1 Chronicles 1–10

We are starting 1 Chronicles tonight. 1 and 2 Chronicles, actually, so open your Bible there. 1 Chronicles, as someone once said, if for no other reason but to find it. Because this is one of those books– I don't know how often you open it up and read it– but it can be challenging. While you are turning there, or getting yourself situated, I will let you know that our books of 1 and 2 Chronicles were– in the Hebrew Bible– originally one single book. Actually, interestingly enough, in the Hebrew Bible, it occupies the last position in their biblical canon. That is one of the reasons that I am teaching this out of order. In our Bible, it follows 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings because it seems to contain a lot of the same information, but it really doesn't. It goes way beyond what 1 and 2 Kings even does. I always try to imagine what someone who is reading through the Bible for the very first time would think to themselves as they come up to 1 and 2 Chronicles because– assuming they read the Bible starting at the beginning, which often people do– they will start in Genesis. Have you ever known somebody– maybe you were like that– maybe one day you just picked up a Bible and started reading it. Well, you get through 1 and 2 Samuel; you go through 1 and 2 Kings; and then you get to 1 and 2 Chronicles, and it seems very much like those books repeat what you just read in Samuel and Kings. But the fact is, Chronicles actually contains some very interesting differences from Samuel and Kings. Whereas 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings contain historical information– a little bit more on the historical side– you are going to find as we go through here that Chronicles deal a little bit more on the spiritual side of things. The Hebrew title simply means journals, so if you were a Jew living during the time when this Bible had already been codified, you would have called it Journals. Or more literally, words of the days. In fact, our English title Chronicles comes from the Latin version of the Bible, which was translated by a man by the name of Jerome.

Anyway, one other possible area of confusion that we might get into as we talk about the nation of Israel is something that we don't always keep in mind. That is the fact that there was a split that occurred in the nation of Israel. They actually had what was like a civil war. Today, when we think of Israel, we just think of Israel, but, as we are going to see, the nation of Israel actually split into two separate kingdoms, one to the north and one to the south. People forget this sometimes, and it can be confusing. Let me put a map up on the screen for you to show you the division:

You will notice on the blue, that is the nation of, or the kingdom of Israel. And in the orangish color below, that is the kingdom of Judah. Now, all of it is essentially Israel, all of those colored areas. That is the area that God gave to the nation of Israel. In fact, there is even more that God gave. But that is basically the whole nation. During the time of the Kings, the kingdoms split north and south, and you have the Southern Kingdom, which had at its as its capital Jerusalem, and you have the Northern Kingdom, which had as its capital Samaria. Now, eventually the whole Northern Kingdom became known as Samaria. By the time Jesus came along, Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was referred to by its Greek name as Judea. The northern part of Israel was essentially gone. It was considered to be the region of Samaria, which Jews – most Jews– refused to even walk through. They despised the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were essentially Jews who had intermarried with Gentiles, and become, if you will, half-breeds and worse. And so they were something that the Jews considered the people to be avoided. Let me show you here on the next slide the progression of the kings of Israel leading up to this split: Joshua led Israel during the conquest Judges ruled Israel Saul - 1st King over Israel David - 2nd King (first Judah and then all Israel) Solomon - 3rd King over all Israel Rehoboam - 4th King responsible for dividing the kingdom (ruled over Judah only) First of all, we just finished Deuteronomy, and right after Deuteronomy, the nation of Israel comes into the land under the leadership of Joshua. Joshua leads the nation of Israel during his lifetime, the remainder of it. After Joshua died, judges rose up to lead Israel, and that is what we read about in the Book of Judges. The judges were not kings, they were men, and in one case, a woman, who ruled or judged Israel. The reason the word judge is used is because they were the court system, judging their differences and that sort of thing. Essentially the judges led Israel.

