Nehemiah 10

“All these now join 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.” (Nehemiah 10:29, NIV)

When you care deeply for someone you want to do everything you can to be with them. This is the basis of every love story. When the LORD delivered the children of Israel from Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai, He made a covenant with them. They would be His special people, and He would be their God. It was a marriage covenant. He would protect them and provide for them, and they would love Him and have no other gods before Him. They vowed to keep this covenant, but they soon broke it. Over the next 900 years, they became increasingly unfaithful, so that the LORD finally wrote them a certificate of divorce and sent them away. But now in His mercy and compassion, He had brought them back to Himself. They were in their homeland, and they were safe behind the walls of Jerusalem. All of God’s goodness to them had brought about a spiritual revival. Now they wanted to reciprocate by renewing their vows.

In March of 2020, just as air travel and “non-essential” public meeting places were being shut down because of COVID-19, our family went to Maui. We had been planning this trip for a year, and we didn’t want to let anything stand in our way. Part of the purpose of our vacation was that Cindy and I were going to renew our marriage vows on Makena Beach with our son (who is one of our assistant pastors) performing the ceremony. After 35 years of marriage, we wanted to reaffirm our love for each other with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren as witnesses. The park officials closed down the beach the day before our scheduled event; we did it anyway. We had no regrets because love conquers all.

Likewise, the inhabitants of Jerusalem wanted to renew their vows with the LORD. They had seen the tragic results of the infidelity of their ancestors, and they wanted nothing to do with it. This meant that they had to separate completely from the pagan cultures around them and dedicate themselves to the LORD. They made a written covenant and 84 priests, Levites and leaders signed it. Then the rest of the people joined in the agreement and bound themselves with an oath and a curse to keep it. They would follow the Law of God and obey all His commandments.

I believe our nation is ripe for spiritual revival, but it cannot happen without separation and dedication. We must separate ourselves from the wickedness of this world and we must dedicate ourselves to loving Jesus and following His commandments.

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21, ESV)

Are you willing to separate yourself from evil things and even questionable things to dedicate yourself to obeying Christ? Are you willing to renew your vows of pure love for Jesus?