Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

At this point, you may be wondering if Chronicles is only genealogies. Don't worry, it's not.

We've only got one more day of those coming up, and that day's reading also jumps into the narrative part of the book. So this is our last day of straight genealogies, in First Chronicles, that is. I want to fulfill a promise I made to you a few days ago. I promised to tell you the purpose of all these genealogies. I didn't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't heard this story before, but if you were paying close attention to today's reading, you picked up on part of the story that gives it away.

Verse 15 says, Jehoshadac went into exile when the Lord sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile

by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. So the spoiler that may come as no surprise is that Israel doesn't keep the covenant and God

eventually raises up an enemy to carry them off into exile, back out of the promised land.

But don't worry, God's not casting them off forever. Remember that he's already told us that this is how

things will go and he says it's all part of his plan to bring them to repentance and to restore all things. So they're in exile for a long time. But then they repent

and get to come back to the promised land. And that's when these genealogies come in super handy,

because they really need to know who is from which tribe, so they can go back to the right

plot of land. And they need to know who is from the tribe of Judah and specifically the line of David, because God has appointed that as the line of kings. And they need to know who the Levites are, according to the clans of the Coethites, and the Mararites and the Gershinites, because they need to set everything back up with the temple according to the specific job of each clan.

You may have noticed that Gershon is called Gersham here, but don't worry, it's all the same.

All of these lists are really important in verifying people's identities so they can reinstate things when they return to the land. It may seem boring to us, but it was vital

to them. It wasn't just a list. It was their life. It determined

their jobs and where they lived. In verse 31, we see that David has set up some new positions

in the service of the temple. Back in numbers four, God set up roles for the three clans of the

Levites. But here David adds a fourth role, musician. And you may have noticed that ASAP was listed among

these. We've been reading some of his Psalms. This is how that all came together. After the genealogies

and the job assignments, we see the Levites divided into their clans and we see the cities of refuge

announced. What was your God shot today? Mine came in asking myself what it says about God that this chapter exists at all.

The fact that this is here, to help reestablish people in the land he gave them that they gave up

and that he brought them back into, it shows me his heart for restoration and redemption.

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