Calamity, Construction, and the Covenant Line Text: 1 Chronicles 7:20-29
Introduction: The Gold in the Genealogies
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 a good tax code or a list of ingredients on a cereal box. We are in the middle of the genealogies of 1 Chronicles, those long lists of names that seem as dry as the wilderness wanderings. But to treat these chapters as mere filler, as a divine throat-clearing before the real story begins, is to make a profound mistake. It is to confess that we do not believe in the verbal inspiration of Scripture, or at least that we wish God had been a more economical editor.
But these lists are not just lists. They are the skeletal structure of redemptive history. They are the trellis upon which the entire vine of God's covenant promises grows. For the original audience, the Israelites returning from exile, these names were everything. They were their title deed to the land, their proof of identity as God's people, and their connection to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To find your name in this list was to know you belonged. It was a reminder that God had not forgotten them in Babylon, that His covenant faithfulness endures through generations of sin, judgment, and exile. These names are a bulwark against despair.
And if we look closely, we find that these are not just names. Embedded within these lists are miniature stories, compressed dramas of faith and failure, of sorrow and hope. Our text today, concerning the sons of Ephraim, is a prime example. It is a microcosm of the entire biblical story: a story of tragic loss, followed by covenantal comfort, followed by a surprising act of dominion, all culminating in the promised line that would one day produce the great conqueror, Joshua. This is not a dusty record; it is a living testimony to a God who works His purposes through the messy, painful, and often strange realities of family life. It is a story of how God brings blessing out of calamity, and how He raises up unexpected instruments to build His kingdom.
The Text
The sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take their livestock. And their father Ephraim mourned many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. Then he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because calamity had come upon his house. And his daughter was Sheerah, and she built lower and upper Beth-horon, also Uzzen-sheerah. Rephah was his son along with Resheph, Telah his son, Tahan his son, Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, Non his son and Joshua his son. Now their possessions and settlements were Bethel with its towns, and to the east Naaran, and to the west Gezer with its towns, and Shechem with its towns as far as Ayyah with its towns, and along the borders of the sons of Manasseh, Beth-shean with its towns, Taanach with its towns, Megiddo with its towns, Dor with its towns. In these lived the sons of Joseph the son of Israel.
(1 Chronicles 7:20-29 LSB)
Cattle Raids and Calamity (vv. 20-22)
The genealogy begins straightforwardly enough, but then it is violently interrupted.
"The sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah... and Ezer and Elead whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take their livestock. And their father Ephraim mourned many days, and his relatives came to comfort him." (1 Chronicles 7:20-22)
Here, in the midst of a list of "begats," we are confronted with bloodshed and grief. Two of Ephraim's sons, Ezer and Elead, are killed. The Chronicler pauses the list to tell us how and why. They were killed by the men of Gath, Philistines, in a dispute over livestock. This was likely a cattle raid, a common feature of the ancient world. The sons of Ephraim went down to take what they believed was theirs, or perhaps to reclaim what was stolen, and they were cut down.
This brief, violent episode teaches us a number of things. First, it reminds us that the history of God's people is not a sanitized, stained-glass story. It is filled with property disputes, violence, and death. The covenant is worked out in the mud and blood of real life. Second, it highlights the constant conflict between the people of God and the inhabitants of the land. The men of Gath were "born in the land," which sets up a contrast. The sons of Ephraim were not yet in possession of the land promised to them. This raid was a premature attempt to seize their inheritance by their own strength, and it ended in disaster. We cannot force God's timing or accomplish His purposes through our own carnal means. This is a lesson Israel would have to learn again and again.
The result is grief. Ephraim, the great patriarch, mourned for "many days." This is a deep, personal sorrow. The covenant promises do not insulate us from the sharp pains of this fallen world. To be a patriarch is not to be a stoic. Faith does not eliminate grief; it gives it a context and a limit. His relatives came to comfort him, which shows the importance of covenant community in times of loss. We are meant to bear one another's burdens, to mourn with those who mourn.
A Son Named "In Calamity" (v. 23)
Out of this season of mourning, God brings new life, but it is a life forever marked by the tragedy that preceded it.
"Then he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because calamity had come upon his house." (1 Chronicles 7:23 LSB)
Ephraim's response to his grief is not to despair, but to act in faith within the context of his marriage. He goes in to his wife, and God grants them another son. This is a quiet picture of covenantal faithfulness. In the face of death, they embrace the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply. But they do not pretend the sorrow did not happen. They name the boy Beriah, which sounds like the Hebrew for "in calamity" or "in evil."
This is a profoundly realistic view of life. We often want to paper over our tragedies, to forget the pain and move on. But the biblical pattern is to remember, to incorporate the sorrow into the story. This child's very name is a memorial to his slain brothers and the grief that surrounded his birth. Yet, he is also a sign of God's grace. God did not leave Ephraim in his mourning. He gave him a son. This is the pattern of the gospel: life comes out of death. Blessing is born "in calamity." Our greatest blessings in Christ come to us precisely because of the great calamity of the cross. God's grace does not erase our painful memories, but it redeems them, making them part of a larger, more glorious story.
