The King's Receipts: God's Unblinking Providence Text: 1 Chronicles 2:9-17
Introduction: The Backbone of Reality
We live in an age that despises history. We are encouraged to think that we are untethered, autonomous individuals, free to invent ourselves anew every morning. Our past is seen as an encumbrance, a dead weight, or worse, a litany of sins to be apologized for and then forgotten. And so, when the modern Christian comes to a passage like this one in 1 Chronicles, his eyes glaze over. A list of names. A string of "begats." It feels like reading a phone book for a city that no longer exists. We are tempted to skip over it to get to the "good parts," the stories, the action, the psalms.
But to do this is to commit a grave error. It is to despise the very skeleton upon which the entire body of redemptive history is built. These genealogies are not dusty relics; they are God's legal receipts. They are the meticulously kept records proving that God keeps His promises. From the moment God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, all of history became a grand exercise in genealogy. Who is the seed? Where is the line? God is tracking it, and He invites us to track it with Him.
The book of Chronicles was written for the generation that returned from the Babylonian exile. They were a remnant, discouraged, living in the shadow of a former glory. They needed to be reminded of who they were. They needed to know that their story did not begin with the rubble of Jerusalem. It began with Adam, was funneled through Abraham, and was given its royal shape in the house of Judah and the line of David. These lists were their identity. They were a declaration that God had not forgotten His covenant, and that the stump of Jesse was not dead. A branch was still to come.
So, when we read these names, we are not just reading history. We are reading prophecy. We are tracing the very path that the Son of God would walk into the world. Each name is a stepping stone, laid down by the sovereign hand of God, across the murky waters of human history, leading directly to a manger in Bethlehem. This is not boring; it is the backbone of all reality.
The Text
Now the sons of Hezron, who were born to him were Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai.
Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, leader of the sons of Judah;
Nahshon became the father of Salma, Salma became the father of Boaz,
Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse;
and Jesse became the father of Eliab his firstborn, then Abinadab the second, Shimea the third,
Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,
Ozem the sixth, David the seventh;
and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the three sons of Zeruiah were Abshai, Joab, and Asahel.
Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
(1 Chronicles 2:9-17 LSB)
The Royal Runway (v. 9-12)
The Chronicler begins by focusing our attention on the line that matters most for the story he is telling, which is the story of God's kingdom.
"Now the sons of Hezron, who were born to him were Jerahmeel, Ram, and Chelubai. Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, leader of the sons of Judah; Nahshon became the father of Salma, Salma became the father of Boaz, Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse;" (1 Chronicles 2:9-12)
Hezron was a grandson of Judah, the man to whom the promise of the scepter was given. From his three sons, the Chronicler immediately drops the other two and follows the line of Ram. The name means "exalted" or "high," a fitting name for the ancestor of the great king. This is how God works. He chooses. He selects. He narrows the focus. Salvation is not a vague, universal sentiment; it is a specific, historical, covenantal reality that travels through particular people in particular places.
The line continues through Amminadab to Nahshon. And here, the monochrome list gets a splash of color. Nahshon is not just a name; he is identified as the "leader of the sons of Judah." When was he their leader? At the Exodus. When the Israelites were standing terrified before the Red Sea, with Pharaoh's army closing in, the tradition tells us that Nahshon was the first man to walk into the water, trusting that God would part it. He was a man of bold, forward-leaning faith. The royal line is a line of faith. It is fitting that the ancestor of David, the giant-killer, and of Jesus, the dragon-slayer, was a man who was not afraid to get his feet wet on the basis of God's promise.
From Nahshon, the line proceeds to Salma, and then to a name that should ring every covenantal bell in your head: Boaz. The story of Boaz is told in the book of Ruth. He is the kinsman-redeemer, the man who saw a destitute Moabitess, a foreigner, and brought her into the covenant people, redeemed her family's land, and married her. The line of the great king is not a purebred, racially exclusive line. It is a line of grace, a line that incorporates outsiders. The blood of Ruth the Moabitess flows in the veins of King David, and ultimately, in the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gospel arrow shot into the heart of the Old Testament. God's plan was always to bring the nations in.
Boaz and Ruth have a son, Obed, whose name means "servant." And Obed has a son, Jesse. And with that, we have arrived at the threshold of Israel's golden age. Each of these names represents a generation where God faithfully preserved His chosen line, often through turmoil, famine, and war. God's providence does not blink.
The Anointed and the Overlooked (v. 13-15)
Now the Chronicler zooms in on the family of Jesse, and we see a foundational principle of God's elective grace.
