“Genealogical Insight” – FBC Morning Light (6/23/2023)

What a good Friday morning to you. I hope your week has gone well as you wrap up your work week and look forward to the weekend. I look forward to gathering together with God's people on Sunday. I encourage you to come and visit with us this Lord's Day.

I have a guest speaker that's going to be speaking in the morning and evening services. One of our members, Kim Doppler, is going to be bringing the Word, and the Lord uses him and he brings some good biblical preaching.

I think it'll be a blessing to you if you come. Today we're reading in 1 Chronicles chapters 5 and 6, Romans chapter 8, and Psalm 119 verses 49 to 56. Again, when I try to figure out what should I share, I just have a few minutes to do this.

There's so much that could be done, and I'm very tempted to focus on Romans 8. There is a wealth of blessing in Romans 8, but instead I want to focus on 1 Chronicles chapter 5. The reason I'm doing this is because we often think of these genealogies as kind of tedious to work our way through, and I encourage you to read them with your thinking cap on and try to make connections.

Most of the time you're going to read names that you don't recognize, but sometimes you'll see a name that you do recognize, or there'll be a statement made about somebody, and let those things stand out and speak to you.

As I was reading this passage in chapter 5, one thing that struck me is what it says about Reuben. A little background here, 1 Chronicles was written probably about 400 BC. We know that because of just some very late information material that's put into the books of Chronicles.

About 400 BC, 1 Chronicles was written. What the Chronicler refers to here in chapter 5 verse 1 is something that took place about 1 ,500 years earlier. He's doing a genealogical record. In chapter 4 he gave us a genealogy of the family of Judah, and then at the end of chapter 4, the family of Simeon.

These are brothers of Reuben, the 12 sons of Jacob, the family of Judah, the family of Simeon, and now the family of Reuben. If you look back in the earlier chapters and so forth, a lot is just the names of individuals and their villages they lived in, and so on and so forth.

But when it comes to Reuben, this is what it says, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, pause. My Bible edition has an M dash, so the long dash, and the rest of verse 1 and verse 2 is material that is parenthetical before he picks up the sons of Reuben again.

The sons of Reuben, the firstborn. What I want to focus on is that parenthetical information. He says, Reuben was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright.

Yet Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came a ruler, although the birthright was Joseph's. Then it goes on to talk about the sons of Reuben. Did you catch this? He was the firstborn, and as the firstborn, he had the birthright, the right of inheritance, the right of double property, and all the rest of this kind of thing that was part of the cultural birthright.

But he lost that birthright because of one action, one time. He was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph. What the Chronicler is referring to is what's mentioned all the way back in Genesis 35 and verse 22, where it says,.

It happened when Israel dwelt in the land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. It says,. And Israel heard about it, Jacob heard about it, his father heard about what his firstborn son had done.

His firstborn son had been immoral with his concubine. Now, there's problems with that, too, I get that, I understand, but nevertheless, we'll not address that. We'll just focus on what Reuben did with his father's concubine.

His father didn't forget it, because when he was giving the blessing on all his sons in Genesis 49, here's what he says about Reuben. He says, Reuben, you're my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. And it's like he turns to the rest of his sons and he says, He went up to my couch, he went up to my couch.

All right, now here's the thing. What Reuben did, in terms of the time that the Chronicler wrote what the Chronicler wrote, was 1 ,500 years earlier, and yet it was never forgotten. And it was that event that marked and marred the reputation and the testimony and the inheritance of Reuben for the generations to come.

So that 1 ,500 years later, the Chronicler has to explain to us why the firstborn son didn't get the blessing of the birthright, and it got passed on to somebody else. So what I want us to get here, and this is a genealogical table, and yet from this genealogical table we find this little piece of information that's helpful to remind us how vital faithful, consistent, day-after-day obedience really is.

Reuben lost the right of the firstborn because of a one-time, foolish, impetuous, impulsive, passionate decision, something he couldn't say no to, and yet he shouldn't. Let that be a challenge to us, and an encouragement, just keep on keeping on remaining faithful to our God.

And so our God, to that end, we pray today. We pray that we would be ever-alert and ever-attentive and ever-mindful to be faithful in our day-to-day living, we pray in Jesus' name. All right, well listen, have a wonderful weekend, and may God bless you in it richly.

Good day.