God's Roll Call: The Unforgotten Faithful Text: 1 Chronicles 9:14-16
Introduction: The Ribs of History
We live in an age that has no patience for the past and no anchor for the future. Our generation treats history like a buffet, picking the bits it finds palatable and tossing the rest. This is particularly true when the modern Christian comes to the great genealogies of Scripture. The eyes glaze over. The finger gets ready to flip the page. We see a list of names like the one before us, full of unfamiliar consonants and what appears to be a great deal of tedious bookkeeping, and we think to ourselves, "What does this have to do with me?" We want the meat, and we think this is just a pile of dry bones.
But this is a profound mistake. These genealogies are not the dry bones of Scripture; they are the skeletal structure. They are the ribs of redemptive history, giving it shape, form, and integrity. Without them, the story of salvation becomes a sentimental, gelatinous blob. These lists are God's sworn testimony that His covenant promises are not abstract ideals but are worked out in the blood and sweat of actual history, with real people, in real families, from real towns. To skip the genealogies is to skip the proof. It is to say you believe in the resurrection but have no interest in the empty tomb or the eyewitnesses.
The book of Chronicles was written for a people who had just returned from exile. They were demoralized, displaced, and tempted to believe that God had forgotten them, that His promises had expired. And so the Chronicler begins with nine chapters of names. He is not being tedious; he is being pastoral. He is laying a foundation. He is saying, "Look! From Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to David, and from David right down to you who have returned to Jerusalem, God has not lost a single link in the chain. He has not forgotten His people." These lists are a declaration of war against despair. They are a muster roll, a divine census, proving that God knows His own by name.
The world wants to make you anonymous. It wants to reduce you to a number, a statistic, a demographic. But the God of the Bible is the God of Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam. He is a God of intricate, glorious, and loving detail. The passage before us is not just a list of Levites. It is a snapshot of a restoration. It is the sound of God rebuilding His house, calling His servants by name, and setting them to their appointed tasks. And in this, we see a pattern of how He continues to build His true temple, the Church, to this very day.
The Text
Of the Levites were Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, theson of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;
and Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph,
and Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who lived in the villages of the Netophathites.
(1 Chronicles 9:14-16 LSB)
The Importance of Pedigree (v. 14)
We begin with the first name on this particular list.
"Of the Levites were Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;" (1 Chronicles 9:14)
The first thing to notice is that Shemaiah does not appear out of thin air. He is not a self-made man. He is introduced with his resume, which is his lineage. In our egalitarian age, we pretend that where you come from does not matter. The Bible says it matters a great deal. Shemaiah's authority to serve in the rebuilt community does not come from his charisma or his personal ambition. It comes from his identity, an identity rooted in the covenant history of his people. He is the son of Hasshub, who was the son of Azrikam, and so on, right back to Merari, who was a son of Levi himself.
This is God's way of establishing legitimacy and order. The Levitical priesthood was not an open-mic night. It was a specific calling given to a specific family. When the people returned from Babylon, one of the first orders of business was to re-establish the right worship of God in the right way by the right people. This list is part of that crucial process. It tells the people that God is not starting over with a new plan; He is faithfully continuing the old one. The God who made promises to Levi is the same God who is now gathering the sons of Merari back to Jerusalem.
This matters because we worship a God who keeps His Word across centuries. He does not have generational amnesia. The foundation of our faith is not a set of abstract principles, but a series of historical acts performed by a covenant-keeping God. Shemaiah's family tree is a testament to that faithfulness. Though his ancestors had been dragged into exile for their unfaithfulness, God preserved their line and brought them back, all to fulfill His own purposes. God's faithfulness is always the hero of these genealogies.
The Musicians are Back (v. 15)
The next verse continues the roll call, and we should hear the sound of music in these names.
