There is a lot of attention to detail in the Chronicler’s account, providing for us genealogical specifics that had taken place over about eight hundred years. These chapters are comparable to being able to recite your personal genealogy back to the 13^th century, and not only for yourself but for everyone in the neighborhood while you’re at it.

It should be obvious enough that the Chronicler cannot have simply known all of these things already, so that he just had to write them down. Instead, he would have had to engage in a process of serious research, including checking historical records and inquiring into oral histories. We can see hints of that from time to time; for example, amidst notes about linen workers and potters we find the Chronicler noting that “the records are ancient” (I Chronicles 4:21-23).

The prayer of Jabez is worth noting: “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” (4:10). Nothing further is known of Jabez; this is the only mention of him anywhere in scripture. Despite its recent popularity, his prayer is not the only one we should know; and we should not take it as a magic charm that anyone who prays this prayer can count on being kept from all hurt and harm. Still, although the Chronicler had no further details to add about Jabez, somewhere in his research he found a record of this prayer, and therefore included it for us to read.

More of the Chronicler’s theological perspective shows up in his note that although the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites were well-trained warriors with sword and shield and also with the bow (5:18), they did not depend just on their skill at arms: “they cried to God in the battle, and he granted their entreaty because they trusted in him” (5:20). Yet he also noted that in the end they turned from God, and were therefore defeated by the Assyrians and carried away into captivity (5:25-26).

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O God! Our heritage is even deeper, nearly forty centuries: yet we live in the arrogance of present-day culture, as if most everything important has only been figured out in the last few years. Save us, Lord, and teach us to recognize the wisdom of earlier generations, that we too may become wise.