Another Genealogy - Why? Nehemiah 7:4-73
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Open or download audioExplore Nehemiah 7:4-73 in this sermon: Nehemiah's repeated genealogy is not filler; it records God's faithfulness in preserving and returning a covenant…
- Nehemiah's repeated genealogy is not filler; it records God's faithfulness in preserving and returning a covenant people after exile.
- The returnees willingly left settled lives in Babylon and Persia for a ruined city because they desired the God of Jerusalem and trusted his promises.
- The list remembers families, towns, priests, temple servants, and even Gibeonite descendants who had embraced life among God's people.
- Genealogical records mattered because they connected families to covenant identity and protected the qualifications of those serving in the priesthood.
- The people's gifts toward rebuilding the temple show that their return included costly commitment to worship and God's work.
- Jeremiah's promised return is fulfilled as God gathers his people, hears those who seek him, and proves that he has not left or forsaken them.
Nehemiah 7:4-73 repeats much of Ezra 2 because the restored city needs more than finished walls; it needs the covenant people God promised to gather. The sermon follows the list through families, home towns, priests, temple servants, and descendants associated with Gibeon. Some returnees cannot establish their genealogy, and claimed priests are excluded from holy food until the matter can be properly determined, showing that lineage protected real covenant responsibilities. The return is costly. Families leave established lives, come back to a place marked by siege and destruction, and give generously toward the temple's work. Jeremiah 29 supplies the interpretive promise: after exile God would visit, gather, hear, and be found by those who sought him. The genealogy therefore witnesses that God's word did not fail. The people's deepest inheritance was not land or comfort but the Lord who remained their God.
Biblical Themes
- God preserving a remnant
- Fulfillment of covenant promise
- Belonging among God's people
- Ordered and qualified worship
- Costly return and generosity
- God himself as the desired inheritance
Scripture Connections
- Ezra 2:1-70 — The earlier register records the first return and explains why Nehemiah can recover and reuse the genealogy.
- Joshua 9:22-27 — The Gibeonites are assigned service connected to Israel's worship, providing background for their descendants' presence in the return.
- Jeremiah 29:10-14 — God promises that after seventy years he will gather the exiles and be found when they seek him wholeheartedly.
- Philippians 1:6 — God completes the good work he begins, a promise the sermon applies to believers clinging to his faithfulness.
- Philippians 3:7-11 — Knowing Christ surpasses earthly advantage and gives the final shape to costly pursuit of God's presence.
Practical Applications
- Read biblical genealogies as records within God's saving history rather than disposable lists.
- Remember specific instances in which God kept his promises through hardship or delay.
- Examine whether comfort and prosperity have made obedience to God seem too costly.
- Value humble forms of service that sustain the church's worship even when they receive little recognition.
- Give materially to the work of God's people as an expression of commitment rather than mere sentiment.
- Seek God himself in prayer and Scripture when painful memories or uncertain circumstances threaten hope.
Historical Context
Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and carried Judah into exile. After Persia replaced Babylon, groups returned under leaders including Zerubbabel and Ezra before Nehemiah's later work. Nehemiah 7 looks back to the first return because the newly secured city must be repopulated and its worship ordered according to covenant responsibilities.
Westminster Standards
Westminster Confession of Faith 7.3
Man, by his Fall having made himself uncapable of Life by that Covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a Second, commonly called the Covenant of Grace; Wherein he freely offereth unto sinners Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them Faith in Him that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto Life, his holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to beleeve.
Connection to the sermon: The restored genealogy belongs to the unfolding history of covenant grace, whose promised life and salvation reach their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Westminster Larger Catechism 36
The onely Mediator of the Covenant of Grace is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternall Son of God, of one substance and equall with the Father, in the fulnesse of time became man, and so was and continues to be God and man in two intire distinct natures, and one person, for ever.
Connection to the sermon: The preserved covenant line and restored worship move redemptive history toward Christ, the only mediator in whom God's people finally receive life and nearness.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 21
The onely Redeemer of Gods elect is the Lord Jesus Christ; who being the eternall son of God, became man, and so, was and continueth to be God and man, in two distinct Natures, and one Person, for ever.
