Nehemiah 12:1-7: a reflection

This passage lists the priests and Levites who returned from exile with Zerubbabel and Jeshua to rebuild the worship of God in Jerusalem, name after name, the leaders of the priestly families. They are names most of us will never remember, recorded here simply because these were the ones who came back to take up the ministry, to keep the worship and service of God going in the restored community. Their names are written down because they returned to serve.

Notice the quiet honor in the record. These were people who left the settled life of exile to return and serve, to take up the priestly and Levitical duties in a rebuilding city. Their service may have seemed ordinary, the routine work of leading worship and ministry, but their names are preserved in Scripture, because God takes note of those who return to serve him, who take up the work of his house. The record is a testimony that their service was seen and remembered.

There is encouragement here for those who take up the ordinary, unglamorous work of serving God and his people. You may feel your service is routine and forgotten, the sort of thing no one records or remembers. But God notes those who serve him. The names in this list are preserved because they returned to take up God's work; and the God who recorded them sees your service too. Take up the work of serving God faithfully, and know that, though the world may not remember, God notes and remembers those who serve him.