjects that made for faithful service to God.
And because of their exile to Babylon and all the changes their culture and religion had
undergone as a result, just what constituted proper observance of each of these 7 subjects that
defined their behavior and faith is addressed. Notice that in a sense the first subject, obedience
to God’s Torah, is broken down into the next 6 subjects that follow it.
We’ll go through these one by one, but be aware that none of this is new law. The Torah
regulated each of these subjects already. Rather this is about spelling out matters of the Law
where the community had fallen down severely, or simply disregarded them, and I see this as
fundamentally about dealing with the question that I’m asked nearly daily, and ponder quite
endlessly: how do we do the Law in a 21
st
Century Western civilization outside of a Torah
based society and in light of the advent of Messiah Yeshua?
Things have changed drastically for these Jews since those awesome days of Moses and Mt.
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Sinai. At that time, they were a new nation of people who governed themselves and saw the
Lord as their actual king. By definition all (or at least almost all) of their leaders were Hebrews.
They lived in a primitive society in tents; they didn’t even farm. Most weapons were still Stone
Age, made of flint. But by Nehemiah’s time the world had evolved and advanced dramatically.
The Persians were the lone Superpower. They held the largest Empire the world had ever
known. Tools were now made of iron. Cities were advanced; engineering allowed higher and
stronger defensive walls and crop irrigation from canals and rivers was becoming common
place. Money was now in use and was becoming standardized as the way trade took place.
Pagans and Hebrews lived together in a multi-cultural society. But most importantly for the
Jews, their former homeland was but another of many Persian provinces. They bowed to a
Persian King. The Jews of Judah were Persian Jews. Even their local governor, Nehemiah,
who was Jew by birth, was nonetheless Persian by nationality. And he, too, was a servant of
the Persian King. The Jews were allowed much religious freedom so long as their religious
laws didn’t impede upon the Persian laws. Thus just how much of the Torah they could strictly
obey, and just how they might observe those laws, had limits and boundaries governed by their
everyday circumstances and their political realities over which they had no control.
Even so their stated goal was to obey the Torah as it says in verse 30: "We will live by God's
Torah, given by Moshe the servant of God, and will perform and obey all the mitzvot,
rulings and laws of ADONAI our Lord. Take notice: not a NEW and revised Torah; not a
series of new Jewish traditions that they would just re-label as Torah; but rather the Torah
given by Moses was to be their guide. They would be devoted to the original Torah, the actual
Torah. Ahh, but how shall they do this given their present circumstances?
First, says verse 31, they intend on keeping marriages pure and this is defined as not giving
their daughters to peoples of the land (am eretz in Hebrew) or taking the daughters of the am
eretz as wives for their Jewish sons. Let us be clear; no doubt on the surface this is speaking
of a kind of racial purity and segregation that when viewed through a modern Western race-
sensitive lens seems bigoted if not ugly. But 21
st
Century Western society is not the context
and in the ancient era race was ALWAYS indicative of religion. This had nothing to do with skin
color, hair type, nose shape, even language. By definition each different race represented a
certain nationality, and each nationality worshipped their own set of gods. Let me give you an
example of what I mean that although isn’t as much so today, it was a mere 30 years ago. In
America, the terms American and Christian were, at one time, functionally synonymous. I can
remember when I went into the military in the mid 1960’s that never were you asked if you
were a Christian because it was assumed. The matter was only about which denomination of
Christian you were. I can also remember some inductees having no idea how to answer the
question, saying that they didn’t have a denomination, and in fact they had never been to
Church. They didn’t know the first thing about Christianity; but they still automatically
considered themselves Christians because they were Americans. Now of course this wasn’t
100%, but it was pretty close.
Thus at the time of Nehemiah if one was a Moabite, you of course weren’t a worshipper of the
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God of Jews. If one was an Ammonite, you naturally didn’t worship the gods of Moab or the
God of the Jews, and so on. Thus the term am eretz (which is a very general term that here
means anyone who is “not Jewish”) was by definition anyone who didn’t worship Israel’s
God, and that was because they weren’t Jews. However, it went without saying that if a young
man found a non-Jewish girl who wished to become Jewish, then by definition she was no
longer am eretz. She became a Jew and so her marriage to a Jewish boy was acceptable. So
the bottom line to verse 31 is that one of the statements of faith is that worshippers of Yehoveh
will only marry another worshipper of Yehoveh. And isn’t that a very good and pertinent
statement of faith for a modern Believer in Yeshua? Anyone who is a Believer that has married
a non-Believer can tell you about the challenges and sometimes heartbreak they’ve had to
face by making an unwise choice that is discouraged in the Bible, OT and NT.
The next statement of faith is in verse 32 and it regards Sabbath. Or better, some important
elements of observing Sabbath. The issue is NOT whether to observe it; that is a given. Rather
the issue is twofold: on Shabbat what could a Jew’s contact with a pagan involve; and also
what activities must not be done or it is a violation of Shabbat law. Here the stipulation is that
no Jew should buy or sell to a foreigner (an am eretz) on Shabbat. Notice that the am eretz
were NOT prohibited from buying and selling goods in Jerusalem or anywhere else in Judah; it
is only that Jews can’t do business with them on the 7
th
day. So this is NOT seeking to control
the behavior of non-Jews. Rather it is Jews vowing to control themselves.
Now in reality this buying and selling prohibition is somewhat of a new wrinkle on the Sabbath
law. We don’t find this admonition in the Torah or anywhere else prior to Nehemiah. So what
this is, is an interpretation of Exodus 20:8 – 11, and Deuteronomy 5:12 -15. Here is what it
says:
Exodus 20:8-11 CJB
8
"Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God.