But then eventually the nation of Israel demanded that they have a king. The first king of Israel was crowned, and his name was Saul, and he ruled over the united kingdom, in other words, over all of Israel. If you were to look at that map again, both the blue and the orange area, he ruled over all of that. And then you will remember that Saul hunted David during the latter part of his reign. When Saul was killed, it initially began where David ruled over just the Southern Kingdom. He ruled in Hebron, and he ruled there for about seven years, and then, the people of the northern region. There really hadn't been a split yet– but it was there. It was waiting to happen. And so the people of the northern area then came and embraced David as their king. For the remainder of that time for about another 30-some years David ruled over all of Israel– the entire kingdom. Same thing with his son Solomon, the third king, ruled over all Israel. In fact, Solomon ruled over more land than any other king before him or after. It was a time of peace. But then Solomon had a very foolish son by the name of Rehoboam. He was the fourth king, and it was during the reign of Rehoboam that the kingdom split in two. Rehoboam, being a descendant of David, only ruled over the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Rehoboam did not rule over the Northern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom crowned a different king who was not from the Davidic line. His name was Jeroboam. And the nation, or the two houses, the two kingdoms of Israel, the Northern Kingdom which was called Israel, the Southern Kingdom that was called Judah, were separate, and in fact, were often at war. There were times when they came together in peace, particularly during times of intermarriage and that sort of thing. But they also had plenty of difficult times during that period as well. Now, because David's successors only ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah, that is what we are going to be reading about in 1 and 2 Chronicles. 1 and 2 Chronicles does not cover the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It only covers the Southern Kingdom of Judah. If it mentions the Northern Kingdom, it only mentions it because there was something going on where the two kingdoms were doing something together, maybe at war together, or something like that. Only during times of interaction is the Northern Kingdom even mentioned.

One other quick note here: many people believe that Ezra is the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles. And I think that is very good guess, and one of the reasons I believe it, is because, if you go to–and you don't need to do it– but if you were to look at the very last two verses of 2 Chronicles, the book that comes after 2 Chronicles is Ezra. And the last two verses of Chronicles are the same as the first few, I mean identical, to the first few verses (of 2 Chronicles) of Ezra. And so it is strongly believed, and I think that is pretty solid evidence, that Ezra was in fact the author here. By the way, the books of Chronicles were written after the Babylonian captivity. See, they are out of order. That is why they are positioned in the Hebrew Bible at the very end. They are positioned right there after Malachi, because it speaks of the return of the nation of Israel back to their homeland after their Babylonian captivity. They cover a period of 427 years and a total of 19 kings who ruled over Judah. Seven of those kings were godly, like David. Ten of them were ungodly. Two started off godly and turned from the Lord later on. Their names, of course, are Solomon and Joash. Let's get started here. Now, as we do, it is important to note here that the first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles contain genealogical tables, so we would call them family trees. We are going to move through these very quickly because, unless you are just interested in Hebrew pronunciations of words or names rather, it is not going to give a whole lot of information for you and me. But let me just explain why those were important in the book of Chronicles, particularly following– remember, this was written after– the Babylonian captivity. The captivity of Israel in the Babylonian/Persian Empire was 70 years long. During that time, there was a great deal of confusion as it relates to their genealogical records. We know from Ezra and Nehemiah that some of the Jews actually lost their birth records. They knew who they were, but they could not prove it. We find that out in Ezra and Nehemiah, that when they were calling for the priests to come and serve, there were men who stood up and came forward to serve as in the Levitical line, but they couldn't prove their lineage, because the captivity had caused them to actually lose their records. The repetition of these records as they are given in 1 Chronicles here, in these first 9 chapters or so, is vital for proving their family lineage and ultimately proving the lineage of David that carries on to Messiah. 1 Chronicles, chapter 1, it begins all the way back at the beginning.

