Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua (Nehemiah 12:1)
These were the heads of the priests and their kinsmen in the days of Jeshua. (Nehemiah 12:7)
The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah who was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving, he and his brothers. (Nehemiah 12:8)
Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brothers, stood opposite them in their service divisions. (Nehemiah 12:9)
These served in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest and scribe (Nehemiah 12:26)
Ancestral activity in my family has always been important to me. I know my grandfather and grandmother and their son were active in music and worship in their small church in Tampa in the 1930’s, my granddad going as far as to build his own bass fiddle to take part. My parents always sang in the choirs of the two churches they faithfully attended over the course of their lifetimes, my mother with an unmistakable piercing soprano voice, and my dad always with undergirding bass renderings. My uncle, a classically trained percussionist and kettle drummer, also seemed to pop up in the worship ministries of the small churches he attended in Atlanta, also playing the role of chief benefactor. My brother and I have served together and in our respective churches in worship and music for almost 40 years. And our sons, son-in-law, and a couple of grandsons have even participated on stage. A record of these activities will not make it into a Book of Chronicles somewhere, but it may be my responsibility as the eldest son to pass on this information as I just did, and I could name names if I wanted, as are found in this book and in many of its passages.
Thanks be to God for his penchant to leave a record of everything and everyone in his word. It’d be easy to gloss over these lists of fathers and sons and brothers, priests and Levites, managers, singers, and gatekeepers, to move on to something more “meaty,” more worthy of a “Bible study” or sermon. All these lists must be important in the grand scheme of things. It appears that heritage is important to God. Continuity is important to God. Roles played are important to God. Unbroken chains are important to God. Family ties are important to God. Following procedures is important to God (“division corresponding to division,” verse 24). Security is important to God. Leaders and followers are important to God. And even bit players are important to God. As the character Tevye bellowed in the popular musical “Fiddler in the Roof, “Tradition!”
We also can’t miss his desire for there to be prayers of thanksgiving (12:8 and 24) offered in his midst. Let it not go lost on us that God wants the praise for the “great things he hath done.” He’s institutionalized it.
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