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Context No. 3896 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 4:24-38: in context

24The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul; 25Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, and Mishma his son. 26The sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son. 27Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brothers didn’t have many children, and all their family didn’t multiply like the children of Judah. 28They lived at Beersheba, Moladah, Hazarshual, 29at Bilhah, at Ezem, at Tolad, 30at Bethuel, at Hormah, at Ziklag, 31at Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susim, at Beth Biri, and at Shaaraim. These were their cities until David’s reign. 32Their villages were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, five cities; 33and all their villages that were around the same cities, as far as Baal. These were their settlements, and they kept their genealogy. 34Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah the son of Amaziah, 35Joel, Jehu the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel, 36Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah, 37and Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah— 38these mentioned by name were princes in their families. Their fathers’ houses increased greatly.

This passage lists the descendants of Simeon, their families, their towns, their leaders, another of the genealogies that fill the opening chapters of Chronicles. To a casual reader it is a dry catalog of names, most of whom we know nothing else about.

Yet the very existence of this careful record says something. These were real families, real people, living out their lives in their towns and villages, keeping their genealogy, most of them never doing anything the wider world would remember. And yet God had their names recorded and preserved in his book. The overwhelming majority of God's people, then and now, live quiet, unremarkable lives, known to few, doing ordinary work in ordinary places. But none of them is forgotten by God. He knows each name, each family, each faithful life that history overlooks. There is comfort in these old lists. You may feel like one obscure name in a long roll, unnoticed by the world, but the God who preserved the names of Simeon's clans knows you too, and counts your quiet, faithful life as worth recording.

Do I trust that my quiet, unremarkable life is fully known to God, who records and remembers even the names the world overlooks, so that my ordinary faithfulness is never lost to him?

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