Readings for the day: 1 Chronicles 1, 2, and Psalms 43, 44
There is a massive amount of interest in family history these days. With the advent of the internet, one can research from the comfort of one’s own home. You can trace your family’s origins back centuries. You can see their names. Sometimes get pictures. Find out different tidbits of information about them. What businesses did they run? Who did they marry? What town did they grow up in? You can even send your DNA off and find out who you are related to around the world. My mom and dad did this recently and discovered they had both Neanderthal and Mongolian blood! It was nuts! (Then again, looking back maybe it makes sense...ha!)
Genealogies are important because they root us in a specific history. A specific family. A specific story. Three generations ago, most Americans could tell you a lot about their family history. Mostly they lived in the same small town. Farmed the same land. Got buried in the same cemetery. There was a sense of rootedness to their lives. As the 20th century marched on, people became far more mobile and those connections to their history began to diminish. Sure, they might go back for a visit. Might see mom or dad and show their own kids the house where they grew up. Might be able to tell some of the family story but as time passed even those memories began to fade. Sociologists tell us that current generations are marked by a sense of existential loneliness. They don’t know who they are or where they are from. They don’t have a sense of “home” or being rooted in a history. They feel aimless and wandering.
The genealogies we read about in Scripture are vitally important. If you’ve been following along with the reading, you know a lot of these names. You know a lot of their stories. You remember who they are and what they’ve done. Taken together, they tell the story of God’s people and it is important to the Chronicler to situate David within this specific history. Within this specific story. Within this specific family. Not only to demonstrate the fulfillment of prophecy - i.e. the scepter shall not depart from Judah - but also to remind the people of God’s great faithfulness. David was no accident. David didn’t just stumble into the kingship. David didn’t rise up on and seize the kingship on his own. This was the outworking of God’s salvation plan from the very beginning. Going all the way back to Adam in the Garden of Eden and tracing its way down through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. God has been at work. God has brought about His Will for His people. God has been faithful.
Think about your own life. Think about the legacy you’ve inherited from your family. Good or bad. Think about where you’re from and the stories you tell your children about what it was like growing up. Do you feel connected to something larger than yourself? Do you feel like you are part of a specific history? A specific story? A specific family? And what role has God played or does He play in the unfolding narrative that is your life?