Setting – Israel moved back within the city walls
Content – The appointing of the priest occurred after the wall was finished and the gates hung. The city was large but unpopulated (v. 4 NLT) “At that time the city was large and spacious, but the population was small. And only a few houses were scattered throughout the city.” Nehemiah called on the tribes (Jerusalem and Judah) to live in the city (v. 66 NLT) “So a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah” Those who returned were based upon the genealogical record that he found (v. 5-6 NLT) “I had found the genealogical record of those who had first returned to Judah. This is what was written there: Here is the list of the Jewish exiles of the provinces who returned from their captivity to Jerusalem and to the other towns of Judah. They had been deported to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar”
Application – Nehemiah had rebuilt a city that was too large for the existing inhabitants to populate it. He realized that in order to prevent any hostile invasion (v. 3b NLT) “Appoint the residents of Jerusalem to act as guards, everyone on a regular watch. Some will serve at their regular posts and some in front of their own homes”, he would need to have a greater number of inhabitants to adequately protect the city. God provided him the idea of repopulated the city with the tribes that were scattered throughout the region. He used an existing register (probably one Ezra did) to take the census.
Some of the things we do don’t aren’t always useful at the moment. For Nehemiah, Ezra’s registration was useful to recall genealogical Jewish lines back to the city. We must not always do things that we see the benefit for the present. Sometimes we need to do things regardless of the immediate benefit, God might use this effort later. In today’s culture, we are tempted to avoid those items that don’t bring short-term returns. I know that God is blessed by the effort and no necessarily the results.
Content – The appointing of the priest occurred after the wall was finished and the gates hung. The city was large but unpopulated (v. 4 NLT) “At that time the city was large and spacious, but the population was small. And only a few houses were scattered throughout the city.” Nehemiah called on the tribes (Jerusalem and Judah) to live in the city (v. 66 NLT) “So a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah” Those who returned were based upon the genealogical record that he found (v. 5-6 NLT) “I had found the genealogical record of those who had first returned to Judah. This is what was written there: Here is the list of the Jewish exiles of the provinces who returned from their captivity to Jerusalem and to the other towns of Judah. They had been deported to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar”
Application – Nehemiah had rebuilt a city that was too large for the existing inhabitants to populate it. He realized that in order to prevent any hostile invasion (v. 3b NLT) “Appoint the residents of Jerusalem to act as guards, everyone on a regular watch. Some will serve at their regular posts and some in front of their own homes”, he would need to have a greater number of inhabitants to adequately protect the city. God provided him the idea of repopulated the city with the tribes that were scattered throughout the region. He used an existing register (probably one Ezra did) to take the census.
Some of the things we do don’t aren’t always useful at the moment. For Nehemiah, Ezra’s registration was useful to recall genealogical Jewish lines back to the city. We must not always do things that we see the benefit for the present. Sometimes we need to do things regardless of the immediate benefit, God might use this effort later. In today’s culture, we are tempted to avoid those items that don’t bring short-term returns. I know that God is blessed by the effort and no necessarily the results.
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