"and Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph," (1 Chronicles 9:15 LSB)
After establishing the general Levitical line, the Chronicler gets more specific. He lists Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, men whose service was important enough for God to record their names for all time. But then he highlights Mattaniah, and notice his heritage: "the son of Asaph." That name should set off bells. Asaph was not just any Levite; he was one of King David's three chief musicians. He was a seer, a prophet, and a psalmist. Twelve of our psalms are attributed to him (Psalms 50, 73-83).
The mention of Asaph here is a thunderclap of hope. It means the temple choirs are being re-established. The music is coming back. The restoration of God's people is not a grim, dutiful affair. It is a restoration of joy, of praise, of loud cymbals and triumphant songs. God is not just rebuilding the walls of a building; He is rebuilding the life of worship. The return of a son of Asaph to a position of leadership meant the return of the psalms to the center of Israel's life.
This is a direct rebuke to any form of Christianity that is suspicious of joy, music, and robust praise. Godly worship is not a funeral dirge. It is a victory march. The fact that God, in overseeing this inspired record, made sure to tell us that the musicians were back in their place teaches us that right worship involves the whole man, including his voice, his emotions, and his artistic faculties, all offered up in disciplined, God-glorifying praise.
Grounded in History (v. 16)
The final verse in our text reinforces these themes of musical worship and historical reality.
"and Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who lived in the villages of the Netophathites." (1 Chronicles 9:16 LSB)
Here we get another famous name: Jeduthun. Along with Asaph and Heman, Jeduthun was the third of David's chief musicians. The band was truly getting back together. The restoration was not a cheap imitation; it was a genuine continuation of the glorious worship established by David under God's direction. The presence of the sons of Asaph and the sons of Jeduthun was a visible and audible sign to the people that God was truly with them again, that the glory had not departed forever.
Then, almost as an afterthought, the Chronicler drops in a crucial geographical detail. These men, Berechiah and his family, "lived in the villages of the Netophathites." Netophah was a real place, a collection of villages near Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem. This is not mythology. This is not "once upon a time." This is history. These were men who commuted to work. They had homes, farms, and neighbors in Netophah, and they would travel to Jerusalem to fulfill their duties in the house of the Lord.
This little detail grounds the entire narrative in the dust of the Judean hills. Why is that important? Because our faith is a historical faith. The Son of God was not born in a general, abstract sense. He was born in Bethlehem, a stone's throw from these very villages of the Netophathites. He died on a real cross, on a real hill outside a real city, under a real governor named Pontius Pilate. The Bible's constant insistence on names, places, and lineages is a bulwark against any attempt to spiritualize the faith into a mere philosophy. God saves real people in real time and in real places.
The Gospel in the Roll Call
So what does this ancient list of Levitical families have to do with us, who live centuries later under a New Covenant?
First, it teaches us that God knows His people by name. Just as He recorded Shemaiah and Mattaniah and Berechiah, so also are our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In the great sea of humanity, you are not an anonymous drop. If you are in Christ, the Father knows you by name. He knows your lineage, not in Adam, but in Christ. He has appointed you to His service. There is no greater comfort than this.
Second, it shows us that God is restoring true worship. The return of the sons of Asaph and Jeduthun was a shadow of the true restoration of worship that Christ would bring. He is our great Asaph, the author of our faith and the leader of our praise. Through Him, we, the church, are now the temple of the living God. And our worship is to be characterized by the same elements: it must be orderly (grounded in the Word), and it must be joyful (full of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs).
Finally, this passage reminds us that we all have a place to serve. These men were Levites, set apart for the service of the sanctuary. But under the New Covenant, all of us who are in Christ have been made a "kingdom of priests" (1 Peter 2:9). You have a lineage: you are a child of God. You have a role: to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And you have a place: you live in your own "village of the Netophathites," your home, your workplace, your neighborhood. From there, you are called to the service of the King.
Do not despise the lists. They are the record of God's unwavering faithfulness. They are the framework upon which the story of our salvation is built. And they are a reminder that the same God who remembered Shemaiah son of Hasshub has not, and will never, forget you.