Nehemiah 10:28-31

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        28.  And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the 
        Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto 
        the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, 
        and having understanding;  29.  They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and 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;  30.  And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the 
        land, nor take their daughters for our sons:  31.  And if the people of the land bring 
        ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that 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.
      
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        	v 28 - They went FROM something TO something else.
      
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        	Verse 29. They clave to their brethren Though they did not sign this instrument, yet they 
        bound themselves under a solemn oath that they would fulfil the conditions of the 
        covenant, and walk according to the law of Moses. 
      
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        	v 30-31 - The direction was AWAY FROM THE SINS OF THE TIME.
      
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        		Restriction against marriage with pagans… Ezra had dealt with this problem (Ezra 9--10); 
        but the problem persisted, and there was constant need to address it. 
      
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        		Keeping the sabbaths… Jeremiah 17:21, 22, and Amos 8:5 indicate clearly that trading on 
        the sabbath day was prohibited.
      
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        		The sabbatical year a time of release of debts… Deut. 15 required that all debts (among 
        Israelites) be canceled, although that release did not apply to foreigners. Also, the 
        fields were to lie fallow and remain uncultivated on the seventh year (Leviticus 25:2-7). 
        Such provisions would have greatly alleviated the distress in Jerusalem and all Judea 
        (described in Neh. 5:1-4), but these regulations had apparently not been observed in 
        Israel until this point
      
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        	Their covenant was first with God, and their resulting covenant with eachother flowed 
        from that.
      
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        	Conversion is separating from the course and custom of this world, devoting ourselves to 
        the conduct directed by the word of God
      
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