God's Construction Project: Lineage, Loss, and Legacy Text: 1 Chronicles 2:18-20
Introduction: The Gold in the Genealogies
We come this morning to a passage in 1 Chronicles that the modern mind, even the modern Christian mind, is inclined to skim over. We are in the midst of the great genealogies, the "begats," the long lists of names that function for many as a kind of scriptural sleeping pill. We see a name like Hezron, and wives named Azubah and Jerioth, and we think, "What does this have to do with me? What possible relevance can this have to my life in the twenty-first century?" Our eyes glaze over, and we start looking for the narrative parts, the stories with more obvious action.
But to do this is to fundamentally misunderstand what the Bible is. The Bible is not a collection of inspirational quotes and moralistic tales. It is the history of God's covenant dealings with mankind, a story that unfolds over thousands of years, through generations. And genealogies are the skeletal structure of that story. They are the load-bearing walls of redemptive history. To ignore them is like trying to understand a house by looking only at the paint and wallpaper while ignoring the foundation and the framing. You miss the entire point.
These lists are not just lists. They are a declaration that our God is a God of history, a God of generations, a God who keeps His promises through flesh-and-blood people. They are a polemic against every gnostic, spiritualized, de-historicized version of Christianity that wants a relationship with Jesus without any connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These names anchor our faith in the dirt and dust of the real world. They show us that God's plan of salvation was not an afterthought, but was woven into the fabric of human families from the very beginning. And if we have the eyes to see, we will find that these mountain ranges of names contain rich veins of gold.
In these three short verses, we see the building of a family, the reality of death and loss, and the continuation of a godly line that will culminate in one of the most significant figures in the construction of Israel's worship. We see God's faithfulness in the midst of ordinary, and sometimes painful, family life. This is not an abstract theological treatise; it is the story of how God builds His house, one family, one generation at a time.
The Text
Now Caleb the son of Hezron became a father by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth; and these were her sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon. Then Azubah died, and Caleb took for himself Ephrath as a wife, and she bore him Hur. Hur became the father of Uri, and Uri became the father of Bezalel.
(1 Chronicles 2:18-20 LSB)
Building the House (v. 18)
We begin with the establishment of Caleb's family.
"Now Caleb the son of Hezron became a father by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth; and these were her sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon." (1 Chronicles 2:18)
First, we must clear up a point of potential confusion. This is not Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the famous spy who alongside Joshua brought back a good report. This is Caleb the son of Hezron, from the tribe of Judah. He is an important figure in the line of Judah, the royal tribe from which our Lord would come. The chronicler is carefully tracing the lines of God's covenant people, and Judah is central.
The verse says he "became a father by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth." The grammar here is a bit compressed. The most natural reading is that Azubah was his primary wife, and the sons listed, Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon, were her sons. Jerioth may have been another wife or a concubine, a common practice in that era, though the text doesn't elaborate. The main point is the establishment of a household. God's covenant promises are worked out in the context of marriage and family. A man takes a wife, and they are fruitful and multiply. This is the foundational creation ordinance, and it is the vehicle through which God builds His people.
Notice the names. Azubah means "forsaken." We don't know why she was given this name, but it stands in stark contrast to her role. She was not forsaken by God; she was a foundational stone in the house of Judah. God often uses those whom the world might consider forsaken or insignificant to accomplish His greatest purposes. The world looks for the glamorous and the powerful, but God builds His kingdom through the faithful, quiet work of men and women like Caleb and Azubah, raising sons in the fear of the Lord.
Death and New Beginnings (v. 19)
Verse 19 introduces the universal reality of the fall into this family line.
"Then Azubah died, and Caleb took for himself Ephrath as a wife, and she bore him Hur." (1 Chronicles 2:19)
In the midst of this record of begetting and building, death intrudes. "Then Azubah died." This is the stark reality of life east of Eden. The wages of sin is death, and this curse touches every family. The genealogies are a relentless reminder of this fact. So-and-so lived, and he had sons and daughters, and he died. The drumbeat of death echoes through the generations. This is not a sanitized, happily-ever-after story. It is real history, with real loss and real grief.
