Well, hopefully you give me the privilege of not wearing a coat for the last session so we can increase in our informality as we formally come to know one another a little bit better. Well, for our last session, I have another little talk here on Old Testament passages you like to just skip as you're coming through it, considering the genealogies of First Chronicles chapters one through nine. So, just thinking about genealogies, the last 20 years or so, there's been a really renewed interest in one's own genealogical heritage. I remember a few years ago, my father-in-law bought for my wife, myself, my sister-in-law, as a Christmas present, one of those DNA kits, where you give your data to somebody else for their own nefarious purposes, I'm sure. You fill out these DNA kits, you give them the sample, and they send you back some rather interesting data about your own genealogical history. Learn things about part English, part Scottish, part Scandinavian, part Eastern European. You can get all these sorts of percentages and all these fun things, and you get in their database, and of course for a price, you can connect yourself to a broader family across the country. So you learn about who your fourth cousins are, and your fifth cousins twice removed, or yada, yada, yada. These databases can connect you to long-lost cousins, far-removed relatives, and you can figure out a little bit more. about your own family history? Answering the question, as one of their own websites says, where did I come from? so that you can discover your own family story. And so it's about a biographical sketch to figure out a little bit more of who you are in your own personal family history. We can say a little bit of similar things about genealogies in the Bible, but they function in a very different and far more profound way than answering the question, where do you come from? You see, the genealogies of the Bible are jam-packed with theology and are written in such a way where the author is actually communicating very important pieces of theological information for his audiences via the genealogy. Where the genealogies are more than just a list of names. They actually tell us very important things about what God is doing in history. to bring a people to himself. There is, as the title of this lecture says in your handouts, a theology of genealogy. And an author can use the genealogies for his own particular purposes to introduce his own message. So what exactly, then, is the theology of the genealogy of 1 Chronicles chapters 1 through 9? Well, this genealogy is the longest one in the Bible, nine chapters. So I imagine if you come across this in your McShane Bible-through-reading plan, your answer is, well, I guess I can just skip that. We're going to have a much lesser time in the Word this morning. And just because it is so long as you're reading through it, and most of it, not all of it, is a bunch of names. But as you're reading through it and you start to pay attention to the miniature stories the author gives, the organization of the genealogies, it is actually quite potent in terms of its introduction to the book of Chronicles. Because through the genealogy, the author is actually going to give us the key information that he's trying to convey in the rest of the book. And what he's trying to convey in the rest of the book is a threefold focus. I'm going to draw your attention to in the genealogies this afternoon. First, how all Israel is the people of God. The whole people are the people of the Lord that have hope and restoration after the exile. Second, that all Israel must be led by a king from the line of David. They need a Davidic king who progresses from Judah through Perez to David. And then lastly, that the task of this people, led by this king, is worship. It's about the people of God led by the proper king that God ordains for the ultimate task of worshiping and making much of God. Now to get into this, what I'll do is have a brief, and I mean very brief, introduction to Chronicles, and then work through the three main sections of the genealogies of chapters 1 through 9. Chapter 1 gives us a genealogy from Adam to Israel, giving us the notion of all Israel Chapters two through eight, a genealogy of all Israel under David, so that the people of God under a Davidic king. And then lastly, a final genealogy in chapter nine about the restored exiles, so the returned exiles who are saved, I will argue, for worship. So the theology of genealogy for First Chronicles one through nine is all the people of God, all Israel, under a Davidic king for the task of worship. Well, First Chronicles and Second Chronicles, we could call a second edition to Israel's history. It retells much of the same history as First, Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, or as they're often referred to as Samuel Kings, because it really is one narrative in those. for books, and we kind of have to ask ourselves the question, why does God tell the history of his people twice? Is it good to be redundant? Well, in the Bible, yes, you get four gospels, right, and now you have two historical witnesses in the Old Testament, but they're not just a rote repetition of one and the other, it's the same history, it's the same history considered from two distinct angles, of theology. And the angle of Samuel and Kings in comparison to Chronicles is that Samuel and Kings primarily ask the question of how the kings of Israel relate to the Lord's prophets. How do the kings of Israel relate to the Lord's prophets? In fact, I argue in my classes at the seminary that the books of Kings are more about prophets than they are kings. Think of actually the longest narrative in the book of 1st and 2nd Kings is the Elijah, Elisha narrative. So we actually learned more about the ministry of Elijah and Elisha than we learned about any other king in the nation of Israel. Or think of why Saul is removed initially from the throne, why it's going to pass to David instead of Saul. Well, it's because he doesn't obey the word of Samuel the prophet, does he? And think of the end of his reign, what does he consult? A prophet of the Lord? No, medium. So there's a juxtaposition of listening or not listening to the prophetic word, and the good kings are those who listen to the