GEMS IN GENEALOGY (PART 8)

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Genealogy of Saul the Benjamite

Benjamin was the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second son, Aharah the third, Nohah the fourth and Rapha the fifth.

The sons of Bela were: Addar, Gera, Abihud,  Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, Gera, Shephuphan and Huram.

These were the descendants of Ehud, who were heads of families of those living in Geba and were deported to Manahath:

Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera, who deported them and who was the father of Uzza and Ahihud.

Sons were born to Shaharaim in Moab after he had divorced his wives Hushim and Baara. By his wife Hodesh he had Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malkam, Jeuz, Sakia and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of families. By Hushim, he had Abitub and Elpaal.

The sons of Elpaal:

Eber, Misham, Shemed (who built Ono and Lod with its surrounding villages), and Beriah and Shema, who were heads of families of those living in Aijalon and who drove out the inhabitants of Gath. Ahio, Shashak, Jeremoth, Zebadiah, Arad, Eder, Michael, Ishpah and Joha were the sons of Beriah.

Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Heber, Ishmerai, Izliah and Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.

Jakim, Zikri, Zabdi, Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel, Adaiah, Beraiah and Shimrath were the sons of Shimei.

Ishpan, Eber, Eliel, Abdon, Zikri, Hanan, Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, Iphdeiah and Penuel were the sons of Shashak.

Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah, Jaareshiah, Elijah and Zikri were the sons of Jeroham.

All these were heads of families, chiefs as listed in their genealogy, and they lived in Jerusalem.

Jeiel the father of Gibeon lived in Gibeon. His wife’s name was Maakah, and his firstborn son was Abdon, followed by Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab, Gedor, Ahio, Zeker and Mikloth, who was the father of Shimeah. They too lived near their relatives in Jerusalem.

Ner was the father of Kish, Kish the father of Saul, and Saul the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.

The son of Jonathan: Merib-Baal, who was the father of Micah.

The sons of Micah: Pithon, Melek, Tarea and Ahaz.

Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah, Jehoaddah was the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri, and Zimri was the father of Moza. Moza was the father of Binea; Raphah was his son, Eleasah his son and Azel his son.

Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bokeru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel.

The sons of his brother Eshek: Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second son and Eliphelet the third. The sons of Ulam were brave warriors who could handle the bow. They had many sons and grandsons — 150 in all.

All these were the descendants of Benjamin.

1 Chronicles 8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

For the last seven devotions, I have been looking at gems found in genealogies, interesting items contained within the lists of Israelites and their descendants. This is the next to last edition as we examine the eighth chapter of 1 Chronicles. Hope you enjoy it.

GEM 1

There are times in the scriptures where we find people changing names.

Abram and Sarai had their names changed to Abraham and Sarah. Jacob had his name changed to Israel. The murderous Saul in the New Testament became Paul.

In our passage today, we find two further examples of how names change. Both fall under the genealogy of Saul within the following words:

Saul the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.

The son of Jonathan: Merib-Baal.

The two names we want to look at here are Esh-Baal and Merib-Baal. In both instances, we see their names change so to not include any reference to Baal, one of the most prevalent false gods worshipped in Old Testament times.

First Esh-Baal, which when translated means “man of Baal.” His name changed to Ish-Bosheth which means “man of shame.” It’s believed that this was not so much because he was shameful but rather that his death was.

Ish-Bosheth was Saul’s fourth son and the only one who would survive him as Saul and his other three sons were killed in the Battle of Gilboa (1 Samuel 31). This resulted in him being installed as king of Israel by Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, granted rule over all the land with the exception of Judah where David was proclaimed king, an action that led to war (2 Samuel 2). He would reign for two years before being killed by two of his own men who stabbed and killed him while he rested and then beheaded him, taking his head to David (2 Samuel 4).

The second name to examine is Merib-Baal which means “Baal is my advocate.” His name was changed to Mephibosheth which means exterminating the idols.

When we look at Mephibosheth’s story, we see that he was Jonathon’s son which made him Saul’s grandson. He was five years old and under the care of a nurse when the news came about the death of his grandfather Saul and father Jonathon. The nurse, distressed by the news, picked up the young boy to flee but in her haste, she dropped him and he was injured, becoming lame in both feet. He would remain disabled the rest of his life (2 Samuel 4).

