With the opening of 1 Chronicles, we come once again to what is
probably one of the most boring bits of the Bible for readers today:
genealogies. In fact, the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are taken up with
genealogies that cover the time period from Adam to post-exilic Judah; it is
quite a scope. Furthermore, there is very little narrative here to hold the
reader’s attention. In the first four chapters, practically the only thing of
note is the comment on a man named Jabez.
Jabez
called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my
border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from
hurt and harm!” And God granted what he asked. (1 Chronicles 4:10)
It must have been a good prayer, despite being a tad selfish, since
God granted Jabez’s request. One modern day author, Bruce Wilkinson, found this
prayer fascinating enough to write an entire book about it. Published in 2000, The Prayer of Jabez became a bestseller.
However, besides this prayer that became a bestseller, what is going
on in the book of Chronicles? Lawrence Boadt gives this introduction to this section of
Scripture….
Our
best knowledge of the post-exilic life of Israel comes from the Books of 1 and
2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. These four books must be taken together, for
they form a single continuing view of how the small community in Judah adapted
itself to a new way of life that no longer depended on a king or national
freedom to survive. It was the beginning of a profound change that gradually
shaped Israel into what can be recognized as the beginnings of modern Judaism.
The Books of Chronicles stress the role of the cult, prayer, worship and ritual
purity as a way of life. Ezra the scribe begins a shift toward separateness.
Holy things are reserved to the priests and levites, marriage with Gentiles is
forbidden, and loyalty to the Torah in its written form of the Pentateuch
becomes mandatory. Nehemiah reinforces this sense of exclusive status by
completing the walls of Jerusalem and forcing people to live within the city
and treat it as the center of the Jewish hopes.
Despite
the work of Haggai, Zechariah, Zerubbabel and others in getting the temple
finished and rededicated in 516 B. C., the fortunes of Judah did not change
much for the better in the next sixty years. Archaeological probes have shown
that the population of Jerusalem and its immediate neighborhood did double in
area during this period, but the opposition of the governors of nearby
provinces, such as Samaria, kept the people from finishing any walls around the
city or gaining confidence in themselves. From the accounts in the Books of
Ezra and Nehemiah, it appears that the people were losing their special sense
of identity as a covenant people and slowly drifting into pagan marriages which
cost many their faith. Radical surgery was called for, and it came in the form
of two important developments: (1) the rewriting of Israel’s historical
traditions in 1 and 2 Chronicles, and (2) the mission of Ezra and Nehemiah, two
important Jewish leaders in Persia sent by the king himself to do something
about the sad conditions in Palestine.[1]
Since tomorrow’s reading will cover more of the genealogies, and thus
there will not be much else to say about them, I will share more tomorrow from
Boadt’s introduction to 1 and 2 Chronicles.
For now, let me leave you with one thought. If nothing else, the
inclusion of so many genealogies in Scripture does suggest two things: (1)
individuals are important to God, and (2) families are important to the Lord.
How would you feel if your name, or even the name of one of your ancestors was
included in one of these genealogies?
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