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I wanted to just recap the intro to bring us up to speed. First and second Chronicles, one book in a Hebrew Bible called Devre yi Hayamim, meaning words of the days. So it's very similar to first Kings and second Kings, First Samuel, Second Samuel. In a Hebrew Bible, there aren't first and seconds. It's just the book of Samuel or the Book of Kings. And in a Hebrew Bible, the Book of Chronicles. And in a Hebrew Bible, it appears as the last book of the Bible. Now, our Old Testament are the same books as a Hebrew Bible, but our Old Testament is arranged slightly differently than a Hebrew Bible. Thus, as we study through 1 and 2 chronicles, it's not the last of our Old Testament books, but it is the last in a Hebrew Bible. It was likely written by Ezra, but the author is unnamed, so we don't know for sure. What we do know is that it was written post exile. In other words, when the people of Judah were sent into captivity into Babylon, because God used Babylon, a foreign nation, as the rod of his discipline to correct the people that he loved. Because of their idolatry, they spent 70 years in Babylon. And then under King Cyrus, they are allowed to return to Israel, to the land of their forefathers. And so this book is written for the benefit of those who have been in captivity, returning now after 70 years. Now, you have to keep in mind that most of the people are going to go to the land of Israel who have never been there before. Because during 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they've been born there. In Babylon, they don't even know their homeland. They don't. They don't know their history. They don't know the language. They've been stripped of a lot of things. And so they have to kind of recapture who are they? What, what is true about their history, what is true about their language, what is true about their worship, what is true about the Lord. And so most of the people who go to the land of Israel after spending 70 years of captivity, this is all brand new to them. Some are going to go back who are elderly. You know, let's say you were 10 years old when you were taken captive by the Babylonians. Now you're 80. And so for some they remember the homeland, but for most, they don't. And that's why Chronicles was really written. It was written basically as a handbook for the exiles of Israel who need to be reacquainted or introduced for the first time to their own Jewish history. A lot of what we read in 1st and 2nd Chronicles therefore is going to be a repeat of things that we read in 1st and 2nd Kings. And for that reason I said two weeks ago that, that we would not be reading verse by verse because it's rather laborious. Plus we got to get through a lot of genealogies here in the first several chapters. So I'm going to be doing more of a survey of first and Second Chronicles because much of it is repetitive to first and Second Kings. But where we left off last week was in the middle of chapter two, or two weeks ago was in, in the middle of chapter two we got through this genealogy from Judah to David. So just to revisit, when we talk about the nation of Israel, we're talking about the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now Jacob was the grandson of Abraham And Jacob had 12 sons. And those 12 sons form what is known as the 12 Tribes of Israel. And, and from the descendants of those 12 sons comes the nation of Israel. And so what we begin to read here is the, the writer of Chronicles is going to chronicle their history and, and he's going to review for them. Here are the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Jacob, and here's their lineage. And he comes here in, in chapter two to one of the sons of, of Jacob, otherwise known as Israel. And this son is Judah. And so he is going to tell us how the line of Judah leads up to King David. And this is where we left off last week. So just as a. Or two weeks ago. Just a quick review here from chapter two, you'll notice in verse three, the sons of Judah were er and Onan and Shelah, poor guy being called Shelah, but that was a son. And these three were born to him by the daughter of Shua, the Canaanitess. Er, the firstborn of Judah was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so he killed him. So God killed him. Like you don't mess with the Lord. Right? And verse 4 and Tamar, his daughter in law, bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five. So note Perez because Perez is important into the line of David. And this is what now the writer of Chronicles is going to do, going to go down the line from Judah to Perez and then Perez's son Hezron. Look at verse five. