Making Promises We Can't Keep

I hate New Year’s resolutions. It’s not like don’t make them. Oh, I’ve made hundreds. Lose weight. Exercise. Never forget to take out the trash or do the dishes. Read my Bible every morning. Pray consistently. Want to know what’s the common thread with all of them? I’ve failed at every stinkin’ one of them. Most of the time, I never got past the first week of the new year, much less February. I hate making promises that I can’t keep. That’s the situation the Jewish people face in Nehemiah 9:38-10:27. Their consistent disobedience has come face-to-face with God’s unfailing goodness (Neh 9:6-37). They are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Something must be done. Right here. Right now. So they make a covenant with God to change. While that’s not necessarily a bad idea, they’re making a promise they can’t keep. 

We begin with the little phrase “Because of all this” (v38). Just what “all this” is this? The people have just spent much almost half the day reading the Bible together, confessing their sin, and worshiping God (Neh 9:3). Nehemiah provides us with an amazing transcript of what went down that day (Neh 9:6-37). God’s chosen people praise Him for His overwhelming love, grace, and mercy to them in the face of their never-ending rebellion and rejection. This isn’t just a recent development either. The Hebrew people have a long history of shaking their fist at the God who loves them. So when we drill down on the words “because of all this” (v38), the answer is simple. It’s because of God’s stunning faithfulness. It’s because of our sickening unfaithfulness.

The people of God decide to draw a line in the sand. “We make a firm covenant in writing” (v38). For most of us, the only exposure we have with covenants is with homeowners association. It’s that ridiculously boring and complicated document that keeps us from painting our house hot pink or raising alpacas in our backyard. Back in the ancient Near East, covenants were all the rage. They are binding agreements between two parties. 

The Bible is full of covenants. That’s because God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. He made a promise with Abraham to not only his family but bless the entire world through his family (Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-21; 17:1-14). The so-called Abrahamic Covenant is unilateral. God initiates it and keeps it despite anything Abe does or doesn’t do. We see throughout Scripture that the LORD remains faithful to Abraham despite the fact that Abraham can be a total knucklehead. God made covenant with Moses and the Israelite people while they were camping at Mount Sinai (Ex 19-24). This is actually a conditional covenant. God’s blessings hinge on the obedience of the people. Yeah, this doesn’t go well. The LORD makes a spectacular covenant promise to King David that One of his descendants would eventually sit on the throne forever (2Sam 7:9-17). Jeremiah gets into the covenant game when God uses the prophet to announce that His New Covenant is on the way (Jer 31:31-34). This would be nothing like the one He made through Moses. We’ll get back to that amazing promise in just a bit.

Meanwhile back in Jerusalem, the leaders of the Israelites sign on the dotted line. “On the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests” (v38). You’ll find that list of covenant signers in Nehemiah 10:1-27. And guess who’s name is the first one we see. “Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah” (v1). It’s no surprise that as governor, Nehemiah leads the way by putting his John Hancock on this agreement. Leaders lead and that includes leading in repentance. He has certainly done it before. Back at the palace in Susa, Nehemiah humbly confessed not just his own sin but takes the rap for the rebellion and disobedience of the Jewish people and their ancestors (Neh 1:4-11). He does it again by putting is autograph at the top of the page. The governor doesn’t point fingers. He doesn’t blame. He leads. He repents. And He signs. 

The author then lists the rest of the Hebrew leadership team who sign this covenant of repentance and obedience. After Nehemiah’s signature, we find the names of 22 men and “these are the priests” (v1-8). The job of the priest is to represent God to the people and the people to God. In the Old Testament, they play a VERY important role in God’s relationship with His people. But Jesus changes everything (like we’ve never heard THAT before!). First of all, He takes the role as our ultimate eternal High Priest (Heb 4:14-16). And because who He is and what He’s done, every one of His followers is part of His “royal priesthood” (1Pet 2:9). Just below the 22 priestly signatures are the personally handwritten names of the Levites (v9). God has personally selected the members of the tribe of Levi to be on the worship team (Dt 18:1-5; Josh 13:33). Last but not least are “the chiefs of the people” (v14-27). These 44 fellas scribble their signatures and make their commitment to this covenant. It’s not feasible for everyone to sign so their leaders stand in for them. But one name seems to be missing. That would be Ezra. It would make sense that he would be one the covenant signers. But his name’s not here. Why? We have no idea. 

This new written commitment sure seems like a great idea. What in the wide world of sports could be wrong with a signed, sealed, and delivered deal to faithfully obey everything God says? On the surface, not a dad-gum thing. While it’s awesome anytime we have a burning desire to do everything God tells us, we also need to realize that we’ll all go down in flames at some point. We’re making a promise that we can’t keep. And that’s exactly what happens to this particular covenant. Thirteen years later, Nehemiah makes a return trip to Jerusalem to find God’s people have completely turned their backs on their promise (Neh 13:6-24). The covenant sure seemed like a great idea at the time, but it wasn’t any better than my New Year’s resolution to lose 15 pounds and read my Bible everyday for the next 12 months. It was simply a promise they couldn’t keep.

This is where Jesus and the New Covenant comes to our rescue. At the dinner party the night before His execution, Christ brings up the New Covenant that Jeremiah first mentioned more than 600 years before (Jer 31:31-34). “This cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in My blood” (Lk 22:20). What the radical Rabbi/Carpenter tells His posse is that He’s going to do for us what they could never dream of doing for ourselves. He’s lived a life of complete obedience to His Father’s commands that we could never do. He died a death on the cross in our place for our sin that we should have died. He walked out of the graveyard and rose to new life that we don’t deserve. 

We constantly make promises that we can’t keep. Not Jesus. If He promises to do it, we can take it to the bank. Trusting in Christ means putting our faith in what He’s done for us. His obedient life. His substitutionary death. His resurrection life. We can’t do it. But what He promises, He does. That’s the New Covenant. Believing in Jesus isn’t not about a white-knuckle ride of begrudging obedience. Placing our faith in Him is trusting that He did for us what we could never do. It’s not about the strength of our faith but the Object of our faith. Like Nehemiah and the Jewish people, I consistently make promises I can’t keep. That’s exactly why I need Jesus (Heb 8:8-13). I have every intention of doing good things. But then again, remember what they say about the paving material used in building the road to Hell. It’s not about what I do. It’s about what He’s already done.