The city of Jerusalem was very important to the people of Israel, but it wasn’t necessarily a desirable place to live. The temple and the city walls were up, but Jerusalem still had the air of a ghost town. It was probably still hard to travel around town past the rubble and debris waiting to be cleaned up.

The Challenges of Living in Jerusalem

Whoever chose to make a home in Jerusalem basically started from scratch. They set up businesses in an uncertain markets and moved into neighborhoods full of dilapidated houses. There was no guarantee that visitors would make Jerusalem a destination in the foreseeable future. It had a reputation as the place God had cursed when he was angry with his people.

Jerusalem’s neighbors were still hostile toward them and the men of Jerusalem had to stay vigilant in case there was an attack. They were surrounded by nations that didn’t want them to exist.

The new walls around the city gave the impression that something inside must be worth guarding, and it was well known that the temple had a treasury. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if an enemy  tried to invade Jerusalem.

The people who moved to Jerusalem left behind their ancestral lands to live in the capitol city. They were separated from their clans and their lifelong friends. They went in faith that somehow they would be able to establish a new community for themselves and their families.

Not many people wanted to live in Jerusalem, but for the good of the nation they needed to get people to go there.  In order to make it fair and impartial they cast lots in their towns and selected one family out of every ten to move to the city.

Beyond the lottery, there were also people who simply volunteered to go and live in Jerusalem. They were commended for their faith and loyalty to their nation.

The People Who Came to Jerusalem

Nehemiah listed the names of the people who moved to Jerusalem. It’s hard to recognize some of  these names because in many cases they aren’t found anywhere else in the Bible, and Nehemiah’s account makes it challenging to figure out exactly when these people arrived in the city.

But the people listed in Nehemiah 11 apparently went to Jerusalem during Nehemiah’s time. He recorded some of the names and then gave the total number of people who were part of that group, such as the descendants of Judah who numbered 468 men. In that way he gave Israel the shorthand version of how Jerusalem was repopulated.

In Nehemiah 11:25-36 we see the description of where the Israelites resettled in the towns outside of Jerusalem. They were clustered from just north and west of Jerusalem to Beer Sheba in the south. The territory Israel occupied in Nehemiah’s time is similar to the territory the Israelis occupy today, except modern Israel has added the Golan Heights in the north and Gaza Strip in the south.

A History of the Priests and Levites

Nehemiah 12 gives us a rather confusing history of the priests who returned to Jerusalem – from Zerubbabel’s time to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Once again, the record is hard to follow because not all of these names can be found in other parts of the Bible.

Some of the names are familiar and we might think we know who the person is, but it’s probably a different person with the same name. We don’t actually need to know who all of these people are. They had significance for the readers of their times, and they continue to have significance to God.

Taking Care of Temple Business

In our chronological reading today we read 1 Chronicles 9, which seems out of place since we already read both the first and second books of Chronicles. It was probably Ezra who wrote the books of the Chronicles and the first chapters are a list of genealogies from Adam through Elioenai, the eight-great-grandson of Jehoiachin, the last king of Judah. That helps us know when the books of Chronicles were written.

But the writer of Chronicles closes his lists of genealogies with the priests and Levites who came back to Jerusalem after the Exile. That’s the part of Israel’s history we are reading now, so 1 Chronicles 9 fits here.

The most interesting thing in this chapter is the description of how the priests and Levites got their work done. It shows that a thousand years after Moses gave the Laws for the priests they were still being carefully observed.

The contents of the Bible have been around for thousands of years and if Moses, David, Jeremiah, Peter or Paul were to take a look at the Bible we are reading today they would recognize the Scriptures they wrote, it has been that carefully preserved. There is no other book like the Bible. Reading it is a good investment of our time!