- Lesson Thirteen in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Assignment: The Relentless Pursuit of Obedience” focuses on Nehemiah 13:15-22.
The fourth of the Ten Commandments was the longest and one of the two positive commandments. The commandment dealt with rest and reverence.
After working for six days, God’s people were instructed to rest on the seventh. This was part of the very creation of life: after six days of working/creating, God rested on the seventh.
Even before this commandment was given, while the Israelites were in the wilderness on the way from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, God showed them the day of rest was a basic principle of life.
The people ran out of food, and God promised bread from heaven. Each day they gathered enough manna for that day, and on the sixth day, God provided a double portion allowing them to rest from gathering on the seventh.
The Sabbath was not only a time of rest but also a day of worship. Worship was just as important to the commandment as rest. God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Yet even after the restoration of the Temple and the wall, they still were neglecting the Sabbath. The day of worship and rest was commercialized being exploited for personal gain.
“In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food” (13:15).
Nehemiah reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day?” (13:17).
Nehemiah commanded that the gates of the city be locked at dark before the Sabbath and not opened until after the Sabbath. He commanded the Levites to purify themselves and come as keepers of the gates and sanctify the Sabbath day.
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