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamu. And then jump down to verse nine. Now we have the sons of Hezron. And so he's going to follow this line down to King David. Verse 9 says all the sons of Hezron who were born to him were Jeremel, Ram and Chelubi. Now, Chelubi or Chalubai is also known as Caleb, further down. But I want you to circle Hezron's son, Ram, because it's going to go from Judah to Perez to Hezron to Ram. And now we're going to follow this down to David. Verse 10 says, Ram begot Amminadab and Amminadab begot Naan, leader of the children of Judah. Naan begot Salma, and Salma begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed. Okay, this is the grandfather of David, Obed begot Jesse. There's David's dad. And Jesse begot Eliab, his firstborn, Abinadab ii, Shimea the third, Nathaniel the fourth, Radi the fifth, Ozem the sixth, and David the seventh. Now, I mentioned last time that sometimes David is mentioned as the 8th. Why does this look like a contradiction? Well, some Bible scholars believe that one of the sons of Jesse has died. And so the chronicler mentions David as the seventh son because one is now gone. So it's not really a contradiction. And mentions now David. And this is the only David mentioned in the Bible. And that is the David who will become king of Israel, who becomes the second king of Israel. And so in the rest of chapter two, it's going to follow other lines of Judah. So you'll notice in my Bible, it's subtitled at verse 18, the family of Hezron. So it continues to follow these different lines within the clan of Judah. If you glance at verse 25, the subtitle of my Bible says, the family of Jeremiel, that's another son of Hezron. And then further down at verse 42, it says, the family of Caleb, that's another son of Hezron. So these are a lot of genealogical names. This is why I'm basically skipping over them, because I would butcher half of their names anyway, and I don't want to dishonor them in that way. But this is just a genealogical record. Again, the importance is for these exiles returning to Israel to know where they've come from, whatever tribe they belong to. This is their heritage. And so it spells it out. Now, let's go to chapter three, because it picks up here with the family of David. And so we're going to hear a little bit here of David's family in chapter three, verse one. Now, these were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron. If you remember, David's reign as king was really Kind of in two parts. He spent seven, seven and a half years in Hebron because he was not fully embraced by the entire nation. And then he will spend another 33 years as. As, yeah, 33 years as. Because he reigns for 40 years, he's going to spend another 33 years in Jerusalem. And so the chronicler breaks down. Here's the sons he had in Hebron, and then here's some sons he had in Jerusalem. So here we go. The firstborn was Ammonia. Now note his name. We'll come to him back in a minute. And. And Ammon is born by Ahinoam. Now you're going to see here that David has several wives. This was not God's will, but nevertheless, he had several wives, and he had several sons by all these different wives. Ammon Amnon was born by Ahonoam, the Jezreelitess. The second is Daniel. Now, if you notice in your footnotes, some times Daniel is also known as Khilab. And he was born by Abigail the Carmelitis. The third son is Absalom, the son of Makah, the daughter of. She was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth son is Adonijah, the son of Hagif. That's another wife. The fifth, Shepherdia by Abital. The sixth, Ithraim by his wife Egla. So here we are introduced to six of David's sons by various wives. And so verse four says, these six were born to him in Hebron, and there he reigned seven years and six months. And in Jerusalem he reigned 33 years. And these were born to him in Jerusalem. So now we have a list of some more sons here. Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. These four sons were born to him by Bathshua. Now, Bathshua is a variation of the name Bathsheba. And so of those four sons, of course, Solomon is the most familiar to us. And these four were born by his later marriage to Bathsheba or Bashua, the daughter of Amiel. And says in verse six. And also there were Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nephag, Japhaiah, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet. Nine in all, these were all the sons of David. And it doesn't tell us who their moms were. Okay, and then it says, besides the sons of the concubines, he's got even more sons by concubines. And then it mentions Tamar, their sister. So you do the math. He's got six sons born to him by various wives in Hebron, he's got four more with Bathsheba. Now we're up to 10 sons and he's got another nine here and their moms aren't even listed. So do the math. And then it says, and then besides them he's got other sons, plural, by concubines. So he's got 19 plus sons. And then there's one daughter mentioned here, Tamar. Now Tamar, sad story. If you remember the story of David and his and his family. And it is pretty dysfunctional, everybody. Tamar, his daughter, David's daughter, born with, by his