There are places in our world today where there is no visible church. I doubt you will find a visible church in North Korea. And there are other places like the provinces of China, and Vietnam, where Christians are persecuted...In the Muslim countries, you are also not going to find a church. You cannot look [those churches] up on a website or in some kind of directory and go there and find people worshipping. But the Lord knows those who are his own. He knew all of [the people in this passage as well]. If these fallible men, Ezra and Nehemiah…could number these people and have a pretty accurate count, although there are some discrepancies, we may know that God knows who these people are perfectly. Every one of them, their names, their parentage. The older ones he preserved. No doubt those older ones thought, I cannot believe that I have lived through all of these seventy years to see the restoration of the people of God. God preserved them of pagan domination through day after day, year after year, decade after decade. And the domination would not have all been unpleasant. There were many pleasantries to be had—in Babylon in particular. But the Lord preserved them…Younger ones were born in their parents' captivity and those God also protected and nurtured. Imagine bringing up your children in a place where Christianity is forbidden? At one point in Babylon, as we know, even personal praying to God would buy you a death sentence (Daniel 6:1–28). Not bowing down to a figure made to Nebuchadnezzar would buy you a death sentence (Daniel 3:1–30). And yet, God protected these ones born in captivity. Their names are before us—a number of them and this is a rather considerable number.¹

William Harrell