The Unlikely Heirs: God's Arithmetic in Manasseh
Introduction: The Backbone of History
We come now in our survey of 1 Chronicles to a passage that causes the modern eye to glaze over. We see a list of names, some of them difficult to pronounce, connected by a web of "begats" and "sons of." The temptation for many is to treat such passages as the Bible's equivalent of the fine print in a contract, something to be acknowledged but not necessarily read, let alone understood. But this is a grave mistake. These genealogies are not the Bible's attic, filled with dusty and forgotten heirlooms. They are the structural beams of the entire house. They are the load-bearing walls of redemptive history. To neglect them is to misunderstand the story God is telling.
God is a God of history. He works His purposes out in time and space, through actual people with actual families. He is a covenant-keeping God, which means He makes promises to fathers, and He keeps those promises to their sons, and their sons' sons, for a thousand generations. These lists are the inspired accounting of that faithfulness. They are the receipts. They trace the line of the promised Seed, the Messiah, from Adam down to the fullness of time. But they do more than that. Embedded in these lists, like nuggets of gold in a riverbed, are profound theological truths about God's sovereignty, His grace, His plan for the family, and His vision for the world.
The secular mind sees history as a random, chaotic drift. The pagan mind sees it as an endless, meaningless cycle. But the Christian mind, instructed by passages like this, sees history as a story, with a beginning, a middle, and a triumphant end, all authored by a sovereign God. Here in the genealogy of Manasseh, a tribe itself born of a paradox, we see God's arithmetic at work. It is an arithmetic that confounds human expectation, elevates the lowly, works through messy family situations, and secures a promised inheritance for His people.
The Text
The sons of Manasseh were Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead. Now Machir took a wife for Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister’s name was Maacah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters. And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rakem. The son of Ulam was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh. And his sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod and Abiezer and Mahlah. The sons of Shemida were Ahian and Shechem and Likhi and Aniam.
(1 Chronicles 7:14-19 LSB)
Manasseh's Messy Lineage (v. 14)
We begin with the head of the tribe, and a curious complication right at the start.
"The sons of Manasseh were Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead." (1 Chronicles 7:14)
The first thing we must remember about Manasseh is that he was the firstborn of Joseph, but he received the lesser blessing from Jacob. His younger brother Ephraim was prophetically elevated above him (Gen. 48:19). From its very inception, this tribe is a lesson in divine sovereignty. God's choices are not bound by our customs of primogeniture. He is free to exalt whomever He pleases. Manasseh's very name means "causing to forget," for Joseph said, "God has made me forget all my hardship" (Gen. 41:51). This tribe was born out of God's grace in turning sorrow into blessing.
And the complications continue. The line that matters, the line of Machir, comes not from a wife but from an Aramean concubine. The world, and especially the tidy-minded religious person, might see this as a blemish, a disqualification. An Aramean, a foreigner. A concubine, not a full wife. But the Holy Spirit sees fit to record it without apology. This is a powerful statement. God's covenant purposes are not thwarted by messy family trees or irregular unions. He is not a God of the purebreds in a genetic sense. His grace is powerful enough to graft in branches from the outside. He weaves the threads of foreign blood and complicated relationships into the grand tapestry of His plan. This is a preview of the gospel, where Gentiles from every nation are brought into the family of Abraham by faith.
From this union comes Machir, "the father of Gilead." Machir was a warrior, a man of valor who was instrumental in conquering the territory of Gilead east of the Jordan (Num. 32:39-40, Josh. 17:1). This is covenantal succession in action. God gives promises, and then He raises up faithful, courageous men to take hold of those promises. Dominion is not passive. The inheritance had to be fought for, and Machir was the man God raised up to do it. He took the land and his son Gilead inherited it and named it. This is the pattern of kingdom advancement: God gives the promise, and men of faith act in rugged obedience to possess it.
Godly Women and an Unlikely Inheritance (v. 15-16)
The Chronicler then includes some remarkable details about the women of this family.
"Now Machir took a wife... whose sister’s name was Maacah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters. And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh..." (1 Chronicles 7:15-16)
The text is a bit compressed here, but the point is clear. Women are being named and their actions recorded. Maacah, the wife of the warrior Machir, is not just a passive vessel. She is an active participant in the covenant. She bears a son and, importantly, "she named him Peresh." In Scripture, naming is an act of authority and dominion. For a mother to be recorded as naming her son is significant. She is exercising her God-given role within the household, shaping the identity of the next generation.
