This Sunday evening we come to Nehemiah 10. In the previous chapter the people recognised their constant rebellion against God, even though God remained faithful. Then in chapter 10 they come up with a list of things they should do in order to make sure that something like the exile never happened again. In summary this list is: not to intermarry (30), keep the Sabbath (31), provide for the temple (32-34), bring the first-fruits (35-37), and bring their tithes (37-39). Many of these commitments were to ensure that the house of God was not neglected (39).
On a first read through, even a second, this seems like a good move on behalf of the people - certainly a step in the right direction. There certainly appear to be plenty of application points for the preacher to include for the people of God today. For example: a Christian should not marry a non-Christian; it is important to keep one day a week, preferably Sunday, special; it is important that a percentage of our income is given back to God, particularly to the local church, and that we give out of the 'first' things rather than what's left over at the end of the month...
So, why might this not be such a good list after all? It seems to me that it would be very easy to make a check list from this chapter. They are all things we can do and then tick off the list. They are things that we can quite easily make up further rules for - what we should and shouldn't do on a Sunday. Making sure that we give 10% (the tithe) of all our income to the local church. It is at this point that this starts to sound like the Pharisees of Jesus' day. One of the criticisms against them was that they gave 10% of even the smallest things - even their spices - but they neglected the more important issues of justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).
It is not that we shouldn't do these things listed here, because in and of themselves they are good. The caution is not to allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that our faith is about following a set of rules. So whilst giving 10% of our income to the local church is a good biblical minimum starting point, God is really interested in what we do with the 90% we keep for ourselves. It is good to keep Sunday special but if the rest of the week I am so busy that I don't have the time for the friend in need - haven't I missed the point somewhere?
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Listen to this message by Pastor Keith, from 7 October 2007.