prophets, and the bad kings are those that don't. What about chronicles? What does chronicles really draw our attention to? Well, in my opinion, the main theological vantage point of the book of Chronicles, the key theological emphasis that he's going to make as he approaches the same history of Israel from a slightly different angle, is worship of God at the temple of God under a Davidic king. Right, Chronicles, Kings has similar information, but Chronicles, in one way or another, zeroes in on a theology of the temple under the line of David. And we see this especially in the things that the chronicler, which is the fun name for the anonymous person who wrote Chronicles. So who wrote it? We don't know, we call him the chronicler. All right, so the chronicler, he who wrote Chronicles, excludes some of the information from Samuel and Kings, and includes information that's not in Samuel and Kings. Now that's not a contradiction. If you read a simple chapter about somebody's life and they reigned for 30 years, that's not giving you all the information in their lives. And so Chronicles is at times gonna give us more information, and sometimes less information about events that happened. And so think for example about David's life, and argue that all Israel under David for worship is kind of the motif of Chronicles. You read Samuel and Kings, and you read Chronicles, and the things included or omitted from Chronicles, in one way or another, sent our attention upon the temple. So 1 Samuel spends a lot of information about Saul, his reign, his relationship to Samuel, and his hatred of David, and how he's going to pursue David and try to put him to death. Dozens of chapters on that motif. You know how much the Chronicler spends on that? Nothing. In fact, he doesn't tell you about it. In fact, the only thing you learn about Saul, he was a king for a little bit, and he died. That's about all the chronicler wants you to know about Saul. And then he jumps into David, and he skips most of David's life of humility under the oppression of Saul, and he draws our attention to something else. A David as he gathers all Israel around himself for the task of waging war against the seed of the serpent. We're going to see that again in the genealogies here in just a little bit. But also especially, he includes an extensive bit of material, chapters 21 through 29, that is by and large unique to his account dealing with how David organizes and prepares the work of temple building and temple worship. Information we don't have in Samuel and Kings. Why? Because he wants to draw our attention to who David is, as one who secures a realm at rest, to dwell in the presence of God, and ultimately prepares his son Solomon to construct the temple where God's presence is going to be dwelling with God's people for the foreseeable future. And part of that is David's depiction in Chronicles is he's nearly perfect. You read Samuel in Kings, David makes some pretty big mistakes, doesn't he? He sleeps with Bathsheba, committing fornication with her, and breaking of the commandments, and taking a married woman into his own bed, and things get worse when he murders her husband, and all of these things are recorded in Samuel and Kings, but we don't have them in Chronicles. Why? Because that's not his point. He wants to draw our attention to who David is as one who is orienting the people of Israel to worship the one true God. And so the book of Chronicles, which was written, by the way, in the post-exilic period, draws our attention to the history of Israel, to consider the history of Israel under the rubric of worship under a Davidic king, of worship under a Davidic king. And the genealogies kickstart the book and drive us to that theological goal. Well, how do they do it? And what do they do to make us consider that theological goal? Well, the first genealogy comes in chapter one. It is a genealogy that drives us from Adam, right, in Genesis one and two, to Jacob, Israel. in the book of Genesis. And it's helpful to remember that in Genesis 32, Jacob, the patriarch, is renamed Israel, and it's Israel, as he's referred to in 1 Chronicles 1, that will have the 12 sons that will represent the 12 tribes of Israel. So this genealogical list of names in chapter one is in a sense history in the form of genealogy. It's a manner of summarizing the historical progress of humanity in terms of their origins with a particular view toward the Lord's work to isolate and call out one family and one people as his own special possession. And the way that the chronicler does this is he uses the book of Genesis. for the content of his genealogies. Remember earlier I mentioned the best way to read the Old Testament is read all of it? And this is definitely the case here as well. And so if you've read Genesis lately, you've probably come across a key phrase. These are the generations of. And that phrase is actually structural in the book. It introduces all the new sections as the book of Genesis proceeds. And so the book of Genesis is itself a genealogy with some stories in it. It's a genealogy with some stories in it. And so what the Chronicler does is he is going to give us the history of Genesis via the genealogies. And to get there, I want you to note how the Chronicler explicitly follows and draws from the Book of Genesis. He does it not simply from getting his list of names there. He does it in the way he conveys the list of names. And so he starts in 1 Chronicles 1-1, Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Methuel, Jared, Enoch, so on and so forth, on down to Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. What does that remind you of? Genesis 1-5, right? Genesis 4, towards the end, you have the birth of Seth. Genesis 5, Seth on down to Noah. And Genesis 5 ends in the birth of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. From there, the chronicler follows the pattern of the book of Genesis, where you'll notice in verse 5 you have the sons of Japheth, and you have his genealogy, verse 8, the sons of Ham, and his genealogy, and then in verse 17, the sons of Shem, and then his genealogy, which is briefly repeated in verses 24 down to Abraham. That should remind you of Genesis chapter 10, because really what those verses are is a summary of