March 11, 2021: Day 5 – I Chronicles 1

The book of Chronicles was given its name by a church father whose name was Jerome who called this book of the Bible: “a chronicle”.  This basically means that it is a summary of divine history that has proven to be most influential in the history of modern interpretation.  Originally it was only one book, like Samuel and Kings, but because of its length it was eventually divided.  Within our Christian Bible it is found in the historical books, well, because it contains the history of the people of God, the Israelites.  The history is focused on the times of the kings, but we also find a series of genealogies which force us to be patient as we wade through them.  Happy wading.  Let’s look at the first chapter today, which is a genealogy.

We can title this from the first person (Adam) to Israel (Jacob).  It is a universal comprehensive genealogy that covers a vast array of people and progeny.  From verses 5-23 we have the descendants of Noah who represented an enormous geographical region in that area.  He saves the genealogy of Shem for last because it is out of Shem that Abraham arises and so the people of Israel find their roots.  

It is important to know your roots in order to understand what drives you and what is the  history around you.  As we begin Chronicles the author wants us to be aware of what started everything off and the way that he does it is by giving us the names of the people who were a vital part of His story.