The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.

Our text takes us to a genealogy which lists the end of a dynasty. Our text tells us of the last kings in the line of David. What does our text mean for us today? Why should we even care about the lists of names? The genealogies of the Bible are important to today’s Christians. We learn from the genealogies that God is concerned about fulfilling His promises, your family, and your worship.

1 Chronicles 3 records for us David’s descendants. Verses 1-9 describe all of David’s children by his wives and concubines. Verses 10-16 narrow the focus on David’s descendants to the royal line through Solomon. Verse 16 tells us the last three kings of the kingdom of Judah (the Southern kingdom).

The chronicler lists name after name under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives this list to show to the Jews in exile that God as fulfilled His promises in the past and that He will continue to fulfill His promises in the future. Jehovah had promised a land for His people. At the time of the writing of Chronicles, Israel was soon going to return to that land. Jehovah promised that He would bless genuine worship; worship would soon commence in Jerusalem. God had promised a king for His people; four hundred and thirty more years would pass until the King of kings was born to this world. Listing the genealogies showed the people in exile that the same God who had worked in the lives of their families was still at work in their lives today. As a matter of fact, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob that was working in their lives is the same God working in your life today. If God made a promise to you in His Word, He will fulfill it. There are times when we wonder if God will keep His promises toward us, but we can look at the genealogies and realize that God’s faithfulness and mercy extends to a thousand generations. If a generation is thirty years, then God’s faithfulness will extend for thirty thousand years (at the least)! Mankind has only existed for six or seven thousand years at the most. We still have a long way to go to exhaust God’s faithfulness and mercy toward us.

What are your thoughts on this verse?

Can you point to God’s faithfulness in your family tree?

What sort of impact will your family make upon future generations because you chose to serve God today?

Where will your family fit in God’s design for the ages?