Genesis 10, following it, not just in terms of who the people are, but structurally. Where in Genesis chapter 10 you have first the sons of Japheth, then the sons of Ham, and then the sons of Shem, which have a repeated two-fold genealogy. First one in Genesis 10, and then it's repeated again in Genesis 11, just after the Tower of Babel narrative. And it's the one just after the Tower of Babel narrative that goes from Shem down to Abraham, just as we have here. 1 Chronicles 1. Then it goes from there to Abraham and his children Isaac and Ishmael, verse 26. Then from Isaac and Ishmael to deal with first Ishmael, and then Isaac's children Esau and Jacob. Notice how he focuses in on Israel here. And then to the end of chapter one here, the sons of Esau, and especially the chiefs of Edom, which take us ultimately downward to Genesis 36, where we have the genealogy of Esau and the chiefs of Edom. After that in Genesis, or First Chronicles two verses one and two, we go back to the sons of Israel or Jacob, and we get essentially the birth order of Genesis 29 and 30. And so if you're just kind of tracing through this genealogy, he's actually used the book of Genesis for the structure of First Chronicles chapter one. And so what he's trying to do here is tap into the theology of Genesis for the sake of his work in the book of Chronicles. And so how does this express a theology of all Israel under David for worship? Well, I think the answer lies in the book of Genesis itself. And what is the theology of the book of Genesis? Why does Genesis have such an emphasis in all of these genealogies? Well, the answer is that really what Genesis is, is an outworking of the promises of Genesis 3.15. Where immediately after the fall, in light of the entrance of sin and misery, the Lord of Genesis 3.15 makes the covenant of grace with His Son and reveals how He is going to work salvation for His people. And there in Genesis 3.15, The Lord reveals some levels of enmity between the serpent and his people. He does it in three levels here. I think you all at least have Genesis 3.15 somewhere in your hearts. I will put enmity between you and the serpent, he says to Eve. What is he saying? Well, what is friendship with a serpent? Enmity with God. Right? And so in the fall, with Adam and Eve following the impulses of the serpent, they became friends of Satan. And now what God does in redemption here initially to the woman, to Eve, is he shows enmity with Satan to restore them to fellowship with himself. This fellowship with himself is broadened out into a larger group of enmity, in the second phrase of Genesis 3.15, between your offspring and her offspring. And at least at this level, this could be seen in terms of a conflict between two corporate or larger groups that are going to spiritually be antithetical to one another. One, the people of God, and the other, the seed of the serpent. And as the book of Genesis proceeds, the various genealogical lists in the book of Genesis, in one way or another, trace the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpents. Think, for example, of Genesis 4 and Genesis 5. Cain, as John tells us in 1 John 3, is of the evil one. He is of the seed of the serpent. How do we know? Because of his murderous intent to strike down his own brother in the field. And then we have a genealogy of Cain, moving on from there. And then we're brought back to Seth, who begins to call upon the name of the Lord. And we have a genealogy of Seth, a line of promise in the seed of the woman. Two people groups opposed to one another. And then lastly, in terms of Genesis 3.15, there's not only the enmity between the woman, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, or their children, corporately speaking, but also an individual particular seed that will come from the line of the woman. enmity between an individual child, he, singular, will bruise your head, and you, singular, will bruise his heel. A climactic conflict between a descendant from the line of the woman and the serpent himself. See, each genealogy in the book of Genesis highlights the reality of God's work of grace and mercy to redeem a people out of sin and misery and store them to himself through the promise of a son who is yet to be born. And this explains the juxtaposition between the genealogies of the seed of the serpent and the genealogies of the seed of the woman in Genesis. And it even draws our attention, I think, a key point to start off First Chronicles. You ever notice as we were kind of briefly going through it, and I'll spare you reading nine chapters of names here, but just notice the emphasis of First Chronicles chapter one, the sons of Japheth, not the seed of the woman. The sons of Ham, not the seed of the woman. The sons of Ishmael, not the seed of the woman. The sons of Esau, not the seed of the woman. See, if 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles really does deal with a theology of all Israel, it seems a little bit weird that most of the names of 1 Chronicles chapter one are actually from the genealogies of the seed of the serpent in the book of Genesis. What does this serve to draw our attention to? One thing it served to draw our attention to, how the only hope that the people of Israel have is the same hope that you or I have. It's to draw our attention to how they do not have ethnic superiority. They don't have the better biology. What they received was God's mercy and grace. To draw people out of slavery and sin, to give them his promises, to bring them to himself, and to promise that from their line, a child would be born, who will redeem them from sin and win their salvation. See, the book of Genesis shows through its genealogies that downward course of sin and misery. And it does it in a regular pattern where it does that before it deals with the promised seed of the woman. It does it in Genesis four and five, does it again in Genesis 10, it does it again with each generation of the patriarchs. Because it shows, through the genealogies of Genesis, that what God works to do is to bring people out from the reign of sin, misery, and Satan and restore them to Himself. To quote Gerardus Voss, one of my favorite theologians on this, the progress from Genesis 4 into Genesis 5 is meant to show the full and