B U I L D I N G     L I V E S

W E E K    T H R E E
By Mikel Porter

Monday
Nehemiah 10:1-8

At the end of chapter 9, Nehemiah and the people had come to a place of decision. They knew they must do something about their sin, and now, as a people, they would enter into a covenant. Referring to 9:38, to make a covenant is literally to “cut a covenant.” They were cut because almost always an animal was sacrificed as part of the covenant. A covenant always costs something.

The names in this section are the priests who signed the covenant. The people in Nehemiah’s day knew what covenants were all about and how important they were to God. They knew God made a covenant with Abraham, Moses, and King David. But the greatest covenant, the New Covenant, instituted by Jesus, was yet to come.