God's Scrapbook: The Unskipped God Text: 1 Chronicles 4:1-8
Introduction: The War on Memory
We are a people who have forgotten our own names. Our modern secular age is engaged in a frantic, determined, and ultimately suicidal war on memory. We are told that the past is a source of oppression, that lineage is a construct, and that history is a story we can rewrite at will to suit our present emotional needs. We are encouraged to think of ourselves as untethered individuals, free-floating atoms of autonomy, creating our own meaning out of thin air. The result of this is not liberation, but profound and terrifying loneliness. It is the rootlessness of a tumbleweed, blown about by every wind of doctrine, with no anchor and no home.
Into this cultural amnesia, the book of 1 Chronicles lands with the force of a granite monument. The first nine chapters are a vast and sprawling genealogy, a great mountain range of names that modern readers, trained in the school of "what does this mean for me, right now," are tempted to skip over with all due haste. We treat it like the terms and conditions of a software update. But in doing so, we miss the entire point. These lists are not biblical filler. They are not the inspired equivalent of a phone book. They are the skeletal structure of redemptive history. They are a declaration of war against the idea that history is meaningless, that our lives are random, and that God is an abstract philosopher. Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. He is a God who remembers names.
The Chronicler is writing to a post-exilic community, a people who had been displaced, who had seen their capital city and temple reduced to rubble. They were a people tempted to ask, "Who are we anymore? Does God remember His promises?" And the answer of the Holy Spirit, through these chapters, is a resounding YES. He lays out the receipts. He shows the unbroken chain of His covenant faithfulness, from Adam all the way down to the families returning to Jerusalem. This is not just a list; it is a sermon. It is a gospel promise that God does not lose His people. He knows them by name. He has woven their lives into a story that is vast, intricate, and heading toward a glorious conclusion.
So as we venture into this thicket of names in 1 Chronicles 4, we are not on a boring historical detour. We are examining the very fabric of God's faithfulness. We are learning that in God's economy, there are no insignificant people, and that every name, every family, is a brick in the great temple of His purpose, which is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
The Text
The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. Reaiah the son of Shobal became the father of Jahath, and Jahath became the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zorathites. These were the sons of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi. Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem. Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah. Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. The sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan. Koz became the father of Anub and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum.
(1 Chronicles 4:1-8 LSB)
The Royal Line and Its Branches (v. 1-2)
The Chronicler begins his detailed accounting of Judah with the principal lines of descent.
"The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. Reaiah the son of Shobal became the father of Jahath, and Jahath became the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zorathites." (1 Chronicles 4:1-2)
We must immediately ask why the Chronicler is so intensely focused on Judah. It is because Judah is the royal tribe. It is the tribe from which the kings would come, as prophesied by Jacob in Genesis 49: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes." This entire genealogy is messianic. It is tracing the line that will ultimately produce King David, and through David, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Every name here is a link in the chain that moors our salvation to history.
The list starts with Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar. And right there, in the first name, we are confronted with the gritty reality of God's grace. The story of Perez's conception is a sordid affair of sin, deception, and Judah's own hypocrisy. And yet, God in His inscrutable wisdom, chooses this line. This is a profound comfort to us. God does not build His kingdom with perfect people. He is not looking for flawless pedigrees. He delights in taking the crooked, messy, and scandalous stuff of our lives and weaving it into His glorious tapestry of redemption. If He can use the line of Perez, He can use you.
From these main branches, the Chronicler zooms in on a particular family, the Zorathites, descended from Shobal. This is how God's covenant works. It is broad and cosmic in its scope, but it is always intensely personal. God is not just the God of Judah in general; He is the God of Reaiah, Jahath, Ahumai, and Lahad. He knows their names. He established their families. This is a direct refutation of all impersonal, deistic religion. The God of the Bible is not a distant clockmaker; He is a Father who numbers the hairs on our heads and records our generations in His book.
Named Individuals and Established Places (v. 3-4)
The list continues, not just with names, but with connections to places and even the noteworthy inclusion of a woman's name.
