Tag: genealogies

Remember Me, Oh My God, for Good.

*Nehemiah 11-13

Psalm 90

Philemon

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            As biblical characters go, I really like Nehemiah.  He seems to me like he’s a bit feisty, like Paul in the New Testament.  A passionate fellow, who isn’t afraid to lay hands on you, and not in a healing manner.  He actually threatens to lay hands on some folks in today’s reading, and then does in another couple sections.  As it was mentioned in yesterday’s devotion, the return of the people from exile happened in waves: Zerubbabel went to start rebuilding the Temple (@538BC), Ezra went later and restored the law (@458BC), and then Nehemiah returned (@445BC) and rebuilt the wall, the infrastructure, and finished restoring the law to Israel (with Ezra). 

            This is important to understand when looking through the book of Nehemiah, because at some points it will read something like “**Now these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel… “, and that should indicate to you as you read “ah, ok, so this was decades before, this is the first wave…”.  Often following this, there was a genealogical listing of the descendants down until Nehemiah’s time because as has been mentioned in previous devotions, the Jewish people were absolutely obsessed with genealogy (see 4/11/26 and 6/19/26 devotionals).  To the ancient Jewish mind, this just let’s you know who’s who, and what their functions/authority are, because your genealogy determined your inheritance (and role).  This was incredibly important in their culture, and why 2 of the gospels in the New Testament take such pains to list Jesus’ genealogy: in order to prove that he met the qualifications of the Messiah that were prophesied (see 5/18/26 devotional).  (**all biblical quotes today are from the LSB translation)

            Flipping back a few chapters you can see exactly how important this was for legitimacy: in Nehemiah 7:5 it says “Then my God put it into my heart, and I gathered the nobles, the officials, and the people to be recorded by genealogies. Then I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up first, and in it I found written:…” and then it goes on to list numerous folks.  Towards the end of that chapter in 7:63, there’s a list of some folks, and then it goes on to say in v64 “These searched in their genealogical records, but it could not be found; therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood. ” (at least until their fate could be decided by inquiring of God via Urim and Thummim).  It was that big of a deal, if you couldn’t definitively prove your heritage, you could lose your job and your livelihood.

            When we turn in our reading past the genealogies in 11 and 12 (and we just talked about why those were so important), at the beginning of chapter 13 in v1-3 we see them reading from “the book of Moses” about the laws that “no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God “, and then “they separated all foreigners from Israel“.  This sheds a little light on the passion Nehemiah has in chapter 13 v4-9, when he throws Tobias and all of his belongings out of the temple, because if you flip back over to chapter 2:19 you see that this is actually “Tobias the Ammonite official”, mentioned in conjunction with Sanballat the Horonite and Geshem the Arab as opponents to Israel.  Living now in the temple?!  No sir, not under Nehemiah’s watch.

            In Nehemiah 13: 9-14 we see a problem, and then a solution.  The Levites haven’t been given their portions, and as a result they’ve all gone to their own fields and left the temple neglected.  Nehemiah has what we can assume is an “intense fellowship” with the officials, and then returns the Levites to their posts and reinstates their portion.  Then comes the focus of today’s devotion, in v14 where Nehemiah says: “Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my lovingkindnesses which I have shown for the house of my God and its responsibilities.” I love this.

            We see this same formula repeated 3 times throughout this chapter.  In Nehemiah 13: 15-22 we see another problem, and then another solution.  The Israelites were not keeping the Sabbath, and some of the foreigners weren’t either, working and bringing in goods and selling them on the sacred day of rest.  After more “intense fellowship”, and an offer for the laying on of hands, Nehemiah shuts the gates of the city during the Sabbath and sets guards to keep Israel from violating the Sabbath again, and then says again (in v22): “For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness. “.

            Again, in Nehemiah 13: 23-31 we see another problem, and then another solution.  The Israelites had (in direct opposition to what God had told them) intermarried among some of the locals, to the point that many of the children couldn’t even speak their native tongue.  In verse 25 it says: “So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God …“.  Sounds like another nice, calm, rational round of intense fellowship, after which he finds that Joiada, a priest, has done the same thing “so I made him flee away from me.”  Like I said at the beginning, he’s feisty, I like him.  It sounds like the majority of his fellowship is what we’d call “intense”.  Then again, in verse 31 we see the formulaic “Remember me, O my God, for good.”  Nehemiah is a man who understands that he has flaws, a passionate man who performs services for God , and then humbly asks God to remember these acts, and to grant a favorable judgment.  I love the chutzpah. 

