Family stories worth remembering...

Is there a Balm in Gilead, in Tekoa, or Anywhere in this World?

(1 Chronicles 2:21-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 7, 2017)

[21] Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub. [22] And Segub fathered Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead. [23] But Geshur and Aram took from them Havvoth-jair, Kenath, and its villages, sixty towns. All these were descendants of Machir, the father of Gilead. [24] After the death of Hezron, Caleb went in to Ephrathah, the wife of Hezron his father, and she bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.

Hezron of Judah and the daughter of another tribe

Jacob, Judah, Perez, and Hezron. Hezron of Judah, when he was sixty years old, had some descendants by a woman from another tribe. That woman's heritage: Jacob, Joseph, Manasseh, and Machir. Hezron and the daughter of Machir had Segub, who was the father of Jair.

Jair and Gilead

Machir was also the father of Gilead. Gilead was the name of a person, but it was also the name of a large region to the east of the Jordan River with its own turbulent history. Jair, though descended from Judah on his father's side, was especially associated with his mother's people in the land of Gilead, modern-day Jordan. He had twenty-three cities there, but two other neighboring people groups took back many of the villages and towns in this part of Gilead.

The sons of Machir had originally captured the land of Gilead, dispossessing the earlier inhabitants. Gilead, which means “rocky region,” frequently changed hands over the centuries. It was a border area that was challenging to hold on to. About that river...The people who lived on the wrong side had a temptation to distance themselves from the other tribes of Israel. During a great crisis described in the book of Judges when all the fighting men were needed in order to repulse a powerful foe, we read that “Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.” (Judges 5:17) When you lived in Gilead, it was easy to forget who you were—that you were part of the people of Jehovah, the chosen people. Even those who were descended from Judah through Hezron, may have wanted to just keep their distance from their fellow Israelites on the other side of the river.

But then the people of Gilead, prone to forget their God and to lose track of who they really were, with powerful adversaries for neighbors, often got into trouble. See Amos 1:13. The prophet Jeremiah wrote “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:22)

Throughout the centuries, Gilead, with its mixture of Judah, Manasseh, and no doubt some other people groups and their religious systems and related ideas about life, became very much like the Gentile world, with the real Promised Land people of Israel and Judah on the other side of Jordan. Suffering African-American Christians answered Jeremiah 8:22. They sang a spiritual faith song about finding “home” even when you live on the wrong side of the Jordan.

There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

Caleb and Ephrathah

Gilead. That's one story of a person and a place. Here is a second—though briefer.

Hezron died. His wife became the mother of another child, perhaps even by Hezron's older son, Caleb. Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ashhur, and Tekoa.

Ashhur and Tekoa

So Ashhur became the father of Tekoa. Tekoa was a person, of whom we know nothing aside from his connection to the town or surrounding region by the same name, about which we know just a little. One famous biblical character associated with Tekoa was the prophet Amos. (Amos 1:1) Though he came from this area in Judah, he spoke of God and God's family to Jewish tribes in the north. His message was not appreciated there: “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel....” (Amos 7:12-13) His response: “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” Amos had a story worth remembering. He brought a sacrificial love that brings healing ointment—a balm—to those have forgotten who they are.

Tekoa, along with many other places in Judah, would have suffered greatly at the hands of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians. Yet decades later, there would have been some among the scattered exiles of the Jews who considered places like Gilead and Tekoa “home” and they were eager to make their connections to such historic people and places that would give them the right to be considered part of the tribe of Judah through Perez and Hezron. The Chronicler knew that the stories of tribe and clan were worth remembering. Even more, every family history in Israel was part of the story of the family of God. Who really was Israel? Who started her? Why had she too often let the world define them rather than God? These were questions with answers.

Land on earth and the Christian hope

Our connection to God is different than that desired by the Old Testament worshipers of Jehovah. We do not seek to establish our line through our natural descent in order to have the privilege of worshiping the Lord God. We have been claimed by the God/Man Jesus Christ by way of a blood payment and our resulting adoption into the household of the Almighty. Our position is superior and far more secure than any rights we might have imagined to God's favor through our own natural families, however impressive those family stories might be.

What should our attitude regarding our own lands, regions, and cities in this present creation? Like ancient Gilead we live in places that present special challenges and are very near others who would want us to forget our family heritage and to be branded by identity politics or brands they sell. (Psalm 119:136) We have a creation/redemption mandate: take dominion over a “tohu vebohu” earth with the love of Jesus. Not only order, but justice like a river. (Amos 5:24) We should do so with prayer, confident expectation, and unity in God's Word. Yet our best hope is in the everlasting Promised Land and not in this fading world. We and our towns need big healing. There is a balm in Gilead through Jesus Christ in the family of the redeemed bearing His Name.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 13 – He has dealt bountifully with me

Gospel Reading—Matthew 7:7-11 – [7] Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8] For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [9] Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? [11] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!