Judah’s Family Line and Your Identity in Christ

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It has been a while since we've been

together, but the school year has started. Thank you for being patient with me as I took the summer off

and tried to kind of organize life and deal with stress. So we are at 1 Chronicles chapter 4,

and maybe you've joined Coffee and Devotions for the first time in a long time, or maybe the first

time ever. This is where we have some coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the

Lord together, just working through bits and pieces of the Bible, asking ourselves, A, what's this about?

B, what's the best verse to summarize this passage? And C, what are we called to do? So, A, what is this

about? This is the chronology of the tribe of Judah. So, let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get

into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day, we thank you for your Word, and we pray that

you would please help us to read, and to understand, and to grow in our love for you together as we read

your Word. Thank you for it. Please, Lord, let us love you and follow after you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Here we go, 1 Chronicles chapter 4, and we'll read the first 23 verses.

The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. And Rea, the son of Shobal, begat

Johath. And Johath begat Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zoharathites. These were the

sons of the sons of the father of Atom, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash. And the name of their sister was

Hazelaphoni. And Penuel was the father of Gedur. And Ezer was the father of Hushah. These were the

sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem. And Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two

wives, Hela and Nara. Nara bore him Ashuam, Hefer, Timni, and Ha'asharati. Man, these are some long

names here. These were the sons of Nara. The sons of Hela were Zereth, Zohar, and Athnan. And Kaz

begat Anub, Zebeah, and the families of Aharel, the son of Harum.

Now, Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying,

Because I bore him in pain. Now, Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying,

Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me,

and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested.

Chilub, the brother of Shuhah, begot Mehir, who was the father of Eshton. And Eshton begot Beth-Repha,

Peseah, and Tidniham, the father of Ir-Nashash. These were the men of Rechab.

The sons of Canaz were Othniel and Saraiah. The sons of Othniel were Hatath, and Me-Oniate,

who begot Ophrah. Saraiah begot Joab, the father of Ge-Ha-Arashim. For they were craftsmen.

The sons of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, were Iruh, Ella, and Naam. The son of Ella was Canaz.

The sons of Jehalel were Ziph, Ziphah, Tiriah, and Asarel. The sons of Ezra were Jether,

Mered, Efer, and Jalon. And Mered's wife bore Miriam, Shemai, and Ishba, the father of Eshtimoah.

His wife, Jehudiah, bore Jered, the father of Gedor, Heber, the father of Seko, and Jekuthiel,

the father of Zenoa. These were the sons of Bethiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.

The sons of Hudiah's wife, the sister of Naham, were the fathers of Kaliah, the Gemarite,

and Eshtomah, the Makathite. And the sons of Shimon were Anon, Rinna, Ben-Hanan, and Tilun.

And the sons of Ishi were Zoheth and Ben-Zoheth.

Which is a fun fact, Ben-Zoheth just means son of Zoheth.

The sons of Shelah were the sons, sorry, the sons of Shelah, the son of Judah, were heir,

the father of Lachah, Ladadah, the father of Marisha,

and the families of the house of the linen workers of the house of Ashba.

Also, Jachim, the men of Chobeza, Chozeba, and Joash.

Saraph, who ruled in Moab.

And Jashubi, Lechem.

Now the records are ancient.

These were the potters.

And those who dwell at Netaim and Gedorah,

there they dwelt with the king for his work.

Alright, so, we need to stop and ask ourselves,

A, what's this about?

B, what's the best verse to summarize this?

And C, what are we called to do?

So, this is the genealogy, the family line of Judah.

So, the family of Judah.

So, you've got Judah, you've got all his sons,

so Her and Asher, and just keeps on going,

and then mixes up into Caleb's sons,

and we even have Othniel, one of the judges listed here.

All sorts of little fun things all throughout this, right?

And so, we're eventually getting to the point that,

why is all of this coming about?

I think 1 Chronicles, if the Jewish writers are correct here,

it's very possible that this is the priest, Ezra, writing this, right?

And so, Ezra is a scribe, he's a priest,

and I think he's going back into the ancient books and looking at this, right?

And so, it's interesting here that when you look at verse 22,

now, the records are ancient, right?

So, they're going back, and they're looking at all the books.

This is probably during Nehemiah's era,

and they're trying to figure out who's Jewish and who's not Jewish,

who's allowed to come into the temple, what's their heritage,

and here, right, I think it's pointing us to Christ,

who is the son of David,

but it's also, who are the people of God?

Can they prove their ancestry, right?

And this is going to come into a problem later on,

so we can talk about this with seek calling, right?

We have Jewish people who will end up kind of becoming,

well, I know I'm a child of God because I'm a son of Abraham,

and I have this ancient genealogy,

and that actually ends up becoming something,

and the church is a problem, right?

These endless genealogies,

and Paul says, stop worrying yourself with that, right?

The question is, are you in Christ?

So that's where I'm going to say,

it's like, hey, you may love your family history.

I've actually had a lot of fun recently.

We have a family in the church who loves doing genealogy,

and my dad's gotten into it,

and so it's been really fun to learn about my own genealogy

and finding about the ships coming over in the 1800s,

late 1800s,

with actually pictures of the ship that,

you know, I didn't know that our ancestry was from German-speaking people

and what's now Hungary, right?

And so it's interesting,

but that doesn't define who I am today, right?

And who I am today is defined in Christ,

is defined in who I am in Jesus.

It has a spirit of God been poured out into my heart

that cries out, Abba, Father.

It's not your genealogy that's going to save you.

It's who you are in Christ.

But what is this about?

Well, your history does matter,

and the history of the Jewish people did matter,

and so here it's the sons of Judah,

Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal,

and then tracing their lines down through.

So that's what this section is about.

If I was to underline something in my Bible,

I'm going to underline the best verse.

To summarize this is verse 1,

The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal.

That's what this section is really about.

So let's go ahead and pray.

God, I pray for each one of the people

who have had the opportunity

and have stuck with me through reading this passage.

Lord, we pray that we might look to Jesus,

the author and finisher of our salvation,

and we thank you that He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah,

that He really did come from this line.

It's a real family line with an ancient history.

And so, Father, we trust in Him,

who is the son of Abraham,

the son of Noah,

the son of Adam,

our second Adam.

And Lord, we thank you

that He is the true son of David,

the king,

and the inheritor of the promises.

Lord, we pray that we might find ourselves

numbered with Him.

Father, please,

care for us and bless us.

Let us walk in your ways.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

May the Lord bless you.

May you find yourself

and your life hidden in Christ.

I'll see you next time.

Bye.