History Worth Knowing
Family. Depending on your relationships, the idea of family can trigger people in both positive and negative ways. I know many people who embrace their heritage and can trace their genealogies back generation after generation. I also know many who cannot trace their heritage at all, leaving a gap in their identity and a deep longing to know where they come from. There are others who do know their heritage but choose to forget it, often because their past is something they do not want to identify with. Nevertheless, regardless of the circumstance, who we are and where we come from are deeply shaped by family both for good and, unfortunately, for bad. Our family history is always worth knowing.
If you know your genealogy, ask yourself: what story does it tell? Is it a story of tragedy? Failure? Blessing? Accomplishment? Prestige? Separation? What lessons were passed down through the lives of those who came before you and what lessons were never taught at all? How did their behavior, whether positive or negative, shape your current generation? How did it influence your thinking, your values, and your life? The questions we can ask are vast and numerous, just as the lessons we can learn are even from a single person in our genealogy, including those still living.
Genealogies matter. They tell important stories and reveal powerful lessons. They often show the direction a family is heading or where it departed from the path. In doing so, they help reveal who we are, because family is part of our identity. You are named by family, given a surname, raised by family, and shaped by family. And even if you were an orphan, you were still raised by someone who became a father or mother to you an adopted family in every real sense. Family is part of who we are, and genealogies help us understand that truth.
Our Ultimately Genealogy
In America, we tend to stress our independence as people. We see ourselves as individuals working together rather than as a collective people with a shared history, and it is my belief that this way of thinking has filtered into our faith as well, depending on culture. However, just as our genealogies are important in our current reality, they are important in Scripture too. Throughout the Bible, we encounter many genealogies, and often, myself included, we skip over them at first glance. But have you ever wondered why God led men to record these genealogies? And even more, if you are a child of God, did you know that these are part of your family history as well, left to show you where your inheritance comes from and to instruct you as you reflect on the behavior and wisdom passed down from our forefathers?
1 Chronicles 1-9: The Exposition
The book of Chronicles was the last book in the Hebrew Bible, serving as a collective history of the Hebrew people to remind them ultimately of who they are. Written sometime during or after the events of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Israelites were experiencing an identity crisis after being in exile for so long. They were intermarrying with some of the Babylonian men and women, and spiritually, this led to corruption, as some began to leave the faith and offer sacrifices to other gods (Ezra 9:1-2). It was not that they were not ethnic Israelites that caused this spiritual decline, but rather that their spouses were not of the faith, which drew many into sinful practices. The Israelites had been in a foreign land for so long that they forgot who they were and to whom they belonged.
What that means for us?
Peter tells us that in 1 Peter 2:9 that believers in Jesus Christ are
“you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
As Children of God this is who we are, this is our history. Our identity and like our forefathers, we often forget who we are. Forgetting the sins and mistakes of our forefathers, and ultimately forgetting who our God is and true family heritage is. The genealogy in Chronicles was meant for one thing above all other things, to point us towards our savior and his coming. And also our genealogies though filled with many successes and failures, as our own lives. Are meant to point people towards the Lord Jesus Christ, He is in whom we find our ultimately identity, family, and He is from whom our inheritances comes.
John 1:12 tells us “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
We you sin, never forget who you are. You are not a summary of your sins, mistakes and short comings. You are royalty and holy, set apart to do good works and to help reconcile a lost world to their God again. Your identity matters. If you are lost, or have left God, return to Him and he will graciously restore you and welcome you. Be his family, and never forget where your true identity lies.
Reflection
When you study the genealogies in Scripture and examine the lives of our forefathers in the faith, a clear pattern emerges. The same pattern often appears when we look honestly at our own fleshly genealogies. When they walked with God, they prospered. When they turned away from Him, ruin followed.
Now pause and reflect on who you are in Jesus Christ. Ask yourself: which side of the genealogy will you stand on? Will you be found in Christ, walking in obedience and blessing or in the world, passing down patterns that lead to ruin for your family?
Joshua confronted this very question when he declared:
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
If you come from a broken or sinful genealogy, will you continue to serve the gods of your ancestors and walk in their ways? Or will you choose the Lord today, raising your family to honor Him and committing yourself to honor Him as well?
Look to the history recorded in Chronicles. Over and over again, Scripture testifies to this truth: choosing sin, choosing against the Lord, never leads to blessing. But repentance, obedience, and faithfulness always open the door to life.
The choice is before you just as it was before them. Choose wisely and choose daily. Choose Jesus.