total downward sway of sin that the Lord is bringing his people out of. So whenever we're thinking of a theology of all Israel, introducing the book of Chronicles here, this initial genealogy taking us back to the book of Genesis drives us to the reality that it is God himself who is going to break the yoke of sin and misery and restore people back to fellowship with him. The distinguishing feature between Israel and the other nations is that God had given them his promises, that God had worked by his grace, through his own love, to draw this people to himself. Israel's identity is not biology. Israel's identity is grace, a people drawn out by the grace of God. You think of how important this would have been for the people of Israel to understand in the context of the exile, where they've been carried out from the land that was promised to them, cast out among the broader nations, Assyria for the northern kingdom, Babylon for the southern kingdom. What did they need to hear? A theology of God's grace. It's God's grace. It's God's love that saves his people such that they have no reason to boast. Well, from there, drawing from Genesis, the chronicler then shifts to consider the various tribes of the people of Israel. And the way he does this is in a rather unique way to consider the notion of all the people have gone together and situate them underneath a Davidic king. And the reason or the way that he does this And so there's some rather crafty, and I mean that in a good way, reorganization of Israel's genealogical lines. So we've already learned in 1 Chronicles 1 that the author of Chronicles is very attentive to understanding and following the text of the book of Genesis. And so what ends up happening as he continues to outline the rest of the genealogies of Israel, he deviates from the pattern of Genesis. So here's what he does. In First Chronicles chapter two, verses one and two, he gives us the birth order of the children of Jacob Israel from Genesis 29 and 30. It begins with Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi, then Judah, then Iskallar, Zebalun, all the way down through Asher. That tells us that he knows Genesis, and he can reproduce that genealogy if he wanted to. But then he doesn't do it. Instead, he reorganizes it in such a way to draw our attention to the Davidic reign. And I'll just point you to your handout right here, little page, looks kind of like this, that has his reorganization of the genealogies placed in a nice handy dandy chart form. So that might help you to follow along as we work through this here. And so the first thing I want you to note is what the chronicler does in his reorganization of the tribes of Israel is he places the tribes that are associated with the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the key parts of the genealogy. So when the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom split, and you read about this in 1 Kings 12, there are three tribes that associate themselves with the Southern Kingdom. The tribe of Judah, of course, under David, The tribe of Levi, whose inheritance is worship at the temple. And so they associate with David as the temple is going to be in that territory. And then lastly, a significant group, not all of them, but a significant group from the tribe of Benjamin. And then notice the tribe that begins is in the middle and then ends this genealogy. It begins in chapter two with Judah. In the middle, between two important groups I'll get to in a second, is Levi, and then it ends with the genealogy of the people of Benjamin. In the middle, there are two sections. There's a section dealing with what's called the Transjordanian tribes. These are the tribes that chose for their inheritance the eastern side of the Jordan River. I remember Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, they petitioned Moses saying, can we have our inheritance on this side instead of the western side? They weren't good country music singers. Go west, young man. Instead, they stayed a little bit further out in the east. But then you have Levi in the middle. And then after that, you've got what are called the Cisjordanian tribes, or the other tribes that go. and settled themselves in the territory of Jordan. And so actually what we have, if we're reading through this, you have Judah, Levi, and Benjamin in a structural order to bracket out all of the Cisterdanian and Transjordanian tribes around the ones that in one way or another associate themselves with the southern kingdom. But he also does this by removing a few tribes. So a few of the tribes have emboldened. Here, Dan and Zebulun are left out of the chronicler's genealogy. And instead, Manasseh is split into two, and Joseph receives an inheritance. Now, Joseph and Manasseh, or excuse me, Ephraim and Manasseh, were descendants from Joseph, one of Israel's children, where Joseph gets a double portion, to where two tribes extend from his line. Manasseh itself splits into two, an eastern and western tribe. Why would the chronicler get rid of some and include these other ones? Well, because Ephraim and Manasseh, in one way or another, become most closely associated with the northern kingdom of Israel. And so by including them here, the hope that is given to the people of Israel, even after the exile, is reunification back to one another under a Davidic king. We'll come back to that here in just a little bit. Let's think through some of these listings here. To emphasize his point, his organization really does draw our attention to the tribe of Judah. So he spends more time on Judah than any other tribe. If you go read, most of the tribes are just found in a single chapter, 1 Chronicles 7. But Judah gets himself three chapters, 2, 3 through 51, 3, 1 through 24, and then 4, 1 through 23. Chapter 2, verse 3 through 55 is a genealogy of Judah through Perez and focuses on the descendants of Hezron. Chapter 3 is a genealogy of the children of David, and then chapter 4, a genealogy of the sons of Caleb through her. And all three of those are going to, one way or another, draw our attention to the need for a Davidic king. So first, the genealogy in chapter 2, verses 3 through 55. and gives us Judah's line through Perez, and especially Perez's son, Hezron, which has three children, Ram, Zeramahiel, and