1 Chronicles 1:17-27: in context

This is a genealogy that runs from Shem, one of Noah's sons, all the way down to Abraham, and if you watch its shape rather than just its names, it tells you something about how God works. It begins wide. Shem has many sons, and one of his descendants, Joktan, has thirteen sons of his own, whose names became whole peoples and tribes scattered across Arabia. The family fans out in every direction, multiplying into nations.

But the line the Chronicler is actually following does not fan out. It narrows. At each generation, out of all the branches, the record follows a single thread: not Elam or Asshur but Arpachshad, then Shelah, then Eber, and out of Eber's two sons not the one whose descendants became many nations but the other, Peleg, and on down, one name at a time, through Reu and Serug and Nahor to Terah, and finally to a single man. The whole sprawling list, all those spreading branches and multiplying peoples, quietly funnels down to one name at the end: Abram, also called Abraham. Everything was aiming at him the entire time. God's promise for the whole world was going to run not through the impressive many, the thirteen sons and the nations they founded, but through one particular, narrowing line to one specific person.

That is a pattern worth noticing, because it runs against our instincts. We are impressed by the wide and the many, the branches that multiply and spread. God, again and again, works through the narrow and the particular, the single thread, the one specific person and the one specific promise. Do I overlook the way God is working in the small, particular, unimpressive thing in front of me, one person, one thread, one quiet line, because I am busy being impressed by whatever is wide and many and fanning out?