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Guest (Male): Pastor Tom Keller has some good advice about working on Sunday.

Thom Keller: Are we compelled to obey this law? No, because we are under grace. But if you feel convicted about any aspect of working or buying or dealing on a Sunday, that's for you to work out. The thing that you may not do under grace is impose your conviction on that on another.

That's where it gets ugly fast. The truth is, we all function better taking one day of rest each week. So consider that as well.

Guest (Male): The Israelites in Nehemiah chapter 10 made a solemn oath to obey the law of God. This included not buying merchandise or grain from local merchants on the Sabbath. This is Study the Word, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

Our Bible teacher is Pastor Tom Keller. Some well-meaning Christians and pastors have tried to impose the Sabbath law on others. But the Apostle Paul makes it clear in Colossians 2:16 that for Christians, any observance of the Sabbath is a personal choice. Here's Pastor Tom.

Thom Keller: If you're new here, if this is your first Sunday here, just a little quick background on Nehemiah. In chapter 2, Nehemiah moves from Persia to Jerusalem in order to supervise the rebuilding of a wall around Jerusalem. In chapter 6, they celebrate the completion of that wall, a huge undertaking that took only 52 days. In chapter 8, Ezra the priest reads the word of God to the entire Jewish population and they are crushed at the realization of how disobedient they and their ancestors have been to the word.

Then in chapter 9, the people gather to weep and repent and confess their sins, which is followed by a joyous worship and praise service. At the end of chapter 10, they bind themselves to God's curse if they disobey God's laws going forward. Nehemiah 10 verse 29 says this, "They joined their leaders and bound themselves with an oath. They swore a curse on themselves if they failed to obey the law of God as issued by his servant Moses. They solemnly promised to carefully follow all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our God."

Beginning in verse 30, they drill down to this and add nine specific commandments that they in particular are committed to keeping. The first one being in verse 30, "We promise not to let our daughters marry the pagan people of the land and not to let our sons marry their daughters." Before you think that this marrying of foreign wives was epidemic, which you may have thought as you read this book in the past, consider the low number of offenders listed as compared to the total number of men who returned with Zerubbabel in Nehemiah chapter 7.

It's 0.4%, or four out of a thousand, had married foreign wives. It's not a huge number, but it still was a concern. The reason for this is because God knew that these foreign wives would turn their husbands' hearts away from the one true Jehovah God. God warned the Israelites of that in Deuteronomy 7: "You shall not intermarry with them and giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly."

The prophet Malachi, who prophesied early in the fifth century, about 40 years after Nehemiah, said this in Malachi 2:14: "You cry out, 'Why doesn't the Lord accept my worship?' I'll tell you why. Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows." Jewish rabbis in explaining Malachi's comments here suggest that these older wives had lost their beauty as they aged.

Rabbi Yohanan wrote, "When the Jews returned from the exile, the faces of their wives had become unattractive by the sun. So their husbands therefore left them and married young heathen wives." Was this legal according to Mosaic law? Technically, it did allow for that. In Deuteronomy 24 verse 1, it says this: "Suppose a man marries a woman, but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house."

We could spend weeks in that, the way the different rabbis translated that. Although God did allow divorce, as Jesus said, in response to the hardness of your hearts, he never liked it. In fact, the Bible says he hates divorce. Malachi 2:16, God says, "For I hate divorce," says the Lord, the God of Israel. "To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty," says the Lord of Heaven's armies. "So guard your heart, do not be unfaithful to your wife."

Always remember that God hates divorce. Those of you who have gone through divorce know how painful it can be. I believe that nearly all people who have gone through a divorce, if they were counseling another couple, would say do all that you can to work it out. I think that is wisdom. The second command that they promise to keep: "We also promise that if the people of the land should bring any merchandise or grain to be sold on the Sabbath or in any other holy day, we will refuse to buy it."

This comes from Leviticus 23:3, again Mosaic law. It says, "You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord's Sabbath day and it must be observed wherever you live." Did you know that this commandment that you not work on the Sabbath was for nearly two centuries law in the state of Pennsylvania? These are known as blue laws. In 1682, Pennsylvania first enacted blue laws.

Pennsylvania put its first blue law in place shortly after its founding as a colony by William Penn. The law read, "Whoever does or performs any worldly employment or business whatsoever on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, works of necessity and charity only are exempted, or if uses or practices any game, hunting, shooting, sport, or diversion whatsoever on the same day not authorized by law is considered to be a lawbreaker." Did you know this is still law in the state of Pennsylvania in some areas? For instance, auto dealerships are closed on Sundays.

I couldn't find a list for Pennsylvania, but I looked at the Texas blue laws. Until 1985 in Texas, you could not buy these things on Sunday: furniture, kitchen utensils, stove, air conditioner, refrigerator, fans, radios, washer, dryer, TVs, cameras, jewelry. You couldn't buy any of those items on a Sunday. Did you know that the term "blue law" actually comes from the Bible? In Numbers 15:32 we read this under Moses: "One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath." That was a big no-no.

They took him to Moses, and the punishment was severe; they stoned him to death. As a direct result of this young man working on the Sabbath, God said this in the same chapter, right after he was stoned, verse 38: "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with blue cord." Blue laws. "When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves as you are prone to do. The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God."

Are we compelled to obey this law? No, because we are under grace. But if you feel convicted about any aspect of working or buying or dealing on a Sunday, that's for you to work out. The thing that you may not do under grace is impose your conviction on another. That's where it gets ugly fast. The truth is, we all function better taking one day of rest each week. So consider that as well.

I remember years ago I read that during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the French government tried going to a metric work week, one day off every ten days instead to get more work, and they said people started to go insane. I thought that was interesting. I never forgot that. If you really think about it, we all pay more because we're open for business seven days instead of six. Think it through: if we're open six days, the same total amount of products are going to be sold. But now those businesses add one more seventh of their expense to that extra day and we pay that. So in the end, we don't get such a good deal out of it anyway.

The next command they vow to keep is the second part of verse 31, which says this: "Every seventh year we will let our land rest and we will cancel all debts owed to us." You ever had a credit card balance or a mortgage? How does that sound? Maybe this is the sixth year and you're coming up on number seven. The first part is that we're not to do any work on the seventh year, and this comes from Mosaic law.

Exodus 23 says this: "For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused." They were an agrarian economy. All they did was farm. "But during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove." What would be the first question you would ask about this Sabbath year?

"How will we survive?" right? A full year not working. How would we even survive? Although the answer is never given specifically concerning the Sabbath year, the answer is given to us by God in Exodus 16 where there is a chapter on manna dealing with the food from heaven. The Lord said to Moses, "Look, I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day."

This happened the whole 40 years in the wilderness. "I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they will gather food and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual." Going down to verse 22, it says, "On the sixth day they gathered twice as much as usual, four quarts for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders in the community came and asked Moses for an explanation."

He told them, "This is what the Lord commanded: today will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. Bake or boil as much as you want today and set aside what is left for tomorrow. There will be enough for the next day." This same principle applied to the Sabbath year in addition to the Sabbath day. The idea being that if they trusted God and took the seventh year off, God would provide twice as much on the sixth year as in the five preceding years.

When I was in business and I read that, I often thought wouldn't it be neat to practice this and see if God would honor that? Although I believed he would, I never had the courage or the faith to do it. But I thought wouldn't that be cool to give all the employees off a whole year to go do ministry or do whatever they want. I find this interesting: do the Orthodox Jews in Israel today let their land fallow every seventh year?

During the early years of the resettlement of the land of Israel, the then chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook invented a legal loophole to get around the Sabbath year of rest called the Heter Mechira. Every seventh year the land is sold to Arabs for the Sabbath year with a guaranteed buyback at the end of the year. That enables non-Jews to work the farms and thus not violate the law. There's a way around everything.

The second part of verse 31 says this: "We also promise that if the people of the land should bring any merchandise or grain to be sold on the Sabbath or in any other holy day, we will refuse to buy it. Every seventh year we will let our land rest and we will cancel all debts owed to us." This teaching comes from Deuteronomy chapter 15, which says this: "At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money. This is how it is to be done: everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites."

Non-Jews, not the case. Jews, yes. "They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the Lord's time of release has arrived. This relief from debt, however, applies only to your fellow Israelites, not to foreigners living among you." Does this canceling of all debts at the end of seven years, do you think the people look forward to this? The poor people, yes. The rich people, probably not so much.

You might ask, but couldn't the rich limit their losses by not lending money to the poor once the seventh year became close or they limit their terms to the number of years remaining? God saw this one coming; he doesn't miss a thing. Deuteronomy 15:7-9 says: "But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward them."

"Instead, be generous and lend to them whatever they need. Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord, you will be considered guilty of sin." Next, the people agree to pay their annual temple tax. Nehemiah 10 verse 32: "In addition, we promise to obey the command to pay the annual temple tax of one-eighth an ounce of silver for the care of the temple of our God."

"This will provide for the bread of the presence, for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings, for the offerings on Sabbaths, new moon celebrations, and the annual festivals, for the holy offerings and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel. It will provide for everything necessary for the work of the temple of our God." This was also known as the ransom tax, as found in Exodus chapter 30. "Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is counted must pay a ransom for himself to the Lord."

"Then no plague will strike the people as you count them. Each person who is counted must give a small piece of silver as a sacred offering to the Lord. This payment is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel, which equals 20 gerahs. All who have reached their 20th birthday must give this sacred offering to the Lord, this ransom tax or temple tax. When this offering is given to the Lord to purify your lives, making you right with him, the rich must not give more than the specified amount and the poor must not give less."

"Receive this ransom money from the Israelites and use it for the care of the Tabernacle. It will bring the Israelites to the Lord's attention and it will purify your lives." Again, King James says, "A ransom for your soul." This temple tax was designed to accomplish four things. Number one: to cause the people to formally consider their sin one time each year. The second was to bring an awareness to the people that sin needed to be ransomed, that a price needed to be paid to cover their sins so their guilt could be taken away, again pointing to Jesus in the New Testament.

Thirdly: to show that this ransom is an equal amount for all, that the amount for the very rich and the very poor was exactly the same because each and every soul is worth the same amount. Number four: this money was ultimately used for the care of the temple where God's Shekhinah glory dwelt. The next promise they make deals with firewood, interesting. Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 34 says, "We have cast sacred lots to determine when at regular times each year the families of the priests, Levites, and common people should bring wood to God's temple to be burned at the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law."

This wood was required for the continual burning of the altar. The altar never went out. That's found in Leviticus 6 verse 12: "Meanwhile the fire on the altar must be kept burning, it must never go out. Each morning the priests will add fresh wood to the fire and arrange a burnt offering on it. He will then burn the fat of the peace offering on it. Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times, it must never go out."

I love this account. This is found in the Talmud, which was compiled between 300 and 600 AD by the Jews. It's their compilation of the oral law of Moses and other law that they've added. In the Talmud, it says that from about 40 years before the destruction of the temple, which would have been about 30 AD, which is when Jesus died, every single night the lamp that was in the holy place would go out. It was fed by oil. They could not keep it lit. The idea is that because the oil was Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was not present in that sacrificial system anymore.

That took a lot of wood. Nehemiah 10 verse 35 says, "We promise always to bring the first part of every harvest to the Lord's temple, whether it be a crop from the soil or from the fruit trees." These firstfruits were brought to the temple as food for the priests and Levites. Nehemiah says that the people are to bring these from every harvest, every crop, every tree.

Whereas the Old Testament only listed required firstfruits be given from seven different kinds of plants, this offer to bring God the firstfruits of every tree, every plant, every fruit was exceptional. Moving on in Nehemiah 10:36, it says, "We agree to give God our oldest sons and the firstborn of all our herds and flocks as prescribed in the law. We will present them to the priests who minister in the temple of our God."

They're going to give their oldest sons. This comes out of the final plague that God brought against Pharaoh as they left Egypt. In Exodus 13, this is where we find the command: "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Dedicate to me every firstborn among the Israelites. The first offspring to be born of both humans and animals belongs to me.'" Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, so the Lord killed all the firstborn males throughout the land of Egypt, both people and animals. That is why I now sacrifice all the firstborn males to the Lord, except that the firstborn sons are always bought back.

This was intended to fix in the minds of all faithful future generations God's miraculous deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt. They are to dedicate the firstborn, but this is a good biblical principle to remember: that not only do they dedicate the first, but they also dedicate the best. In verse 36, the people promise their firstborn, and they promise to give their best in verse 37.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. We're in the book of Nehemiah right now. To give this a second listen, either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and you can watch our services live or on demand. We could also send you a CD copy if you'll call 717-273-5633. Once again, that's 717-273-5633.

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