Follow the Faithful King

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at 1 Chronicles chapter 7. Nope, 1 Chronicles chapter 8. We're going to talk about Saul, King Saul, and his family line. So let's go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and let's find out about good old King Saul.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. You have given us a day that we can read your word, that we can hear from you. So please, Father, help us to read, to understand, and even to be challenged and to live. We need your Holy Spirit to teach us and to lead us. In Jesus' name we ask this. Amen.

Here we go. 1 Chronicles chapter 8. Now, Benjamin begot Bela, his firstborn, Ashbel, the second, Ahra, the third, Noha, the fourth, and Rafa, the fifth. The sons of Bela were Adar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahua, Gera, Shephufan, and Huram.

These are the sons of Ahua, who were the heads of the fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Geba, and who forced them to move to Manahath, Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera, who forced them to move.

He begot Uzzah and Ahihud. Also, Shaharim had children in the country of Moab.

After he had sent away Hashim and Barah, his wives. By Hodesh, his wife, he begot Jobab, Zibia, Misha, Alkam, Jeuz, Sachiah, and Mirma.

These were his sons, heads of their fathers' houses. And by Hashim, he begot Abitab, and Elpal.

The sons of Elpal were Eber, Misham, and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod with its towns.

And Bariah, and Bariah, and Shemma, who were heads of their fathers' houses, and the inhabitants of Aijalon, who drove out the inhabitants of Gath.

Aiyo, Shashat, Jeremoth, Zebediah, Arad, Eder, Michael, Ishba, and Johah were the sons of Bariah.

Zebediah, Mishalam, Hezki, Heber, Ismari, Jizaliah, and Jobab were the sons of Elpal.

Yakeem, Zikri, Zabdi, Eline, Zilethi, Eliel, Adiah, Beriah, and Shemroth were the sons of Shemmae.

Ishban, Eber, Eliel, Abdon, Zikri, Hanan, Hananiah, Elam, Anathothiah, Ifteah, and Pinuel were the sons of Shishak.

Shemshari, Sherehi, Sherehi, it's a hard one because it's actually separating the wrong place in my, put a hyphen in the names.

It's hard.

So it's, Sherehiah, Athaliah, Jaarishiah, Elijah, and Zikri were the sons of Jeroham.

These were the heads of the father's houses by their generations, chief men.

These dwelt in Jerusalem.

Now the father of Gibeon, whose wife's name was Makah, dwelt at Gibeon.

And his firstborn was Abdon, then Zer, Kish, Baal, Nadab, Gedur, Ahio, Zekir, and Mikloth, who begat Shemaiah.

They also dwelt alongside their relatives in Jerusalem with their brethren.

Nur begat Kish, Kish begat Saul, and Saul begat Jonathan, Malkishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

The sons of Jonathan were Merabal, Merabal begat Micah.

The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tareah, and Ahaz.

And Ahaz begat Jehoda'ah.

Jeho'adah begat Elimeth, Azimeth, and Zimri.

Zimri begat Moza, Moza begat Bnei, Rafa, his son, Eliashah, his son, and Azel, his son.

Azel had six sons whose names were these, Azrikam, Bokureu, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan.

All these were the sons of Azel, and the sons of Eshek, his brother, were Ulam, his first, Jehosh, the second, and Eliphelet, the third.

The sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers.

They had many sons and grandsons, 150 in all.

These were all the sons of Benjamin.

The conclusion of all of these names that we've been going through.

So all Israel was recorded by genealogies.

And indeed, they were inscribed in the book of the kings of Israel.

But Judah was carried away captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

And the first inhabitants who dwelt in their possessions in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and Nethanim.

So, we need to ask ourselves our three questions.

A, what is this about?

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

And C, what are we called to do in response to this?

So, A, what is this about?

This is finishing up the family lines.

We started way back, way back in 1 Chronicles chapter 1.

And we started with Adam, Seth, Enosh, all the way to Abraham.

We went from Abraham all the way to Israel.

Israel.

And it started with, in chapter 2, David, the king of Judah.

And it ends with chapter 8, the genealogy of Saul, of Benjamin.

And so, we find ourselves here with the failed monarchy.

And we see that people were unfaithful.

By the way, again, this is how we know because in chapter 9, verse 2, or sorry, verse 3, when it's, sorry, verse 1, chapter 9, verse 1,

but Judah was carried away captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

This is how we know that this is a post-exilic, right, post-exile book.

1 Chronicles is, it's written as historians are looking back.

But it's also saying, right, like, these are the names that were written in the book of the kings of Israel, right?

These are historical documents.

This is the thing I absolutely love about the Bible.

We're not talking about some mythical book.

We're talking about history, whether people like it or not, whether we like the motifs,

whether we don't want to go through the long list of names.

God made a covenant with Abraham.

He saw it through.

Well, he made it with Adam.

He made this promise to all mankind in the first giving of the gospel.

Even though people were sinners, and he made good with that, even with Abraham.

All the way through Jacob, Israel, it's spreading out in the 12 tribes.

We've just gone over all the 12 tribes and listed two different royal names of kings.

And here's the king of Israel, the first king, Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin,

and all the family that flowed through him.

And so, this is what this passage is talking about, the family of Benjamin.

But because of 9, 1 and 2, we're talking about God's faithfulness in spite of the people's unfaithfulness.

So, I think that's what this is about.

Let's go ahead and what would you underline as the best verse to record or to summarize this?

Well, I have verse 1, chapter 9, verse 1, as well as I have verse 1, chapter 8, now Benjamin begot Bella, right?

But Benjamin is given more in kind of the very heart of this is chapter 8, verse 33, with Saul, Jonathan, and Eshbel, right?

So, Mephibosheth is what he's going to be called later.

And so, the point is, right, I think this is the heart of Benjamin's list of last year because it's the family line of Saul.

So, that's why I would underline those three verses as the best ones.

You can underline something else.

That's free for you to disagree.

You can write it down in the comments or highlight it in your Bible or underline it somewhere.

Whatever's going to help you remember, even if arguing with me online is what's going to help you interact with this text, that's perfectly fine.

So, let's talk about last seat calling.

What are we called to do?

Well, I think, again, this is pointing us to, one, God's faithfulness in his covenant of grace so we can have faith and we can trust him and we can walk in his ways so we can trust the Lord.

He's always good to his promises.

Number two, we have a king, better than David, who really did descend from Adam.

Go read the book of Luke with that genealogy, who really was the descendant of Abraham.

Go read Matthew chapter 1 for that.

Who really was of the tribe of Judah and really was the king, the king of the Jews.

And so, we can follow him.

We can trust him.

But we must also remember, we must walk by faith.

We must be those who do not desire to go our own ways and be unfaithful to the Lord.

No.

We must follow him.

He saved us.

He loved us.

He cares for us.

And so, we get the privilege of following after him.

So, don't lose faith.

Don't turn towards idolatry.

Remember the love that he has shown you in Jesus Christ.

Walk in his ways.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for this day.

And we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you are teaching us.

And we pray that your spirit would lead us.

Lead us in the paths of righteousness.

Lead us in that path that is full of thankfulness, of gratitude, and of holiness.

Lord, please, transform us from the inside out by your spirit and your love.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, may you walk in joy before the Lord forever.

And I'll see you next time.

Bye.