But then we have a bombshell dropped into the middle of this patriarchal list: "and Zelophehad had daughters." Why mention this? To the casual reader, it seems like a dead end. No sons, no inheritance, the family name is cut off. But the Chronicler knows his audience remembers the story from the Torah. The story of Zelophehad's daughters in Numbers 27 is one of the most remarkable accounts of faithful, godly femininity in all the Old Testament. These five women, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, saw a problem in the law. Since inheritance passed through sons, their father's name and portion would be lost in Israel. They didn't protest, they didn't riot, they didn't demand their rights in a spirit of rebellion. They came respectfully to Moses and the elders and made a logical, faith-filled appeal. Their concern was not primarily for their own welfare, but for the preservation of their father's name and inheritance within the people of God.
And what was God's response? He said their cause was just. He amended the law of inheritance on the spot. This is monumental. God writes the faith and wisdom of these women into the constitutional law of Israel. He honors their desire to see the family line and the family inheritance preserved. This is not feminism. This is covenantal faithfulness. These women understood that the land was a gift from God, and that each family's portion was a sacred trust. By including this seemingly minor detail, "Zelophehad had daughters," the Chronicler is reminding Israel of this glorious history. He is pointing to a case where God honored the faith of women to secure the covenant promise of land and lineage.
The Line Continues (v. 17-19)
The genealogy then continues, tracing the line through Gilead and highlighting another notable woman.
"The son of Ulam was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh. And his sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod and Abiezer and Mahlah. The sons of Shemida were Ahian and Shechem and Likhi and Aniam." (Genesis 7:17-19)
The central line is secured through Gilead, the namesake of the territory his father Machir conquered. This reinforces the deep connection between God's people and God's place. The inheritance is not an abstract spiritual reality alone; it is dirt, it is land, it is a place to build homes and raise families for the glory of God.
And then, another woman is named: Hammolecheth, the sister of Gilead. Her name means "the queen." We are not told why she was given such a regal name, but it is recorded for us. And like Maacah, she is not a footnote. She is a fruitful mother in Israel, bearing three sons who are counted in the roles of Manasseh. In a culture that traced lineage primarily through the male line, the Holy Spirit deliberately includes these matriarchs. He is showing us that mothers are essential to the building of God's kingdom. The men may be the warriors who conquer the land, but the women are the queens who build the households that fill it.
The list concludes by tracing the line of another of Gilead's sons, Shemida. These names are recorded in the book of God. They are not forgotten. They were real men, part of a real tribe, who received a real inheritance. They are links in the long chain of God's faithfulness, stretching from the patriarchs down to the coming of Christ.
Conclusion: Our Unlikely Inheritance
So what do we, as New Covenant Christians, do with a passage like this? We are to see in it the patterns of God's grace that have now reached their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. We, like the tribe of Manasseh, are a people born of a paradox. We were destined for wrath, but by grace have been made sons. We, like Machir, were born of an "irregular" union, grafted as wild olive branches into the rich root of God's covenant with Israel (Romans 11:17).
We have an inheritance, not in the hills of Gilead, but an inheritance that is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4). And yet, this inheritance is also for the earth. For we are postmillennialists, and we believe that the meek shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). Like Machir, we are called to be warriors, to take dominion, and to press the claims of King Jesus over every square inch of this world. We do this not with sword and spear, but with the gospel of peace and the faithful application of God's word to every area of life.
And like Zelophehad's daughters, we must be zealous for our inheritance. We must be people who know what God has promised and are not afraid to ask Him for it. We must be concerned that the name of our Father is honored, and that His portion is not lost. We must teach our sons to be warriors and our daughters to be queens, each faithfully exercising their God-given roles to build strong households, which are the fundamental building blocks of a Christian society.
This list of names from Manasseh is our family history. It reminds us that God's kingdom is not built by perfect people from perfect families. It is built by His sovereign grace working through unlikely, complicated, and often messy situations. It is built through warrior men who take the land and wise women who build the homes. It is a kingdom that advances generation by generation, name by name, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Your name may not be in Chronicles, but if you are in Christ, it is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And that is an inheritance that can never be taken away.