The Bible Recap - Day 113 (1 Chronicles 1-2) - Year 4

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Did it surprise you that we started another new book today? Welcome to First Chronicles. We'll be popping in and out of this book over the next month. Then we'll drop in and out of second Chronicles for the three months after that. These two books used to be one book, but they were divided because of scroll length. In our chronological timeline, we're currently at the time of David, which is roughly 1,000 years BC, and these two books were written at roughly 500 BC to Chronicle Israel's history, like

Starting point is 00:00:39 the Bible recap, but before podcast, and much more condensed, and on a scroll. So every time we drop into this book, we'll be getting a little bonus recap about something we just read. The purpose of Chronicles is to remind Israel where they came from, which should also serve to give them hope for the future. In a few days, I'll tell you why it was so important for them to have this book and these genealogy specifically. The book starts us way back at the beginning. In fact, the first word of first Chronicles 1-1 is Adam. This is going to be such a good refresher for us and I believe it will really help us to commit more of this to memory as well as stir up a few things in our hearts. So don't tap out here if some of this feels repetitive. You don't want a little repetition

Starting point is 00:01:19 to knock you off your game. In fact, reps are how you develop strength. Keep looking for God and for new things each day, even in the things that they'll familiar or boring. But for what it's worth, chronicles does spice things up a bit. It adds in some new stories that aren't recorded elsewhere and it leaves a few things out as well. Typically, chronicles adds positive stories and subtracts negative ones.

Starting point is 00:01:41 That may sound deceptive, but one thing I love about the Bible is that it doesn't let chronicles off the hook. God has given us other books to help flesh out the story more fully. If you read a story in 2 Samuel 1 day and then first Chronicles the next day, sometimes there will be new details that jump off the page at you that weren't in the other account. Today we had two chapters of genealogies tracing the story of the family we've been following, and I know that for most people those aren't super fun to read, but let's see what we can find out about who God is in the midst of all these impossible-to-pronounce names.

Starting point is 00:02:12 On days like this, I like to have the Bible app read to me. That's when it becomes clear to me that half the name sound like diseases and the other half sound like medications, so it all works really well together. You probably noticed right away that the early genealogies are really compressed and some aren't even complete sentences. The scribe was probably like, I have to write down 3500 years worth of people, so who has time for verbs? Nimrod may have caught your eye in one ten, because the verse says he was the first person on

Starting point is 00:02:40 earth to be a mighty man. We first read about Nimrod and Genesis 10, which mentions that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Two things worth mentioning here. First, some commentators think this was an entire people group of hunter warriors, not just one person. Second, the name Nimrod became a slang term for someone who was foolish.

Starting point is 00:03:01 It was popularized by Bugs Bunny, who used it to refer to Elmer Fud, who was a hunter. So it just makes me think that the people over at Looney Toons are better theologians than our old friends, the Renaissance painters. Some cartoonist has been reading his Bible. Another person who caught my eye was Pelleg, because 119 tells us that in his days, the earth was divided. What's that about? We first met Pelleg briefly back in Genesis 1025, which was right before the Tower of Babel, the incident where God created multiple language

Starting point is 00:03:31 which served to separate the people. It's likely, but not certain, that this is the division that text is referring us back to. However, some people think this points to continental drift theory and the way plate tectonics have impacted the globe. The second chapter has us mostly hovering over the lineage of the tribe of Judah. That's because David comes from this tribe, so the author naturally wants to highlight

Starting point is 00:03:53 his family because they're Israeli royalty. As these genealogies continue in the following chapters, some of the other tribes barely even get mentioned at all. Naftali gets a sentence fragment. Chapter 2 verse 7 mentions Aiken and refers to him as the Troubler of Israel. We met him back in Joshua 7. After the Israelites made their first raid in the Promised Land and took the city of Jericho, Aiken is the one who stole some of the things devoted to God and hid them in his tent.

Starting point is 00:04:21 And how did that trouble the whole nation? You may remember that their next battle was against AI and they lost 36 men. God said it was because there was sin in the camp. Akin confessed and they stoned him. 36 men and all of Akin's family died because of his greed. Troubler indeed. Godchats are hard on genealogy days, aren't they?

Starting point is 00:04:43 I won't pretend it came to me right away. But after I zoomed out on this and saw what caught my attention, I tried to look at what those things indicated to me about who God is. The things that jumped out at me were those three people we just talked about. Nimrod the mighty hunter, Peleg who lived in the days when the earth was divided, and Akin, the traveler of Israel. In this genealogy, we have someone who it seems as being praised, Nimrod the mighty hunter, then we have someone who is identified more by the things around them than by the things

Starting point is 00:05:12 they've done personally, Peleg, the Wallflower maybe. And finally, we have Akin, who is known for bringing trouble and death to God's people with his idolatry. To me, this points out how God uses every story, from the great, to the terrible, to the person who never does anything that history considers significant. We're all written into his story of redemption. He sees us all one by one. And genealogies are a reminder of that.

Starting point is 00:05:39 They may be boring, but he's not. He's where the joy is. Are you the person who hears me talk about writing or a view and thinks, oh, I want to do that, someday I'll do that. Guess what? Today is your day. Today is the day you remember. I've been that person before and I know that sometimes I just need a reminder, so if that's you, here it is. We'd love for you to drop a five-star review for us and write a sentence or two about the Bible recap so others can find us. Okay, I'll let you go now because I think I heard you mention there was something you wanted to do.

Starting point is 00:06:10 Just kidding. Have a great day.

The Bible Recap - Day 113 (1 Chronicles 1-2) - Year 4

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