Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 1–2; 3:10–4:23
At one time, I would have looked at the list and quietly turned away from the list of names and quietly said to myself, “I need to find something relevant to ME!” I cringe now when I now realize as we have journeyed together through the Chronological Bible together, that the author is God and how could I infer that what He writes is irrelevant! (what arrogance on my part to say to God that He is not reverent and moreover what hurts my heart is – I would say to my loving Father that what He has written is not of interest to me! (What my Sweetheart, Marg, has written is always of utmost interest to me!) And God has assured me that ALL Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable…. (2 Tim. 3:16) (I leave you to discover how God’s Word is profitable!).
So if I do not understand these long lists and I don’t pretend to….(!), I am comforted that (1) I do have brothers and sister, whose academic ability and whose hard work, has given them the ability to collect many jewels of insight from this list, and (2) I am able to humbly ask my loving Father and my loving Saviour to allow me to find the people, the situations and the things recorded which are directly relevant to me and understandable (and if both these fail or I don’t have access to these, I want Him to know that I appreciate the fact that He loves me enough to share things with me (despise my disability to understand) that are important to Him! So I ask for grace to curb my frustration and short attention span in order to reverently just read the list!). But I am still awed by the fact of His all-knowing and all-seeing ability to notice EVERYTHING! And I have often been comforted by the fact in 1 Corinthian 13 that there will be a day when “I will know as I am known” (by God Himself?)?
Not sure if as you read, you were like me, noting people whose names suddenly jumped out at you because their person and story, earlier in the Bible (or later!) was a story of God’s grace, His goodness, His ability to work in their lives and I was thinking, how many names of people, just flowed passed me as insignificant to me, because I didn’t know them, (but just like me, they are NOT UNKNOWN or INSIGNIFICANT to God or just a name in the list to Him!)
One of the name in the list is Jabez and it is always a name of a person whom I remember, because I covet his heart for getting God’s blessing! (Even a whole little book has been written about him in the last ten years which many have enjoyed!). And yet I was quietly thinking about how Scripture records that his mother gave birth to him IN PAIN!” Yet he wishes for blessing, enlarged territory and God’s hand on him to keep him from harm so that he would be free from pain! And I am deeply touched by the beauty of His request and I am sensitive to the fact that I have caused pain to others around me by my callous selfish nature and others have had to bear the pain and still work with me so that I could in some form or fashion become to have “Jabez’s heart for God’s blessing”! Please Lord, forgive me for causing you and others to suffer pain by being patient with “my growing pains”! so to speak!
May a sense of His all-knowing ability and His great loving heart be close to each one of us today, and I pray that He would deepen my sensitivity to those around me and cause me to be like the people in 1 Peter 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” Selah!