When Ezra left Babylon at the request of King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem, he did not set out alone. Ezra 8:1-14 records the names and the genealogies of those who set out on the four month trek with him. While the text gives us little more than the names and numbers of these returnees, this information is useful. It tells us that Ezra was an eyewitness to the events  that his book records, thus increasing our assurence that the Bible is historically accurate, and it also tells us that this return was part of the plan of God. One of the men returning with Ezra to Jerusalem, Hattush, was descended from KIng David abd was the great great grandson of Zerubbabel who appears in the genealogy of Jesus. God’s plan was to bring the Messiah into tyhe world through a family, and this family was now becoming known. God’s purposes are still being worked out for the whole world. His plan is to unite everything under the feet of that Messiah, Jesus and like they people of old, we wait for Him still.