Year 6, Day 281: 1 Chronicles 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

1 Chronicles 7 is a very interesting chapter in that it contains so many family genealogies and is so short.  In fact, we go through a pretty significant portion of the tribes of the northern kingdom.  These are the people who went into exile many decades prior to the southern kingdom.  They were exiled under Assyria, before Babylon overthrew Assyria and then conquered the southern kingdom.  Given how long that were in exile before the southern kingdom joined them, it makes sense that many of them and their history would be lost.  That could easily explain why these genealogies are so short.

That being said, notice that they are still present.  They could have been lost for good.  They could have been intentionally excluded.  Their rebellion was so thorough that God would have been justified sending them away forever.

But that isn’t what a Father does.  A father forgives.  A father looks for signs of repentance and welcomes His children home.

That’s what God does with these exiles from the northern kingdom.  They may have been less in number, but they were welcomed back onto the fold.  They were welcomed into the return from exile and brought back.  Their names – however scant – are listed in the genealogy.  The size of their rebellion is great, but the size of God’s mercy is greater.

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