Just Ordianry People

O. T. #892  "Just Ordinary People"
Dec. 26, 2016
1 Chronicles 7
Ad these were the children of Asher, heads of their fathers' houses, choice men, mighty men of valor, chief leaders. And they were recorded by genealogies among the army fit for battle; their number was twenty-six thousand.

LET IT GLOW

We tend to focus on the tribe of Judah, through whom King David came, instead of other sons of Jacob, although it is very important. There were 11 other tribes, too. David had other sons than Solomon also. Some were not so significant as others. Do we find it that way in our ancestors? Some were just ordinary people, and then others had positions of importance. However, God loved them too.

As a review, we read about the genealogy of the patriarchs of the nation of Israel and Judah-Adam to Abraham to Judah to David. We discovered that the line of King David led to Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus, came through David's son Solomon. (Matthew 1)
We don't want to leave out the family of Mary, Jesus' mother. Her line leads back to Nathan, son of David. (Luke 3) Being in the family of David, that gave Jesus the line of kings.

Also, we have been reading of the genealogy of 12 families/tribes of Jacob (called Israel):

• Judah, through whom King David came,
• Simeon, whose family dispersed into Judah and Benjamin and faded,
• Reuben, lost his firstborn status in Genesis 35, settled by the Dead Sea on the eastern side of the Jordan River,
• in chapter 5, Gad's family was part of the great military,
• the half tribe of Manasseh (one of two sons of Joseph of Israel) settled with the tribe of Reuben and Gad on the eastern side,  who were first to be capture by the Assyrians,
• Levi, was the tribe chosen to be the line of priests in Israel; included Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, Zadok and Elkhanah (Samuel's father), the high priests through Aaron, and musicians in the Tabernacle, (chapter 6)

LET IT GROW

Chapter 7 lists the genealogy of the tribes of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, western Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher.

• Issachar was the ninth son of Job and the fifth son of Leah, were counted as soldiers.
• Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, was the tribe of whom King Saul, Israel's first king came; Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament, was from this tribe. (Only Benjamin's first 3 sons are mentioned here.)
• Naphtali, the sixth son of Jacob, settled in Galilee. Apparently they were not significant in that they only had one verse mentioning this family.
• Western Manasseh, Transjordan, the family has women mentioned 5 times here in verses 14-19.
•  Ephraim, was the tribe through whom Joshua, Moses' successor, came. He lead the people into the Promised Land. There were 10 generations between Jacob and Joshua. Their territory included Gaza. It was a rival to the tribe of Judah and one of the leading tribes.
• Asher was Jacob's eighth son. His tribe was located north on the coast. It was secondary of importance. A descendant, prophetess Anna who was allowed to see the baby Jesus and promised Messiah in the Temple.

David Jeremiah, in reference to verse 40, describes a godly man as being:
a man of character, a courageous warrior, and a competent leader.
A godly man is known by:
what he flees from, what he follows after, what he fights for, and what he is faithful to.

I think those qualities can apply to women, also. Are we women of godly character, courageously standing for the Word of God, and a competent leader? Do we flee from temptation of sin, follow after God's standards, do we fight for our brethren, and are we faithful to our commitments?

LET IT GO

Be an ordinary person with godly character.

Fight for God's Word and God's people.