Dear Hope Family,
It has been said that while all parts of God’s word are equally inspired, not all parts of God’s word are equally interesting. We certainly will put that little saying to the test this week as we encounter the third chapter of Nehemiah. The drama, intrigue, passion, and action of the previous two chapters gives way to what reads like a spreadsheet of names and places that are unfamiliar and hard to pronounce for even the most scholarly among us. Do we skip over this list? Do we fast forward to the place where the plot actually engages us once again? What value, if any, can this snippet of the Bible hold for us thousands of years removed?
Inspiring or not, interesting or not, this is a list of God’s people. They are not nameless, faceless, and distant to Him. He loves to remember His people; He loves to treasure His people by name.
So we will not ignore, dismiss, or skip over this passage this week. Rather, we will hold our noses down into this text this week, and as we do, we hopefully will catch wind of God’s work in the world which he graciously, redemptively invites us into. Once welcomed by name, we will be empowered to build God’s kingdom together as individuals and as an entire church so that the list of God’s people can grow and we ourselves can rejoice that our names are written in God’s book, too.
That reality is surely interesting and captivating!
Grace and peace,
David