marriage to Maacah, Tamar gets raped by her half brother. And that's the very first guy mentioned in the list. That's why I told you to remember Amnon. So, so the very firstborn son of David, Amnon, who is born to David by his wife Ahonoam, he rapes his sister, his half sister, Tamar. They have the same dad, but different moms. And then remember Absalom's name, another of David's sons mentioned there in verse two, the third born son of David. And Absalom, who was the full blooded brother of Tamar, takes vengeance into his own hands and kills his half brother Amnon, who raped Tamar. So there's a lot of family dysfunction going on here and some sad stories within David's family. So this is David's family, this is his line. And then it follows, so Solomon here go into verse 10 with me. Solomon's son was Rehoboam and Abijah was his son. And then it continues to list all these various names. These become the list of the kings of Judah. So remember that the first king of Israel is Saul. Then you have David, and then David's son Solomon becomes king. And after Solomon there's a split in the kingdom. And there are 10 tribes that form the northern kingdom of Israel. And there are two tribes that form the southern kingdom of Judah. And the line of the kings of Judah follow Solomon's descendants. And that's the rest of these verses from verse 10 down through verse 16. Look at verse 16. The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son and Zedekiah his son. Zedekiah is the last king of Judah of the southern kingdom. So the writer of Chronicles is following David's line here down through Solomon. And then Solomon's descendants, and these various sons, these various descendants become king of Judah until the last one is Zedekiah. And Zedekiah is the king, the last king of Judah, who is taken captive by the Babylonians. And it's the end of Judah. 586 BC. The Babylonians come in. They besiege Jerusalem. God has allowed this. The Bible says that God uses Babylon as the rod of his discipline to purge his people from idolatry. And so Zedekiah's reign is the last of the kings of Judah, the northern kings of Israel. They've already been ransacked by the Assyrians in 723 BC. So they're already done. And the southern kingdom now is done. And so they will come back. And God's not finished with his people. He doesn't discard the Jewish people, but they will come back after captivity. Captivity. And they come back to the land. But Zedekiah is the last of the kings. Go over to chapter four now with me, because now the writer of Chronicles talks about the family of Judah in more particular details. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob of the 12 sons. Judah was number four. But he's mentioned here as the first son, even though he's the fourth in chronological birth order, because he's the most significant, Judah becomes the most significant of the 12 sons of Jacob. Why? Well, because as far as the chronicler is concerned, because David comes from the line of Judah. But we have the benefit of knowing. Yeah, but past the line of David comes ultimately Jesus, the Messiah. See, Jesus is born into the line of Judah. So Judah is significant for us, for messianic reasons. For in the days of when this was written, of course, Judah is significant because it is the line of Judah that leads to King David. I want to point out, among the descendants of Judah, if you'll jump here, in chapter 4, verse 9, it mentions. Mentions Jabez. In verse 9, it says, Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. And so God granted him what he requested. This is kind of an interesting insertion of this guy who was not mentioned before and he will not be mentioned afterwards. He gets a couple of verses here. This Jabez, he just all of a sudden is inserted as one of the descendants of Judah, but he's not even mentioned in terms of what line he particularly comes, what family he particularly comes from within the tribe of Judah. All we know is he just emerges here from the Tribe of Judah. But God wants to single him out for a reason. And it's interesting how he, even though this is the only place where he's mentioned in all of the Bible, he's mentioned as notice more honorable than his brothers. Did you notice that with me in verse nine, he's more honorable than his brothers. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bore him in pain. So Jabez in the Hebrew. There's no J in the Hebrew language. It's really a Y. It's Yatsev. Yatsev in Hebrew means he causes pain. Now, that's not a very nice thing for a mother to name her son. But apparently he caused her pain in childbirth, which is curious to me, because don't all children cause you pain in childbirth? But anyway, she's like, wow, that really hurt. I'm going to name him. You hurt me. So that's the name that he gets here. But it's interesting because what he's known for is for his prayer. And there's even been a book written, the prayer of Jabez. Like, he's known for his prayer. And at the end of his prayer, did you notice how he ends it? He says, that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. You know, on a serious note, like, this guy is having to live with his name as a reminder of pain that he inflicted on his mom. And yet he's asking the Lord, I don't want that to define my life. I don't want any pain that I've caused my mother, whether it's physical or mental or otherwise. I don't want that to be my legacy. And he prays to God and asks him for some, you know, important things to Him. He calls on the name of the God of Israel, and he asks for God to bless Him. You know, it's not a bad thing to just say, lord, I just want your favor. You know, I don't think this is a material, selfish kind of a prayer request. This is just, I want to walk in the favor of the Lord. I want yout hand to be gracious upon me. I want yout to bless me. A lot of times we just correlate blessings of God with material things. And that's not necessarily what he's praying for here, although the source of our material things is the Lord. And we should always give him thanks because he blesses us in various ways. But this is not just, you know, bless me, God, bless me, God. This is just wanting the favor of the Lord. Who doesn't want that? I mean, I'd rather have the blessing of the Lord than the cursing of the Lord, you know? And so he's just wanting God's favor. Enlarge my territory. He's praying that God would expand. Expand what? Where he lives. And that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil and that I may not cause pain. So as we go through here, like we have in previous books, I'm looking for different principles. And here's one I think that we can take from the example of Jabez. Prayer, not ambition or achievement, is what God sees as the more honorable pursuit. This guy is called more honorable than his brothers, not because of any great thing he did, although there's nothing wrong with doing great things for God. But he's called more honorable because he was a praying man. He was a praying person who sought the favor of the Lord. And that is often more honorable than any great achievements or accomplishments. So I just wanted to point out Jabez there, because he's mentioned here, and then there's no other mention of this guy. If you flip over to verse 24, then the writer of Chronicles here in. In chapter 4, verse 24, he goes on now to the family of Simeon. So again, he's going to start to talk about these 12 sons of Jacob. He's going to help these exiles to know, here's the whole nation, here's the family. And he comes now to the family of Simeon. Now, Simeon in birth order was son number two. He was the second son of Jacob. And what's interesting to note here with me is, if you'll notice, in verse 28, it talks about the descendants of Simeon. Verse 28. They dwelt at Beersheba, Molada, Hazar, Shual, Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, Bethuel, Horma, Ziklag, Bethmarkarboth, Hazar, Susan. On and on it goes. But notice, these were the cities until the reign of David, verse 32. And their villages were. And then it named some villages. And then it says, and five cities and all the villages. This is verse 33. And all the villages that were around these cities as far as baal. What it mentions here are villages and cities. Jump down to verse 39. I want to point this out. And so they went to the entrance of Gidor as far as the east side of the valley to seek pasture for their flocks. And they found rich, good pasture. And the land was broad, quiet and peaceful, for some Hamites formerly lived there. Remember, Hamites were descendants of Noah's son, Ham. The, the. The. We talked about the people groups last week or two weeks ago. The sons of Ham, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Japheth was the ancestor of the European people, Ham, the Asian people, African people, and then Shem, the Semitic people, the Jewish people. So the Hamites are cousins of the Shemites, and we're really talking about the Shemites here at this point. So what I wanted to point out was the fact that it mentions here villages and cities and pasture lands. The people of Simeon were somewhat wandering people. Now, each of the twelve sons of Jacob did get land allotment, with the exception of Levi. I'll come back to that. But even though they had land allotment, the people of Simeon were. Were somewhat wanderers. And the reason they were wanderers is because Simeon and his brother Levi, they had massacred the men of Shechem. And the story is detailed in Genesis chapter 34. And they. Well, in fact, if you. If you just want to turn back to Genesis chapter 34 or you can just listen, but I'm going to summarize. In Genesis chapter 34, there's a very tragic event that happens where their sister Dinah was sexually assaulted by a man named Shechem. So there is a. A city named Shechem, and it's basically named after this guy, Shechem, and he. Or