1 Chronicles 4-5 Not For The Genealogists

It won’t do to try and be a genealogist in these chapters, for one of my commentaries says the Jewish people kept very exact records, since their lineage was most important to holding land, etc., yet these are condensed versions that God particularly wanted to mention.  Just imagine being someone who’s name was left out and knowing why God had left you out!  Surely those people suffered great regret for not having stood up as people after His own heart!  But then, there were those God chose to specially mention, like Jabez, for his faith in prayer.

Sometimes God may have mentioned a person because of things they’d done that didn’t honor God, and these mentions may serve as warning signs for us today.  In 4:11, Mered married the daughter of Egypt’s pharaoh.  Yet the Israelites had been subjugated by Egypt for hundreds of years before God sent Moses to lead them out.  So why go BACK?

One man was mentioned for having 16 sons and 6 daughters (doing his part, it seems, to obey God’s command to fill the earth), yet his brothers were not mentioned because they didn’t have many children!

Abraham’s family had been in the lineage of Noah’s son Shem, and here we even see mention of the Israelites fighting against Shem’s brother Ham’s people!

The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat, and it plainly mentions here why Reuben lost his special place as Jacob’s firstborn.  And also why Joseph’s sons, as a result, gained two shares of land for that same reason!

I really liked one part:  soldiers from three tribes started a war.  That wasn’t the enjoyable part.  But the men from these three tribes prayed to God during the war, asking Him to help them, and He did, because they trusted Him.  The results were stunning.

Yet one of these tribes settled for less than God’s best by settling outside of the Promised Land, and before long they settled for worshiping the gods of the people they found there, and they were eventually captured and taken away.

Father, thank You for these broad strokes, showing again how You reward faithfulness to You and how unfaithfulness results in lives squandered.  Help me to be faithful.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford