the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
1 Chronicles 2:1-24
We should not look in these lists of names for the order and precision required, for example, in a state register. Here, as always, the Word of God does not pander to the curiosity or researches of human intelligence. Omissions, substitutions, variations, are to be found many times in these chapters, expressly to answer to the purposes of the Spirit of God. Now what are these purposes? Why these long genealogies which are difficult to read? It is important, in the first place, to establish the rights of Israelite families to the promises made to Abraham. Each Israelite was able, by referring to it, to trace his origins and claim his rights in the inheritance. Alas! we know that, in the time of our Lord, the Jews boasted that they had Abraham as their father, at the same time refusing to recognise in their midst the One who is before Abraham (John 8:58).
As for the Christian, having received divine life from the time of his new birth, he becomes part of God’s family. His earthly descent is unimportant; God has become his Father in Jesus, and he can exclaim: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).