he's named after the town, and he sexually assaults Dinah. And so Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, take vengeance not just on Shechem himself, but all the men who lived in Shechem. And they. They put the sword to them. Look at, this is Genesis 34. This is verse 25. Now, it came to pass in the third day when they were in pain, that the two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and. And went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. They took their sheep, their oxen and their donkeys that was in the city and what was in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives they took captive, and they plundered even all that was in the houses. And it says. And then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, okay, now this is dad. Okay, Jacob, he's got these 12 sons and so he pulls Simeon and Levi aside, and he says, you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I. But they said, should he treat our sister like a harlot? Okay, so let me summarize your attention for a moment. So Simeon and Levi take vengeance on the whole village of Shechem. And. And they kill all the men. So Jacob the dad says to his sons, like, what have you guys done? Now, here's the issue. They rightfully want to get justice for their sister, okay? But they should have stopped with the man who had sexually assaulted their sister. They should have just simply brought justice to Shechem. But instead, they slaughter all the men. So they have this unrestrained anger. That's what Jacob the Dad is upset about. He's not upset that they have taken justice for Dinah. He's upset that they have indiscriminately slaughtered all the men. They've gone overboard. Their anger has gotten the best of them. And now Jacob's like, we run the risk of our whole family being slaughtered here. And so. And the brothers stand up, and they're like, well, shouldn't we have done something for Don? Yeah, you should have done something. But you. You went overboard. This was literally the definition of overkill. And so what happens is Jacob, then, when he is old in age, and he pronounces blessings upon Simeon when he gets to all his sons, when he comes to Simeon, he. He basically curses them. This is in Genesis 49. He curses Simeon. And he. And he says that. That Simeon and his descendants shall now be scattered across the land of Israel, and they're going to be wanderers. And so now when we get back here to First Chronicles, chapter four, if you want to turn back here now, that's why I pointed out villages and cities and pasture lands. Because these. These descendants of Simeon are now basically wandering across Israel without a specific home, because they're living out what their father Jacob has pronounced upon them. And so here's. Here's the takeaway we can learn from Simeon, from the example of Simeon. We have to guard against unrestrained anger. There is a place for justice, but there is not a place for unrestrained anger. And Simeon and his brother Levi had unrestrained anger. And that's why they slaughtered all the men of Shechem instead of just exacting justice upon one man. And so chapter Five here in First Chronicles. Now, chapter five, the chronicler is going to talk about the family of Reuben. Now, Reuben is the firstborn of the 12 sons of Jacob. And so here's a little review on Reuben. Look at verse one of chapter five. Now, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, Israel again is the new name of Jacob. So Jacob becomes Israel, and then the nation is named after him. Reuben was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright. Okay, now what is this about? All right, so we got another lesson to learn here from Reuben. So Reuben is the first son of Jacob, otherwise known as Israel, by the way, a great sandwich named after him. And. But Reuben does a terrible thing, and it is recorded in Genesis, chapter 35. And I'll just summarize it. Reuben sleeps with his father's concubine. Now, his father should have had a concubine. But be that as it may, he sleeps with his father's concubine. Her name was Bilhah, and it dishonored his father with his son's sexual sin. So because Reuben committed sexual sin by sleeping with his father's concubine, then Jacob takes away Reuben's birthright. Dad takes away his son's birthright, and he gives it instead to another of Jacob's sons, Joseph. Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So what does he do? He says, okay, Reuben, you have defiled my bed by sleeping with my concubines. So I'm going to take away your birthright, and I'm going to go laterally to your brother Joseph, and I'm going to give it to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When you look at The. The. The 12 sons of Jacob in terms of the 12 tribes of Israel, sometimes you will notice that Reuben's name is gone and Levi's name is gone. Levi's gone for a different reason. Levi becomes the priestly line. So the priestly line doesn't get inheritance, okay? Their inheritance is the Lord. So sometimes when you look at the list of the 12 tribes of Israel, it's minus Reuben, minus Levi, plus Manasseh and Ephraim. So sometimes it's a little confusing. When you look at the 12 sons of Jacob, you're like, where did Reuben go? Where did Levi go? And how and who are Manasseh and Ephraim? It's all part of this story here. So Reuben loses his birthright and instead it's handed to the sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. And notice here in verse five, in chapter five, verse two, where it says, yet Judah prevailed over his brothers and from him came a ruler. So it's always this mention of Judah because a ruler comes from the line of Judah. Of course, here the ruler is probably speaking about David, but in a prophetic way, the ruler who will come from the line of Judah is Jesus. So that's another lesson from, from Reuben we have is guard against sexual sin, because that's what it was here. Why did Reuben lose his birthright? Because he committed sexual sin. And, and here's the reality of a definition for sexual sin. It's any sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage between one man and one woman. That's just the way God defines it. I know that's not culturally the way that the world looks at sexuality, but the way that God looks at it is he reserved it as a gift between a husband and a wife in the bonds of marriage. And so outside of that is sexual sin. And that's what Reuben is committing here. And so that's why Reuben loses his birthright. You look down at verse, I'm still here in chapter 5, verse 11, you look at the family of Gad. Now, Gad is the seventh son in the birth order of the sons of Jacob. And all I want to point out for the moment is that Gad, the descendants of Gad, are going to live on the east side of the Jordan River. Just keep that in mind for just a moment. Keep going further here in chapter five, you will also notice in verse 23, it starts a mention about the family of Manasseh. And in my Bible it has in parentheses the family of Manasseh, in parentheses east. Because half of the tribe of Manasseh lives on the east side of the Jordan river along with Gad and along with Reuben. Now I want you to notice with me what it says here about the family of Manasseh. Look at verse 25. And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land whom God had destroyed before them. And so the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Puhl, king of Assyria, I.e. tiglath Pilesser, King of Assyria. And he carried the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh into captivity. And he took them to Halah, Habor, Harah, and the river of Gozan to this day. So let me explain. When Moses was used by the Lord to bring the slaves of Israel, the Hebrew people who had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, when God used Moses to lead them to the Promised Land, they. They come. They cross the Red Sea, and then they come in, and they come to what is today on a map, Jordan, the eastern side of the Jordan River. And the people of Israel are going to cross the Jordan river, going from east to west into the Promised Land. But when they were there on the eastern side of the Jordan river, two tribes, Gad and Reuben, come to Moses, and they say, we like it here, right where we are. We don't need to cross the Jordan river and to go with the rest of you guys into the Promised Land. There's plenty of pasture land here. We just want our animals to graze here. And we want to raise our families here on the eastern side of the Jordan River. We. Well, the tribe of Manasseh heard this, too. And half of that tribe said, you know what? We like it here on the eastern side, too. The other half said, we'll go with you across the Jordan river into the Promised Land. So now Moses has two and a half tribes that want to stay on the eastern side of the Jordan River. And again, what today on a map would be in the country of Jordan. And Moses at first objects to it. He's like, you guys aren't team players. You guys are supposed to wear the jersey with all of us, and you're supposed to go with us across the Jordan river into the Promised Land. But he eventually decides, once these two and a half tribes swear an oath, they'll fight with their brothers when they need to fight, and they'll worship the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just let us live on this side of the Jordan River. Moses says, okay, all right, you guys can stay on the eastern side of the Jordan River. The problem becomes this, everybody, that when you are separated from the rest of your family like this, it's very easy on the eastern side of the Jordan river to forget God and to forget your brothers on the western side of the Jordan River. And the sad part is, because you're on the eastern side of the Jordan river, you're not really in the Promised Land. You are more exposed to the pagan nations around you. And so