I Chronicles 1 Why Are There so Many Genealogies in the Bible?

The first time I read the Bible through I skipped the book of Leviticus.  Even now when I read through the Bible, I put certain parts of the Bible in a separate category.  I don’t want to spend an hour reading Leviticus or Numbers or I Chronicles in one sitting.  I only do a few chapters at a time when I read those books.

There are whole chapters in the Bible that are basically just names or descriptions of offerings or buildings or clothes of the priest.  If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then why is so much of it uninspiring?

I would like to offer three suggestions:

1)         The Bible is grounded in history.  It is not the musings of somebody sitting on a mountain top thinking about God.  It is not a self-help book or a devotional or a collection of sermons.  It’s a record of God interacting in human history, real people in real time.  It’s not about what happened a long time ago in a land far, far away.   It happened in specific places, and the people involved are identified through their genealogies. 

Much of this history is with the nation of Israel, such that the history of that nation tells the story of God and humankind.

This nails down the existence and work of God to specific times, places, and events. 

I was talking with a lady at work about Passover.  The Jewish people have been celebrating Passover for 3500 years.  I told her, something happened 3500 years ago.  You don’t create a tradition that lasts that long over nothing. 

That history, that tradition, involved rituals and ceremonies that were created to teach things.  The rituals are important and mean something, but it can make for very tedious reading.

If you were writing your own Bible, your idea of an inspired book on religion, you would not include genealogies or detailed descriptions of buildings or priestly attire.  The Bible does, because God revealed Himself in the innerworkings of His chosen people.  In fact, I would include that as a proof of the inspiration of the Bible.  The Bible is not the kind of book you would write if you wanted to write your own Bible.

2)         A second reason is that it demonstrates the importance of people to God.  He knows all our names, and we are all part of a bigger picture.  Humans are not just one big mass to God; they are all individuals who He knows by name.

3)         The third reason may be the most important of all.

A big reason for genealogies in the life of Israel was for the sake of inheritances.  God promised a land to Abraham’s descendants, and the genealogies confirmed who is a descendant of Abraham.

The land was divided up into 12 parcels according to their families, hence their genealogies. 

But this land was passed down as an inheritance to their children.  The Israelites received the Promised Land as an inheritance from their father Abraham.  Each Israelite received his inheritance from his father, which was their land.

The whole idea of inheriting your land from your father(s) was ingrained into the minds and consciousness of God’s people.

Why is that important?

Because salvation as we know it in the New Testament is an inheritance.  It is not a reward for our achievements but an inheritance passed down to the heirs.  Jesus secured the original inheritance and those who unite themselves with Him through faith become heirs of the promise. 

It is so common for people to think that they earn heaven or eternal life through how they live.  But it’s actually based on a relationship with Somebody else such that we inherit what belongs to that Somebody else. 

That Somebody else has life in Himself, and we receive that life by becoming united with Him.  And that Somebody is Jesus.

A few Scriptures are in order here:

Matthew 19:29 (NASB95)  ²⁹ “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 25:34 (NASB95) ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

1 Corinthians 15:50 (NASB95)  ⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Galatians 3:18 (NASB95)  ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Galatians 4:30 (NASB95)  ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”

Galatians 5:19–21 (NASB95)  ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 1:13,14 (NASB95)  ¹³ In Him [Jesus], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 5:5 (NASB95)  ⁵ For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Hebrews 1:14 (NASB95)  ¹⁴ Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 6:11,12 (NASB95)  ¹¹ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Revelation 21:7 (NASB95)  ⁷ “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

 

It reminds me of The Karate Kid movie, where Daniel trains by doing things that seem totally unrelated to karate.  And those very things made his karate moves second nature.

The genealogies of the Bible should reinforce on us the idea that salvation is not a reward or the prize for our achievements.  It’s an inheritance given to us by virtue of our relationship with Jesus.