history of God’s people

1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40 – The Rest of the Family

Read 1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40

That was a much longer reading than normal, but I’m ready to find out what the Chronicler has to say to us now that the lineage issues are more than cleared up for us.

It seems one of the important elements on the Chronicler’s mind here was the military strength of the tribes. There are other notable differences in this passage as well. Did you notice more females were mentioned? How about the fact Benjamin’s descendants are recorded twice, in chapter 7 and chapter 8. I still marvel at the different stories the chronicler chooses to include–almost like little vignettes.

1 Chronicles 6:1-81 – The Priestly Line

Read 1 Chronicles 6:1-81

By now, you are probably wondering when we will be done with all the genealogies. Soon, very soon. We’ll have a couple of long readings over the next couple days, and then we’ll get into the historical account from the priestly viewpoint of Chronicles.

Again, we encounter a lot of names, most of them hard to pronounce, all descending from Jacob’s son, Levi. We are given a lot of information in this chapter about Levi’s descendants, some of whom became priests. We’ll likely encounter some of these names again when we read the historical accounts of the kings. It’s good for us to keep in mind that the priests served right alongside the kings leading the people in matters of faith and obedience to God’s laws.

1 Chronicles 4:1-43 – Who is Jabez?

Read 1 Chronicles 4:1-43

In this passage, we have a little more history thrown in for good measure. It’s always interesting to see what little tidbits the Chronicler inserts in these long lists of hard to pronounce names! Because I had a hard time following all the relations, what struck me most was the mention of Jabez starting in verse 9.

I assume Jabez must be a descendant of Judah because of the placement in our text. Do you remember when the book “The Prayer of Jabez” was published by Bruce Wilkinson and received so much attention back in the early 2000’s? My search for my copy in David’s library was unsuccessful, but I do remember being impacted by the example Jabez sets for us.