So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.
1 Chronicles 9:1
This comment serves as a summary of eight chapters worth of genealogical lists for each of tribe in Israel. And it all leads ups to a disturbing and disastrous moment. Each of the tribes, including those comprising the Southern Kingdom of Judah, ended up being led away into exile. All those hundreds and hundreds of names and it showed ultimately a lack of faith.
But there is one final large list that completes the story in 1 Chronicles 9:3-34. It is a list of exiles who returned specifically to Jerusalem. This is testament to the faithfulness of God whereas the eight chapters preceding it tend to point to the faithlessness of people.
So I scan through these lists and they make me keenly aware that each name was a human life filled with all the kinds of thoughts, actions, and activities that fill my days... just in a different time, language, and culture. And each life was a unique creation by God for His glory. The cumulative effect of all these lives was meant to exult the worship of Yahweh in Israel. When they failed to do so, He displayed His power through discipline, then deliverance. That is a mosaic of God's master plan masterpiece. And you only see it by reading these genealogies and looking at the thin little purpose statements like this one that punctuate the story.
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