1 Chronicles 8

After eight chapters, we are nearly done with the genealogies. (At least the ones at the beginning of this book. I’m sure we will encounter more as we go along.) In today’s chapter—as I’m sure you noticed if you read it—there wasn’t particularly much to take hold of. Just another long list of names, following a previous seven chapters of long lists of names.

And here’s what that made me think about: God is the one who remembers. By this time, can you imagine how many nations were on the earth? How many people? And just think about how many millions—perhaps billions—of people went down into the dust, with not even so much as their name memorialized. How many kings and rulers of the heathen nations are now buried in perpetual oblivion—while those who belonged to the Lord (even if they weren’t particularly faithful!) have been preserved forever in His Word!

Of course, God knows and remembers all the names of those who aren’t written in the Scriptures as well. But that’s because He is the one who remembers. I sometimes think about this as I walk through old cemeteries. There are rows and rows of old, crumbling headstones. (And by old, I’m really only talking about 150 years, at most.) You’re lucky if you can even read the names anymore. But even if you can, they have no significance, no meaning. But they have meaning to God.

Long after we have fallen asleep and gone down to the ground, God remembers our names. He remembers everything about us. He could write the genealogy of our family tree just as easily as He wrote the genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin for posterity. Our ancestors may be all but forgotten by us within three or four generations. But God never forgets. He is the one who remembers.