“The document was ratified and sealed with the following names:
The governor:
Nehemiah son of Hacaliah, and also Zedekiah.
The following priests:
Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah…”
Nehemiah 10:1-2 NLT
Last time we saw how the returned exiles were going to make a binding agreement, sealed by all the leaders, on how to move forward in obeying God as a community. Today we see who some of these leaders were.
The first is our governor, Nehemiah. You may have forgotten like me that his name means, “Yah comforts.” I’m so glad. A comforting presence was likely yearned for in our returned exiles’ day. I know it is needed in our own.
What a politically divided, ideologically heated time in which we live. When we forget God is on His throne and the work to which He calls us is more like following the wake of a wave as He leads than plowing forward in our own effort, we will despair. But we can simply come back in line with Him and allow Yah to comfort. I’m grateful to be reminded this is what our governor’s name promises about our Creator’s character.
It is also comforting to be reminded of Nehemiah’s father’s name: Hacaliah which means “wait for Yah.” It makes me think of all the years his son spent being a cupbearer in the court of a Persian king, letting someone who neither knew nor honored the Most High God give him orders. And then when he got word of the city of God in ruins, he went into action.
But up until then? He waited for Yah.
I want to be found faithfully serving at my post, praying and looking for Yah’s activity, letting Him comfort me, and acting when the time is right. Because the name of our next leader is instructive as well:
“…and also Zedekiah…” This man’s name means “Yah is righteousness.” And right living, particularly in the midst of evil, is the calling of God’s people. Scholars think this Zedekiah may be the same man listed in Nehemiah 13:13 as Zadok, Nehemiah’s scribe. And he was likely the one drawing up the document which all the leaders signed and sealed.
Interesting, isn’t it? Called one name in reference to a writer role. Called another as the second one signing what was written. All of it pointing to Yahweh’s righteousness.
How about we let whatever roles in which we find ourselves point to His righteousness – both inside of us because of His Spirit, and in His activity in the world because He has not abandoned it? God so loved this world. He woos and convicts, draws and challenges. And our next family name to sign the covenant shows us why:
“And the following priests: Seraiah (which means “Yah persists”)…”
Something interesting from a commentary was how this is likely a family name rather than one individual person named Seraiah. And the name is of high priest lineage: “Eliashib, the high priest of the time, probably appended the seal of the house of Seraiah.” (source)
Ah yes. Not only a priest, but the first name to sign belonged to the high priest. The only one allowed in the Holy of Holies of Temple, offering incense and sprinkling blood on the mercy seat on behalf of the nation’s sins. And the name means “Yah persists.”
Doesn’t that make sense to your heart? That is the kind of God Who would accept less-than-perfect animal sacrifices for ways His people broke covenant until the Perfect Sacrifice came.
And aren’t you glad He is so persistent? That He has been called the Hound of Heaven, never giving up on us, refusing to let us go? He persisted with His people while in captivity. He persisted as they returned and rebuilt a wall and communal identity. And He showed the ultimate persistence with those of us made in His image by becoming One of us.
Where do you need to persist? Where does He seem to be insisting you never give up, never back down, refuse to give in? Stay the course, friend. Yah persists.
Next up: Azariah, whose name means “Yah has helped.” This Azariah is likely the son of Maaseiah who helped rebuild the wall. We know priests threw in on the repair work, so some certainly signed the covenant. And how lovely one of their names reminds us all of how Yah helps. He is not aloof, distant, and uninterested. He is Azar – Helper.
And our final priest in today’s verses is Jeremiah, not to be confused with the prophet who warned Jerusalem of captivity some 150 years earlier. This priest’s name means “Yah loosens” from Yah and remiyyah – laxness, slackness, idle, lazy, negligent, slack.
This one confuses me, putting our involved, loving Yahweh alongside a word which means lazy and negligent. And yet it is translated as loosens. Makes me think of loosening the slack on a dog leash or your grip on something which is too tight. Perhaps it could relate to our community here as Yahweh loosening on some of the consequences of sin as they seek to honor Him with this new covenant.
Another possible meaning listed for Jeremiah’s name is “Yah will rise” from Yah and rum – to be high, exalted, rise, lift, presumptuous.
This one makes immediate sense, yes? As our community of returned exiles draws together to honor God’s laws, His fame will rise. And as we join together as those who love Him and honor Him in our thoughts and actions and resistance and service, His fame will rise in our day as well.
Let it rise.