what happens here is what we just read. These two and a half tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan river become influenced over by the pagan nations around them, more so than their brothers on the western side of the Jordan River. And these two and a half tribes, they prostitute themselves, spiritually speaking. That's why the word here is used a harlot. You guys have gone after a harlot. You've been unfaithful to the Lord. You've prostituted yourselves because you've gone after these foreign gods. And so the point that I want us to take away from this as we learn an example from Manasseh, is don't allow any distance between yourself and God. This is an important spiritual point. They geographically distanced themselves from the center of worship in Jerusalem. It'll be Shiloh for a long time, and then Jerusalem. They distanced themselves out of fellowship with their fellow Jewish brothers. And they became somewhat isolated and more vulnerable and exposed to the pagan influences of the world. The point is, we need to learn from this that it's important to stay in fellowship with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, to not forsake the assembling of gathering together Hebrews 10:25, and encourage one another. And all the more as we see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25, capital D, the day, the return of Christ. We need the fellowship of the body of Christ. We need one another. We need to encourage one another. We need to hold each other accountable. We need to iron sharpening iron as we do with one another. This is important because when we create distance between ourselves and the Lord and we're not reading our Bibles or we're not praying, we're not in fellowship with one another, then we become more vulnerable to the cultural influences. Does everybody see this? We become more vulnerable to the cultural influences when we're out of fellowship with God and we're out of fellowship with God's people. And that's the example of what happened on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They started worshiping the gods of the peoples of the land around them, and they forsook the Lord their God. Well, let's look at just quickly here into chapter six and then we'll call it a night. But here in chapter six, we're introduced to the family of Levi. This is another son of Jacob. This is son number three in the birth order. And, and it says in verse one, the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Now, these are important names, but I want you to particularly note the name Kohath for a moment. Kohath, verse 2. The sons of Kohath were Amram. Note Amram, Ishar, Hebron and Uziel. And the children of Amram were. Here are Some well known names, Aaron, Moses and Miriam. So two brothers and a sister. And of course Aaron and Moses. And Miriam will get a lot of coverage in the Bible because God is going to use Moses as his prophet, he's going to use Aaron as a priest, and God's going to use Miriam as a prophetess. And so these are three important people in the whole story of the Bible. But I want you to notice we're going to just jump on over here in chapter six, verse 31. It's going to, it's going to backtrack a little bit here because it mentions Moses, right? We just finished talking about Aaron, Moses and Miriam for the moment. And Moses is 1450 BC. Well, the writer of Chronicles is going to jump back to David for a minute. And David is a thousand B.C. so we've just jumped 450 years. Going now to verse 31, it says now these are the men whom David appointed over service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark came to rest. They were ministering with music before the dwelling place of the Tabernacle of meeting until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem and they served in their office according to their order. Okay, your attention for a minute. What we find here is the tribe of Levi is a very important tribe because out of the tribe of Levi will come the priests in service of the temple. They will be priests to serve the Lord in the temple. And what also comes from the tribe of Levi are the musicians. And David, it says here, will appoint musicians and singers from the tribe of Levi as worship leaders in the house of the Lord. Now it's just a temporary house known as the tabernacle until Solomon, David's son, builds a permanent structure in Jerusalem. But the same descendants of Levi are going to be these musicians and singers in the house of the Lord. Now this is just an important point, so go with me still. Verse 33. And these are the ones who ministered with their sons of the sons of the Koathites. Okay, so this is one of the sons of Levi, the Koathites were. He man, the singer. What a great name that is. Wouldn't you like to be. What's your name? He man? I'm Heman, the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, the son of Elkanah, the son of Jerome, the son of Eliel, the son of