Wed.’s Devo - Genealogies

Read: 1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40; Acts 27:1-20; Psalm 7:1-17; Proverbs 18:22 Issachar had four sons which grew into 87,000 who were mighty warriors when the census was taken. *** Benjamin had three sons who grew into 17,200 fighting warriors. Chapter 8 continues to talk about Benjamin’s line and it says he had 5 sons. Benjamin’s first born was Bela in both stories. One of his descendants, Shahariam had two wives that he divorced named Hushim and Baara. Hushim had had two sons by her husband before he divorced her and one of them went onto have at least 5 sons. All of the leaders of Benjamin’s clans lived in Jerusalem. *** King Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin. *** Naphtali was given one sentence. He had four sons. It reminds us that Naphtali was from Jacob’s concubine Bilhah, who was Rachel’s servant. No mighty warriors came from Naphtali, Manasseh, or Ephraim’s line. *** Manasseh had an Aramean concubine who his line came from. It seems they had trouble having sons but had plenty of daughters. *** Ephraim’s line had tragedy when two of Ephraim’s sons were killed. He later had another son. His daughter built three towns. Joshua, who became Israel’s leader after Moses, came from Ephraim’s line. *** Asher had mighty warriors and outstanding leaders from his line. *** In Acts, Paul was on his way to Rome in a ship with Roman officers and several other prisoners. The main Roman officer was Julius and he gave Paul great favor and let him visit with his friends on stops to different ports along their way. *** They lost a lot of time because the wind was against them, so the season for sailing was coming to an end. Paul warned them about continuing on. He saw the future full of shipwreck and danger and warned the officers. The ship crew decided they would try to make it to Phoenix and spend the winter there but they were met with a typhoon. Just as Paul had warned them they had to throw out cargo and the ship was held together by ropes. It looked like they were all going to drown. Stay tuned tomorow for the end of our story. *** If the men had listened to Paul, they would have saved their ship, their cargo and all the hardship they met. It is our job to tell people the truth, but we cannot control them or make them heed our warnings. Sadly, their bad decisions many times affect us also. But, God will always get glory from the end result. *** Lord, may we trust you in the good and the bad. When we are not in control, we know that you are. You cause everything to turn for the good of your purposes. Thank you!