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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 7 The
List Of Exiles Who Returned (ch. 7:4 -73) In
verse 4 Nehemiah tells us that the city of Jerusalem
was very "spacious". It
was so spacious that there was room for many more people.
One reason why the city was spacious is because, as Nehemiah
points out, the houses for the people weren't built yet.
The building of the wall, which was God's will, was the priority
of the Jews. Their own
houses came second to the will of God.
How often does our houses, our personal things come before God
and His will. In
verse 5 we see that God had placed in Nehemiah's heart the desire to
list all the genealogy of the Jews.
So he called a meeting of all the Jews living in and around Jerusalem. He found the records of
these families, dating back to when the first exiles returned from
Babylonian captivity. The
Jews, as is God, were very good record keepers. The
names of the Jews and their families are listed from verse 6 to verse
63. I will not comment on
these names. In
verses 61 to 64 we note that some Jews could not find their ancestors.
This would mean that they have no proof of being a Jew, in the family of
God. Some of these men
were going to be priests but since they had no proof of their heritage,
they could not be priests. The
same is true with Christians. Either
you are in the family of God or you're not. After
the registration of families was completed, everyone went to live in
their own towns. Not everyone lived within the walls of
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