Seize the Moment – Day 890
The People of the Promise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, August 24.
Jesus Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah in Revelation 5:5, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” Interestingly, the framework of this exalted title of Jesus, used in the last book of the Bible, was established in the first book of the Bible, in Genesis 49:9-10:
Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
As Israel’s blessing prophesied, it was from Judah that the rulers of Israel would come. This was fulfilled in David, which is why Jesus is also called the Root of David (more on this in the devotion on 1 Chronicles 3).
Therefore, 1 Chronicles invests three chapters to establish the ancestry of the tribe of Judah (2:3-4:23) with a great emphasis on the line of David, as seen in 1 Chronicles 2:1-17 and chapter 3. These fifteen verses establish the lineage of David from Israel, through Judah, highlighting such notable characters as Tamar (4) and Boaz (11-12).
For the Jewish people, these chapters are not a boring list of names, they are rich reminders of their identity as a people with a divine purpose, as God promised to Abram in Genesis 12:3, “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Israel’s story was transformed for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Seize the moment and confirm your identity as a person of the promise in Christ Jesus. God has chosen you to be grafted into Israel’s family tree (Romans 11:24), not to make you Jewish, but so you can live with the same divine purpose His people have always lived (Galatians 3:29).