How do you learn
April 23, 2008
I love days like today, trying to write a devotional on something that is just a list of names of people who had kids and what their kids were named. It has a scientific name,genealogy , the study of your family tree. Why does the Bible have so many verses focused on it? I have always approached it through a couple of thoughts.
1) The Hebrew race thought that who you were born from was important. It gave you a pedigree so to speak. If we look at dog shows or race horses, the ones that tend to be champions are the ones that came from champion parents. The Hebrews felt that this was true also and so they put an emphasis on it.
2) God thought each one of those people were important enough to put their names on display for all to see. If He thinks they are important then I should also.
Even so, reading name after name can be boring. When you have to do that some time, look for something important in their. Generally the names do not go on forever with out some interruption. And so:
1 Chronicles 2:7 CEV
(7) Achan, who was a descendant of Zerah and the son of Carmi, caused trouble for Israel, because he kept for himself things that belonged only to the LORD.
What a way to be remembered in a list of people. Here we are reading one name after another and then things stop to point out Achan. If you do not remember Achan, when Joshua led the people to the promised land and he won the battle of Jericho, all spoils were supposed to be given to God. Achan however, chose to take what was to be God's and to keep it for himself. He knew it was wrong and he hid it. It affected things till he confessed his deed, but then they had to kill him.
So now his name is in a list of other names. It is bad enough that they told his story, now they have to rub it in. How cruel. Or is it? You see, if we do not remember history we are bound to repeat it again. This was a way to remember what has gone before. One of the ways I try to teach my children is to try to tell them the mistakes that I have made so they do not have to make them. That is what God is trying to do here. It is like, remember Achan, he did wrong, do not do it.
Learn from the mistakes others make. It is a lot less costly then doing them yourself. You could wind up like Achan and try to steal what belongs to God. Of course he wound up dead.
Read through the Bible in one year in Historical order
Today
1 Chronicles 1:1-2:55
Tomorrow
Psalms 43:1-5, Psalms 44:1-26, Psalms 45:1-17, Psalms 49:1-20, Psalms 84:1-12, Psalms 85:1-13, Psalms 87:1-7
http://tinyurl.com/24beby for a daily reading tool
