Before I was a minister, I was a market researcher. This was at a time when my kids were very young, and had no idea what sort of job their daddy had. So, when I came home from work and they asked me what I did, I said: ‘Counting. Daddy does counting for a living.’ Which was basically true, albeit I imagine they sometimes wondered how anyone could get paid for listing numbers up to ten! (For the record, I did go a bit higher than ten… sometimes.)
Counting is definitely something we find a lot of in the bible. The bible is full of lists of numbers; indeed, there’s a whole book of them which has that very name. Nehemiah chapter 7 is another great example of this value placed upon numbers of people. Genealogies really mattered to the Israelites, and here we have a long list of all the descendants of various families who had returned from exile (or in some cases may never have left).
The reason is made clear at the start of today’s passage: (v4) ‘Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not been rebuilt.’ Not surprisingly, nobody wanted to live in a defenceless city which was surrounded by enemies. But the city had walls now; so, Nehemiah made it his priority – inspired by God (v5) – to get those families to return. How? Certainly not by bribery, threat or even ‘marketing’. He used a much more effective strategy.
Here’s where we need a bit of context. When the Israelites first settled in the Promised Land, every family was given a parcel of land, as theirs in perpetuity. Sometimes land was sold or taken by other families; however, the Jubilee every fifty years was meant to undo all such imbalances, whereby the land was restored to each family. Sadly, the testimony of the prophets throughout the history of Israel indicate that the Jubilee was unlikely to ever have been practised – human greed being what it is – however, those records of which families owned what still remained.
Nehemiah found those records (v5), cross-referenced this against the current population, and consequently made a comprehensive list of who was meant to live where – by family. This is the long list in verses 8-69, and what is fascinating is that this list extends well beyond Jerusalem. It covers the whole country: (v6) ‘each to his own town’ – repeated at the very end of the chapter: (v73) the ‘Israelites settled in their own towns.’ It is a grand vision to repopulate the land.
On the face if it, what is there for us today? Is this just an interesting but curious relic of Old Testament history? At face value, maybe… but there is something powerful here about roots. Where we come from shapes us, for good or ill, and we never entirely leave those roots behind. Jesus was ultimately rejected at Nazareth – but it’s insightful to observe that he went there early in his ministry. He began from his roots.
In the modern world, many of us leave home and live elsewhere; we also grow and develop in different ways, and much of this is good. But roots matter – they matter to us, and also to God. Today, spend a few moments reflecting on your roots. What did God form in you through them? How does he use them in you now? And let’s pray that God works our roots to good, just as He works all things to good, that we may bloom where we’re planted today.