Nehemiah 10:32-39 – Give our best to God

In determining to right the nation’s past wrongs and unfaithfulness to God’s law given by Moses, the people in Nehemiah 10:30-21 pledged to do three things. Firstly they pledged not to intermarry with the people of the land. Secondly, they pledged to refrain from buying any items from foreigners on the Sabbath and any holy day. And thirdly, they would do what had been stipulated for the Sabbath year by not planting crops nor exacting debt owed to them on that year.

In Nehemiah 10:32-39, they added four more obligations. Firstly, they were determined to contribute one-third of a shekel annually to enable services in the temple. This would fund “the showbread, for the continual grain offering, for the continual burnt offering, the sabbaths, the new moon, for the appointed times, for the holy things and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.” Like them giving to the work of the church is essential for us, believers. Being part of God’s family meant that it is our obligation to contribute towards sustaining the work of God through the church. Let’s not neglect our financial obligation to the church.

Secondly, each family was scheduled by lot to be responsible for a duration to supply wood for the altar service.  They did this to ensure that every family by rotation would be involved for a period. It is true that without taking steps to ensure everyone is involved in God’s work, some will be overworked, and others may adopt the attitude that the work is someone else’s business. Without proper scheduling and being left to everyone’s initiative, everybody’s concern will soon become no one’s concern.    

Thirdly, verses, 35-39 describe the first fruit offering to the Lord that they were expected to give to the Lord. Verse 35 said they were expected to bring the first fruits of their ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually. Besides, they would “bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and flocks according to the law. These were given to maintain the priests ministering in the temple. Here we learned that they earmarked tithe for Levites serving in rural areas. Under priestly supervision, those Levites were also required to bring a tenth of the tithes they received from the people to the temple. All the gifts were stored in the storerooms of the temple for its upkeep.

 

Finally, in verse 39, they pledged not to neglect the house of God. This is an important part of life in God.  For a long time, the temple was maintained by the Persian kings. Now the people of God pledged to assume the responsibility of maintaining the temple. Their faith in God was now seen in concrete action. Know this: the faith that is worth embracing is worthy of our everything.