Caleb, whose name is spelt two or three different ways throughout these genealogies, which, by the way, is not a problem in the ancient world. Has anyone ever struggled to write the name Nebuchadnezzar? Right, there are 13 different spellings of Nebuchadnezzar in Hebrew. Right, so if you've ever struggled to spell it, So does everybody else. It's OK. Standardized spelling really wasn't a thing in human history until the modern world. So that we have variations of spelling among Hebrew names and genealogies is actually not a problem at all. It's just an expression of the way writing was done in the ancient world. Well, so we do have a lot of those in these genealogies, but just to hone in to what the points really are here. As we're getting through the descendants of Hezron, the very first one through Hezron to Ram goes in verses 9 through 17 in a quick paced fronted genealogy of David. So we go very, very quickly. from Judah to Berez to Hezron, and ultimately through Hezron to Ram, to Boaz, to Obed, to Jesse, and to David. So the very first genealogy among the tribes of Israel takes us to David, takes us to the one who is going to be a king after the Lord's own heart. The other two genealogies from Hezron's line draw our attention to how in one way or another, they ain't David. They are not the line of the king. And so the first one through Ram takes us to David. The next one dealing primarily with, which one is it here, with Zerah Hamil, takes us through a progression of children where we have a lack of association with the promises of God. So the line of Jerachmiel here has a repeated refrain, I'll just point out a few of them, verse 30. Salih died childless, verse 32. Jethro died childless, verse 34. Now Shishun had no sons, only daughters. There's a repeated issue in this particular line where the promised child isn't gonna come from them because they're not having children. Which remember, what is the promise given to Abraham? that there will be many children, even more numerous than the stars of heaven or the sands of the sea. And so by that repeated notion of a number of descendants from this particular line that are childless and had no sons, dissociates them from the promises given to Judah, to Perez, and looking ultimately to David. The Caleb line is then a little bit different. The Caleb line, which we have beginning in chapter two, verse 42, and then have repeated again a little bit more for us towards the end in chapter four through her, draws our attention to a group of people that descend from the tribe of Judah that are going to have a servant's association with the house of David. The house of Caleb, at least in this genealogy beginning in 242, is a particular line from the tribe of Judah that draws, that this passage draws our attention to as the people that build Ephrathah. Ephrathah. Anyone know where Ephrathah was? Well, it gets a new name a little bit later on, and it's called Bethlehem. All right, so this is a line from the sons of Caleb through Hur, and that is eventually going to be a family of Ephrathites or Bethlehemites from the city in which the Vedic king is himself going to be born. Chapter three then takes us back to the first genealogy. So the first genealogy of the sons of Hezron go down ultimately to David and it kind of stops with David and his brothers. And then chapter three begins with David and takes us to a number of David's sons. the sons that primarily are going to be kings in the kingdom of Judah. It begins by giving us a rather large list of a number of all of David's sons in verses one through nine, before deviating from that and drawing our attention only for a time to the sons that are going to be king. So from David to Solomon, and then Solomon on through his sons, until we get to the line of Josiah. And when we get to Josiah, then the line is going to fracture once again, where under Josiah's children, his sons, there's going to be a breaking apart of the Davidic kingdom, ultimately toppled in 586 BC, to where David's sons were either going to be killed or carried off into exile. But here's a point that I find very, very significant about this genealogy of David's children here in chapter three. The sons of Josiah witnessed the downfall of the southern kingdom of Judah. And that happens at least fairly early. in this portion of the genealogy. So we can think of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, kings that you can read about later on in Chronicles. Then it gives us Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, who's also carried off into exile. But then from verse 17 and on through down through verse 24, the genealogy keeps on trucking. That's very important. Why? According to Psalm 89, what happens in the exile As the crown of David is thrown onto the dust, the throne is toppled over. But according to the chronicler, who, remember, is writing after the exile, the line continues. So what is he saying? The promise isn't dead. Well, for a time, there's going to be judgment against the southern kingdom of Judah because of their sin. The promises to the Davidic line are not gone. 2 Samuel 7 is not broken. There will be a king to reign forever on the throne of David. But this king is going to come much later. The line of David continues, people of Israel, even after the destruction of the southern kingdom in the exile. Chapter four goes back to Judah once again. So the sons of Judah, Perez, Hazron, Carmine, Hor, and Shobal, and then Hazron again, going down to the line of Hur. kind of like in chapter two. But this different genealogy here in chapter four draws our attention to another feature of this line, who's not the line of David, but a line who's going to submit themselves to David. So one of Hezron's children, their line, goes down to where they're not anymore children, another line submits themselves to the Davidic king. And this is the line of Judah through Perez to Hezron through her, and especially through another son named Jabez. Jabez. So verse nine, Jabez is born, and Jabez is, the passage draws our attention to it, where we break from a typical progression of a genealogy, this person fathered this person, who fathered this person, who fathered this person, to get a miniature story, a little story. Or it says in