The Surprising Graft: Providence in the Pedigrees Text: 1 Chronicles 2:25-41
Introduction: The God of the Ordinary
We come now to a portion of Scripture that causes many modern readers to quietly shut their Bibles and go look for something more exciting, perhaps the sports page or a weather forecast. We are in the thickets of the genealogies. It is a long list of names, many of which are difficult to pronounce, and they seem to be connected in a bewildering web of "begats." It is easy for our eyes to glaze over. We think, "This is just ancient record-keeping. What does this have to do with me, with my life, with the gospel?" But to think this way is to make a profound mistake. It is to assume that God is only interested in the highlight reel of history. It is to believe that God is only present in the dramatic, the miraculous, and the spectacular.
But these genealogies teach us the opposite. They teach us that God is the God of the ordinary. He is the God of generations, of families, of births and deaths, of marriages and inheritances. He is the God who works His vast, cosmic, redemptive purposes through the slow, patient, and often messy business of human history. Every name in this list represents a soul made in the image of God, a life lived, a story that mattered. These lists are the skeletal structure upon which the entire body of redemptive history is built. To despise the genealogies is to despise the very way God chose to bring His Son into the world. Jesus did not drop out of the sky; He was born into a family, with a real address, and a real, recorded ancestry that stretched all the way back to Adam.
These lists are a testament to God's faithfulness. He made a promise to Abraham that his seed would be as numerous as the stars, and these chapters are the meticulous accounting of that promise being kept. They are a declaration that God keeps His word, generation after generation, even when the people involved are forgetful, sinful, and obscure. And hidden within these long lists, like diamonds in a riverbed, are remarkable stories of grace, surprising turns of providence, and profound theological truths. Our text today contains one such gem. It is a story that challenges our neat categories about family, inheritance, and the people of God. It is the story of an Egyptian slave who is grafted into the line of Judah, and by extension, into the line of the Messiah.
The Text
And the sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron were Ram the firstborn, then Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah. Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam. The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel, were Maaz, Jamin, and Eker. The sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. And the sons of Shammai were Nadab and Abishur. The name of Abishur’s wife was Abihail, and she bore him Ahban and Molid. The sons of Nadab were Seled and Appaim, and Seled died without sons. The son of Appaim was Ishi. And the son of Ishi was Sheshan. And the son of Sheshan was Ahlai. The sons of Jada the brother of Shammai were Jether and Jonathan, and Jether died without sons. The sons of Jonathan were Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel. Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. And Sheshan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as a wife, and she bore him Attai. Attai became the father of Nathan, and Nathan became the father of Zabad, and Zabad became the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jehu, and Jehu became the father of Azariah, and Azariah became the father of Helez, and Helez became the father of Eleasah, and Eleasah became the father of Sismai, and Sismai became the father of Shallum, and Shallum became the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah became the father of Elishama.
(1 Chronicles 2:25-41 LSB)
The Covenantal Dead End (vv. 25-34a)
The first part of our text lays out the lineage of Jerahmeel, a prominent clan within the tribe of Judah.
"And the sons of Jerahmeel... These were the sons of Jerahmeel. Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters." (1 Chronicles 2:25, 33-34)
The Chronicler is carefully tracing the lines of descent. In a patriarchal society, this was everything. Your name, your inheritance, your identity, and your place in the covenant community were all tied to your lineage, which was carried through the male line. The text methodically lists sons, and grandsons, and great-grandsons. But then we come to these jarring little notes: "Seled died without sons" (v. 30). "Jether died without sons" (v. 32). These are notes of sorrow, of a line cut short. In a culture obsessed with posterity, to die without a son was a tragedy. It was a dead end.
The problem comes to a head with Sheshan. After tracing his line, we hit what appears to be the final roadblock: "Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters." From a purely human and cultural perspective, this is a crisis. The family name, the inheritance, the lineage of Sheshan is about to be extinguished. It will be absorbed into the families of the men his daughters marry. This is a covenantal cul-de-sac. The promise of seed, given to Abraham, seems to have faltered in this particular branch of the family tree.
This is a recurring theme in Scripture. God frequently writes His story of redemption through barrenness and apparent dead ends. Think of Abraham and Sarah, old and childless. Think of Rachel, of Hannah, of Elizabeth. God loves to bring life out of death, to show His power precisely at the point of human impossibility. He brings us to the end of our own resources to demonstrate that the continuation of His covenant does not depend on our strength, our wisdom, or our biological success. It depends entirely on His sovereign grace.
The Unconventional Solution (vv. 34b-35)
Just when the story of Sheshan's line seems to be over, God provides a solution that no one would have predicted. It is a solution that shatters cultural and ethnic boundaries.
