ApprehendingGrace.com

God cares! He must because He chose to preserve it for us to read!

I’ll be honest with you…sometimes that reading is more like slogging through mud for me! I’ve found, though, that there are some precious things to be found in mud, though. There are some beautiful flowers that grow in/near mud – like lotuses, water lilies, marsh orchids and sea lavender. When I’m in slogging mode, though, I know that I don’t always pause to notice them.

In my reading of Chronicles, I try to look for the beautiful blossoms. For example, when reading all those lists of names, I don’t pronounce each name in my head. I skim the material looking for names I recognize from my reading of Kings. Sometimes the process brings an “oh, yeah!” moment. Not quite an “ah ha!” moment, but a familiar, “look at that connection” moment. Now the truth is that all these names run together for me and I don’t in any way feel prompted to study the genealogies, but occasionally something jumps out at me.

I also look for passages that break the pattern. That’s how you’ll find the prayer of Jabez. Stuck right there in verses 9 and 10 of 1 Chronicles 4, in the midst of chapters and chapters of genealogies, we learn about an honorable man who was named Jabez because he born in pain. Jabez cried out to God “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” The end of the verse speaks for itself: “And God granted his request.” There’s a whole book (or two or three) in those two verses!

A break in the pattern is also how I found 1 Chronicles 2:7: “Achar, who brought trouble on Israel by violating the ban on taking devoted things.” I read this verse and it prompted an immediate prayer in my heart: “Lord, I don’t want to be remembered for all posterity as one who disobeyed You. Keep me devoted to You.”

Friends, let me encourage you not to get stuck in the mud as you read through 1 and 2 Chronicles. Don’t belabor the chapters, but look for hidden treasure. Sometimes it’s closer to the surface than you might expect!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under book references, God's ways, Reading through the Bible in a Year, Scripture/The Bible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.