verses nine and following, Jabez was more honorable than all his brothers, and his mother called him Jabez, saying, because I bore him in pain. Right, Jabez means pain. And yet, in a remarkable redemptive reversal, the Lord is going to turn pain on his head. Verse 10, Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm. so that it might not bring me pain." What does pain do here? Well, he prays to God. He prays to the Lord, his God, that he would not live out his namesake. That pain would not be the mark upon his life. Now, I don't think he's praying here, don't ever let me suffer. I don't think that's what he's saying. I think what he's saying is, let me be part of the line of blessing. Let me be part of the ones who trust and rest upon you. And from his point forward, this line does trust and rest in the Lord. And it has a progress of wonderful children that play significant roles. in the life of the people of Israel. This particular line, especially draw your attention to verse 15, the sons of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. Well, who's that? That's the Caleb of the days of Joshua, who brings the positive report of the spies in the land. And what about the rest of these descendants of this particular lines? Well, we begin to see certain things about them. They were craftsmen, verse 14. Linen workers, verse 21, and more specifically, verse 23. They're the potters who are the inhabitants of Nethayim and Giddera. They live there, and here at the end of the genealogy, in the king's service. In what way does the line of pain become the line of blessing? Well, they pray to the Lord, and the Lord brings them under a Davidic king. They submit themselves to David, and the line of pain becomes a line of blessing. They submit themselves into the king's service. From there, the genealogies take, I think, another important turn. The next one immediately after David, in terms of the order in Genesis 4, is Simeon. Simeon's not an overly important tribe in the history of Israel, so why on earth would Simeon be listed here? Well, there's twofold reason here at this point. One, that dissociates them from David, and another one that associates them in terms of their geography. So first, the dissociation. The descendants of Simeon, notice in verse 27, his brothers did not have many children, nor did all of their clan multiply like the men of Judah. Like we saw with one of the sons of Perez through Hezron, This dissociates them from the line of promise. But the dissociation goes even further. In verse 42, we learn that the only part of this line that actually does start to have children, they go in a little migration, and they leave the original territory, and they go to live, verse 42, to Mount Seir. Mount Seir is a territory belonging to the kingdom of Edom, the descendants of Esau. And so the tribe of Simeon actually exits its tribal allotment, goes on a willful exile out of the land that was promised to them by the Lord. But here's why I think it's in this particular position. If you know your Old Testament geography, Simeon's land inheritance is landlocked by the tribe of Judah. Whenever Simeon exits its own territory to go live in the territory of Edom, Simeon's land allotment becomes subsumed into the southern kingdom. While the people don't, the territory itself does. And so its location here, in association with Judah, I think once more draws our attention. to the time when people will be associated with David, this time in terms of geography. From there up to the Benjaminite genealogy in chapter eight, the tribes are organized geographically. So it draws our attention to that geographical theme once again. And the geography of this particular section is in reference to the Jordan River. Reuben, chapter five, verses one through 10, Gad 11 through 22, and half of the tribe of Manasseh in 523 through 26 are those Transjordanian tribes. The tribes of Athmoses in Numbers 32, You can see it also in Deuteronomy 3 and Joshua 13, that if they could have an inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan River, you know, the grass is greener on the other side, apparently, so they want to stay there instead of go all the way into the land of promise. And their request is granted on the condition that they go into the land under Joshua and still serve in the Lord's army to defeat the inhabitants of the land. But what's significant about the fronting of these three tribes, Reuben, Gad, and Hathmanassah? These are the first tribes to lose their inheritance to exile. The northern kingdom of Israel is exiled in 722 BC by the kingdom of Assyria. A whole generation before, these Transjordanian tribes are exiled under the work of Tiglath-Pileser III, also named Pol, who reigns from 745 to 727 BC. You can read about them being carried into exile within the genealogy itself in 1 Chronicles 5, verse 26, where due to idolatry, the Lord is going to cast them out of their land. And so in false worship, they're cast out of their inheritance, where they remain even into the post-exilic period. These tribes are the most distant both spiritually and geographically from the southern kingdom of Judah, but they're included in the genealogy. It does, in one sense, draw our attention to the distinction, but I think in another sense it draws our attention to their hope, where there is hope even for these Transjordanian tribes under the Davidic kings. Immediately after this note of false worship, dividing the trans- and cisternianian tribes is the tribe of Levi. In chapter six, verses one through 81. A nice lengthy chapter of the Levites here. Well, what's significant about this lengthy chapter of the Levites? Well, part of it, as I mentioned earlier, is that they do associate themselves with the southern kingdom of Judah, but why do they do that? They do that because this is the tribe whose inheritance is not the land, but is the Lord. And their work is to lead the people of God in worship at the temple. And what's significant for the theology of First and Second Chronicles is that it is David who organizes the Levites for the particular work at the temple. The first, this genealogy even takes us to consider that when verse 31, it says, these are the men who David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. This