Readings for today: 1 Chronicles 7-9
Today’s reading brings us to an end of the genealogies. And while it isn’t easy to plow through all the names, it is important to remember the overarching point. God never forgets. He never forgets His people. He never forgets His promises. The Book of 1 Chronicles is most likely written to a group of people who have returned from exile. They have spent decades in Babylon wondering if God had indeed forgotten them. Now they have returned and they take a census of everyone who is resettling the land. To their amazement, all of the tribes are represented. Even the ten northern tribes who were scattered by the Assyrians centuries before. Yes, some of the tribes get more treatment than the others and it’s possible that the tribe of Dan is only indirectly referenced but all of them seem to there.
I don’t know about you but I find this deeply comforting. Though we may forget God. Though we may walk away from God. Though we may try to reject God. He never forgets us. He never walks away from us. He never rejects us. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are grafted into His family forever. We are adopted as His children and He will never stop pursuing us until He has rescued every lost sheep, found every lost coin, and saved every lost son or daughter. This is His promise. No one can snatch us out of His hand. I think of the people I love who gave their lives to Christ but now are trying to live apart from Him. They try so hard to forget God but I can see His hand at work in their lives, drawing them back home. It gives me hope. Even if they push Him away for years, His grace is irresistible in the end.
Do you know people in your life who once knew the love of God and have walked away? Deconstructed? Left the Christian faith? Don’t lose heart. God never forgets. He will pursue them with His love until the day they die. That’s His promise and that’s what these verses from 1 Chronicles attest to in our reading today.
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Samuel 5:1-10, 1 Chronicles 11-12, Psalms 133