Fifteen Hundred Years

Have you ever tried to trace your family tree? How far back can you go?

Tonight we are looking at nearly 1500 years of Judah's genealogy. It will be clear at times that the record was pretty spotty. Some lines of the family were obviously incomplete. “We know that we are connected to Ram back there somewhere”

But the story we are telling tonight is the story of God's faithfulness to his beloved son. Last time we looked at chapter 1 and saw that God was faithful to Esau – the one he hated. I pointed out that if God is faithful to the one he hated, how much more will he faithful to the one he loves!

As we go through all these details of Judah's family genealogy, keep in mind that the Chronicler is recounting a story of God's faithfulness through fifteen hundred years – day-by-day for half a million days!

One challenge in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 1-9 is that the Chronicler is not trying to give us a modern genealogy!

If you go to ancestry.com, or a host of other genealogical sites, there are certain rules for “how to do” genealogy.

Ancient rules for genealogy are often quite different from modern rules! And it would not be fair for us to expect the Chronicler to conform to modern rules.

So when the Chronicler omits generations, or provides a different relationship than we were expecting from other sources, don't be surprised!

And don't get worried when he provides materials from divergent sources without explaining how they all fit together!