            We understand as Christians that nothing that we could ever do will warrant the overwhelming favor that God has granted us.  No act that we could ever perform would earn our entry as citizens into the kingdom of God.  HOWEVER, we also know that faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and that we were created to do good works which God prepared for us (Eph 2:10).  We don’t like to talk about this much, but 2 Cor 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”.   Not what you believe, but for your deeds.  If you have a faith that can move mountains, that’s great, but what have you done with it?

            Every time we ignore a brother who is in need, we are storing up wrath for ourselves in the day of judgment.  Christ himself said, “What you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.” (Matt 25:40), and by extension when we ignore the least of these, we are ignoring our king.  Conversely, when we do good works in the name of our king, we are storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven (Matt 6:19-21).  James 1:27 says “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. ”  How many times in a week are we actively seeking the opportunities to serve God?

            Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.  Join me in beginning to seek every day what good work we can do, to actively seek out the good works that God has prepared in advance for us, to the glory of God.  When we are presented the blessing of an opportunity to serve, offer up a silent prayer of thanks, and a humble plea to “Remember me, O my God, for good.“.

REFLECTION QUESTION (Just one today):

  1. What are you going to do today to physically exhibit God’s love to another?

PRAYER

Father God, thank you so much for all of the blessings that you have given me, none of which I’ve deserved.  Please provide me an opportunity today to do a service in Your name.  Please help me to be an active servant who pleases You.  You have prepared good works in advance for us to do, please show me what some of them are today.  Please forgive me for all the times when I’ve ignored the opportunities, and open my eyes to see them when you present them, even if they are out of the way.  Help me to follow the example of Jesus, our king.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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Scriptural Paleontology or the First Church Council

1 Chronicles 4-6

Psalm 70

Galatians 2

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            1 Chronicles has one of the densest “who begats” sections in scripture, and roughly 10% of the entire book is devoted to genealogy.  Let’s talk about the genealogies for a second.  These are admittedly some tough chewing at times, but that’s because they are so nutrient dense.  Every single one of the names that we normally skim over is an entire novel or series of novels in it’s own right, and constitutes an entire lifetime of choices, decisions, and adventures but it’s hard to see that because all we see is a name and then it moves to the next.  I used to completely skip over these as a kid because, well, let’s be honest: not a whole lot was going on that I could see, just a lot of “and Jed begat Bob who begat Bill who begat Frank who begat…”.  I’d considered it as the literary equivalent of Ambien ™ at the time.

            That perception changed for me when I did a deep dive into the genealogy listed in Matt 1, and I started taking genealogies seriously.  Jewish folks take their genealogies very seriously, and for a very good reason, we touched on that just a little bit in yesterday’s devotion.  What I discovered, quite by accident, is that genealogies are fascinating if you start digging.  Think of every genealogy section in scripture as a dinosaur bone.  You don’t always know what it’s going to look like when you start digging it up, but it’s always amazing what you find if you’re a good scriptural paleontologist.  In fact, yesterday’s entire devotion was going to be done out of 1 Chronicles 1-3, but after I read Galatians 1 I rewrote the whole thing because it had such an important message in it. 

            Let me see if I can inspire your inner scriptural paleontologist with some interesting snippets from 1 Chronicles 1-6:

  1. In 1Chron 1:1-4 there is a direct line from Adam to the sons of Noah.  Which one of these men listed didn’t die, and purportedly has a “pseudepigriphal” (apocryphal) book that is quoted later in the New Testament but which is NOT included in the canon of the New Testament? (Hint: Gen 5:24, Jude 14-15.  Also, if you get a chance, read the book in question, it’s interesting.)
  2. In 1Chron 1:19 it states: “…the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided “.  What does that mean?  Is this a confirmation of the scientific theory of “Pangea”, or is it a reference to the tower of Babel? (Hint: Although also noted in Gen 11, it never clearly says why in the Bible, but a few apocryphal books including “The book of Jubilees” seem to imply the latter)
  3. In 1 Chron 2:7, when it mentions “Achar, the troubler of Israel” it seems like there’s a gap in the genealogical listings between Zimri and Carmi, who’s missing, and why is Achar called that? (Hint: he’s also known as Achan, see Joshua 7 for both answers)

            I don’t want to get too sidetracked from our devotion today, but I’ve listed the few snippets above to try and inspire you to dig scripturally every time you come across a genealogy.  You never know what you’re going to find, but there are books and books worth of stories in genealogies that we normally just brush past.  They’re fascinating, dig a little bit.

