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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 10 (9:37 to 10:39)
The
Agreement Of The People (ch. 9:37 to 10:39)
Verse
38 of chapter 9 states that "in view of all of this" the Jews
would make a binding covenant. The
priests, Levites and leaders of Israel
put their seal on this to make it official.
The point to be made here is that in light of all that God has
done for Israel, despite their disobedience, they were going to agree that from this
day onward, they'd obey the Law of God as given by Moses.
This is a pretty tall order for a group of people who could never
consistently do this. From
chapter 10 verse 1 to verse 27 we see those who signed this agreement
that they made with themselves in the sight of their God.
Along with these men, we see in verses 28 and 29 that all the
rest of the people agreed to this covenant. You
will note in verse 28 that those who separated themselves from the
neighbouring Gentile people also agreed to this covenant.
This might be in reference to the great national revival that we
see in the book of Ezra where those who had married Gentile spouses,
sent these spouses and the children of these spouses away, back to their
own land. Or, it might be
possible that this is a new group of people who have sent their spouses
away. Along
with the promise to obey the Law came the promise not to inter-marry
with the Gentile people who lived around them.
This was one of Israel's main problems. They were
not to marry pagans who worshipped pagan gods, but they struggled with
this all the time. Another
problem that consistently plagued Israel
over the years was obeying all the Sabbath rules, and there were many.
In verse 31 they agreed not to buy anything that the Gentiles
would sell them on the Sabbath. They'd
also respect all other holy days, including not working every seventh
year, as well as cancelling all debts.
From
verse 32 to the end of this chapter another problem that Israel consistently struggled with was concerning giving, and especially, the
giving of tithes. The
tithing laws in the Law of Moses are very complex and very few people
understand them. Yet these
people agreed with themselves before their God that they would obey all
the tithing laws. So
we have the three major areas of struggle dealt with here, and they are,
intermarriage, forsaking the Sabbath, and neglecting to tithe.
They agreed to do all of these, including obeying all of the Law.
The
chapter ends with their confession that they would not forsake the
temple of their God. The
temple was the centerpiece to Jewish society.
In the New Testament, we have no temple, no building where God
lives. We as Christians are
the temple
of
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