If you're going to read a list of names, have an accent.

I used to tell people that Sinclair Ferguson could have read the phone book during his lectures and it would have not only been interesting, but profound.  My theory was put to the test not by a Scottish brogue, but by a Welsh accent.  Last night at First Pres in Jackson, Derek Thomas preached on Ezra 8:1-14--go ahead and look, it's a list of names. 

These were a second wave of returnees from exile.  Families and clans that had been separated for decades, some in Jerusalem, returning on that first wave, some came this round.  DT spoke of these folks with their strange to our ears names as real people, as God's people, the same people as we.  And tucked away in this text, that DT referred to as a little flicker of promise during this dark night of Israel's soul as a beaten down people, is the link:  the passing reference to Hattush, who happened to be of the sons of David.  Therein is the lace of promise that holds this story of God's people together, a story of exiles "bound for the promised land," empowered by the hope that The Son of David has secured.

The beautiful thing is that along the way God has given his people teachers, and even some with accents, to remind us of this truth.