--- Notice here, it starts off with: “Adam, (and then) Seth, (and then) Enosh; (and then verse 2 is) Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; (and then you come to) 4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth ( his three sons after the flood who populated the earth. And then,) 5 The sons of Japheth (meaning just one of the sons of Noah. His sons are): Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.” (ESV) We have the sons of Gomer listed in verse 6. In verse 7, we have the sons of Javan. In verse 8, we have the sons of Ham. And you'll notice some familiar names here, “Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.” so obviously the Canaanites are all descendants of the sons of Ham, the son of Noah, and then you have the sons of Cush, who are listed there for you. You probably recognize some of those names. And then in verse 10, we are told that “Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty man.” And so he was a warrior of sorts and considered so, and the first on the earth to be so. Then we have, in verse 11, a man by the name of Egypt who fathered the following…. in verse 12 it says “Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.” And so these are still the sons of Egypt. You will notice that the Philistines come from this man named Egypt. And we are told that “13 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn.” Sidon is still an area that you can go to today, the region of Tyre and Sidon. It says, “His firstborn and Heth, 14 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 15 the Hivites, the Arkites the Sinites, 16 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.” All come from Canaan. And it says, then we get to verse 17 that speaks of the sons of Shem, and this is, by the way, believed where we get our word Semitic. You have heard the term anti-Semitic, meaning anti-Jewish; it is believed it comes from the name Shem. And then the sons are listed there, and you will notice at the end of verse 18. Verse 18 says: “Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber,” and Eber is, we believe, the origin of the word Hebrew or the title Hebrew. It says, “19 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg (for in his days the earth was divided).” Peleg means division. Can you imagine giving that name to your child? Let's call him Division. But the reason they named their children back in those days because of either something about the way they looked, something about the way they were born, maybe, in what position they were born. ---

--- You will remember Jacob came out grabbing his brother's heel (Genesis 25:26), so they named him Heel Catcher, which was, euphemistically, one who deceives. Peleg was named Division because we are told here that in his days the earth was divided. The division that it is referring to here is the dividing of the people by language, which took place during the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), and when the nations of the world, or the peoples of the world, were separated. They had been told to go out into the earth and populate it, but they didn't. They stayed together, and so God came and confused their languages, so that He forced them to be apart, to go out, by putting them into language groups. We are told at the end of that verse, “His brother's name was Joktan” and then it goes on to speak of who he fathered, and so on. Verse 24, you can see Shem appears there. And if you go down to verse 28, it comes then finally to the sons of Abraham and those sons listed are: “Isaac and Ishmael.” And then it begins to say, “29 These are their genealogies: the firstborn of Ishmael.” And it goes on to speak of his firstborn and then his sons after that. Verse 31 says, “These are the sons of Ishmael.” Then we come back to Abraham in verse 32, where it says: “The sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bore…” and it lists them there. Of the sons through Keturah, “the sons of Midian” are next listed in verse 33. Then we are told in verse 34 that “Abraham fathered Isaac.” This is where we come to the promised child. “The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.” Now, notice he is referred to as Israel there, although he was named Jacob by birth. The Lord renamed him Israel Then it goes into “the sons of Esau,” lists them in verse 35. Taking one of the sons of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz are listed in verse 36. Another list of one of the sons of Esau, Reuel this time, his sons are listed in verse 37. And then it is interesting, we come to verse 38 that says, “The sons of Seir.” Now, if you notice, there is no son named Seir born to Esau. And yet it just begins talking about Seir. And you don't know who his parents are. And you are wondering, Why is he listed here in the genealogy of Esau? And the reason for that is that Seir was not a son of Abraham in that specific sense. He was a Horite. H-O-R-I-T-E. And the Horites just happened to be living in the land that Esau eventually came and inhabited after he left his parents. Because the Horites lived there when Esau and his descendants came there, they began to intermarry with Esau. And so over time, these two groups became blended and became known as the Edomites. ---

