Ever Lasting Lists!

I have been reading in Nehemiah. This morning, reading in chapter 8 I somewhat groggily suspected that I had read this stuff quite recently. Granted it was early and I was half asleep, but I riffled back a few pages and there, sure enough in Ezra chapter 2, was the identical genealogical list of people who returned from exile to rebuild the temple! This isn’t the most riveting bit of the Bible….so why is it included twice?

That got me thinking about other seemingly interminable lists of names in other sections of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, as well as Ezra and Nehemiah. These are not passages that one often hears being preached about; in fact I have rarely heard them alluded to at all! They are full of pitfalls for unwary preachers, having unpronounceable names, and not much that is other than yawn provoking.

But it got me wondering: why are these meticulously compiled lists included at all? Do they enhance our understanding of man, his rebellion, his lost plight? Do they reveal truth about atonement, justification, righteousness? Do they help us to live better? Well, may be not overtly. But they do show us that the Bible is not a random set of myths as some would suppose. It is about real people doing real things: mostly about begetting children its true, but also about building walls, taking land, creating cities. These lists are so carefully compiled that there are often cross references to support their accuracy, and footnotes  with alternative spellings.

Every jot and tittle has been accounted for, and however tedious it may seem, there is hard evidence here for historical fact.

But it also excites me to know that I have ancestry : I belong to a tradition of those who lived by faith, who entered in to the promised land, who fought for their inheritance, who just got on with having babies and continued the chain of families in the people of God.

God knew every one of their names and wanted them recorded. They not only had existence, they had faces. Sometimes interesting little details are inserted in the lists,  for example, Jabez. (2Chron 4:9) His name means Pain, not a desirable tag, one has to admit. Yet he is remembered for a remarkable prayer: “Oh that you would bless me, and enlarge my borders! Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free of pain.” His mother suffered; he apparently suffered, but he cried out to God for big blessings in is life! What is more, God heard and granted his request.

Some were listed as skilled craftsmen; others were musicians; some were gatekeepers who guarded the threshold of the temple. Others were mighty hunters, or warriors. Some were prophets, some were priests. Whole tribes are listed, and clans and families within them.

I sometimes wonder about the scribes who had the job of keeping all these records. Who were they, and why did they? Presumably, they were appointed for the job. Did they actually count every person? And did they count the camels, goats, horses, sheep and cattle? Because they too are often listed. Such detail!

I’m glad it wasn’t my job. I am not a details sort of person; I do not delight in the minute debris of life: numbers, train timetables, knitting patterns, washing machine manuals; forms for passports, bank accounts, insurance: I find them tedious and boring. Yet they are necessary and important, and irritating though they are, life would be infinitely more muddled and confusing without them.

The lists in the Bible show me something of a God who cares about individuals, who takes trouble over details. His lists are not impersonal, random inventories, but careful accounts of real people who created history. Our history. He made a path through the Red Sea; he sustained a nation for 40 years in the desert; he shut the mouths of lions, sent fire from Heaven, inspired mighty warriors. But he also knew when Jabez prayed in his pain, he knew that Benaiah killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day; he knew all the people who are just obscure lists of names to us: Eliezer, Reuben, Shemaiah, Zabdi, Ezri, Azarel…..who married who, and who their babies were.

He knows me too, and you. My name is written in his Book. In fact when Jesus, our Great High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us, holds up his hands, all Heaven can see your name and mine, and countless others, graven on his palms.

We are known, owned and loved.