The Permanent Record: Sin, Sovereignty, and Inheritance Text: 1 Chronicles 5:1-10
Introduction: History With a Point
We live in an age that has a peculiar relationship with history. On the one hand, our secularists are obsessed with it, constantly digging up the sins of prior generations to justify their current revolutionary projects. They are diligent genealogists of grievance. On the other hand, they have no actual respect for history because they do not believe it has an author. To them, history is just one meaningless thing after another, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. And so they feel perfectly free to edit it, to tear down statues, to rename buildings, and to memory-hole whatever doesn't fit the current narrative.
The Christian, by contrast, knows that history is His story. It is the unrolling of a scroll, written from before the foundation of the world by a sovereign God. Every jot and tittle has a purpose. This is why the Holy Spirit inspired entire books of the Bible that are, to our modern sensibilities, filled with long, dry, and dusty lists of names. We come to a passage like 1 Chronicles 5, and our eyes are tempted to glaze over. We see a genealogy, a list of descendants, some notes on geography, and a brief mention of a skirmish with a tribe called the Hagrites. We are tempted to think this is merely ancient record-keeping, the sort of thing you'd find in a county courthouse basement. But we must not do this. To do so is to insult the Author.
These genealogies are not just lists; they are arguments. They are theological sermons written in the stark language of "begats." They trace the consequences of sin and the progress of God's covenant promises through generations. They show us that choices have consequences that ripple down through centuries. They demonstrate that God's sovereign plan is never thwarted by man's foolishness, but rather, God weaves even our foolishness and sin into the grand tapestry of His redemptive purposes. This passage about the sons of Reuben is a case study in how God's history book works. It is a story of sin and its consequences, of birthright lost and sovereignty displayed, and of the slow, steady march of God's kingdom, even on the wild frontiers of Gilead.
The Text
Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he profaned his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; so that he is not recorded in the genealogy according to the birthright. Though Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came the ruler, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph), the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. The sons of Joel were Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria took away into exile; he was leader of the Reubenites. His relatives by their families, in the genealogy of their generations, were Jeiel the chief, then Zechariah, and Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who lived in Aroer, even to Nebo and Baal-meon. To the east he lived as far as the entrance of the wilderness from the river Euphrates, because their cattle had increased in the land of Gilead. In the days of Saul they made war with the Hagrites, and they fell by their hand. So they lived in their tents throughout all the land east of Gilead.
(1 Chronicles 5:1-10 LSB)
Sin's Long Shadow (v. 1-2)
The Chronicler begins with Reuben, but he cannot simply list the names. He has to stop and explain why the list is not what we would expect. He has to explain an anomaly, a disruption in the natural order of things.
"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he profaned his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; so that he is not recorded in the genealogy according to the birthright. Though Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came the ruler, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph)," (1 Chronicles 5:1-2)
Here we have a divine editorial note, inserted right into the inspired ledger. Reuben was the firstborn. By rights, he should have had the preeminence. The birthright in that culture involved two main things: a double portion of the inheritance and the leadership of the family. But Reuben forfeited it. Why? Because of one catastrophic moral failure, recorded back in Genesis 35. He slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. This was not just a tawdry affair; it was a power play. In the ancient world, to take the king's concubine was to make a claim on the throne itself, as we see later with Absalom and Adonijah. Reuben's sin was an act of profound disrespect, a violation of the fifth commandment, and a grasp for power. It was a sin against his father, against the covenant family, and against God.
And here, centuries later, the books are still open. The consequences are still being tallied. This is a sobering lesson for us. We live in a therapeutic age that wants to erase consequences. We want grace to be a sort of cosmic amnesia. But the Bible teaches that while forgiveness is immediate for the repentant, the consequences of sin can be long and deep. David was forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba, but the sword never departed from his house. Reuben's moment of reckless passion echoed for generations. His tribe never produced a judge, a prophet, or a king of any note. They were relegated to the margins of Israel's history.
But notice how God's sovereignty works. Reuben's sin did not derail God's plan; it became the occasion for God to display His freedom. The birthright was split. The double portion, the material blessing, went to Joseph. Jacob adopted Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, making them full tribes in Israel. This was a staggering act of grace toward Joseph, the one who had been faithful through suffering. The leadership, the royal scepter, went to Judah. From Judah would come David, and ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. God is not bound by our traditions of primogeniture. He is free to choose whom He will. He chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and here, Joseph and Judah over Reuben. God's purposes are not subject to the vote of the firstborn.
A Fading Lineage (v. 3-8)
After the crucial theological parenthetical, the Chronicler gets to the list itself. And the list is, frankly, not very glorious.
"the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. The sons of Joel were Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria took away into exile; he was leader of the Reubenites..." (1 Chronicles 5:3-8)
We are given a short lineage that quickly culminates in a man named Beerah. And what is Beerah famous for? He was the leader of the Reubenites when the king of Assyria, Tilgath-pilneser, carried them off into exile. This is the end of the line, genealogically speaking. The record stops with national catastrophe. The tribe that began with a foundational sin ends, for all practical purposes, in judgment and deportation. This is what the Bible calls sowing and reaping. Reuben sowed instability, like "unstable as water" his father Jacob called him, and his tribe reaped a legacy of being swept away by the flood of a pagan empire.
This is not to say that every individual Reubenite was unfaithful. There were undoubtedly godly men and women among them. But as a covenant body, as a tribe, their story is one of decline. They are a cautionary tale written into the history of Israel. Their story warns us that federal sin has federal consequences. The choices of a father have profound effects on his children and his children's children. This is the principle of federal headship, which our individualistic age despises. But it is written all over the pages of Scripture, from Adam to Reuben to us. We are not isolated atoms; we are covenantally bound to one another, for blessing or for curse.
Life on the Margins (v. 9-10)
The final verses of our text give us a geographical and a historical snapshot of the tribe of Reuben, and it reinforces the theme of their marginal status.
"To the east he lived as far as the entrance of the wilderness from the river Euphrates, because their cattle had increased in the land of Gilead. In the days of Saul they made war with the Hagrites, and they fell by their hand. So they lived in their tents throughout all the land east of Gilead." (1 Chronicles 5:9-10)
Remember the story from the book of Numbers. When Israel was on the verge of entering the Promised Land, the tribes of Reuben and Gad saw that the land on the east side of the Jordan was good for cattle. They came to Moses and asked if they could settle there instead of crossing over into Canaan proper. They made a pragmatic, economic decision. They chose good pastureland over proximity to the tabernacle. Moses was furious at first, but he relented on the condition that their fighting men would cross over and help the other tribes conquer their inheritance. They did this, but their choice had long-term spiritual consequences.
They chose to live on the frontier, on the edge of the covenant land. They were the first line of defense, but also the first to be exposed to the pagan influences of the wilderness. Their prosperity, their increased cattle, pushed them further and further east, away from the heart of Israel's worship and community. This is a picture of spiritual compromise. It is the decision to live as close to the world as possible without, one hopes, losing one's soul. It is the choice of comfort over consecration. And it is always a dangerous choice.
We see a brief moment of faithfulness here. In the days of Saul, they went to war with the Hagrites, descendants of Hagar, and God gave them the victory. This shows that God's grace was still available to them. When they trusted in Him, He fought for them. But their ultimate trajectory was one of assimilation and, eventually, exile. Their geographical separation led to spiritual separation. They built an altar of their own, which nearly caused a civil war. They were the first to be carried off by the Assyrians. Their story is a warning against the danger of the borderlands, of trying to have one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world.
The Gospel in the Genealogies
So what does this ancient list of a failed tribe have to do with us? Everything. This passage is a stark portrait of the first Adam and his sons, which is all of us. Like Reuben, we are all born with a glorious birthright as image-bearers of God, destined for dominion. And like Reuben, we have all profaned our Father's bed. We have all committed high treason against the King of heaven. We have all, in our pride and lust, forfeited our inheritance. We are all, by nature, unstable as water, and our destiny, left to ourselves, is exile and judgment.
But the genealogy does not end with Reuben. The Chronicler is careful to point us to the two lines of God's sovereign grace: Joseph and Judah. Joseph is a picture of the suffering servant who is exalted. He was rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, and falsely imprisoned. But God raised him up to be a savior for his people. He received the double portion, a picture of the abundant life and inheritance that God gives to His faithful ones.
And then there is Judah, from whom came the ruler. This points us down the centuries to the true and final King, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate firstborn, the one who never profaned His Father's honor. He is the one who, unlike Reuben, was perfectly faithful. And yet, on the cross, He took Reuben's curse upon Himself. He became sin for us. He was exiled into the outer darkness of God's wrath so that we, the true exiles, could be brought home.
In Christ, the birthright is restored, and it is a far greater birthright than Reuben ever lost. Through faith in Jesus, we are adopted into God's family. We receive a double portion, not of land in Gilead, but of the Holy Spirit. We are made co-heirs with Christ Himself (Romans 8:17). And we are brought into the kingdom of the great Ruler from Judah, a kingdom that will have no end. The story of Reuben is the story of our sin and its consequences. The story of Joseph and Judah is the story of God's sovereign grace in Jesus Christ, which trumps our sin, reverses our curse, and writes our names into a genealogy that does not end in exile, but in the eternal city of God.