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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
1 Chron. 3
I’m not sure why all these genealogies were so important to the ancient people of the Bible. Clearly it was by God’s design, though. Thanks to their historical records, we have a clear line from Adam to Jesus. From what little exposure I have had to current genealogical research, that is really quite a feat. Another improbable thing is that David and his sons held the throne of Judah for 19 generations. That seems to me like an unusually long line of kings staying in one family.
Though their rule of Judah ended with Jeconiah and Zedekiah, David’s line continued, unbroken, all the way to Jesus. That was, of course, due to God’s promise to David of an everlasting Kingdom. This obviously wasn’t the kingdom of Judah, which God destroyed, but, rather, something much greater. And I think the fact that Zerubbabel, the man who led the rebuilding of the temple, was a direct descendant of David showed that, in spite of Judah’s destruction, God’s promise was still in place.
1 Chron. 4-5
To make things even more confusing, the genealogies in these chapters seem to follow family heads or something rather than the immediate father / son line. Verse 1 lists Judah’s “sons”, but only one of them was actually his son. Confusing. I’m thinking, though, that the primary purpose of most of the genealogies here was to verify that those returning to Judah and Israel from exile were legitimately Jews. So they traced the major clans in order to connect the returning exiles to them.
This makes me think about the Psalm we read recently that says, “And this will be said of Zion, ‘This one and that one were born in her.’” (Ps. 87:5). We, too, will have something of a genealogical accounting when God finally brings His entire remnant home. I’d say there is a reason, however, that the Bible doesn’t record any genealogies after Jesus. It is why Paul indicated in more than one letter that genealogies no longer matter. The only record we now need is the faith that connects us to Jesus. That is a simple, direct line from us to Him. And when God sees it He will say, “This one was born in Zion.”
1 Chron. 6
The Levites received cities from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. I see the Levites, among all of Israel, as a representation of us, God’s people through faith in Christ. So I wonder if the distribution of cities among the twelve tribes is indicative of how God will draw people to Himself from every nation of the world.