All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never

too late to start, and we're in this together. This is the Join the Journey podcast.

Thanks for joining. My name is Seth Master, and I serve on the Join the Journey team here at Watermark,

and today we have the absolutely riveting, super exciting, and mega blessing

of looking at the genealogies of First Chronicles 1 through 9. And I know what you're thinking.

Oh wow, do we really get to look at nine chapters of family history of ancient Israel? Yeah,

yeah, we do. And you're welcome.

But hear me out before you decide to fast from joining the journey for the day.

You may find some encouragement in these long lists of family names when we break them down.

I want to look at three things.

The first being, why are the first nine chapters genealogies the second is what is the important

of these genealogies and three is how do we think about these genealogies so why genealogies

historically speaking the jews have just returned from their 70 years of captivity to the land of promise.

However, the land they are returning to is much different than the one that they left.

There is no Hebrew king on the throne, but a Persian governor.

There is no security, so Nehemiah had to rebuild the wall.

There is no temple, so Zerububel had to reconstruct a pitiful rendition of the temple,

actually so much so not like Solomon's temple, it actually caused people to cry.

The Jewish people no longer filled the land, but were on the defensive.

They enjoy few divine blessings besides the return itself.

The wealth of the previous kingdom is all but gone, and God's divine presence no longer dwells in

Jerusalem. This is about as gloomy of a homecoming as you can imagine. So why in the world is the

...