Remember Esau and Edom both mean red. And when Esau was born, he was red (Genesis 25:25). He was red and hairy, so they called him Red and Hairy. And that was both Esau and Edom. And so the Edomites come from this and, of course, what is the name of the mountain in the area of Edom? Mount Seir. But again, Seir was a Horite who blended in with the descendants of Esau– just an interesting side point. And then, it was so significant that the sons of Seir are listed there in those verses. You can see that verse 39 goes on, the sons of Lotan; verse 40, the sons of Shobal; verse 41, the sons of Anah; verse 42, the sons of Ezer; verse 43 says, “These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the people of Israel: Bela, the son of Beor, the name of his city being Dinhabah. 44 Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.” And what happens in the following verses? These are the successors of these kings in Edom. Verse 45 says, “Jobab died,” another guy came into place; then verse 46, this guy died, another one came into place, and so on. And it finishes out the chapter in verse (45) 54 rather, by saying, “These are the chiefs of Edom.” Chapter 2: “These are the sons of Israel (Now we're going to talk about the tribes of Israel): Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah. Issachar, Zebulun, 2 Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.” It lists them in their order, but then look at this. In verse 3, it begins saying, “The sons of Judah.” Why is it doing that? Why didn't it start off with the sons of Reuben? He is the firstborn. Because the focus of 1 and 2 Chronicles is the Davidic line. That is what you need to understand and remember as we go through here. This is the first tribe that is listed at length, and it will be the focus covering the family of David, and so forth. This chapter continues just giving name after name, and we are going to skip it because it is just names of various family lines descended within the tribe of Judah. Unless you are picking out baby names, we are just going to move on. Chapter 3. We are going to begin here with a list of David's sons born to him in Hebron. Remember, when David became king, he ruled first in Hebron, and he was busy having babies. “These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, (named) Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, 2 the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur (which often happened when they were creating a bond between two nations, they would intermarry); the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; 3 the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; 4 six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.” Again, David's first 7 years were only over the Southern Kingdom, even though there really had not been a split. The Northern Kingdom just hung back because, remember, Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin in the north, and so the people of the north didn't know how they felt about somebody from the south being a king. They thought that one of Saul's sons should reign in his place, when of course that was not God's will. But there were about seven years of really stupid things that happened because of their desire. Verse 5 says, “These were born to him in Jerusalem…” then it names his children there down through verse 8. Verse 9 says, “All these were David's sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.” Then in verse 10: “The son of Solomon was Rehoboam (remember, he is the one who split the kingdom), Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son.” The reason I'm reading all these names is because these are the kings. These are the ones we are going to be focusing on. Then “11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, 12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, 13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, 14 Amon his son, Josiah his son. 15 The sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. 16 The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son; 17 and the sons of Jeconiah, (who is referred to as) the captive.” and the remaining list are sons born in the Davidic line while in captivity for the 70-year period. They didn't reign. They didn't rule, so we are not going to read their names. It's just a list of names who are still in the Davidic line. They were of royal birth, but remember, Israel was captive during that time. Chapter 4. Chapter 4 contains information on other clans descended from Judah, but when we skip down to verse 9, we come to an interesting inclusion here in this genealogy. Look what it says in verse 9. It speaks of Jabez, and it says that he “was more honorable than his brothers: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’”