Connection to the sermon: The genealogy bears witness to God's preservation of the people through whom the promised Redeemer came, while the sermon directs the believer's highest desire to Christ himself.
- Do I skip biblical lists before asking what they reveal about God's redemptive faithfulness?
- What comforts or settled advantages would be hardest for me to leave in order to obey God?
- Do I desire God's gifts more than I desire God himself and life among his people?
- How does remembering previous judgment make God's preservation and restoration more precious?
- Am I willing to support the church's worship and work with costly generosity?
- When painful memories haunt me, do I cling to God's promise to complete the good work he begins?
- Genealogy
- A recorded line of descent preserving family identity, covenant continuity, and qualifications for particular offices.
- Remnant
- The people whom God preserves through judgment and brings back in fulfillment of his promise.
- Return from exile
- God's restoration of covenant people from Babylonian and Persian lands to Jerusalem and Judah.
- Covenant identity
- Belonging among the people to whom God gives his promises, worship, obligations, and presence.
- Temple service
- The varied work of priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and servants supporting the worship God appointed.
Welcome to God's Word for Youth, a ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Well, please turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Nehemiah chapter 7. Nehemiah chapter 7, and we'll be beginning this morning at verse 4 and reading through the end of the chapter. I want you to browse through Nehemiah 7 with me real quickly. We're not going to spend the entire time this morning at the front reading it, but we're going to work through it together as we go. But I want you to see how it starts.
Now in this city was a large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not built. Then my God put into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return, and found written in it, And then comes what you all dread. Let's be honest here.
And then comes another genealogy of names that we have a hard time pronouncing. Why does God give these genealogies? Why does God give these lists of names and numbers and names and numbers and names and numbers? Especially here, where this genealogy is a repetition of what was given in Ezra chapter 2 already. Well, I want to break out, as we look at this in sections, why God gives us genealogies and what it matters to us. And we're going to see the richness of the story of God's redemptive plans and keeping His promises as we read through this genealogy together. See, Nehemiah has it in his heart, the walls are built, the doors are set, the enemies are defended against, but nobody's living in the city. Nobody's living in the city.
How are they supposed to defend themselves? How is the city supposed to have enough people to care for it? How is the administration going to work? How is the temple going to be cared for? Nehemiah is the governor, the administrator, and he's worried about these questions.
And as he's thinking about these questions of how the economy of God is going to work, the Lord puts something in his heart. What does he do? Then God put it into my heart, verse 5, then God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people that they might be registered by genealogy. It's important that Nehemiah notes that he is doing this registered by genealogy as something that God has put in his heart. Remember, David, late in his life, had been tempted by Satan and by his own pride that he wanted to see how big his army was. And so he tried to number the people and God punished them for that.
But here it's a different motive. God puts it in his heart because Nehemiah wants to be a faithful administrator. But before he's even able to call the people together, he goes into the records and he finds the list. He finds the genealogy of Ezra chapter 2. And there's more information here. It's not an exact copy. Some of the names are a little bit different and some of the numbers are a little bit different, but it's remarkably similar.
And so we start with verses 6 through 7 with the leaders of God's people when they returned from exile. These are the people, verse 6, these are the people of the province who came back from the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away. and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his city. Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Ramiah, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mishrapheth, Bigvi, Nahum, and Banah, the number of the men of the people of Israel."
We have here the leaders who come back. The leaders who are coming back, who are leading God's people during the first return. See, the book of Nehemiah isn't the first return of the people from Babylon. The book of Nehemiah is a second return. The temple's already been built. Some of God's people have already returned. And now Nehemiah is back looking at that first return. But I want you to think about these people's situation. It hasn't been too many decades ago. It has not been too long ago.
It was their parents' generation. Some of them might have been kids at this time, during Ezra's return, when they saw the ramparts built up, the siege ramps against Jerusalem. when they saw the 10,000 upon 10,000 of the Babylonian kings who sought to kill their families. Those who lived inside the city of Jerusalem and saw their families ravaged by famine because all their food supply was cut off. Do you remember what the Bible says the siege of Jerusalem was like? Parents. Can you imagine eating your children you were that starving? Children, could you imagine eating your parents' dead bodies because you were that starving? That's what the siege of Jerusalem was like. And the Babylonians completely destroyed the city. They broke down the walls. They broke down the temple. They defiled the holy place. They ruined the fields. They destroyed everything. Everything. They destroyed everything.
