Nehemiah 7:4a; 66-67
4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. 5 So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families…

66 The whole company numbered 42,360, 67 besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 245 male and female singers.

In this selection of verses, Nehemiah depicts the massive company of Israelites which had come back from being exiled in Babylon. Thanks to King Cyrus of Persia, who had conquered Babylon, the Israelites were free to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and their capital city. For the king, it was a gesture of goodwill; for the Israelites, it was a fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. After 70 years, they were FINALLY home, just as He had said through His prophets!

The city of Jerusalem, however, had to be rebuilt for people to be able to live in it again; the Babylonians had done quite a number on it when they had rampaged through. Now that the Israelites were home, it was time to get to work. But now, they all recognized that without God, they would never have gotten home in the first place–Nehemiah 8 retells how the people worshipped with new fervor as Ezra read the Law to them, dramatically rededicating themselves to God.

These days, God is still doing great works for His people; He can take untenable situations and dissolve the troubles as if they never existed, and He can open doors that you thought were welded shut. BUT! It takes trusting God first. He waits for you to trust Him and give Him the problem you’ve been worrying and crying over, and THEN the miracles begin to happen. Even if the miracle you need takes a long time to unfold, trust that God has the situation in perfect control, as always. Know that He is with you just as He was with the Israelites, even while they languished in exile!