Reading

• 1 Chron. 1:1-2:41; 4:1-23; 3:10-24

Devotional

Today’s reading deals with the family history from Adam through the families who returned to Jerusalem through around 425 B.C. Because Ezra is referred to as “the scribe” several times in scripture, it is widely believed that he is likely the writer of these passages. The genealogy—or family history—of its citizens is one of the most important historical records of any nation. It would be very important to the Jews of the day to maintain accurate records of the families down through the centuries to the present day. In the case of Israel it is especially important because it was through their lineage that the Messiah, Jesus, would come. Therefore it would be essential to trace Jesus’ lineage back to the prophecies which spoke of Him coming in the tribe of Judah through His forefather David.

Outside of these facts, and an understanding of how the various nations of the earth came to be, there is little interesting information in these verses. The only reason that is the case is that simply reading a man’s name without any picture of his face, or account of his life and his actions, gives us no insight into the person. Yet these names mean a lot to GOD, because He knows every detail about each of them. If He chose to, GOD could easily recount every single life event of each of these people in the order they occurred, as well as the motivation behind those events. We have a very amazing and awesome GOD indeed!

Sadly, the truth is that, not many generations from now, the vast majority of us will be forgotten and our names will mean nothing to the living at the time, just as these Jews’ names mean nothing to us today. It’s what we do with the time we are given on earth that matters. Do we make a difference for those we are around? How do we live our lives? What type of character and reputation did we develop? Were we found to be “in Christ” at our death? All of these things are important, regardless of how long we are individually remembered after we’re gone.