Tuesday - Remember Those Who Came Before

READ:  Nehemiah 7:6–7, 64–66

“These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city;” – Nehemiah 7:6

Nehemiah wasn’t the first one home. When God brought His people back from Babylon, they came in waves spread across nearly a hundred years. The first group returned under Zerubbabel and walked into a city that was nothing but rubble and ash — and they rebuilt the altar and laid the foundation of the temple. Years later Ezra came and rebuilt the people, calling them back to God’s Word. And last of all, about ninety years after that first group, Nehemiah came to build the wall.

So when Nehemiah reads this register, he is reaching all the way back to those very first ones. He is remembering where they came from.

On Sunday we held up an old church directory from 1920 — over a hundred years old, the same church with different faces. Name after name, most of them unfamiliar now. But every one of those names was somebody: somebody who loved this church, who gave to it when they had little to give, who prayed for it. And a hundred years later, here we are — sitting in what they left behind.

Whose faithfulness are you living on the inheritance of — a parent, a teacher, someone t in your church, believers you’ll never meet this side of heaven? Have you ever thanked God for them by name?