genealogy, yes, it geographically divides the trans and cisternanian tribes of Israel, but it also draws our attention to what David is going to do as the organizer of worship. And where being under David means you're under the one who is going to lead you to worship the Lord rightly as a people of God are gathered together in the land. This is gonna become important when we think of First Chronicles chapter nine here in just a few moments. We're after the Levites in chapter six. Chapter seven is one quick-paced chapter that deals with Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Hapham, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher. These tribes draw our attention especially to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. These are tribes, mine is Benjamin, that are made up of the Cisternian tribes that will come into and be associated with the Northern Kingdom after the split in the days of Rehoboam, which of course is David's grandson. But why would they be included here in the genealogy where all Israel needs to be situated under David? And I think the answer lies in this. If you go through and you read these genealogies, there's a regular note at the end of just about all of them where they are genealogies not broadly considered, but rather of the people who gather for war. Chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, they are all about mighty warriors enrolled by genealogy. Verse 11, mighty warriors able to go to war. Again, verse 40, mighty warriors, chiefs and princes enrolled by genealogy for service in war. We go, you read first Chronicles chapters 11 and 12. What does the Lord do? Or what does the Lord do through David? Well, David is the one who gathers together all 12 tribes of Israel for the sake of finishing the conquest of the land that began in the days of Joshua. And so by their genealogy here, and drawing our attention repeatedly to how they are men of war, teaches us who David is as the man of war. The king who will win the victory against the inhabitants of the land. And then we go back to Genesis again. Who were the inhabitants of the land? They were the seat of the serpent. And the seat of the serpent and the seat of the woman are at animosity towards one another. So when Joshua enters in and David finishes the war, it is a battle between the seat of a woman and the seat of the serpent. And a Davidic king is the one who ultimately wins the victory. all Israel under David for a particular period of time is being identified as the army of God. In fact, it's called that. In 1 Chronicles 12, verse 22, the army of Israel, this army right here in these genealogies is called as one like the army of God. David's task, was to lead the people of Israel in war, to defeat the seed of the serpent, such that they would be a people at peace, and dwelling in the land promised to them by the Lord. Now under David's grandson Rehoboam, the kingdom is going to split into the northern and southern kingdoms, and yet in a context where that had already happened from the standpoint of the author's genealogies here, he's posing the question, what hope do you have now, northern kingdom of Israel? The kingdoms are split. The Northern tribes are carried off into exile in 722 BC. What hope do you have, Israel? Go back to David. Submit yourself to the Davidic king. The last genealogy of this section in chapter eight, I think draws our attention to that as well. You know who the Benjaminites were. Benjamin is associated with another king in Israel. And it's not the king, after the Lord's own hearts, It's the king like the nations, Saul. Now, I'll give you a piece of information here. In my Bible, at least, using this ESV version, the heading to chapter eight is the genealogy of Saul. I need to remind you, those are not biblical headings, those are added by editors, because this is not a genealogy of Saul at all. Saul's barely mentioned. This is a genealogy of Jonathan. Why do I say that? Notice where it goes. Saul's barely mentioned, verse 33. Nair was the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan, Malakushu, Kishuah, Abinadab, and Eshal, and then the sons of Jonathan was, and then it goes through Jonathan's genealogy. The chronicler skips over Saul and goes to Jonathan, and it tells us about Jonathan's children. And who is Jonathan? Well, more than David's buddy, he was David's best man. by one whose soul was knit unto David, whom David himself loved and was knit together through the covenant. In fact, even if you trace these genealogies in chapter eight, there's actually two of them here. There's a grouping of people in Benjamin who live in the city of David and a grouping of the people of Benjamin who are descended from Saul. Notice in chapter 8 verses 1-28, these are the heads of the fathers' houses according to their generation's chief men. These lived in Jerusalem, the city of David, Zion, the city of God. And then the second genealogy in chapter 8 verses 29-40 draws our attention to Jonathan, the one who loves David the most. I mentioned earlier, a significant portion of the tribe of Benjamin and the split of the Northern and Southern kingdoms associated themselves with the tribe of David. And that's exactly what we see here in this particular genealogy. So, so far in chapters one through eight, we've seen a theology of all Israel, the whole people of God, redeemed out of the nations by God himself through his grace and mercy, united together under a Davidic ruler. Well, chapter nine, I think draws our attention to what the Lord's work of salvation is for. We've only got a few minutes left to make this particular point, but I think we can see it fairly quickly here. Chapter nine begins with the exile. So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith. This is 586 BC. Then it says in verse two, Now, the first to dwell again in their possessions and their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants. Now, if you open up an Old Testament commentary, they would argue, and I think they're right, that really what this is is a division between lay people and people of the cloth. Right? Normal Israelites and people ordained for the temple service. And we see that broadly in the organization of Israel, and then priests, Levites, and temple