In Exodus, the people responded to the giving of the law with “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8). God in His sovereignty had chosen Israel, and it was through His grace that He delivered them from Egypt — “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself” (Ex. 19:4) — and yet, the children of Israel voluntarily set themselves under God’s “right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments” (Neh. 9:13). Now, a thousand years later, having recognized that they had not heeded those commandments, this remnant again binds itself under a curse to keep them. Although the people understood that they had failed to keep the law, they did not recognize that the natural man was incapable of keeping God’s holy and just laws. The problem is not with the law, it is with us. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good...but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:12,14).
This was not the first time that the people had rededicated themselves to the law. At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua tells the people “Ye cannot serve the Lord: for He is an holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins” (Josh. 24:19). The people, however, respond with “nay; but we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:21). Even as they spoke, they had already failed, for Joshua says, “Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel” (Josh. 24:23). Nevertheless, “the people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem” (Josh. 24:24-25).
Before entering into their covenant, the remnant separated from those of other nations that were there in the land. This, as has been noted, was a good thing — they were called upon to be a separate people, holy unto God. However, just like Israel in Joshua’s day, we find the people in violation of their own oath before they even enter into it!
“They ... entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His judgments and His statutes” (Neh. 10:29). Three things are spelled out; three things that they had clearly failed in:
Separation: “We would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons” (Neh. 10:30).
Honoring Jehovah’s sabbaths: “We would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt” (Neh. 10:31).
Tithing and firstfruits: “We made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God” (Neh. 10:32).