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Context No. 2009 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 8:29-40: in context

29The father of Gibeon, whose wife’s name was Maacah, lived in Gibeon 30with his firstborn son Abdon, Zur, Kish, Baal, Nadab, 31Gedor, Ahio, Zecher, 32and Mikloth, who became the father of Shimeah. They also lived with their families in Jerusalem, near their relatives. 33Ner became the father of Kish. Kish became the father of Saul. Saul became the father of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal. 34The son of Jonathan was Merib-baal. Merib-baal became the father of Micah. 35The sons of Micah: Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz. 36Ahaz became the father of Jehoaddah. Jehoaddah became the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri became the father of Moza. 37Moza became the father of Binea. Raphah was his son, Eleasah his son, and Azel his son. 38Azel had six sons, whose names are these: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel. 39The sons of Eshek his brother: Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third. 40The sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers, and had many sons, and grandsons, one hundred fifty. All these were of the sons of Benjamin.

This genealogy of Benjamin lists family after family, and among the many names it records two we know well: Kish became the father of Saul, and Saul became the father of Jonathan. Israel's first king and his noble son stand here in the same list as dozens of others whose names mean nothing to us, Abdon, Zur, Baal, Nadab, Ahio, and the rest, the celebrated and the utterly obscure recorded together, side by side, in the same register of remembered names.

There is a quiet lesson in seeing Saul and Jonathan, famous names, recorded in the same list as scores of people about whom we know nothing at all. To us, some of these names carry weight, kings and heroes whose stories we know, while the rest are strangers, forgotten, their lives leaving no trace we can read. But in the register they stand together, the celebrated and the obscure, each name recorded, each remembered. God's remembering does not rank by fame. The obscure names are written as carefully as the famous ones; the people history forgot are recorded alongside the people history celebrates; each has a place in the record. This corrects the way we instinctively rank people by prominence. We measure importance by fame, achievement, the mark a life leaves on history, and we assume that the celebrated matter and the obscure do not, that the famous are remembered and the unknown forgotten. But God's record does not work that way. In it the obscure stand beside the famous, each name written, each life remembered, none too unknown to matter. The Kishes and Sauls and Jonathans are there; and so are the Abdons and Zurs and Nadabs whose lives we know nothing of; and all are recorded together, remembered by the God who does not rank by fame. This is a comfort for those of us who will leave no famous name, whose lives will be forgotten by history, who stand among the obscure. God remembers us as surely as he remembers the celebrated; our names are written in his record; we are not too unknown to matter to him. A book of remembrance was written before him, Malachi says, for those who feared the LORD, and it records the obscure and the famous alike. Our worth is not measured by our fame, and our remembrance does not depend on the mark we leave on history. In God's record the obscure stand beside the famous, each name remembered; and we, however unknown to the world, are known and remembered by him, written in his book, mattering to the God who does not rank his own by their renown.

Do I measure importance, my own and others', by fame and the mark a life leaves on history, assuming the celebrated matter and the obscure do not, or can I take comfort from a register where Saul and Jonathan stand beside dozens of forgotten names, all remembered together, that God's remembering does not rank by fame, and that I, however unknown to the world, am known and written in his book?

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