            Moving on to our Galatians 2 reading today, we see a quick snippet in v1-2 that is pretty important for a number of reasons.  In it, Paul, after being called by a revelation from Jesus, empowered by the holy spirit,  and preaching to the gentiles for 14 years, humbly goes to the “authorities” (namely, some of the original apostles), to make sure he’s acting properly.  Firstly, note that God has at this point in time already been performing miracles through Paul, and also keep in mind that prior to the events in Acts 10, the message was being delivered solely for and to the Jewish people.

            The first “Church Council” is referenced here in Galatians 2, and actually takes place back in Acts 15.  There are a number of very important things to take away from this council.  Firstly, the gospel of salvation is approved to be given to the gentiles, fulfilling many prophecies (See in particular Is 49:6).  This is huge, particularly if you’re a gentile (non-jewish person).  Secondly, the content of the meeting is absolutely screaming down history at us about what it doesn’t say, or even question. 

            Keep in mind, the Jews are fiercely monotheistic ever since the return from the Babylonian exile.  The gospel message of salvation has been being preached to the Jews by Jesus and by the apostles after Jesus was resurrected, and now is going to the gentiles for the first time.  So let’s think for a moment: the content of this first, hugely controversial, church council is (in it’s entirety) this: can the gospel of salvation be preached to the gentiles, and if so, what must they do? The entire reason for the meeting was predominantly to question whether or not gentiles should be circumcised to be considered “of the faith” (A: no, see Acts 15).

            You know what is NOT being questioned at this first church council, nor by any other church council until AD 325, hundreds of years after Jesus’ resurrection, and hundreds of years after converting many pagans and philosophers into Christianity?  “Is Jesus God?”.   It just never came up, because it’s such a foreign concept to the Jews of that time that it would never even be conceived of as a possibility.  The apostles and all of the Jewish followers of Christ at that time wrote, suffered, and often died, to tell the world and to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah prophesied about in numerous scriptures; nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

            The Jews knew  who God was, His name occurs almost 7000 times in scripture;  Yahweh, the creator and sustainer of all life, who revealed Himself to Moses in Ex 3.  The Jews fully understood the concept of “shaliah” (see 1/27 devotion), but they could also quote the Shema (Deut 6:4-5) by heart, and had it written beside their doors, and in boxes they tied to their hands, and in boxes they tied to their foreheads because it was so important to God that he commanded them to do so.  If you have a more “complex” understanding about the nature of God than what is written, I urge you to “stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. “ (Jer 6:16).

            One thing to leave with; as obedient servants and slaves to our king, Gal 2:20 is a really good verse to memorize and keep in your defensive arsenal for when you are tempted: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me “ (LSB).  Remember that we were bought by our God at a price, a very high price indeed, and allow our king, the Christ, to sit upon the throne of our hearts.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Are you (even slightly) inspired to dig a little next time you see a genealogy?
  2. Why do you think Paul, after 14 years, went to check with the “authorities”?
  3. If the “authorities” had told Paul “No, you can’t preach to the gentiles” do you think he would have listened based on the rest of the chapter?  Either way, would that have been the right or the wrong call, and why?
  4. How can we get off the throne of our hearts, and put Christ there? (It’s different for each of us, your answers will be unique to you)

PRAYER

Father God, forgive me of all sin and teach me to be holy.  Circumcise my heart, father, and let me humbly serve you and bear good fruit to honor you.  Thank you for sending your light to the nations, thank you for the high price which you paid for me, please grant that I can honor you in everything I say, do, or think.  In Jesus name, amen.

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Lists

These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.         -1 Chronicles 2:1-2 (ESV)

1 Chronicles 2

Psalm 16, 19, 21

If you’ve been reading along with me this week, you may have noticed I like lists.  In fact, it’s kind of an obsession of mine.  I have lists for pretty much everything – grocery lists, daily to-do lists, lists for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, to-do lists of projects (for me and for my husband), packing lists for trips, lists of nursery helpers and teachers at church, so many lists. 