"And Sheshan had an Egyptian slave whose name was Jarha. Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as a wife, and she bore him Attai." (1 Chronicles 2:34b-35 LSB)
Let the weight of this sink in. Sheshan's problem is that he has no heir to carry on his name. His solution is to look not to a prominent Israelite from another family, but to his own servant. And not just any servant, but an Egyptian slave. This is astonishing. Egypt was the nation that had enslaved Israel. They were the archetypal enemy, the symbol of the house of bondage from which God had delivered His people. The law had prohibitions against certain kinds of intermarriage, particularly with the Canaanites, because of the danger of idolatry. Yet here, in the middle of a genealogy of Judah, the royal tribe, we have a deliberate, sanctioned marriage to an Egyptian.
What is happening here? Sheshan, in an act of profound faith and wisdom, sees that the covenant line is more important than ethnic purity or social status. He understands that what makes a person an Israelite is not ultimately about blood, but about faith and inclusion in the covenant family. Jarha was likely a faithful servant, a man who had embraced the God of Israel. And so, Sheshan does something radical. He elevates this slave. He not only frees him, but he makes him family. He gives him his own daughter as a wife, and in so doing, he adopts Jarha as his son and heir.
This is a picture of the gospel. We must be clear about what Old Testament servitude was and was not. It was not the chattel slavery of the American South, which was a wicked institution based on kidnapping and racism, a practice condemned by biblical law (Exodus 21:16). Old Testament servitude was primarily an economic arrangement to pay off debts, and it came with significant legal protections. But a slave was still a slave. Jarha was an outsider, a man with no standing, no inheritance, and no name of his own. And he is brought into the family, given an inheritance, and has his name written down in the sacred history of God's people. This is exactly what God does for us in Christ. We were slaves to sin, outsiders, spiritual Egyptians. We were without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). And God, in His mercy, did not just set us free. He adopted us as sons. He gave us His name. He made us heirs of the promise. He grafted us, wild olive branches, into the cultivated tree of His people (Romans 11:17).
The Fruitful Graft (vv. 36-41)
The result of this surprising union is not just the continuation of a single-family line, but a flourishing and lengthy posterity.
"Attai became the father of Nathan, and Nathan became the father of Zabad, and Zabad became the father of Ephlal..." (1 Chronicles 2:36-41 LSB)
The genealogy now continues, not through Sheshan's blood, but through the line of Jarha the Egyptian. And look how it blossoms. The Chronicler lists eleven generations descending from this union. The line that was a dead end becomes a freeway. The branch that was barren becomes fruitful. God blesses Sheshan's unconventional, faith-filled decision in a spectacular way.
This demonstrates a crucial principle of God's kingdom. God's blessing flows not through the channels of human pride, social convention, or ethnic prejudice, but through the channels of faith and obedience. Sheshan honored God by prioritizing the covenant, and God honored him with a lasting legacy. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Inclusion in God's family has never been about race. It has always been about grace through faith.
Think of the other outsiders grafted into this very same tribe of Judah. There was Tamar, the Canaanite who played the harlot to ensure the line continued. There was Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute from Jericho. There was Ruth, the Moabitess. And now we have Jarha, the Egyptian slave. The line of the Messiah, the line of King David, is a glorious tapestry woven with threads from every nation. It is a deliberate rebuke to all forms of racism and ethnic pride. God was signaling from the very beginning that the salvation He was preparing was not just for the Jews, but for all the families of the earth, just as He promised Abraham.
Conclusion: Heirs of the Promise
So what does a dusty list of names from a man named Sheshan and his Egyptian slave have to do with us? Everything. This is our story. This is a picture of our salvation.
First, it reminds us that God's purposes cannot be thwarted by human limitations. When we see a dead end, a barren womb, a hopeless situation, God sees an opportunity to display His glory. He is the God who brings life from death. He is the God who provides a ram in the thicket, a son for the barren, and an heir from a slave. Whatever impossible situation you are facing, remember that the God of Sheshan and Jarha is your God.
Second, this story demolishes our pride. We are all Jarha. We are all outsiders who have been brought in. None of us has any native claim on God. We were not born into His family by natural descent. We were spiritual slaves, foreigners, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. But God, in His rich mercy, through the marriage of His Son to His bride, the Church, has adopted us. He has given us a new name, a new identity, and an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Our names are written down, not in the chronicles of Judah, but in the Lamb's Book of Life.
Finally, this story calls us to a radical, boundary-breaking love within the church. The church is the family of God, made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. There is no place for ethnic pride, social snobbery, or racial prejudice at the foot of the cross. We are all former slaves who have been made sons. We are all wild branches grafted into the one true vine. We are the fruit of a surprising, scandalous, and glorious grace. The world divides by race, class, and nation. But in Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:28-29). We are the sons of Jerahmeel. We are the sons of Jarha. We are the sons of God.