September 21
Nehemiah 11:1-12:26; 1 Chronicles 9:1-34
Most, if honest, approach a day of reading like today’s and wonder, why do I have to read a list of names which I can’t really pronounce, and of whom the majority I have no idea of who they were? Here is a list of difficult names: Bishoy Estefanos Kamel, Samuel Estefanos Kamel, Malak Faraj Abram, Luke Ngati, Mena Fayez Aziz, plus 16 others. These are a list of the names which are difficult for Westerners to pronounce of the 21 Coptic Christians who refused to deny Jesus on the beach in Libya who were beheaded for their faith by Isis in 2015. Don’t you believe their names are worthy to be listed and remembered? I could create similar lists, also difficult to pronounce, of our brothers and sisters who have been persecuted and martyred in places such as Communist China, North Korea, Iran, much of Africa, etc. These lists might not be familiar to us, but they are to the families and loved ones who knew them personally. We might not know them but we should be praying for them. The vast majority we will never know, but their names deserve mention.
We read the list of names of the officials who gave up their comfortable homes in the countryside to set up residence inside Jerusalem which still consisted mostly of rubble in Nehemiah 11. We read another list of names which comprise the 50,000 who initially left Babylon in the initial return to Jerusalem in 536-538BC. They represent only 2% of the Jewish population at the time who were obedient to God’s calling, giving up the comforts and lives they had made for themselves in Babylon in Nehemiah 12. These individuals deserved to be recognized for their willingness to take a stand for God.
Truth be told, the majority of those persecuted for their faith will remain anonymous to us, but are known and loved by God, and are with Him right now. We read of some of them in God’s Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:35-40, “…But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.” Perhaps each of us should take the time to create our list, our own lineage to Jesus Christ. There were those individuals who introduced you to Him, others who then helped you build that faith, and still others who continue to do so. Others may not be familiar with these names, but they will mean a lot to you personally.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: