The High Cost of a Short Memory Text: 1 Chronicles 5:23-26
Introduction: The Gravity of Forgetting
We live in a throwaway culture. We have throwaway phones, throwaway razors, and, most tragically, a throwaway history. Our generation suffers from a terminal case of chronological snobbery, believing that the latest thing is necessarily the truest thing. We have convinced ourselves that we are smarter, more enlightened, and more sophisticated than all the generations that have gone before us. But in doing this, we have cut ourselves off from the wisdom of our fathers, and more importantly, from the God of our fathers. We have traded our birthright for a bowl of thin, tasteless, contemporary porridge.
The book of Chronicles is a potent antidote to this poison. It is a book of remembrance. After the devastation of the exile, the Chronicler is reminding the returned remnant of who they are. He is tracing their lineage, recounting their history, and re-establishing their identity as the covenant people of God. Genealogies, which we are often tempted to skim, are not just boring lists of names. They are the skeletal structure of God's faithfulness through history. They are a declaration that God keeps His promises to a thousand generations. They are the family tree of redemption.
But this family tree has some broken branches. Our text today is a stark and somber account of one such branch: the half-tribe of Manasseh. It is a case study in the anatomy of apostasy. It shows us how a people blessed with greatness, with land, with numbers, and with renowned leaders can squander it all through covenant unfaithfulness. It is a warning, written for our instruction, that worldly success is no substitute for spiritual fidelity. A nation can have mighty men of valor and still be rotten to the core. A people can be numerous and renowned and yet be on the fast track to judgment. This passage is a divine diagnosis of a spiritual cancer, and it is a cancer that is all too common in the prosperous, distracted, and forgetful American church today.
The story of the Transjordan tribes is a story of compromise from the beginning. They saw the good grazing land on the wrong side of the Jordan and settled for it, content with a blessing that was adjacent to the Promised Land but not quite in it. This geographical separation became a spiritual separation. Out of sight, out of mind. And when a people forgets the God who established them, He has a way of reminding them of His sovereignty, often through the most unpleasant of means.
The Text
Now the sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land; from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon they were numerous. These were the heads of their fathers’ households, even Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, men of renown, heads of their fathers’ households. But they acted unfaithfully against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, and he took them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day.
(1 Chronicles 5:23-26 LSB)
The Appearance of Strength (v. 23-24)
The account begins by detailing the prosperity and strength of the half-tribe of Manasseh.
"Now the sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land; from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon they were numerous. These were the heads of their fathers’ households, even Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, men of renown, heads of their fathers’ households." (1 Chronicles 5:23-24)
On the surface, everything looks impressive. We see three key indicators of worldly success. First, they had prime real estate. They occupied a large and fertile territory, from Bashan, known for its rich pastures and strong oaks, all the way to the strategic heights of Mount Hermon. They were well-established and had plenty of room to grow. Second, they were numerous. Their population was booming. By all external metrics, this was a thriving, successful society. They were filling the land, which is a partial fulfillment of the creation mandate.
Third, they had a roster of impressive leaders. The text lists seven heads of their households, and gives them a glittering resume: they were "mighty men of valor" and "men of renown." These are not light compliments. "Mighty men of valor" speaks of their military prowess, their courage, and their strength. These were the kind of men you wanted leading your army. "Men of renown" means they had a name, a reputation. They were famous. These were the community pillars, the men everyone looked up to. They were the influencers of their day.
So you have land, population, and strong leadership. By the standards of the world, Manasseh was a success story. They had it all. But this is a crucial lesson for us. The Chronicler is setting the stage for a great reversal. He is showing us that a society's strength is never ultimately measured by its GDP, its population statistics, or the resumes of its leaders. You can have a nation full of valiant warriors and famous men, and if you are unfaithful to the covenant, you are nothing but a hollowed-out tree, waiting for the axe of God's judgment to fall. All this worldly renown is about to be utterly humiliated.
The Rot of Apostasy (v. 25)
Verse 25 pivots sharply from their external glory to their internal decay. This is the "but" that changes everything.
"But they acted unfaithfully against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them." (1 Chronicles 5:25)
Here is the indictment, and it is twofold. First, they "acted unfaithfully against the God of their fathers." The word for unfaithfulness here is a serious one. It means treachery, betrayal. This was not a minor slip-up. This was high treason against their covenant Lord. Notice the specific phrasing: "the God of their fathers." They were not abandoning some abstract deity; they were turning their backs on the God who had revealed Himself in their own history, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought them out of Egypt and gave them this very land. Their sin was compounded by a colossal failure of memory. They forgot their own story.
