Day 115 (1 Chronicles 3-5) - Year 8

0:00Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today we dropped back in on the genealogy we started reading two days ago. It picked up with David, whose kingship is the focal point of the book itself. But before we get to David's storyline, we have to wrap up these genealogies first. It's likely that the first part of today's reading that caught your attention was in 4-9, where the text goes from listing names to sharing a brief narrative about a man named Jbez. We learn that he's an honorable man and that he seeks God even though his name means sorrow or pain, which is all the more interesting given that he asked God to keep him from pain. Remember how names in the Old Testament are intended to point toward character? It seems like Jbez is sincerely asking God to protect him from himself, to make him a new man, to do something different than his name would indicate. And he knows that part of avoiding pain and sorrow is avoiding sin and harm, so he asked

1:03God to keep him from those things too. One of the other things he asked God for is an enlarged border, which is probably a literal prayer for more land. Because as we've seen, that's what a lot of the focus has been on lately. And the text tells us that God answers his prayer with a yes. I'll touch more on this in my God shot. Here in chapter 4, we see that the tribe of Simeon is shrinking. Jacob hinted at this when he prophesied over Simeon way back in Genesis 49, saying, cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And Moses also hinted at this in Deuteronomy 33 right before he died when he was blessing the tribes and failed to offer a blessing to Simeon. It kind of blows my mind when I noticed that God has been dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for a few thousand years. And just so we don't forget what all this relates back to, it all started back in Genesis 34 when Simeon and Levi killed all the men of Shechem to avenge their sister Dynas

2:04Rape. So if you think back to that prophecy from Jacob that I just mentioned, the one that says, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel, that prophecy was for both Simeon and Levi, for both brothers. And we see that Levi has been scattered and divided as well. The Levites don't have their own land and they live spread out among the other tribes. God fulfilled Jacob's prophecy for both tribes. In chapter 5 we were reminded about the sins of another one of Jacob's sons, Ruben. He slept with his father Jacob's concubine which led to having his birthright taken away. But despite Ruben's wickedness, his descendants have been blessed. The Rubenites are primarily herdsmen and their flocks are multiplying. They live in the trans Jordan with the tribe of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. Those 2.5 tribes seem to have a unique kind of unity happening. Maybe it's their isolation across the Jordan River, but they really seem to get each other's back, at least at this point. Not only that, but they seek God together.

3:055.20 talks about when they all go to war against the Hagrites and it says, they cried out to God in the battle and he granted their urgently because they trusted in him. Because of that, their 44,000 men captured 100,000 of the enemy alive and they also carted off over 300,000 of their animals and all those numbers are on top of the number of men they killed in the battle. Alas, it's short lived because their famous beloved leaders eventually fall into idolatry and start worshipping the local pagan gods. So God races up an enemy to come and cart them off just like they'd done with their enemies. What was your God shot today? I saw a lot about how God responds to prayers. We read accounts of two specific prayers today. There was the prayer I just mentioned where the trans-Jordan tribes cried out to God during their war against the Hagrites and it says, he granted their urgently because they trusted in him. Was this a self-focused prayer or a God-focused prayer?

4:07They're asking for help winning a war which could be considered self-motivated but it's also possibly considered a holy war since it involves land occupied by the tribes even though the trans-Jordan isn't technically the original promised land. So what do we think of this prayer? Put a pin in that for a second. Then there was the prayer of Jbez in 4, 9-10 which says, oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border and that your hand might be with me and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain. This prayer has elements that pertain to righteousness but it also has elements that pertain to personal desires. So is this a selfish prayer or a God-focused prayer? Can I tell you that I'm not even sure it matters? God openly receives both kinds of prayers. He doesn't repute Jbez for asking for more land and he doesn't tell the trans-Jordan tribes that they should have stuck to the original promised land if they wanted to win battles. The reason I think this is so important is because I know many people who struggle to pray for other people, but I also know many people who struggle to pray for themselves

5:11because they feel self-condemnation about the fact that it might be perceived as selfish. And Jbez has modeled for us that not only are both kinds of prayers acceptable to God, but both kinds of prayers seem to be honorable to God. These prayers come from a heart that knows God, that trusts Him and that cries out to Him as the source of all good things, from victories to land to righteousness. I believe God can be trusted to take all our prayers, sift them and faithfully respond to us with what is best in each unique situation. When it comes to His kids, God leaves no prayer unanswered. There's no such thing as an unanswered prayer. He hears and receives them all and always responds, with yes, no or wait. We already know He wants a relationship with us. We already know He loves constant communication. We already know He sees our hearts. So how beautiful is it that we get to mix all that together that our relationship with Him consists of constantly talking to Him about everything that's on our heart?

6:12Nobody else can handle all that, but He can, and it's pretty fantastic. Maybe when you're talking to Him today, you might want to tell Him that you know that He's where the joy is. God's Word is living and active. That means God may reveal things to you as you read the Bible that He didn't reveal to me. My God shot is just one glimpse of God's character from that day's reading. So what was your God shot? What did He show you about His character today? Tell someone else what you're learning, and if you post about it on social media, be sure to tag the Bible recap so we can learn something too.