1 Chronicles 7-9 -- Who's NOT On The List?

I can just imagine the real pride welling up in the hearts of the people as the chronicler mentioned the names of their ancestors, especially those who’d served in some capacity in the Temple!  Just thinking about their great-grandfathers being mentioned after having to endure that captivity in Babylon and not having grown up in Israel would be awe-inspiring.  Their names in the Bible!  What a privilege especially to have been a descendant of Joshua, for instance!

But it also broke my heart to think about who wasn’t listed.  Two of Jacob’s sons and their entire genealogies weren’t even mentioned – Zebulun’s and Dan’s.  Two of the twelve tribes!  One-sixth of them!  Were there truly no descendants left from these tribes upon the return from exile?  Or if there were, what might they have felt not hearing their families’ names mentioned?  Did everyone feel shame about their black-sheep cousins?  In Revelation, Dan’s tribe is left out entirely from the promised future of Israel as well!

Father, I so regret mistakes I’ve made in the past.  I thank You for Your forgiveness of them.  I also pray that I will never sin to such a degree that You would not want to even mention my name ever again.  I don’t want to be a disappointment to You.  Thank You also for how You touched me at Disciple Now with the lyrics of the song “How He Loves”, catching my eye with what it says about my regrets:  “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us.”  That’s not part of the eternal life You’ve given me and so many others that’s already begun here on this earth.  You are such a wonderful God to forget the way You choose to do!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford