(#1) I'm thankful for the boring bits...
I'm thankful for the parts of the Bible that seem really boring at first glance. Things like genealogies (Perez begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram...), census data (of the tribe of Dan were 62,700...) and other registers of apparently dull information, like how many goats were donated to the temple service by so-and-so on such-and-such a day.
Sometimes it's tempting to treat these sections like so many fly-over states, sections you unfortunately must get through in order to get to the more action-packed stories or deep theological treatises. But if God really inspired the Bible, then there must be some reason he included those parts.
Have you ever thought about the fact that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the author of 1 Chronicles to record that "Maon was the father of Bethzur" (2:45), two men we know nothing else about, also apparently led the Apostle John to leave out "many other signs Jesus performed..." (John 20:30)! We could have had many more Messianic miracle stories, but God chose to include the fact that the children of Shimei settled down in the towns of "Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual, Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, Bethuel, Hormah......."(1 Chronicles 4:27-31).
It's outside the scope of this post to speculate about why God included all of the drier portions of Scripture, but at least a few possible reasons are:
Sometimes it's tempting to treat these sections like so many fly-over states, sections you unfortunately must get through in order to get to the more action-packed stories or deep theological treatises. But if God really inspired the Bible, then there must be some reason he included those parts.
Have you ever thought about the fact that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the author of 1 Chronicles to record that "Maon was the father of Bethzur" (2:45), two men we know nothing else about, also apparently led the Apostle John to leave out "many other signs Jesus performed..." (John 20:30)! We could have had many more Messianic miracle stories, but God chose to include the fact that the children of Shimei settled down in the towns of "Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual, Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, Bethuel, Hormah......."(1 Chronicles 4:27-31).
It's outside the scope of this post to speculate about why God included all of the drier portions of Scripture, but at least a few possible reasons are:
- Record fulfillment of God's promises.
- Verify the Messianic lineage
- Provide historical data which can be corroborated extrabiblically
- Provide a more granular perspective on the workings of God
Thank you, Lord, for remembering the little things in your interactions with your people. It shows that you truly know and care.
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