9
You have six days to labor and do all your work,

10
but the seventh day is a Shabbat for ADONAI your God. On it, you are not to do any
kind of work- not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not
your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property.

11
For in six days, ADONAI made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but
on the seventh day he rested. This is why ADONAI blessed the day, Shabbat, and
separated it for himself.
There is NOTHING here in Exodus (nor in Deuteronomy) that directly addresses the issue of
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buying and selling, either as regards Hebrews or non-Hebrews. However the implication is
quite heavy that this shouldn’t occur because it would certainly seem that buying and selling
was the result of normal work and thus not to be done. Obviously this was not a matter of
universal agreement in Nehemiah’s day (or before) and I can tell you that it still isn’t even
among religious Jews today. However, probably as interpreted by Ezra, it was determined that
buying and selling was normal work; and that it had been a usual practice for Jews to buy from
and sell to non-Jews even on Shabbat. Now, however, this was deemed to be a violation of the
Torah Law concerning Sabbath.
Today in Israel it is common for a religious Jew to buy at an Arab market, or to eat at an Arab
restaurant, or to ride in an Arab taxi on Shabbat because some see buying and selling as only
applying to transactions between Jews. In the West where leisure activities are a huge part of
our lives, then should we regard going to the movies on Shabbat as a violation because we
buy a ticket? How about driving your kids to a sporting event and buying gas? And then maybe
buying a cold drink? How about going out to eat on Shabbat? We may not be cooking, but
someone else is. But if that someone else isn’t a Believer, and/or they don’t observe Shabbat,
does it change the decision? I’m not here today to instruct you on Sabbath do’s and don’ts;
the point is that here in Nehemiah the issue at hand was whether Jews should buy from or sell
to pagans on Shabbat, even if the pagans regularly buy and sell to one another on Shabbat.
And the official determination is that no, this should not occur.
Next at the end of verse 32 is the issue of Shmittah, the Sabbath Year. That is the 7
th
year of
each 7 year cycle of years. Shmittah means release; and in regards to each 7
th
year it means
to release the land from work and to release people from paying their debts that year.
Essentially this is only reaffirming the validity of the Torah Law on the matter. Here is what we
read in the law about the Sabbath year.
Exodus 23:10-11 CJB
10
"For six years, you are to sow your land with seed and gather in its harvest.

