Year 3, Day 279: 1 Chronicles 5

Genealogy – Chapter 5

 1 Chronicles 5 continues with the genealogy.  Again, let me emphasize that this is not the most spiritually fulfilling reading.  But there are some things in here that we can pull out.

First of all, notice how this chapter opens.  Reuben was supposed to have the birthright.  But because Reuben was unfaithful to his father, his birthright went somewhere else.  Joseph became the prominent son when the people went to Egypt and Judah had certainly become the prominent tribe once the people reached the Promised Land.  What’s the lesson?  Unfaithfulness has consequences.  Consequences sometimes mean that someone else gets to do what God had once given us the opportunity to accomplish.

However, also note that Reuben isn’t written out.  Reuben isn’t dismissed from the family.  His prominence simply diminishes.  There is forgiveness and mercy.  When we mess up and have to deal with our consequences, it doesn’t mean that we are banished from the sight of God.  He will still embrace us; it is just sometimes in a different capacity.

Also, notice in verse 5 that one of the descendants in the tribe of Judah has the name Baal.  This is a derivative name for the Canaanite god.  Oh, how it must have grated on God and His prophets to have a leading man in one of the tribes named after someone else’s god!  If that isn’t evidence of how the people had fallen, I don’t know what is.  Furthermore, notice that Baal is the father to the one who is in charge of the tribe of Reuben when they are taken into captivity under Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria.  Here is more evidence of why God’s anger burned against the people and why they went into captivity!

In fact, as we move into the words of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, this is precisely the point that the chronicler intends to make.  The chronicler even uses the word “whored” to describe their behavior with respect to the other gods.  Their hearts were not pure.  Their hearts weren’t even repentant!  They lusted after other gods.  They went forth in great violence.  They became like the rest of the word.  They left behind their divine mandate to bring relationship with God to the world.  They traded the purpose for which God had chosen them for a purpose of their own lusting.  They fell into judgment and Assyria came to drag them away.  There is a pretty serious lesson in that.

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