Now, I don't know if her pain was any more severe than any other woman who has ever given birth to a child, but she basically referred to him as, ouch. Or pain, or something like that. Can you imagine? Once again, she was in pain. And so she said, I'm going to name him Pain. That's what she called him. That is what Jabez means. It goes on in verse 10 to say that “Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!’ And God granted what he asked.” Now, this is an interesting prayer. I don't know if you have ever heard of the book, The Prayer of Jabez. It was big here, I don't know, 10 years ago, 50, I forget. Time gets away from you. But everybody was all lathered up for a while about the book of Jabez. Everybody was giving it to everybody else as a gift. It was almost being passed off as a prayer that you could pray and not have to go through pain, I suppose. Didn't work, by the way, but here is what is interesting about this. The reason Jabez prayed that prayer to God was because he believed that his name was going to be an omen for the rest of his life. Can you imagine your mom names you Pain? What if she named you Dumb? You would probably grow up thinking that was your destiny. We know that when kids are called negative things, they often grow up believing those things. Jabez believed that probably what awaited him in life was a life of pain. He cried out to God and said, God, spare me from this. And God answered him. And what God, I think, was communicating in a very cool sort of way is that when you come to Him, whatever earthly sort of things surround you in terms of the making up of who you are, those are all up for grabs in Christ. We need to remember that as believers in Jesus. I've mentioned this to you guys many times before, but I know that when you look in a mirror, you probably see your family. I see my family. I bet you see yours, and you even say things like them. I've heard people even say, Oh, I'm becoming my mother, or something. Or, That's just the way my dad used to say it, or the way I cough, or the way I laugh, or the way I walk, or how my hair is or isn't falling out, or whatever. We have those kinds, but those things are fairly innocuous. The things that really bother people are when they know enough about their parents or grandparents to see the negative traits coming out, like, My grandpa though, somebody will say, was a worrier, and I see that same tendency in my mother. I see that same tendency in me, and I'm just a worrier. Or sometimes it might be something like alcoholism that seems to be passed down from generation to generation, or abuse, or anger. We're an angry people, or something like that. It's those negative things that really bother folks. And I want to encourage you that in Christ, you have a different birthright. You do not have to be the prisoner of what somebody named you or called you or even the DNA biological path that you have seen consistent in other family members, does not have to be your destiny because you have a different birthright. You have been born again into the kingdom of God, and that kingdom is stronger than the kingdom of man. And that doesn't mean you are not going to be tempted to go the way that your, maybe your family emphasis or that gravitational pull wants to take you, because that is a strong pull. But you can say No, you can resist and you can say, No, I am going to be like my Heavenly Father. What is happening in you and me as we walk more with Jesus, is we are becoming more like Him. At least that's the goal. If we are being fed regularly, if we are walking in fellowship, walking in the Word, if we are keeping our eyes on Jesus, we are going to become more like Him. You will be more like the one you are focused on. And there is a dynamic going on inside of you and me that is more than just us trying to be like somebody in the sense of imitating. The dynamic is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is operational in our lives. And what that means is, I can conquer the temptation to fear or to give in to anger or the temptation to become like my parents or grandparents or great grandparents. Yes, those temptations will exist. Yes, that gravitational pull will probably be felt at many times during my life. But in Jesus, in Jesus, I can say, No, I'm not going there. I'm going to be like Christ. That is a very important thing to remember. Then we skip down to verse 24, where the numbering takes up with the tribe of Simeon, the sons of Simeon, and then it names them. Now, remember something about Simeon. The tribe of Simeon was literally within the tribe of Judah. Remember that map we showed at the beginning? You have the tribe of Judah. Within the tribe of Judah, almost like a hub, you have the tribe of Simeon.

There came a point in time where they felt like they needed to stretch. They had too many people, they had too many flocks, and they needed more land. If you will go down to verse 38, the chapter ends with a short narrative about this taking of additional land. It says, “These mentioned by name were princes in their clans, and their fathers’ houses increased greatly (again, this is the tribe of Simeon). 39 They journeyed to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks, 40 where they found rich, good pasture, and the land was very broad, quiet and peaceful, for the former inhabitants there belonged to Ham, (remember Ham? One of the sons of Noah. In other words, the Canaanites.) 41 These, registered by name, came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and destroyed their tents and the Meunites (which was a tribal group descended from Ishmael) who were found there, and marked them for destruction to this day, and settled in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks. “42 And some of them, five hundred men of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir (remember that, Seir, which is in the land of Edom), having as their leaders… (it names them there) And they (verse 43) defeated the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.” So it is an interesting note during the time of Hezekiah, which was late into the realm of the kings, the Simeonites just broke out and said, We need more property. And they started going out and doing what the nation of Israel should have done from the very beginning. Chapter 5. Chapter 5 covers genealogies from Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh. It says: “The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch,--meaning he took one of his father's concubines– his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son; 2 though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright (actually) belonged to Joseph.” It's interesting, isn't it? Joseph got the birthright that belonged to Reuben, and yet Judah exceeded them all by becoming the most prosperous, the largest. And, of course, from Judah comes David, and from David comes Messiah. Judah is considered the royal tribe of Israel, but we are dealing here with Reuben, “The sons of Reuben (verse 3), the firstborn of Israel…” and then it lists his sons with a note.

