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Context No. 1026 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 7:20-29: in context

20The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, 21Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take away their livestock. 22Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. 23He went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because there was trouble with his house. 24His daughter was Sheerah, who built Beth Horon the lower and the upper, and Uzzen Sheerah. 25Rephah was his son, Resheph his son, Telah his son, Tahan his son, 26Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, 27Nun his son, and Joshua his son. 28Their possessions and settlements were Bethel and its towns, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer with its towns; Shechem also and its towns, to Azzah and its towns; 29and by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth Shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, and Dor and its towns. The children of Joseph the son of Israel lived in these.

This is the genealogy of Ephraim, and unlike the bare lists around it, a story breaks through. Some of Ephraim's sons went down to raid the cattle of Gath and were killed by the local men. Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him. Afterward he had another son and named him Beriah, a name marking misfortune, because tragedy had come on his house. His daughter Sheerah built three towns. And the line runs on down to Nun and his son Joshua, the one who would lead Israel into the land.

What is striking is that grief made it into the genealogy. In a chapter of names and numbers, the Chronicler stops to tell us that Ephraim lost sons to a raid, mourned for many days, and was comforted by his brothers, and that he named the child born afterward Misfortune, so the pain was carried in the family's very names. Real bereavement is woven into the record, not edited out to keep the list clean. And two other things shine here. His daughter Sheerah is named as a builder of cities, a rare notice of a woman's public accomplishment in a genealogy that otherwise runs father to son. And the line that began in grief ends at Joshua, the deliverer who would bring Israel home; the family that buried sons and named a child for its sorrow is the same family that produced the one who led the people into the promise. God's purposes run right through the grief, not around it. The mourning is recorded, the comforters are recorded, the woman builder is recorded, and so is the deliverer at the end of the line.

Can I trust that God's purposes run through my grief rather than around it, as Ephraim's line moved from mourned sons and a child named Misfortune all the way to Joshua?

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