"and Jesse became the father of Eliab his firstborn, then Abinadab the second, Shimea the third, Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, Ozem the sixth, David the seventh;" (1 Chronicles 2:13-15 LSB)
We are given a list of seven of Jesse's sons. We know from the story in 1 Samuel that Jesse had eight sons, but one is likely omitted here because he died without an heir. But the number seven is theologically significant. It is the number of completion, of perfection. David is the seventh son, the Sabbath son, the one in whom the line would find its temporary rest and fulfillment.
But more than that, he is the last one. When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse's house to anoint the next king, Jesse paraded his sons before him, starting with the oldest, Eliab. And Eliab looked the part. He was tall, handsome, a soldier. Samuel thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." But God's response is one of the most important verses in the Bible: "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
One by one, the sons were rejected. Finally, Samuel had to ask if there were any others. And Jesse, in a moment of parental oversight, remembered the youngest, the one out keeping the sheep. David was the afterthought. He was the one who was not even invited to the ceremony. And he was the one God had chosen. God's grace consistently overturns human expectations. He chooses the younger over the older, the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. He chooses a shepherd boy to kill a giant and rule a nation. This is the pattern that finds its ultimate expression in a crucified Messiah, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to us who are being saved, the power and wisdom of God.
The Messy Reality of the Kingdom (v. 16-17)
The genealogy does not end with David. It broadens out to include his sisters and their notorious sons, reminding us that God's kingdom is built with crooked timber.
"and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the three sons of Zeruiah were Abshai, Joab, and Asahel. Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite." (1 Chronicles 2:16-17 LSB)
It is significant that the sisters are named. In a patriarchal record, this is noteworthy. Zeruiah and Abigail are important not just in themselves, but because of their sons, who became David's nephews and his military commanders. And what a crew they were. Abishai, Joab, and Asahel were fierce warriors, but they were also men of violence and political intrigue. Joab, David's general, was loyal but utterly ruthless. He murdered Abner and David's own son Absalom against the king's wishes. He was a constant source of trouble for David, a man of blood serving a man after God's own heart.
This is not an idealized, airbrushed family portrait. This is the gritty reality. The kingdom of David was built and secured by men who were often acting out of ambition, vengeance, and brutality. This demonstrates two things. First, it shows the immense difficulty of David's task in ruling such a people. Second, and more importantly, it shows that God's purposes are not thwarted by human sin. God used the bloody sword of Joab to establish the throne of David, from which the Prince of Peace would eventually come. He weaves even the sinful threads of human action into the tapestry of His perfect plan.
And then there is the final detail, a quiet bombshell. David's other sister, Abigail, has a son named Amasa, and his father was "Jether the Ishmaelite." An Ishmaelite. A descendant of Abraham through Hagar, a people often at odds with Israel. Here again, we see the pattern of inclusion. A man from outside the covenant line of promise is brought in, and his son becomes a commander in David's army. God's grace is wider than our tribal boundaries.
From David's House to God's House
Why does the Chronicler take such pains to lay all this out for a discouraged remnant of exiles, and for us? Because this list does not terminate with David. It is a vector pointing forward.
Every name in this list is a link in a chain that God was forging. That chain leads directly to Matthew, chapter 1, which begins, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Matthew then proceeds to list many of these same names: Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. The Chronicler was telling the returned exiles, "God has not forgotten His promise to David." Matthew is telling the whole world, "God has now fulfilled it."
The story of this family, with its faith and its flaws, its insiders and its outsiders, its heroes and its thugs, is the story of our salvation in miniature. It shows us that God's choice is what matters, not our pedigree. It shows us that God's grace is what saves, not our performance. It shows us that God's plan is what prevails, not our sin.
This royal line produced David, a man after God's own heart, but he was still a sinful man who failed his family and his God. The messiness of his own nephews was a reflection of the messiness in his own heart. The kingdom needed more than a son of Jesse. It needed a Son of God.
And so, this genealogy is an arrow pointing to the one true King, Jesus Christ. He is the true Nahshon, who walked boldly into the waters of death for His people. He is the true Boaz, the heavenly kinsman-redeemer who took a bride from among the Gentiles, the church, and redeemed her from her poverty. He is the true David, the beloved son, who was overlooked by the world but chosen by the Father to slay the ultimate Goliath. He rules over a messy kingdom, a family of saints who are still sinners, and He does so with perfect righteousness and grace. This list of names is the legal proof that Jesus of Nazareth has the right to the throne. He is the promised King, and our only hope is to bow the knee to Him.