But death does not have the final word. God's purposes are not thwarted by the grave. Caleb, in his grief, acts to continue his line. He takes another wife, Ephrath. Her name means "fruitful," and she lives up to it. This is a picture of God's grace in the midst of our fallen world. He brings fruitfulness out of the dust of death. Caleb doesn't simply sit in his sorrow; he acts in faith, continuing the task of building a godly household. He marries Ephrath, and she bears him a son, Hur.
This is a crucial link. Hur would become a significant leader in Israel. He, along with Aaron, held up Moses' arms during the battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:10-12). He was a man of stature and faithfulness. And he was born from this second marriage, this new beginning after the sorrow of death. God's covenant plan marches on, not by avoiding suffering and loss, but straight through the middle of it. He is constantly bringing life out of death, fruitfulness out of barrenness, and hope out of grief.
The Gifted Grandson (v. 20)
The lineage continues, and it culminates in a man uniquely gifted by God for a holy purpose.
"Hur became the father of Uri, and Uri became the father of Bezalel." (1 Chronicles 2:20)
The line is traced with deliberate care: Caleb to Hur, Hur to Uri, and Uri to Bezalel. Why is the chronicler so concerned that we know Bezalel's pedigree? Because Bezalel is the man whom God Himself appointed and gifted to be the chief artisan of the Tabernacle.
In Exodus 31, God says to Moses, "See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship" (Exodus 31:2-5).
This is a staggering statement. The first man in Scripture to be explicitly "filled with the Spirit of God" is not a prophet or a king, but a craftsman. An artist. A builder. God's Spirit is not just for the pulpit or the prayer closet. God's Spirit is for the workshop, the studio, the construction site. Bezalel's job was to take the raw materials of God's creation, gold, silver, bronze, wood, and stone, and skillfully shape them into a beautiful dwelling place for the presence of God. His work was an act of worship, a Spirit-empowered translation of divine glory into tangible form.
And the chronicler wants us to know that this man did not just appear out of nowhere. He came from a godly line. He was the great-grandson of Caleb and Ephrath. God prepares and equips His servants, often generations in advance. The faithfulness of Caleb in building his family, through grief and new beginnings, laid the foundation for his great-grandson to build God's house.
Conclusion: Building for a Thousand Generations
So what do we take from these three verses? We learn that God's great story of redemption is made up of countless small stories of family faithfulness. Your family, your marriage, your work, your life, is not an isolated, meaningless blip. It is a thread in the grand tapestry that God is weaving.
We see that God's work is generational. The decisions we make, the faith we live out, the children we raise, have consequences that ripple down through time. Caleb's faithfulness in taking a wife and raising a son named Hur had a direct impact on the construction of the Tabernacle generations later. We must stop thinking in the short-term, individualistic categories of our culture and start thinking in the long-term, covenantal categories of Scripture. We are building for our children and our children's children.
And finally, we see the ultimate purpose of this lineage. Bezalel was filled with the Spirit to build a temporary dwelling place for God's glory. He was a type, a foreshadowing, of the one who would come from this very same tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ is the true Bezalel, the master builder of the true temple. He is the one who builds His church, a spiritual house made of living stones (1 Peter 2:5). And He has filled us, His people, with that same Holy Spirit, not just for "spiritual" tasks, but for all of life. Whether you are a craftsman, a teacher, a mother, a computer programmer, or a pastor, your work, done in faith, is a Spirit-empowered act of building God's kingdom.
This genealogy, from Caleb to Bezalel, is a testament to the God who takes the ordinary, messy, painful, and beautiful realities of human life and uses them to construct a fitting habitation for His glory. And we are part of that project. So let us be faithful in our generation, just as Caleb was in his, building our homes and doing our work with an eye to the great and glorious house that God is building, a house that will be filled with His presence forever.