A Daughter Who Builds (v. 24)
What follows is one of the most remarkable and unexpected verses in all the biblical genealogies.
"And his daughter was Sheerah, and she built lower and upper Beth-horon, also Uzzen-sheerah." (1 Chronicles 7:24 LSB)
Out of nowhere, a woman is mentioned not just by name, but as an agent of dominion. Sheerah, Ephraim's daughter or granddaughter, is a builder of cities. This is extraordinary. In a patriarchal record focused on the male line, the Holy Spirit makes a point of telling us about this woman's significant accomplishments. She built not one, but three strategic locations. The two Beth-horons were vital military and travel choke-points. The third, Uzzen-sheerah, was named after her, a lasting monument to her legacy.
This verse is a rock in the shoe of every feminist who claims the Bible oppresses women, and it is a rebuke to every chauvinist who thinks a woman's only role is a domestic one. The Bible's vision for men and women is not one of egalitarian sameness, but of complementary glory. God assigns different primary roles to men and women, but this does not mean He restricts the gifts and abilities of women. Sheerah was clearly a woman of immense talent, leadership, and vision. And the Bible does not hide this; it celebrates it. It records her work as part of the faithful history of Ephraim. God uses whomever He pleases to build His kingdom, and He is not constrained by our cultural boxes. A godly woman, operating within the covenant, can be a force for dominion, building things that last for generations.
The Line to Joshua (vv. 25-27)
After this surprising detour, the genealogy resumes its steady march forward, culminating in a name of immense significance.
"Rephah was his son... Non his son and Joshua his son." (1 Chronicles 7:25-27 LSB)
The list of names moves from one generation to the next, and then, at the end, we arrive at the destination: Joshua, the son of Nun. This is the point. The entire genealogy, with its tragedy and its triumph, was leading here. Joshua, from this very tribe of Ephraim, would be the one to finally lead Israel into the Promised Land. He would succeed where Ezer and Elead had failed. They tried to take their inheritance by a premature cattle raid and died. Joshua, by faith and obedience to God's command, would conquer the land and distribute the inheritance to all the tribes.
The contrast is stark. The failed raid of the sons of Ephraim shows the folly of human presumption. The successful conquest under Joshua shows the power of God-ordained leadership and covenantal obedience. This genealogy is not just a family tree; it is a theological argument. It shows how God, through generations of sorrow, strange providences, and unexpected builders, was preparing the man who would be the great type of Christ, our Jesus. For the name "Joshua" is the Hebrew form of the name "Jesus." He is the one who leads His people into their true inheritance, the promised rest.
The Promised Inheritance (vv. 28-29)
The passage concludes not with a person, but with a place. It lists the possessions and settlements of the sons of Joseph.
"Now their possessions and settlements were Bethel... In these lived the sons of Joseph the son of Israel." (1 Chronicles 7:28-29 LSB)
This final section is the payoff. The land is the point of the promise. From the grief of Ephraim over his dead sons to the glorious list of cities possessed by his descendants, we see the faithfulness of God. What began in calamity ends in conquest and settlement. The land is central to the covenant God made with Abraham. These verses, listing Bethel, Gezer, Shechem, and others, were a profound comfort to the returning exiles. It was a reminder that this land was theirs by divine grant. Their possession of it was a sign of God's blessing, and their exile from it was a sign of His curse for disobedience. This list was a call to return and rebuild, just as Sheerah had once built.
This is a tangible, geographical inheritance. Christianity is not a disembodied, gnostic religion. God cares about land, cities, and borders. He gave His people a particular place to live and serve Him. And this points us forward to our ultimate inheritance. We too have been promised a city, the New Jerusalem, and an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). And we look forward to the day when heaven and earth are one, and we will inherit the renewed earth itself (Matthew 5:5).
Conclusion: Our Beriah, Our Sheerah, Our Joshua
This short, dense passage in Chronicles is a picture of our own story in Christ. We all begin in calamity. We are born into the house of Adam, a house under the curse of sin and death. We are by nature children of wrath, and our lives are marked by the sorrow and loss that sin brings into the world.
But into this house of calamity, God sends a Son. He is our Beriah. Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was born into a world of evil to redeem it. His whole life was lived "in calamity," culminating in the ultimate calamity of the cross, where He bore the full wrath of God for our sin. And yet, through that calamity, God brought forth new life, resurrection life, for all who are in Him.
And in Christ, we are called to be builders, like Sheerah. The Church is God's construction project in the world. We are called, both men and women, to use our diverse gifts to build up the household of faith. We are to build families, businesses, schools, and churches that honor God. We are to take dominion in His name, establishing outposts of the Kingdom of Heaven in this world, building things of lasting worth.
And finally, we do all this under the leadership of our great Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the captain of our salvation who has gone before us. He has conquered sin, death, and the devil. He has secured our inheritance, and He is leading us into the final rest. The story of Ephraim is our story. It is a story of how our faithful, covenant-keeping God takes the tragedies, the strange providences, and the faithful labors of His people and weaves them all into His unstoppable plan of redemption, a plan that culminates in a people dwelling securely in the land He has promised, forever.