Know Your History Part 2

 

    Genealogy is a part of knowing your history.  It is a spiderweb of your family going back all the way to the beginning.  It doesn't mean anything to anyone else, but it can be fun to see where you came from.  What type of people were your people throughout history?  It is more than just names and dates.  It is the full significant history of income, title, and validity.

    The family line gives you significance to where you are now.  If you come from a family that upholds high standards, then it can explain why.  If you come from a family that had nothing, it can explain the defeat or the drive in which were have instilled in you.

    In the Bible if you did not fall into a family, then you were assumed to be shunned.  That was the worst fate.  In some cultures that would make you an untouchable.  It made you nothing to the point that you had no future.  It was vital to know your family history.  When they were in excile it helped determine where people would live.  They divided the people by clans to keep people together with their own people.

    Knowing the history directly helped the Hebrews know what happened to their family and why.  It also determined what kind of job you were allowed.  The Levites were the only ones allowed to be temple musicians.  Each tribe and assigned them jobs and responsibilities.  When the nation slip they stopped being Israelites.  When they were in excile may be when they stopped being Hebrews and became what we know as Jews.

    Genealogy also teaches you what mattered to people throughout history.  Things that were significant about the time will be recorded.  Everything else slips through the cracks.  Some things will never be answered, but you can still learn so much.

1 Chronicles 4-9