And that memory is right there at the back of these people's minds. They remember the sky turning amber red because the flames of their homes being lit on fire. And yet they're returning. What would cause them to return? What would cause them to return? It's not just the rulers.
There's lay people who come, verses 8 through 38. Look with me there. the sons of Parash, 2,172, the sons of Sephatiah, 372, the sons of Arah, 652, the sons of Pahath Moab, of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818, of the sons of Elam, 1,254. The sons of Zatu, 845. The sons of Zakai, 760. The sons of Benuai, 648. The sons of Babai, 628. The sons of Asgad, 1,322. The sons of the Daniakam, 667. The sons of Bigvi, 2,067. The sons of Adin, 655. The sons of Atur of Hezekiah, 98. the sons of Hushem, 328, the sons of Bezi, 324, the sons of Harith, 112, the sons of Gibeon, 95, the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, 188, the men of Anathoth, 128, the men of Beth Avimeth,
42. The men of Kirjath-Jerim, Cherifara, and Beroroth 743, the men of Ramah and Geba, 621, the men of Mikmas, 122, the men of Bethel and Ai, 123, the men of Nebo, 52, the sons of the other Elam, 1,254. The sons of Harim, 320. The sons of Jericho, 345. The sons of Lod, Hadin, and Ono, 721. The sons of Sana'a, 3,930. Why all these numbers? I want you to look at something that happens here. Look with me at verses 7 through 25. It's the sons of, the sons of, the sons of, the sons of, the sons of, the sons of, the sons of.
They remember their lineage. Because their lineage ties them back to Abraham. They remember their lineage because their lineage ties them back to Isaac. They remember their lineage because their lineage ties them back to Jacob. They remember their lineage because they remember that they are the sons of Israelites, because they are the children of the covenant. This is their identity, even though they have been in a foreign land. They are the sons of the covenant. And I want you to think about, imagine you were living here in Morning Sun, and you found out that there was an army coming in.
And that army was going to completely wipe out Burlington. And that's what they did. They didn't spare a woman, they didn't spare a child, they didn't spare a man, they didn't spare any cattle, they didn't spare anybody. Everyone in Burlington was gone. Dead. Removed. Forever.
So he went and he made a a pact, an agreement with the invaders of Burlington, and you even tricked them into signing that. You said, oh, we came all the way down from Minnesota, don't you know? And you came down and you made a covenant with them saying, don't kill us, we're from a faraway land. And then the people of Burlington found out, hold on, y'all are just from Morning Sun. You tricked us, but we made a covenant and we're gonna keep up our covenant.
But because you tricked us, you're gonna be our slaves forever. Hard work all the time. And that's what your family did for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Second class citizen slaves. Now imagine you were freed from that. A new army came in, wiped out the Burlingtonites, and you were freed from that slavery.
You might rejoice, but that's not what the Gibeonites do. Look with me at verse 25. The sons of Gibeon, 95. The Gibeonites were those in Joshua 9 and 10 who had come to Joshua and had said that we come from a faraway land and they brought worn out clothes and worn out water bottles or skins and they brought moldy bread. They tricked them and then because of that trickery, Joshua made them slaves. Forever. You would think that when an invading army came in, they would rejoice and scatter forever and never want anything to do with the Israelites again. But we find here a remnant.
We find here this people who are not God's people is listed as one of the sons of Gibeon. God's people had become their people. And their God had become their God. They had fully embraced the covenant and over hundreds of years, even though they were legally free, they were there with God's people.
And then, in the second part of all these names, verses 26-38, we find the men of such and such towns. Look with me at 26, the men of Bethlehem. 27, the men of Anathoth. Verse 28, the men of Beth as Maveth. 29, the men of Kirjath-Jerim, and it goes on, the men of, the men of, the men of.
See, the people hadn't been gone that long. They remembered their hometowns. It wasn't just Jerusalem that was destroyed. As the Babylonian army had swept from the north to the south and down to Jerusalem and then all the way down to the south, eventually down by the Egyptian border, they were destroying everything that they could, any part of resistance they destroyed. These people remembered their hometowns.
