What are you like with lists? Did you find todays passage a fascinating journey through some exotic names and even more exotic places? Or a dreary trawl through meaningless information?
The bible is full of lists; and we’ve already seen several big lists in this little book so far: ch3, ch7, ch10 and even yesterday in the first half of ch11. This list, however, is a bit different, since it is probably an insertion into the book. The narrative runs smoothly from 11:20 to 12:27, so what is this additional ‘sub-list’ doing here?
The answer is that this little section connects the story of Nehemiah with the bigger biblical story. One of the key themes of scripture, and especially of the Old Testament, is God’s faithfulness to his promises and to his people. The people, in contrast, are often faithless, but they cling on to the faithfulness of the Lord. The list of settlers we looked at yesterday is also found in 1 Chronicles 9:2-17 – albeit not in the same format and with some different names, so presumably both were drawn from some bigger list, perhaps kept in the archives at Jerusalem.
Chronicles is all about the faithfulness of God, and the expectancy of the fulfilment of his promises. When was Israel going to be restored? What does a faithful covenant people look like? As Nehemiah records what looks like a dry list of names in 11:1-20, it triggers a memory in a later compiler (it’s clear that this small section isn’t written in the time of Nehemiah by the reference to him in the third person in 12:26, as well as the reference to Darius – see below). This is the story of the people of promise – a people still waiting for their deliverance.
There are two interesting details which would escape our notice without the help of the scholars. The first is that the towns of Judah referenced in 11:25-34 cover a wider area than the actual province of Judah at the time. This might be considered ‘wishful thinking’ – more likely, it is a declaration of faith and hope that the land would one day be fully restored.
Second, the inclusion of the priests who returned with Zerubbabel decades before Ezra and Nehemiah (12:1-21), as well as those in the time of ‘Darius the Persian’ (v22, probably Darius II who ruled a couple of decades after Nehemiah) – in other words a period of more than 100 years – makes it clear that this list has a theological significance. This is the record of faithful worship and service rendered to the Lord over generations, as is testified by the reference to praise and thanksgiving in 12:24.
God is not done with his people yet; nor, from this list, are the people done with God. Nehemiah is ultimately a book about spiritual renewal, and not just a textbook for wise leadership and project management; about worship, and not just a wall. Today, take a few moments to offer your own ‘praise and thanksgiving’ to our amazing, faithful God; and commit yourself again to serve this Lord in this generation, as our spiritual ancestors did in theirs.