1 CHRONICLES 1-2

Heart Issues
When I first opened to see the long genealogies I was disappointed, and thought how pointless it would be. Then I began to read the commentary on the chapter and it actually meant more than I thought. I am still blown away at thinking about the verse in Malachi 1:2-5 where God declares that He loved Jacob and hated Esau. It is hard to deal with that theologically. I am also intrigued by God’s view of the generations and His care for families. It is also cool to see the little notations on certain people. It makes me think about what notation would be placed by my name. Would it just say “the father of” or would it go on to say something about my character and honoring God with my life. Many of the notations though are negative and it shows that one stupid thing can scar you and defame your name for life and the future memory of you.
Notes
-The first thing to know about genealogies is that only the men were notated in that time period. The writer here had a specific purpose in what he was writing and who would make it in the genealogies. For example Cain and Abel didn’t make it as Adam’s descendants.
-The purpose of the first part was to show that Noah was a descendant of Adam. After Noah obviously all of the earth was flooded and everyone died except for Noah’s family. So they repopulated the earth following the flood and the wicked earth.
Japheth – fair skinned – dwelt in the islands of the Mediterranean
Ham – black – Egypt and Lybia (not fully black, but very dark)
Shem – dark – father of the Israelites and used to show here his descendants to the line of Abraham
-Jacob is later named Israel and chapter 2 starts out with his sons. His sons then each have territories that make up all of Israel. Then you go through and see significant things about how the Lord views the families and their generations.