The second phrase describes the specific form their treachery took: they "played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land." The Bible consistently uses the language of adultery and harlotry to describe idolatry. This is not just poetic flourish. It gets to the very heart of the matter. The covenant between God and Israel was a marriage covenant. Yahweh was the husband, and Israel was His bride. To worship another god was not merely a theological error; it was spiritual adultery. It was a violation of the most intimate and sacred of bonds. It was cheating on God.
And look at the sheer insanity of it. Whose gods were they chasing after? "The gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them." Think about this. They were worshipping the gods of the losers. They were bowing down to the deities that their own God had utterly humiliated and overthrown to give them the land in the first place. It’s like a soldier deserting a victorious general to go serve a defeated one who is in a POW camp. It is irrational. It is spiritual madness. But this is what sin does. It blinds us to reality. They traded the living God who had demonstrated His supreme power on their behalf for dead idols who couldn't even protect their own people from being annihilated.
The Sovereignty of Judgment (v. 26)
Because God is a faithful husband, He will not tolerate adultery from His bride. Judgment is not a sign of God's failure, but of His covenant faithfulness. He keeps His promises, including the curses.
"So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, and he took them away into exile..." (1 Chronicles 5:26)
Notice who the primary actor is here. It is not Pul, king of Assyria. It is "the God of Israel." The Assyrians were not some rogue force that caught God by surprise. God was using them as His rod of chastisement. The text says He "stirred up the spirit" of the Assyrian king. This is a staggering statement of divine sovereignty. God is so in control of history that He can reach into the heart of a pagan, bloodthirsty tyrant and "stir" him to accomplish the divine purpose. Pul, or Tilgath-pilneser as he is also known, thought he was building his own empire for his own glory. He had no idea he was merely a tool in the hand of the God of a tiny nation he was about to crush.
This is a truth we must grip tightly. God is sovereign over all nations, over all rulers, over all armies. He raises up kings and He brings them down. He uses godless empires to discipline His own rebellious people. And when He is done with them, He judges them for the very sins He used them to punish (Isaiah 10:12). The Assyrian king was morally responsible for his own cruelty and pride, but God, in His inscrutable wisdom, wove that sinful intent into His own perfect, righteous plan.
The judgment itself is exile. "...he took them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day." Exile was the ultimate covenant curse. It was a complete reversal of the Exodus. God had brought them out of bondage and into the land; now, because of their sin, He was kicking them out of the land and sending them back into bondage. Their sin was forgetting the God who gave them the land, so their punishment was to lose the land they had prized above their God. The punishment fit the crime perfectly. The Chronicler adds the haunting phrase, "to this day," reminding his readers that this was not a temporary setback. This was a catastrophic, long-term reality. The northern tribes were scattered and, for all intents and purposes, lost.
Conclusion: The End of All Renown
So what are we to make of this grim account? It is a cautionary tale of the highest order. Manasseh had mighty men, but their might was useless against the judgment of God. They had renowned men, but their renown could not save them. Their names are listed here not as a memorial to their glory, but as a prelude to their shame. Their story teaches us that all human strength and reputation, when divorced from covenant faithfulness, is a vapor. It is a bubble waiting to be burst.
The sin of Manasseh was forgetting God and committing spiritual adultery. They wanted to be like the nations, and so God gave them what they wanted. He sent them to live among the nations, not as conquerors, but as captives. This is always the end result of spiritual compromise. When the church flirts with the world, when she adopts the world's idols, whether they be sexual liberation, materialism, or political power, she is playing the harlot. And a holy God will not be mocked. He will discipline His bride. He will stir up the spirit of our modern-day Assyrians to come and humble us.
But the story does not end in exile. The Chronicler is writing to a people who have returned from exile. A remnant has come back. This is because God's judgment is always restorative for His people. He disciplines those He loves. The exile was meant to purge the idolatry from their hearts. And for Judah, in large measure, it worked.
This entire narrative points us to the ultimate "mighty man of valor," the truly "renowned" one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one who was ever perfectly faithful to the covenant. He is the true Israel. And yet, He willingly entered into exile for us. On the cross, He was cast out from the land of the living, into the outer darkness of God's judgment. He bore the ultimate covenant curse, being forsaken by the Father, so that we, the spiritual adulterers and harlots, could be forgiven, cleansed, and brought back home.
Because of His faithfulness, we are no longer exiles. We have been brought into the true promised land, the kingdom of God. But the warning of Manasseh remains. We must not forget the God of our fathers. We must not go chasing after the pathetic, defeated gods of this world. We are called to be faithful, to remember our story, and to cling to the one whose renown will never fade, and whose kingdom will have no end.