By the way, in verse 6, that these descendants were– notice here–“carried away into exile” by the king of Assyria, when he attacked the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Can I put the map, please, back up on the screen for just a moment? Here is what you need to know. I have been talking to you a lot about how Judah was carried off to exile by the king of Babylon. Before that happened, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria, the king of Assyria.

Now, what happened between the time of the two conquerings is that Babylon rose to power, they conquered Assyria, and then they came back and got Judah. Israel, if you will, was whisked away first. And the way Assyria dealt with their nations that were conquered, is they would take the people from that land, and they would distribute them little by little to other countries, which they had conquered. They would spread them out, and they would bring other people from countries that they had conquered, and they would bring them into the land, the new land that they had conquered. In Samaria, what happened was, because Samaria was Israel, the Bible says– and this is an interesting little side note– but the Bible says, people started dying. Wild animals were killing people. And so the king of Assyria was like, We obviously don't know what the gods require here in Israel. We are going to send some of the Jews back to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, to teach us what the requirements are of this God. (2 Kings 17) But they only brought some of the Jews back. They left other Gentiles from other areas there. That is how the intermarriage took place in the region of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which eventually dissolved and just became known as Samaria. An interesting history that went along with that. Verses 7 through 10 go on to give information about where this particular tribe, this tribe of Reuben, lived and with whom they went to war. Skip down to verse 11. We deal with the tribe of Gad. It says, “The sons of Gad lived over against them in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah.” Names are listed then in verses 12 through 17. And then we have this interesting note in verse 18: “The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had valiant men who carried shield and sword, and drew the bow, expert in war, 44,760, able to go to war. 19 They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab. 20 And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him. (Love that phrase. We're told that) 21 They carried off their livestock,…” Even tell us how many camels and sheep and donkeys and so on and so forth. Tells us in verse 22 that “...Many fell, because the war was of God. And they lived in their place until the exile. 23 The members of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They were very numerous from Bashan to Baal-hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon.” And it says in verse 24, “These were the heads of their fathers’ houses.(It lists them there, says they were) mighty warriors, famous men.” “But (it says in verse 25) they broke faith with the God of their fathers, and whored after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, (This is what they did. They took them places) and the river Gozan, to this day.” Now I want you to notice who had lived there. Remember, this was the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Notice it says they walked away from God, and they began to worship other gods and stuff like that. And the land became pagan. Now by the time Jesus came along, this area, which the Gadites lived in, became known by several different names, one of which was the Gadarenes. When Jesus crossed over to the region of the Gadarenes (Mark 5), it was in such desperate condition that what first met Him upon getting out of the boat was a man who had a legion of demons who lived in a cemetery. That is what Jesus was met with when he went to the region of Gad. So it was in bad shape, and even after Jesus released this man from every single demonic possession going on in his life, we are told that the people of the region came, saw the man sitting fully clothed and in his right mind, and pleaded with him to leave their region. Please, go away. Now, the good news is, the man of the tombs was also an evangelist. Remember, he wanted to leave with Jesus? He begged to go along with Jesus. Jesus said, no bud, you need to stay home, tell people what happened to you. And he did. And then when Jesus came back to the Gadarenes later on, He was met with crowds of people who wanted to listen, and wanted to see what He could do. But the thing is, this area of Israel had fallen so badly into paganism that they were just in such incredible sorry shape. Let's try to get through one more chapter. 1 Chronicles 6 focuses on the sons of Levi. It says here: “The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari,” they are listed down through verse 30. Then, go all the way down to verse 31. We read this: “These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. (In other words, they were worship leaders.) 32 They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.” And their names are listed then through verse 47. Now pick it up in verse 48. We read this: “And their brothers the Levites were appointed for all the service of the tabernacle of the house of God. 49 But Aaron and his sons (were the ones who) made offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense for all the work of the Most Holy Place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.” In verse 50, it says, “These are the sons of Aaron….” And then the rest of the chapter lists their name down to the end. You know what? Let me just tell you what these next chapters cover. We can do this very fast. 1 Chronicles, chapter 7 covers the descendants of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh along with Ephraim and Asher. And there are just names. Chapter 8. That was fast, wasn't it? Chapter 8 focuses on the descendants of the tribe of Benjamin, giving some detail about the first king of Israel, who was, of course, Saul, one of David's most formidable enemies. David didn't want him to be an enemy, but he was. Then we have chapter 9, which brings various listings of historical roots in Israel. The author of Chronicles is going to now incorporate information into these lists, those who returned from the Babylonian exile, and he starts it this way: “So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.” Then in verse 2, he happily skips 70 years of exile, and he says, “Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants. 3 And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem,” and then he goes on to list their names. One of the things we notice as we read through this chapter is that the names of the individuals largely consist of people associated with the temple: priests, gatekeepers, things like that. And the reason is –you guys, remember something here– historically, this is important. King Cyrus, when he made the proclamation that the Jews were to go back to Israel after 70 years were up, please understand what he was doing.

