What’s in a Name?
The first thing that strikes me about 1 Chronicles is all the names of all the people–genealogy after genealogy of God’s people. Frankly, it’s pretty boring reading because to us that’s all it is: list upon list of names that mean almost nothing to us. We know nothing about most of these characters. They are faceless names.
Why would God’s eternal Word contain so many names? What’s the point of all the ancestry and descendants? Why do the first eleven chapters focus on the family trees of so many people?
There are two basic reasons why God records the names of all these people. First, they are all His kids. He fashioned each of them with the same precise care that He used to make you and me. The number of children you have does not diminish the special love you have for each of them. No two kids are exactly alike.
When God records these people’s names, He isn’t listing them like in a phone book. Zerah, Shemaiah, Uriel, Mahli, Becher and Japhlet were unique individuals whose thoughts and ways God knew. He cared for them and comforted them in their anxious thoughts just like He does for us. Though you and I are exhausted at the thought of trying to remember the names of Uzzi, Ner, Tahrea or Abigail (much less to put their names with faces), God lovingly knew the numbers of hairs on their heads and every desire of their hearts.
To God, no one is just a name. He is intimately acquainted with all our ways, and His special thoughts about each and every person in the world are more than all the sands of the seas. He knows us. He loves us–no matter what our name and no matter who else may or may not know us. He never forgets our name and He never confuses us with anyone else.
The second importance of so many names in 1 Chronicles is the role of generations. Ancestors pass along things to their descendants. Choices our grandfathers made have a lingering affect on us today–perhaps not always blatantly, but subtly. God’s grace and favor extend to many generations. So can His judgment. Those are not just poetic thoughts from the Bible. They are real.
Though parents and grandparents cannot determine our life for us, they do influence us more than we realize. That can be a hopeful promise to us, to think that we can influence our children with a righteous heritage.
Our culture has made us very egocentric. Our “world” centers around us, with little thought given to future generations. We didn’t know our great grandparents and we probably will never meet our great grandkids. We may not even know their names. But if we live our lives with an eye toward how our choices will affect our descendants, we might want to choose differently.
Long after we are dead and unremembered except by our name on some registry or gravestone, two things will still be true: God will still know us intimately; and, how we lived will still count for something.