Later, David wished to show God’s kindness to someone in the house of Saul for the sake of his good friend and confidant, Saul’s son Jonathon. David was told about Mephibosheth and had him brought before him. The king then promised that Mephibosheth would be given everything that belonged to Saul and his family, and be allowed to dine at the king’s table daily. This direction was given to Mephibosheth’s steward Ziba who would later conspire against Mephibosheth by lying to David while he was fleeing from his murderous son, Absalom. Ziba told David that Mephibosheth had not come to be with the king because he was looking after his own interests, hoping that the Israelites would triumph over David and return to him his grandfather’s kingdom. This prompted David to change his mind about giving all of Saul’s property to Mephibosheth and instead turned it over to Ziba (2 Samuel 16). When David returned to Jerusalem from the danger he was under, he heard Mephibosheth’s side of the story and angered by Ziba’s deception, he split the property and gave half back to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 19). Later, he would spare Mephibosheth’s life by not turning him over to the Gibeonites who requested seven men from Saul’s lineage to murder in revenge for how Saul plotted and destroyed them (2 Samuel 21).  

GEM 2

We learned from Gem 1 that Mephibosheth (also Merib-Baal) was the son of Jonathon who was in turn the son of Saul. You may not remember Jonathon like you remember David, a man after God’s own heart who would become Israel’s greatest king, but one could argue that we wouldn’t have had a chance to see David rule had it not been for Jonathan, his friend and confidant who was in one spirit with David and loved him as himself (1 Samuel 18:1). Consider these moments:

1. King Saul had become increasingly jealous of David and his success, feeling that the Lord was with David and no longer with him. After failing to kill David himself (1 Samuel 18), Saul told his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. This led Jonathan to tell David of the looming danger saying:

“My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

Jonathan then did what he said he would do, saying the following to his father:

“Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?”

Saul, after listening to what Jonathan said, agreed to not put David to death (1 Samuel 19). The agreement wouldn’t last long.

2. David, on the run from Saul after a failed assassination attempt at his home, went back to Jonathan asking him:

“What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”

Jonathan replied to David:

“You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”

David told Jonathan that Saul was onto their friendship and thus would not tell his son his plans because he knew Jonathan would be grieved at the thought of losing a dear friend. Jonathan longed to know how he could further assist David and he provided his friend the following direction:

Tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”

Jonathan and David went to the field where Jonathan made the following pledge:

“I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family — not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

This was followed by a renewal of the covenant oath between the two friends who loved one another dearly.

Jonathan then reviewed the plan to keep David safe:

“Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”

And so David hid as agreed and when he was absent from the feast for two days, scripture tells us that Saul asked Jonathan about David. When Jonathan told his father that David had asked him for permission to go away to Bethlehem  to observe a sacrifice thus explaining his absence, Saul railed against his son calling him a “son of a perverse and rebellious woman” and accusing him of conspiring with David. When Jonathan asked why David should die, his father hurled a spear at him. Now, not only David was in danger but Jonathan too.

Jonathan went to the field and gave the signal to David that indicated he should flee. Before he did, David got up from the stone he was hiding behind and bowed down before Jonathan three times. They then embraced and wept, distraught that they would have to part company. We read where Jonathan left David with the following words:

“Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’”

And with that they went their separate ways but as we saw in Gem 1, David did have a chance to bless Jonathan’s son as a tribute to the man who loved him and helped save him from harm.

GEM 3

In Chapter 8, we’re also introduced to a man named Ehud. Have you heard of him?

We’re told that Ehud had descendants who were “heads of families of those living in Geba and were deported to Manahath” but no other information is provided. This would lead us to assume that Ehud was not important in the Biblical annals but that would be a false assumption. For as we will soon see, Ehud was an important figure in the lives of the Israelite people.

Go to the third chapter of Judges and you will find the Israelites in dire straits. They had done evil in the eyes of the Lord and as a result, the Lord gave a foreign king, Eglon king of Moab, power over them. They were subject to his rule for 18 years.

Yearning for release, the Israelites turned their attention to the Lord, crying out for help. He answered that cry by providing them a deliverer, a man named Ehud who was the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent Ehud to Eglon with a tribute and after he was alone with the king, Ehud told him he had a message from God and as the king stood, Ehud plunged his sword into the king’s belly and killed him. He then left and locked the room behind him. By the time the king was discovered dead, Ehud has escaped. He returned to the Israelites and assumed leadership over them as their judge (this was in the period of Judges, leaders appointed by God over Israel. Later, the Israelites would demand kings instead.). Moab would come under the authority of Israel and Ehud and scriptures tell us that peace existed over the land for 80 years.

Name changes and the stories of the people behind them. A dear friendship between a future king and a son of a king who wished to not be partnered with murder. A great judge of Israel.

All gems nestled within the chronicles of Chapter 8. Tomorrow, we finish this journey with gems from Chapter 9.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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