When King Cyrus of Persia gave permission for the people of Judah to return from the Exile in Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (II Chronicles 36:22-23, Ezra 1:1-4), they took careful account of those who were returning (2:1-35). Recognizing it would be important to re-establish the priests and Levites to lead the worship when they got to Jerusalem, they listed them by their ancestral houses (2:36-58).

But there were some who reported that they were of priestly descent, yet the details of their descent could not be found in the genealogical records (2:59-62) This detail tells us two important things. First, it tells us that these long lists of names were held in people’s memory; but it also tells us that these genealogies were committed to documents that were carefully preserved, because they recognized that you can’t count on memory to be perfect. So there were individuals who could recite their ancestry, all the way back to Aaron; but even though they had managed to preserve quite a bit of the written priestly records, a few sections had been lost along the way.

The governor’s judgment on the matter is particularly interesting. He ruled that they would have to wait: they would not be permitted to partake of the food dedicated to the use by the priests, nor would they be forbidden. Instead, no final decision would be made until the question could be properly resolved (2:63). That is, although the written record certainly appeared to leave these people out, the decision was to wait, rather than declare either that it was fine or that it was forbidden for them to serve as priests – until the community had gained real confidence that they had discerned the will of God in this matter.

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O God, we are not good at patience. We want definitive answers to our concerns, and we want them now, and we want the answers to come out in the particular way that we like the best: and it is so hard for us to wait. We pray for your grace, that we may wait with patient confidence until you make the answers clear in your time.

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