Neh 9 & 10

Reminder: this is NOT a commentary. It is a journal in which others can find encouragement. Be a Berean (Acts 17:11)!

Neh 9
Israel assembled, fasting with sackcloth, and they CONFESSED the sins of their fathers! Why must they confess the sins of their fathers? I don't really know, but I am reminded of this passage in Deuteronomy: "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me" (5:9). Perhaps, in the reading of the law, the Israelites saw this verse and took it to heart.

Eight Levites then began to recount the history of Israel in verse. It is a great summary of what has happened to the people of Israel to this point. God chose Abram; He heard their cry in Egypt; God gave his ordinance at Mount Sinai; He provided for Israel in wilderness; Even after Israel turned to idols, God did not forget them; God multiplied the people in a new land of inheritance; He did not forget them even in Babylon. Now the Israelites have given their covenant to the Lord to keep his statutes.

Neh 10
We have a list of signers of this covenant. The first point made after this list is that These people have taken on a curse or in hebrew, ''alah ' (v29). This word could also mean oath, but if you cross-reference it with the 21st verse in Numbers 5, you can see that there is a distinction made between oath and curse (the word for curse being ''alah ' and the word for oath being 'shĕbuw`ah'). I remember Galations 3:13, that the law is a curse because we cannot keep it. That is why Christ had to die for us!, to save us from the curse! (Remember also Paul's exhortation in Romans 7).

The Israelites also made a covenant to a certain amount of offerings and tithes. They also promised to provide wood for sacrifices in turn.