History – 1 Chronicles 1-4

Today we come into the start of the Chronicles. This book concerns the chronological recordings of history to do with the kings of a united Israel first, and then a fractious Southern Judah later on.

Accordingly, the Chronicles are parallel books that should be referred to alongside the recordings of Samuel and Kings as the three are all related historical documentations.

To put things in perspective, the following chart shows a simple correspondence between the 3 recordings (6 books in all):

For now, we would be looking at 1^st Chronicles and today we begin with chapters 1 to 4. Let’s begin our reading.

Bible Passage:  1 Chronicles 1-4

Hands up, how many of us dozed off somewhere into the 1^st chapter? Or if we had more stamina, then perhaps at the 2^nd chapter?

Many of us find the chapters of Kings and Chronicles to be quite a tedious read given that it deals with the factual (read: dry) history of the kings. It becomes even more evident when we eventually turn to the Chronicles.

But let’s not give up just at the first instance!

We shall press on, and eventually, we’ll surely find this to be more exciting and interesting than the Chronicles of Narnia. Why? à Because the Chronicles are not meant to be leisure reading.

Yes, even the Chronicles (of ancient Israel) deal with things related to our spiritual life.

Genealogies

For the most part, we don’t find much joy in reading the family lineages of others because they have nothing to do with us. More specifically, we don’t see how our names can fit into the already long-enough lists. To make things worse, genealogies have so many names that we scratch our heads trying to decipher their pronunciations, and forget the relevant teachings behind.

“And A begot B…”

“B’s descendants were C, D, E, and F.”

“The sons of C were G, H, I, and J.”

“After C died, G became a ruler of ….”

Blah blah blah? Really?

But before we go on in that bored and cynical vein, let’s take a step back. What do such genealogies have to do with us? Granted that they won’t ever mention our names, but is there more to it than just strange-sounding names?

Caffeine Jolts – Espresso-sized

If we get tired, some of us need a quick jolt and we drink coffee. For those who are in the know, espresso-sized cups are much smaller than your traditional coffee mug. But all the same, they are a quick perk-up to a dreary day.  Need a quick jolt? Genealogies present us with such espresso-sized ones.

For the simplest part, what we can obtain from reading through a family tree is that we sometimes spot certain familiar and famous names. These characters are at the very least, figures that we know of from our previous readings from Genesis up to Kings. And in the process of this ‘touch & go’, if we should be meditating on these Words of God, we might be caused to remember of certain bible stories and teachings.

For example, 1 Chron 1:1-4 shows us Adam and Noah, and we might wish to think of the creation story and the salvation plan of God. With Adam, we see our foremost of forefathers and we give thanks to God for His wondrous creation. Why should we, of the dust, be made to be His? With Noah, we think of the days when only 8 were saved, and today we are in His true Church, the ark of the last days, prepared for salvation too.

On the contrary, when we think of Adam and Noah, we also think of the invasion of sin into mankind’s history. Romans 5:12 reminds us of this sobering fact and we are kept on our toes as we prepare ourselves so that we won’t fall into sin. Similarly, Noah’s disgrace story in Gen 9:20-21 also shows us that we should not become drunk with wine.

In this way, we do get our bite-sized reminders as we read the Chronicles!

Jabez

Reading 1 Chron 4:10 and not commenting on it would seem like a shortfall in terms of what we can learn. After all, Jabez’s prayer is famous throughout Christendom for it’s message of prosperity behind it. In fact so many books have been written that it seems as though Jabez’s legacy is his prayer for success.

But wait a minute? Is this the meaning of it all?

While many Christians claim that this prayer is the basis for asking for God’s blessings, that isn’t really the point of it.

Lest we conveniently neglect Jabez’s motives for asking of God’s blessing, here it is in full: “….that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

If we pray like him, do we have the same motives? Or is it that when we become prosperous and successful, we cause pain to the wider Body of God? Causing pain to the Body of God comes in many ways, and just to name a few: Neglecting Church services, Not raising up godly children, lusting after more wealth and success.

We should instead, read into Jabez’s prayer with a spiritual eye. We may be individuals, but we come together as a whole, to form the Body of God, His church.

So let’s pray that our territory be enlarged -> That the true church be preached far and wide

So let’s pray that God’s hand be with us -> That when we do His work, He will work through us.

—

So, it turns out that genealogies are not that dry after all. We continue to read on!

Have a blessed Sabbath rest.