When life is hard, when you feel displaced or are displaced, like the Israelites who have been carried off to Babylon, roots and history are an important anchor. The Chronicler begins his history of Israel tracing their roots. He began with Adam and has carried their lineage down toward the present. Today he traces the root line of David, God’s chosen king for Israel.
While on paper this chapter is another list of names I can barely pronounce, however for Israel languishing in Babylon these names connect the people to God. For good or for ill these men charted Israel’s course through the centuries.
These names are reminders of God’s covenant.
For me the great reminder of God’s covenant is the cross. A human instrument of extreme torture has become for me the most wonderful symbol of love, forgiveness and redemption. And the fact that this horrific human instrument of pain can itself be reinterpreted to be a symbol for God, speaks of God’s ability to redeem. If God can re-make a ghastly instrument of torture into a symbol of love, then God can take a broken human life and recreate us, bringing life to death and joy from mourning.
Seeing Israel cling to her history, even in exile, spurs me to on to cling to Jesus. Israel reminds me to recount my history and to recall the many ways God has worked and is working in my life. Remembering God’s story, retelling God’s story and reliving God’s story strengthens my faith to live for Him every day…
My heart begins to sing…
Jesus… Jesus… Jesus… what a wonderful name…
Praise You Father, Jesus, Spirit. Praise You, my God, three yet One. I thank You for the line of faith that traveled from person to person depositing a love for You in my life. I pray that I may life faithfully so that others would be blessed to know Jesus through my life and the life of those people You have allowed me to strengthen and encourage in Jesus along the road of life. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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