My parents came from Ramah. My dad was raised in Bethlehem. But there's nothing left of Bethlehem that was once there. There's nothing left of Ramah that was once there. The fields that their grandfathers had once plowed are weeds. Their homes that they once lived in and remembered fond memories with their grandparents are nothing but heaps of rubble. They are going back to nothing. Why would they return? Why would they come back? Why would they come back 70 years later to rubble and weeds?
Well, it's not just the sons of, and it's not just the men of, but the next section, verses 39 through 42, show us that there's another class of people who return. The priests, verse 39, the priests, the sons of Jedeiah, of the house of Jeshua, 973. The sons of Emer, 1,052. The sons of Pashur, 1,247. The sons of Harim, 1,017.
The priests come back in huge numbers. Over 4,000 priests. 4,289 priests come back. Remember, these are just the sons of Aaron. Just the sons of one small family. 4,000 of them return. Why? I mean, the temple is rebuilt, but it doesn't look anything like Solomon's temple. Actually, in the book of Ezra it said that those who came back and remembered Solomon's temple, when they saw the new temple, they wept. Not with joy. But because the new temple did not have nearly as much splendor and glory as the old temple. So why would 4,000 priests come back to a subpar temple? Why?
Why would this many priests return But something even more striking, verse 43, the Levites, the sons of Jeshua of Kidmiel and of the sons of Hodevah, 74. The Levites, an entire tribe of Judah. An entire tribe, this isn't just one family, this is an entire tribe. This was 10,000 upon 10,000 upon 10,000 of people at the first exodus. Now of the Levites, 74. 74. 4,289 priests return, those who actually make the sacrifices, but those who should be coming from Levi, the Merorites, and the Gershonites, and the Kohathites, of all three of those clans, a couple dozen,
74. What kept them in Babylon? Why wouldn't they come back? Why wouldn't they come back? Verse 45, there's another 44 and 45. There's more classes of people. We're going to group these all together as people who are working in the tabernacle. Verse 44 through 60. The Singers, the Sons of Asaph, 148. The Gatekeepers, the Sons of Shalom, the Sons of Atter, the Sons of Talmon, the Sons of Akub, the Sons of Hatita, the Sons of Shobai, 148. and 38.
The Nethanim, the sons of Zihah, the sons of Heshpah, the sons of Tabaoth, the sons of Keros, the sons of Sihah, the sons of Paddan, the sons of Labanah, the sons of Haggabah, the sons of Salmi, the sons of Hanan, the sons of Gidel, the sons of Gerhar, the sons of Re'aiah, the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekodah, the sons of Gazam, the sons of Uzzah, the sons of Paaseah, the sons of Bessai, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nefessim, the sons of Babak, the sons of Hakufah, the sons of Hafhur, the sons of Bilith, the sons of Mahida, the sons of Harashah, the sons of Barkas, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Tema, the sons of Neziah, the sons of Hatafah, the sons of Solomon's servants, the sons of Sotai, the sons of Seraeth, the sons of Perdah, the sons of Ja'allah, the sons of Darkan, the sons of Gedal, the sons of Sephatiah, the sons of Hatil, the sons of Pohareth, of Zebiam, and the sons of Ammon, all the Nethanim. and the sons of Solomon's servants were 392. 392 people who came, who were servants of the temple.
They weren't Levites. They weren't allowed to touch any of the holy things. They weren't of the lineage of Aaron. They weren't allowed to make sacrifices. These are people who are just supporting the temple. These are the singers. These are the gatekeepers. These are Solomon's servants who he's appointed to offices to work in the temple. They have subservient offices. And over 300 of them come back. Why? Why would they come back to a subpar temple? Why would they give up their lives in Babylon? Why would they come back?
Well, there's another group of people, our last group of people, verses 61 through 65. And these were the ones who came up from Tel-Mela, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Adan, and Emer. But they could not identify their father's house, nor their lineage, whether they were of Israel, the sons of Delahia, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nakoda 642. And of the priests, the sons of Habbaiah, the sons of Chaz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughter of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and was called by their name, These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but it was not found. Therefore, they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled. And the governor said to them that they should not eat of the most holy things till a priest could consult with the Urim and the Thummim." 61 people, or verse 61 through verse 65, is a people who can't identify their genealogy. Some of them say, we're even of the priestly class. but they can't prove their genealogy.