Toa, the son of Zeus, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mayhap, the son of Amasi. On and on it goes. Verse 37, the son of Tahath, the son of Asir, the son of Abiasaf, the son of Korah. Now please note that name. Korah, the son of Isar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, or the son of Jacob. I want you to notice here the name Korah. If Korah sounds familiar to you, it's because there's a story back in numbers Chapter 16 about this guy Korah, who was of the tribe of Levi. Korah led a rebellion against Moses. Korah recruited two other guys, Dathan and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram recruited 250 other men of the nation of the Hebrew people who rose up in opposition to Moses leadership. And in numbers, chapter 16, they come to a very ugly end because when God saw that Korah, Dathan and Abiram had risen up against the leadership of Moses and Moses was God's appointed man, God says to Moses, Moses, I want you to gather Korah, Dathan and abiram and the 250 others with them. And I want you to gather them to the entrance of the tent of meeting. And then when you gather them there, I'm paraphrasing. But then God says to Moses, then step aside, Moses. How many of you understand when God says step aside? Something bad is about to happen. And so Moses gathers Koradathan and Abiram at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting along with the 250 others. And the Bible says that God opens up the earth and swallows them all. Now, you see here, that was in the time of Moses, right? 1450 BC. But you still see Korah, the sons of Korah mentioned 450 years later in the time of David. And these sons are actually musicians and singers in the house of the Lord. Now wait, how can this be? Because Korah got swallowed up back in numbers, chapter 16, 450 years earlier. Well, the answer is either Korah had sons who were too young to be judged along with their father, or he had sons that had nothing to do with the rebellion and they didn't go down with that judgment. And 450 years later, the descendants of Korah are musicians and singers and worship leaders in the house of the Lord. And here's the important takeaway for this, everybody. If you're taking notes from the example of Korah, though he was rebellious against the Lord, his descendants became singers and musicians in the house of the Lord. And the takeaway is, every family can have a redemptive story. Every family can have a redemptive story. Korah was a rebellious guy, and he was judged for his rebellion, and God killed him and his family. But there were some survivors who did not participate in that rebellion. And generations later, they serve as musicians and worship leaders in the house of the Lord. I just can't tell you how much I love that story, because it reminds us that even though Korah did something rebellious, generations later, the descendants of Korah were worship leaders in the house of the Lord. And God can redeem your family story, too. You might be that redemptive story. It doesn't matter what happened generations ago. You in Christ can bring a new story to your family because you can be the redemption, the example, the testimony of what Christ can do to change the story of one family. Because of your relationship with Christ, to hand down a new heritage to your children after you. That's what Korah teaches us. That's what God's redemptive story teaches us. So we'll pick it up there next week. But for tonight, let's just thank the Lord that he can redeem us and give a whole new heritage to a family because of what Christ can do in our own hearts and lives. Lord, we just thank you for our Bible study tonight. We thank you for your word. And we read about very flawed people. We read about Reuben's sin. We read about Simeon and how he just slaughtered the men of Shechem. And we read about sexual assault. And our hearts can be heavy with just the. The nature of humanity. And yet, Lord, it exposes our own humanity. It exposes our own sin. It reminds us that we are flawed, sinful people, too. But through thank you, Lord, that we can be redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. And though Korah was rebellious generations later, his sons are serving as worship leaders in the house of the Lord. Lord, thank you that we can have new stories, too. And that because of what you can do in our hearts and lives, you can change our family dynamics and our family histories, and we can have new heritages that we hand down to our children and our children's children. So we thank you for that, Lord, and we just praise you for your mercy and your grace and for redemption, for new beginnings and second chances. We just worship you and we're grateful, Lord. Thank you for this time in your word and thank you for this time in your house tonight. Be with us as we leave this place. Bring us back again on Sunday. And we thank you together in Jesus name. And everybody said amen and amen.