He wasn't just releasing the Jews to go back there and live. He wasn't just saying, All right, you guys have lived here long enough. In fact, we're even sick of you so why don't you guys go home and just go ahead and build the temple and build the walls of your city. You guys, go live there and we're all going to be good. That wasn't what was going on. King Cyrus wanted them to go back and rebuild the temple so they could worship God, and so that he would be blessed. That was the point. He wanted the blessing of Yahweh. He was actually a believer in Yahweh to some degree. How much he believed in other gods, we're not sure. Most of these guys were pretty pagan. But he believed that Yahweh was legit, and he told the Jews, Go back and build your temple because we want the blessing of your God. So who is he going to send back? Priests, and Levites, and gatekeepers, and musicians, and, you know what I'm saying? Those are the people who primarily went back because that was the point of what Cyrus wanted them to do. Chapter 10 very quickly gives the history of the conclusion of King Saul's reign in Israel. It says,

And that first verse gives a real short synopsis of the life and death of Saul, you know, how he became so unhinged during his reign to the point where the kingdom slipped further and further out of his control. When David was serving Saul, the Philistines were buttoned up pretty well. They were a problem continually, but under David, with David as the general of his army and so forth, the one going out and doing things, the Philistines were cut way back. During the time of Saul's later life, when he was hunting David to kill him, they weren't focusing on the Philistines, and the Philistines were growing in power. At the end of Saul's reign, guess who killed him? The Philistines. All the time Saul was hunting down David, the Philistines were getting stronger and stronger as a military force to the point where they eventually killed him. So you could say his own jealousy and madness ended up killing him, because the Philistines, who were under control under David, they lost that control. So it says in verse 2,

It doesn't even mention that they had to battle to get them. I'm sure they didn't just walk into the temple of Dagon and say, We're here for Saul's body or for his remains. And we've come to get it, so get out of our way. You have to know there was a battle. “And (it says) they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh (I am in the middle of verse 12) and fasted seven days.” We are actually told in 1 Samuel (31:11-12) that they burned their remains and then buried their remains under that oak tree.