Lies are often confused with history. The real story is often written by unheralded heroes.
If we don’t learn the blessing of hard work, we’ll not be able to enjoy the present, because we’re always waiting for the rest and retirement to come. Let me break it to you. We will have work projects forever. Sin brought toil and sweat into the equation of work, but Adam and Eve certainly had joyful occupation in tending the garden before the Fall. We read that in heaven “His servants shall serve Him” (Rev 22:3). Paint a sunset? Garden a once-barren planet? Train birds to warble songs of praise to their Maker? Chart out the constellations? I have no idea, but there’s no doubt that the projects will be creative, glorious, and fulfilling. With the walls up and the gates hung, other tasks remained. They couldn’t afford security breaches, so the gatekeepers were given hours of access and hours for closure, and guards were appointed (Neh 7:3). As well, “the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt” (v 4). However, Nehemiah felt led by the Lord to lay aside the construction plans and check the genealogies—no doubt to weed out any in the city who shouldn’t be there. Thankfully, he “found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return” (v 5). And the list we met in Ezra 2 is now repeated in Nehemiah 7:6-73. There are a few differences. It has been suggested that Ezra records those intending to make the journey to Jerusalem, and Nehemiah’s list has those who actually made it. In any case, as was the original burden, Nehemiah had inquired of his brother “concerning the Jews…and concerning Jerusalem” (1:2). The place had been rebuilt. Now the people needed to be restored. For that, they would need the Book and someone to explain it. Enter Ezra!