Let me ask you, if your house was to catch fire today, if your house was to catch fire right now, and you had to run into your house and save your most valuable of possessions, what would you grab? For some of you, it might be your children's baby books. For some of you, it might be your favorite sports memorabilia. For some of you, it might be your family photo albums.
But I know some of you have a special book tucked away on a shelf. I've read the McDonald book. And I've seen the Baird book. And I've seen the McElhaney book. And I bet some of you that would be on the top of your list. Go get the book. Go grab the genealogy book. This is exactly what they would have done.
The Jews kept meticulous care of whose son they were, what family line they came in. And while they were fleeing from Jerusalem, while the army of Babylon was waging war and they had to choose their most valuable possessions as they marched to a foreign land, what was worth the weight on their backs? The scrolls that said where they came from. The parchment that said my father was from this line, my parents came from this land. Why? Because that genealogy tied them back to the covenant. But why would they come back? Why would these people come back knowing that they can't prove their genealogy? Why would they come back?
When we find that answer in our last few verses, look with me at verses 66 through 72. Altogether, the whole assembly was 42,360, beside their male and female servants, of whom there was 7,337, and they had 245 men and women singers. Their horses were 736, their mules were 245, their camels 435, and donkeys 6,700, 20. And some of the heads of the father's houses gave to the work, that's talking about the building of the temple. that some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the work, the governor gave to the treasury, 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, and 530 priestly garments. Some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the treasury of the work 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,200 silver minas. and that which the rest of God's people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas, 2,000 silver minas, and 67 priestly garments.
Why? Why would you come back to the place where your parents were slaughtered? Why would you come back to a heap of rubbles and fields of weeds? Why would you come back to the place that had so much bad memories? Why would you return to the land where you saw your family murdered? Because the work was there. Why would they return?
Because they desired to sing what we sang in Psalm 122 this morning. They longed for something that was greater than all the miseries that they might face in this world. They longed to hear God's people singing. They longed to see God's promises fulfilled. I want you to turn over in your Bibles with me to Jeremiah 29. See, God had promised that even though this was going to happen, He would return His people. Jeremiah 29, verse 10. Jeremiah 29, verse 10, page 695.
For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity.
I will gather you from all the nations, from all the places where I've driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away. Why would the people come back? Because God promised. they would come back. And what was the promise? I want to be very careful on what the promise is. The promise is not just that they're going to return to their dad's farm. The promise is not just that they're going to inherit their good things that their parents left. No. Look with me again. Verse 11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. to give you a future and a hope. And what is that future? What is that hope that God gives them?
Verse 12, that you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. See, God has promised them that He will still be their God. God has promised them, when you will repent of your sin while you're being driven out of Jerusalem, I have good plans for you. And your good plans for you is that I will not leave you, nor forsake you, but I will bring you back to Myself, and when you pray, I'll be there. When you search for Me, you will find Me.
Brothers and sisters, are you turning away from the sinful things of this world? Are you turning away from all the pleasures that Babylon might be able to provide you and do the irrational thing according to this world and turning to God with all your heart? Would you be willing to give away with all the pleasantries of Susa? Would you be willing to put away all the good riches that you would have in a comfortable life and forsake all things for the surpassing glory of knowing Christ Jesus, your Lord? Is He your desire?
That's why God gives us this genealogy in Nehemiah chapter 7. Why would these people return? It wasn't because they desired Jerusalem, but they desired the God of Jerusalem. They were not returning because they wanted the land. They wanted the inheritance that the land represented. That God would be their God and that He would be with them.
Brothers and sisters, are you clinging to the promises of God? Is he the one that even in your darkest of hours, when your memories haunt you, That you would run to Him, knowing that His plans are not to harm you, but only to prosper you. That He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Do you see God's attitude towards you? That people were willing to return to the place where their families were slaughtered because God was worth it. They knew that this had happened as God had declared it would. and these people repented of their sins.
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