servants. But I think it's significant that that's not what the author says. He says Israel, right? the nation, all of them together, Israel, is coming back, and he, I think, expounds upon that in verse three. And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and here it is, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem. Remember I mentioned it earlier, there is significance. Now in the chronicler's genealogy, he mentions Ephraim and Manasseh, the double portion given to Joseph. These two tribes rise to the prominent level in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, where if you go and read the prophets, the Northern Kingdom of Israel actually isn't called Israel all the time. It's regularly called Ephraim. Ephraim, the tribe of Ephraim becomes shorthand for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. But here, who are the first to come back from the exile? Well, there's Southern Kingdom people, Judah and Benjamin, but there's also Northern Kingdom people. That's huge. Why? After the exile of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, we do not have a restoration of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. What we have is a restoration of the Southern people of Judah. But as the restoration is happening, people from the northern kingdom are joined together once more to the southern kingdom of Judah. People who are meant to be under a king from the line of David. And even notice here in verse four, it continues to talk about people who are sons of Perez, the son of Judah, which that's actually the very first genealogy back in chapter two, Judah to Perez to Hezron to David. But who else comes back? Not just people, both genealogically from Northern and Southern kingdoms, situating themselves back in the Southern territory of Judah, but also all of the parties necessary for worship. All of the parties necessary for worship. The priests, verse 10, the Levites, verse 14, the gatekeepers, verse 17, the singers, the heads of the fathers' houses, verse 33. The very first to come back from the exile are those that the people of God needed in this particular period of history to be restored, not just to their own original inheritance as a people, but for their ultimate work as a people, which is to worship God and to make much of Him. We are in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, of temple construction, And the chronicler is telling us that the necessary people for the worship at the temple to happen once more, are back in the land. He's telling them, all of Israel, come to Jerusalem, come to the temple, and worship the Lord of your salvation. See what the chronicler is saying with this theology of genealogy? He's saying all Israel, all the people of God, need to be submitted under a Davidic king for the task of worship. And this is the theme that continues on and refracts through the rest of the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles. And it does it in a way, and we'll end with this, that looks forward in a hope to a new king who will come from the line of David. While in the exile, the throne of David himself on earth is toppled over, his crown is thrown down into the dust, Psalm 89. A king would come from his line, who according to the flesh will be descended from David, and he will be the one who is raised by the Holy Spirit in power, who sits on a throne, not on earth, but rather in heaven, where the Son of God and the Son of David are the same person. And so David's throne and God's throne are united together in the person of Christ. Submit yourself to the King of David, to the Son of God, who has come into the world to save sinners. And it's a remarkable thing, too. Maybe you noticed it as we're working through these genealogies and thinking through where they're going. If you get onto 23andMe or Ancestry.com, one of these other ones, there's a regular pattern, isn't there? You start with yourself, and you ask, what's my story? Where have I come from? Do you notice that every single one of these genealogies, and all of the other ones in the Old Testament, go the other way? All right, they actually start with the most ancient. They start with the ancestors, and go to the descendants, not the descendants, and go to the ancestors. Why? What's the promise? A son. It's always forward-looking. It's always looking to the child that was yet to be born, and so also these ones here. The genealogy of David at the end of chapter 3 is looking forward to the birth of a child to come from that very line. Who will come from the line of David, the line of Perez, the line of Judah. Abraham's greater son. The one in whom we can place our trust. What does this Davidic king do? Well, this Davidic king begins an end-time temple building project. Or according to Paul in Ephesians chapter two, and Peter in first Peter chapter three, that what the work of Christ by the power of the Spirit is today is to construct the temple for worship, where you, the church of Christ are living stones knit together to Christ, the cornerstone. And who do you follow in worship? And who do you worship but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? who unites all Israel under himself, under his banner, even the nation's Jews and Gentiles being brought together. All the people of God, under the banner of the King of David, Jesus Christ himself, redeemed for the work of worship and to make much of him. That's the theology of these genealogies. All of God's people submitted to great David's greater Son to praise and to glorify the King who has saved us. Let me just close in prayer before our Q&A session, if that's okay. AJ, Father, we do thank you that you have given us the opportunity to think on your word and to ponder how you have manifest your Son to us, revealed your Son to us in the Old Testament, we ask that you would even use these few short hours today to encourage us in your word, to cause us to go to it all the more, to know that you do make yourself known to it, even in these hard or obscure passages that they are about Christ. They're about his person. They're about his work. They are for us as they tell us about who our Savior is and who we are in him. Blessed you bless us, prepare us for worship tomorrow, we pray in Christ's name, amen.