I love how scripture can jump out and grab you. You are reading a passage and something you’ve read over and over jumps out.

I’ve been reading Nehemiah this month. I love his faithfulness, his wisdom, and integrity. He doesn’t take illicit gain. He knows an enemy’s trap. He continually calls Israel to live according to God’s law.

In Chapter 7, there is an accounting of the exiles who returned from Babylon. But at the end of the chapter, there is an accounting of the gifts the Israelites offered. In verse 72 the last thing listed is “67 priests’” garments”. What?

Where did they come from?
Did the exiles carry them to Babylon?
Were they hidden away in their belongings?
How did the Babylonians overlook such costly, expensive clothes?
After 70 years of exile, what condition were they in?
Did the families hold the garments in high esteem because their fathers had been priests?
Did the garments define who their family was?
Did it bring great joy to return the garments to service in the temple?

I hope this doesn’t seem odd. These questions. But when it hit me that these families had taken great care not just to return home, but to return the garments of the priests to temple service, I was moved. Not that something tangible was preserved but rather the families knew these garments represented something special. The men who wore them served the true and living YHWH. If the people were to be represented again by a priest, that priest must wear what YHWH prescribed.

Sometimes there are those among us that have discernment and wisdom. They can look past horrible circumstances to the day of restoration. Maybe those garments carried the hope that Israel would return, temple worship would resume, and Abba God would restore them.

Just wondering…