Adam,
Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mehalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. (1 Chronicles 1:1-3)
How’s
that for launching right into the genealogical history of the world? No
introduction, no beating around the bush. Sort of like a Billy Graham stadium
event where his first words are: Won’t
you come?
According
to Walter Brueggemann, the first three chapters of 1 Chronicles make a wondrous sweep of the past, delivering
us to post-exilic times. [1] Chronicles was likely written late in Israel’s
Persian period, sometime mid-sixth century BC or later.
At
times over the next three weeks as we read the story of Israel (after the
northern kingdom Israel fell in 722 BC, the name Israel defaulted to the
southern kingdom Judah), it will seem like, Didn’t
I just read this? At other times, we’ll read a chapter and think, That doesn’t quite agree with what I read in
Kings.
Again
to reference Brueggemann, this is a revised
version of Israel’s memory. [2] Consider it like this. Joshua to 2 Kings is
the Deuteronomic History. It tells exiled Israel’s story looking back through
time. How did we end up here? Chronicles
covers the same time period (even more – it goes all the way back to Adam), but
rather than looking backward, Chronicles sees those same events in the light of
looking ahead. Can what we’ve been
through teach us something as we begin a new chapter in our lives? Same
events. Different perspective.
Would
it do you good to look at the events of your life through different lenses?
[1]
Walter Brueggemann, An Introduction to
the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 375.
[2]
Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment