Day 115. 1 Chronicles 3-5

And as promised—lotsa, lotsa names.  If you were looking for a name for a cat, you would be in business. The house of David is at the center of the narrative of Chronicles, so it is perhaps no surprise that our text gives us the fullest list of the sons of David available in the scriptures (3:1-9). But Solomon is the Child of Promise, and so we find his name on the right side of the family tree, followed by a list of his descendents, the kings of Judah (3:10ff), both good and evil.   There is a "bump" where the people are carried off into captivity in Babylon (verse 17), but the list goes on to Zerubbabel (verse 19), who is established as the first governor of the Persian province of Judah after the return from Babylon. And the list goes on from there. The continuity of the house of the David is the good news in our text—God does not forget his promises, and he blesses those who call out to him in faith. And the little story of Jabez is enclosed in the list of the descendents of Judah as an example of how God answers the prayer of the faithful. Jabez asks the Lord to enlarge his border and keep him from "hurt and harm" (9:10), and he is blessed. God rewards our faith—so ask and it will be given to you. Again we are told that in a holy war against their enemies the Reubenites "[cry] to God in the battle, and he [grants] their entreaty because they [trust] in him," giving them a spectacular victory (5:20-21). This will be a constant theme in Chronicles—those who pray to the LORD in faith will live victoriously. But those who are unfaithful are doomed to destruction. The Half-Tribe of Manasseh transgresses against the LORD ;  they "[prostitute] themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land whom God destroyed before them" (5:25). It is for this reason that "the God of Israel [stirs] up the spirit of King Pul of Assyria" who carries them way into exile in a strange country where, as far as the writer of Chronicles is concerned, they vanish into well-deserved oblivion.