1 Chronicles 4:1-43

We now go back and start looking at the genealogy of all of the descendants of Jacob through each of his sons.  Today’s chapter looks at the descendants of Judah and the descendants of Simeon.  There is a long list of people that we have a hard time recognizing but they are all know to God and recorded in the Scripture as well as in eternity.  However, besides the names of people every now and then the list of names is interrupted to give us an insight into the one of the people or groups of people who are listed here.

THE DESCENDANTS OF JUDAH: The list of names from the tribe of Judah is interrupted when we get to a man named Jabez.  We know very little about him other than what we learn in this passage.  The Scripture tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers and that he called on the name of the Lord.  His name means pain but he did not want the meaning of his name to be the experience of his life.  He trusted the Lord and believed in the power of prayer so he asked God to bless him, prosper him and protect him from harm.  God is honored by our prayers and requests because they are a recognition on our part of our inadequacy as well as a declaration no our part of His ability.  God is able to answer our prayers but far too often we simply fail to pray.  We must learn to turn from our pride and humbly present ourselves before the Lord in prayer because He is great and He is able and we desperately need Him to work in our lives.


THE DESCENDANTS OF SIMEON: In general, we are informed that the tribe of Simeon did not multiply as quickly as the tribe of Judah, so it is a much smaller group of people.  However, we do see that a good group of these families were also greatly blessed of God.  They were given a rich and peaceful pasture land that was large enough for their flocks and they were able to enjoy a rich and prosperous life in this unique region of the country that was marked by peace.  God gave them strength to defeat the Amalekites that had been in the area.  We can take comfort in knowing that the Lord does care for us and that He is able to provide an oasis of blessing even in the midst of a war torn country like Israel.  The tribe of Simeon was not the largest or the most significant but they did experience a great blessing from the Lord.  We truly serve a loving and caring God.

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