It’s an impressive list of signatures (Nehemiah 10:1-27), committed to a written covenant: a covenant that became part of the Bible. Priests, Levites, and leaders of families, with a few names we recognize – Nehemiah, Zedekiah, Obadiah – and dozens of names that are pretty obscure – Meremoth, Bani, Azgad, Bigvai, among others.

All of these signed their names to this renewed covenant, pledging their faithfulness to God in writing. They pledged not to compromise with the culture of the world around them. They would not intermarry with those outside the covenant (10:30). Although foreign shopkeepers didn’t care about the Sabbath and were content to be open seven days a week, the people of the covenant would keep the Sabbath, and not purchase anything on the Sabbath day (10:31).

The goal was “to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his ordinances and his statutes” (10:29). This would include tithes of all the produce of the land, and particular offerings of money and materials beyond that (10:32-39). It would also include practicing a Sabbath year: “we will forgo the crops of the seventh year and the exaction of every debt” (10:31).

What kind of covenant would we sign our names to, in this present day? Would we ever find our way to do that at all, to sign a binding covenant renewal document before our God? And if we did, would we include tithing? Sabbath-keeping? Refusal to intermarry with the world? Probably not. What, then, would we choose as covenant stipulations, as indications of faithfulness to which we would bind ourselves in solemn dedication?

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You are the Lord, keeping covenant with your people for thousands of years; and we are the people who are slow to respond, and hesitant about covenanting back. Pour into our hearts a deep yearning, O God, to dedicate ourselves to you, with fervent commitment.