Lists can be great as reminders.  Yesterday and today we have read through the first two chapters in 1 Chronicles.  I know the headings aren’t actually “Biblical”, but they are helpful.  1 Chronicles 1:1-24 is the genealogy from Adam to Abraham.  Verses 28 – 34 is the genealogy from Abraham to Jacob (Israel).  1 Chronicles 2:1-15 is the genealogy of David.  Now, I don’t particularly like to read the genealogies in the Bible, or anywhere, really.  I usually skim through them and pause at the names of characters in the Bible I recognize. 

But God wanted them in the Bible, in His Word, so they must have a purpose.  I know God had special tasks for different tribes.  I know that prophecies that tell of Jesus’ lineage rely on genealogies to prove he was the Messiah.  So, don’t write them off too quickly, even if you don’t read every name. 

A short devotion to make up for the long list of names you just waded through!

Amy Blanchard

Reflection Questions

  1. Consider your own genealogy.  There are people in your lineage who have shaped your life and your faith.  Is there anyone you want to thank?  Or thank God for?
  2. I encourage you to read the Psalms for today as well.  A great prayer for every moment of every day is Psalm 19:14, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”   In looking back over your day, at what time would you have been happy to say this prayer?  When would you have wanted to hide your words and thoughts (meditation) from God?  Praise God for His forgiveness! 
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A Family Reunion

1 Chronicles 1-2

1 Chronicles 2 1 NIV (1)

Right now family reunions look a little different as we face our current situation with Covid-19 and all that brings.  Yet there is still great joy in hearing that familiar voice on the phone or interacting with your family on Zoom or facetime.  Remember those family reunions with multiple generations where the old dusty photo albums are brought out to celebrate and learn about those who have gone before?

 

As we read the Chronicles we are reading a family reunion.

 

In our chronological Bible reading plan we have just begun the book of 2nd Samuel to read of David as king.  And, at the same time, we are reading various Psalms, many of which were written by David.  And, now, we are going to begin yet another book, 1st Chronicles, which will include several of the same stories as 2nd Samuel, and later 1st & 2nd Kings.

 

Why the overlap?

 

They were written for different people at different times, but both are still relevant to us.  The books of Samuel (originally one book) were written shortly after David’s son, Solomon’s, death, at a time when the kingdom of Israel was going to be fractured and face the tragedy of many evil kings which would ultimately lead to the downfall of their nation(s).  It was important at that time to preserve a record of how Israel became a nation with a king – and thus the book(s) of Samuel.

 

Many years later, after the Israelites had been conquered and in foreign captivity for generations, they would be preparing to return to Jerusalem and their homeland.  This was now a totally different people in a totally different situation.  They needed to be taught that they were indeed the people of God, and what that means.  They needed to be reminded of their roots.  They needed a good old family reunion.

 

Break out the photo albums, or – in this case – the genealogies!

 

I know, it’s not very exciting for us to read long lists of names, many of whom we have NO clue who they are or what they did or even how to pronounce their name.  But, if you count yourself among the people of God – this is your family tree, too!   And, you know what they say – every family tree has a few nuts.  So, indeed, this family tree has the good, the bad and the ugly.  They don’t have time or space to write of the stories for everyone, but several names bring to mind a picture of righteousness (Noah, Abraham, Joseph and David).  Other times the writer takes the time to remind his family reunion participants of the sad lessons learned from those who had strayed:

 

1st Chronicles 2:3 – “Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.”

 

1st Chronicles 2:7 – “The son of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble on Israel by violating the ban on taking devoted things.”

 

So, dig in – enjoy your little trip down the Israelite memory lane today – there will be more on Friday.  And, pause to think, just how do you fit into God’s family tree?

 

Also – now is a good time to reconnect with your more immediate family too (maybe 3-4 current generations, what about your church family, too)  Check in on them and share how God is blessing you today.  See what God is teaching them today.

 

Marcia Railton

 

Today’s Bible reading can be found at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Chronicles+1-2&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be back in the Psalms (43-45, 49, 84-85, 87) – we will save more of the genealogies for Friday.  Continue on the journey with us by printing your own copy of our 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan – and keep reading His Word to you.