But what I like is that He knows that we don't know it all, and never can, because we aren't God, and never will be, so He gives us some information to explain things that may not be obvious. Especially when we are talking about different cultures.
For example, in 1 Chronicles 5:
"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be recknoned after the birthright. For Juday prevailed above his bretheren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's: ) The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
Nice little beginning to some geneology, but what does that have to do with anything? Well, while I was reading it I got a chuckle out of the tone of the first two verses. Picture a teacher at a lecturn... "Now the sons of Reuben the first born of Israel... for he WAS the firstborn... " then going thru the two verses and finially ending and retiterating... "The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstbonr of Israel..."
The emphasizing is not mine, but already in there. Like the reader was trying to make sure we understood about the geneology. Also, notice the writer points out the geneology line does NOT follow the birthright. What is so interesting about that? First of all, if you aren't Jewish, and a regular Joe Shmoe Christian reading the Bible, you aren't going to be proficient in the knowledge of Jewish customs. The neat part is that God knew that Gentiles, unfamiliar with the ways of the Jewish geneology would be reading His Word one day. So He told the writer to put that little bit of instruction in the second verse. He did that just for me. Just for you. Because He knew that we wouldn't know.
Secondly, if you follow out the blood line geneology, and not the birth right line, you will go through people like David, Ruth and Boaz (Ruth wasn't even one of the "chose" people), and Rhahab the harlot. All those people, righteous and unrighteous, orthodox Jewish, non practicing Jews, godly and ungodly, what have you... all lead to the line of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So.. what? Well, if you didn't know that the birth right line was NOT the geneology line, you would be confused, and maybe even think the Bible has errors, etc.
I am so thankful the Lord gave us His Word, and we can read it and learn something new no matter how old we are, or how long we have been reading.
Oh, and by the way, you DO have to read it to learn from it. *wink*
No comments:
Post a Comment