"These were the sons of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi. Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem." (1 Chronicles 4:3-4 LSB)
In the middle of this patriarchal list, the Spirit of God sees fit to include "the name of their sister...Hazzelelponi." Why? In a culture that often overlooked women in official records, the Bible frequently and deliberately highlights them. God is telling us that His covenant community is made of men and women, sons and daughters. Hazzelelponi's name may seem obscure to us, but it was not obscure to God. She was a real person, a daughter of the covenant, and her place in the story is secure. This is a quiet but firm statement about the dignity and value God places on every individual, male and female.
Then we see names tied to foundational acts. Penuel is the "father of Gedor" and Hur is the "father of Bethlehem." The word "father" here can mean founder or chief. These men were not just links in a chain; they were pioneers. They were builders of towns. They were establishing outposts of the covenant people in the promised land. This reminds us that our faith is not a disembodied, spiritual affair. It takes root in real dirt, in real towns. Bethlehem, mentioned here, is of course insignificant in itself. It is a backwater town. But it is the town that God had ordained to be the birthplace of King David, and centuries later, of David's greater Son. God's grandest purposes often begin in the most humble and overlooked places.
The Messiness of Covenant Life (v. 5-7)
The genealogy does not shy away from the complicated and sometimes compromised realities of family life.
"Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah. Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. The sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan." (1 Chronicles 4:5-7 LSB)
Here we have another town-founder, Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, which would later be the hometown of the prophet Amos. But the text straightforwardly records that he had two wives. The Bible is not endorsing polygamy here; it is simply recording what happened. From the beginning, God's pattern was one man, one woman. But the Scriptures are relentlessly honest about the sins and failures of God's people. They broke God's law for marriage, and this created rivalries and factions within the family, necessitating the Chronicler to specify which sons came from which wife.
This is another instance of God's grace working through messy situations. God did not approve of Ashhur's polygamy, but He did not abandon Ashhur's family. He continued to work through these lines. This is a crucial lesson for us. We often think that our past sins or our complicated family situations disqualify us from God's service. But the Bible's genealogies are filled with sinners, polygamists, schemers, and scoundrels. God's covenant is not dependent on our perfection. It is dependent on His promise. He is able to draw a straight line with a crooked stick.
A Concluding Tangle of Names (v. 8)
The section concludes with a final cluster of names, reminding us of the sheer scope of God's work.
"Koz became the father of Anub and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum." (1 Chronicles 4:8 LSB)
The passage ends with Koz, Anub, Zobebah, and Aharhel. To us, these are just sounds. We know nothing else about them. They appear here on the stage of history for a brief moment and then they are gone. And that is precisely the point. Their significance is not found in their worldly accomplishments, which are lost to time. Their significance is found in the fact that God included them in His story. They were part of the covenant family. They belonged to Him.
This is a profound truth for us. Most of us will not be famous. Our names will not be remembered by history in a few generations. We are the people of Koz and Anub. But if we are in Christ, our names are written in a book that will never perish, the Lamb's Book of Life. We have been grafted into this very story, into the family of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, and the kingdom of Christ. Our significance is not determined by the world's memory, but by God's.
Our Place in the Story
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must marvel at the faithfulness of God. He keeps His promises across centuries, through generations, despite the constant failures of His people. History is not a chaotic mess; it is a story He is writing, and He never loses the plot.
Second, we must find our own place in this story. The New Testament tells us that if we belong to Christ, then we are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29). By faith, we have been adopted into this family. This great genealogy of Judah does not end with the return from exile. It runs all the way to a manger in Bethlehem, to a cross on Calvary, and to an empty tomb. And it continues on through the history of the Church, through every person who has bent the knee to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Your life is not a random collection of events. You are not a biological accident. If you are in Christ, you are a son or daughter of the King. You have a lineage that stretches back to Adam and a future that stretches into eternity. You have a name, and your Father knows it. He has written it in His book. And just as He wove the lives of Jezreel, and Hazzelelponi, and Ashhur into His great purpose, He is weaving your life into that same story. Therefore, live like it. Live as a child of the covenant, with a rich past and a glorious future, secure in the knowledge that the God who remembered every name in this list will most certainly never forget yours.