Reading
SAA Notes
Once the walls had been built, Nehemiah turned to the problem of peopling Jerusalem. The Presbyterian Church of Australia faces a similar issue – once the walls of the Faith have been rebuilt, we have to people the church. There was no simple answer for Nehemiah, but he turned for help to the families of believers first.
SJA Notes
* God of steadfast love, may we seek Your wisdom, which begins with fearing You, to know You a little better today.
“Then God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.”
This is a very similar passage to Ezra 2. A listing of those returns, around fifty thousand people all up.
Sometimes we can find these lists hard to process. We might not know most of the names, and so can seem like a bit of a chore.
But little by little, God will grow us as we read His word each day in faith.
How good it is to see the sons of Jericho and Ai, cities that Israel conquered way back as Joshua led the people into the promised land.
The mention of the men of Ramah can remind us of hundreds of years in the future, as Jeremiah (ch 31) prophesied Herod’s terrible murder of the little boys, a voice heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation.
The men of Anathoth, where Jeremiah (the prophet) was from, and where generations previous King Solomon had banished the faithless priest Abiathar.
And then in verse 5 we have something important.
God put the enrolment on Nehemiah’s heart. This list. God put it on Nehemiah’s heart.
This passage is important, even if just for the reason that God put it on the heart of Nehemiah to be done, that it is recorded here in God’s word.
God places importance in lists of people!
We should then too.
* Dear God,
Please teach us from Your word today, even when we are tired and lacking in comprehension.
Please in Your supernatural power write Your word upon our hearts, that we might know You a little better today.
Amen.