The revival we studied in Chapter 9 of Nehemiah involved the public reading of God’s Word, followed by conviction of sin and true repentance (inner remorse for sin), which resulted in the outward confession of sin. God’s Word deeply touched them to seek God with all their hearts. Chapter 10 gives us the next step in a genuine revival.
It begins with Nehemiah and all the leaders “cutting” a covenant agreement with God. They are so passionate about getting right and staying right with God that they write out their promises, and all the leaders sign them. It was a declaration of independence. It laid out the deepest desire of the people to live free from slavery to sin. Verse 39 tells us that it wasn’t only the leaders who made the covenant with God. “The rest of the people… join with …their nobles, ?and enter into …an oath to walk in God’s Law…and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and statutes.” They want the freedom to live life to its fullest and to walk with the God that made them and redeemed them from slavery in Babylon. They liked it so much that they joined a covenant to proclaim it. The passion in these words reflects the true character of their hearts.
There should be a similar passion for those redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been freed from slavery to sin and are now set free to live wholeheartedly for God. Max Lucado says, “Before Christ, our lives were out of control, sloppy, and indulgent. We didn’t even know we were slobs until we met him. Then he moved in. Things began to change. What we threw around, we began putting away. What we neglected, we cleaned up. What had been clutter became order. Oh, there were and still are occasional lapses of thought and deed, but he got our house in order by and large. Suddenly, we find ourselves wanting to do good.” Paul puts our situation this way in Romans 6:22, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”