While recently on Cozumel, Margie and I would, many days, explore the island by foot. The island itself is relatively small with only one city occupying its tropical shores. We would don our walking gear, take off in a random direction, and see what we could discover. That’s one great thing about being on a small island, it’s pretty hard to get lost. If you get wet, you went too far.
One day we stumbled upon an old graveyard, fully enclosed by a large colorful 10-foot wall. The cool Caribbean colors popped off the wall and from the many mausoleums roofs within. The large ornate sign above the entry read, “Maison de Paz”, the House of Peace. It was only a few days from “Dia de la Muertos”, the day of the dead Mexican festival, and as a result, there were a several caretakers cleaning near the large metal entry gates. They sensed our interest and we in our best Spanish, and they in their best English, exchanged enough broken language to determine that it was OK for us to go in and take a look around. What we found within those walls was beyond fascinating.
The entire cemetery was composed of medium to large mausoleum type structures, each had one family name at the top. They were all bright blues, pinks and yellows and had smatterings of Mayan and Mexican imagery and symbology carefully placed upon them. As we reverently walked through that graveyard, we quickly realized this was not just a common Cozumel burial ground. We saw a marker from the late 1700’s belonging to one of the founders of the island’s only city, San Miguel. We saw a marker for the man that created the city’s first street layout from the same timeframe. We saw countless other amazing figures from the late 1700’s and early 1800’s that were pivotal in creating the very city that we had been strolling about that very morning. Countless achievements, triumphs, and struggles lied within these cemetery walls, and we were walking through their stories.
Today we have the honor of starting a new book in God’s Word and we also have the honor to walk through their history. The first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles contains nothing but genealogies. At first mention of this, 99.99% of all Christians let out a sigh that can be heard over a jet engine. But God doesn’t see it that way. God is giving us a very rare and privileged opportunity to walk through the history of these lives. In chapter 1 we see a few lives that might ring a bell. A few lives that God see as highly noteworthy because of their place within His plan. A few lives that lived not just for themselves, but for the glory of God.
Adam – The first man and the one that along with Eve, introduced sin to the world.
Noah – Seen as crazy by a sinful world, his obedience to the Words of God led him to build a boat during a drought. A boat that would preserve the world.
Shem, Ham, and Japheth – The three sons of Noah, they and their wives would repopulate a barren world.
Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras – The sons of Japheth would found the peoples of Europe and N. Asia. Javen, Greek Ionia. Gomer, the ancient Cimmerians of the Russian plains. Madai, the Medes and Persians of Iran. From Tubal and Meshech came the inhabitants of the Turkish plateau.
Isaac and Ismael, the sons of Abraham. Isaac was the son of promise and the covenant, whose birth was announced in Genesis 17 and 18 and whose life is recorded in Genesis 21-27. Ishmael was the son born of Hagar, blessed as a son of Abraham but not an heir to the promise or the covenant (Genesis 16 and 21).
Nebajoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. The sons of Ishmael - God promised to make a great nation through Ishmael (Genesis 21:18). These descendants were the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise, ultimately fulfilled in the Arabic peoples.
The genealogy in chapter 1 goes on beyond just these lives and as we read it, we walk through a vivid history with the very people that God chose to use. We can picture Adam as he cowered with Eve in their shame, both wrapped in the animal hide of the first sin covering sacrifice. We can see the confused, wrinkled brow of Noah as God tells him build a cruise ship for animals, with no water in sight. We can feel the great tension as Abraham raises that knife over Isaac, one of the greatest shows of faith in history. We can witness the colorful exchange between two brothers, Esau and Jacob, a bowl of hot stew the reason for the shift of a birthright. Folks, the stories are endless, the lives full, rich and colorful. And through these genealogies God allows them to live on.
Don’t see the genealogies in God’s Word as pointless, useless and without value. See it as walking through God’s great graveyard. One that is filled with the great men and women of God. Men and women just like you and I, that were willing, through their great faith, to be used by Almighty God.
Blessings to you.
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