11
But the seventh year, you are to let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your
people can eat; and what they leave, the wild animals in the countryside can eat. Do the
same with your vineyard and olive grove.
Leviticus 25:1-7 CJB
CJB
Leviticus 25:1 ADONAI spoke to Moshe on Mount Sinai; he said,

2
"Tell the people of Isra'el, 'When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself is
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to observe a Shabbat rest for ADONAI.

3
Six years you will sow your field; six years you will prune your grapevines and gather
their produce.

4
But in the seventh year is to be a Shabbat of complete rest for the land, a Shabbat for
ADONAI; you will neither sow your field nor prune your grapevines.

5
You are not to harvest what grows by itself from the seeds left by your previous
harvest, and you are not to gather the grapes of your untended vine; it is to be a year of
complete rest for the land.

6
But what the land produces during the year of Shabbat will be food for all of you- you,
your servant, your maid, your employee, anyone living near you,

7
your livestock and the wild animals on your land; everything the land produces may
be used for food.
Deuteronomy 15:1-3 CJB
CJB
Deuteronomy 15:1 "At the end of every seven years you are to have a sh'mittah.

2
Here is how the sh'mittah is to be done: every creditor is to give up what he has
loaned to his fellow member of the community- he is not to force his neighbor or
relative to repay it, because ADONAI's time of remission has been proclaimed.

3
You may demand that a foreigner repay his debt, but you are to release your claim on
whatever your brother owes you.
What you may have noticed is that in Exodus and Leviticus it is all about giving the land rest.
But when we get to Deuteronomy the element of debt repayment is added. But then a question
must be asked; does this mean that all debt is to be cancelled in total? Does it mean that every
7
th
year all bondservants are to be permanently released? Because that sounds exactly like
what is to happen in the Year of Jubilee, something that comes around only every 50 years,
not every 7.
Leviticus 25:8-13 CJB
8
"'You are to count seven Shabbats of years, seven times seven years, that is, forty-
nine years.
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9
Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom-Kippur, you are to sound a blast
on the shofar; you are to sound the shofar all through your land;

10
and you are to consecrate the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land
to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel for you; you will return everyone to the land he
owns, and everyone is to return to his family.

11
That fiftieth year will be a yovel for you; in that year you are not to sow, harvest what
grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines;

12
because it is a yovel. It will be holy for you; whatever the fields produce will be food
for all of you.

13
In this year of yovel, every one of you is to return to the land he owns.
Thus there have been various interpretations over the centuries of what is to happen every 7
th
year especially as regards debts and bondservants. In general, but not universally, the belief is
that the intent of the Law is to cancel the debt payment due that year, but not the entire debt.
And those bondservants may go home in the 7
th
year, but must come back the next year if they
still owe a debt. And in fact that is what we seem to see in the stipulation of the 4
th
statement of
faith here in Nehemiah: “We will forego planting and harvesting our fields during the seventh
year and colleting debts then”. Notice: NOT cancelling debts, but rather not colleting debts in
the Sabbatical Year.
Thus, Ezra and the Jews of Judah during Nehemiah’s day have interpreted the Law of the
Sabbatical Year to mean no planting and harvesting, and no collecting debts.
And so we see this pattern of trying to figure out how to obey God’s laws as He intended
them, under evolving living circumstances, in the spirit they were meant. And I maintain that
this is a never ending task for God’s Believers, and it applies to all Believers of Yeshua even
in the 21
st
Century. Yes, it is certainly easier to just declare that all of God’s laws are null and
void; something that Yeshua was emphatic that we don’t do. Then if we, on our own, cancel all
of God’s laws then we can do whatever we want to and declare it righteous. But that is wrong,
and it is sin, and it is rebellion. Our job is to constantly think upon how to apply God’s laws to
our lives within our evolving culture and within our changing circumstances. Next week we’ll
conclude chapter 10.
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