1CH 1-9Mamma. In this Book of Chronicles we are reminded that God began with Adam. You remember that Adam was the first man; God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so he became a living soul. God placed him on the earth in responsibility and blessing. Adam was the bead of all creation, but he disobeyed God; and death was the result of his sin. Yet in Adam God took up fallen man, and taught him that the Child of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.
Sophy. Why does God count back from Adam when he was the first sinner?
M. Just because he was the first man and the father of all men, and all men were sinners: he was first of the race of fallen man. The story of redemption is the story of how fallen man got back to God, and this chapter shows us how it was God's purpose to save from the beginning.
Fallen man rebelled against God, and rejected His love. But we get Seth, Noah, Shem, Abram, as those who heard the voice of God, And followed Him; and we see here, how the blessing reached out to their families also; but many were unfaithful and rebellious.
S. Oh, yes; I remember. Even those who knew God best, like Abraham and David, were not always good.
M. Abram began a new family and God said: In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Then we get Isaac and Jacob, or Israel as God called him; and all the children of Israel set up in blessing on the earth, but also in responsibility.
S. What do you mean by responsibility.
M. I mean that they were obliged to answer to God for all that He had given them. If I tell you to do anything you have to do it; and you must answer to me as my child, for not doing it. They were accountable to God to do nothing to forfeit His favor. Responsibility means, that you have to answer for, to take the consequences of, all your actions; and of all you neglect to do, as well. When Moses gave them a law, they said: all that the Lord commands us, we will do; then they were responsible to obey all that the Lord said in the law. So, when God set them in their possessions in the promised land, every man was responsible to hold fast his possession, and to keep out the Amalekites and the Philistines. But, as we know, man always failed in responsibility, first in one thing, then in another. But God’s mercy and loving-kindness flowed on just the same; like the sun in its bright shining, it is always there, ready to burst forth at any moment, in favor and goodness to His chosen people. Judah is especially mentioned as the tribe from which David came; and here the Spirit of God makes an interesting mention of a man named Jabez, which means sorrow. His mother named him thus, because she was so sorrowful when he was born.
S. Why was his mother sorrowful?
M. God's word has not told us, but the state of God's people was sad enough to make any one sorrowful. God honored Jabez more than any of his brethren, because he called on the God of Israel, and he said, Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed and enlarge my coasts, and that thine hand might be with me, and that on wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me!
S. What a nice prayer!
M. God granted his request, and I think the mention of it here shows how even our prayers are remembered by the great and, blessed God. He not only answers them, but He remembers the cry of the sorrowful spirit; and He forbids that it should be grieved by the evil around.
The names of the Levites are all given, because they were the servants in the house of the Lord. They lodged round about the house of God, because it was their business to open it every morning and to take charge of all the vessels belonging to the holy place. These lists of names were also used to mark the possessions belonging to each family. Do you remember about the first king of Israel?
S. Oh, yes; Saul. God was not pleased with him because he did not drive out the Philistines
M. Yes; and he died on the field of battle, conquered by the Philistines. It was a sad end for Saul and his three sons. The Lord had told Samuel to make David king, and all Israel gathered round David. The first thing told of David here is that he went up to Jerusalem, and drove out the Jebusites, and took the castle of Zion, which is called the city of David, and he promised that whoever smote the Jebusites first should be the chief captain. So Joab, the son of David's sister Zeruiah, went up and so became chief; then David became greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. David had thirty mighty men, but the first three were more valiant than the rest. One day when David was being hunted by Saul and was in the cave of Adullam, he longed for a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, and the first three put their lives in danger to get it for him. But David thought it was too precious to drink, so he poured it out for a drink-offering to the Lord. Bethlehem means the house of bread. It is the same as Bethel, where God met Jacob and gave him in a dream the vision of a ladder that went up to heaven. And Bethlehem was the place where Jesus (the true Son of David) was born, and where He was laid, a lowly babe, lit a manger.