Today’s Scripture Reading (August 16,
2013): 1 Chronicles 3
A year ago I
had laser surgery done on my eyes. I only needed glasses for distance, but when
I went on vacation a year ago and flew into our vacation hotspot after four
hours on the plane, I went to get my glasses but they were not there. We waited
until everyone was off the plane and then we tore apart the seat and checked
all over the floor of the plane, but my glasses were simply gone. Now, luckily
I had a pair of prescription sun glasses with me. and so for the rest of my
vacation I wore my sunglasses whenever I needed glasses and I had to explain
every time that I walked into a restaurant why it was that I felt that I needed
to wear my sunglasses inside their dimly lit food establishments. So when I
arrived back home, I felt I had a choice – either buy another pair of glasses
or do something so that I did not need glasses anymore.
But when I
went in for my first appointment to evaluate my eyes for surgery, I realized
that I was going to have to make a choice. They could operate on my eyes so
that I did not need distance glasses anymore, but I would need reading glasses.
Or I could have an operation that would leave me with mono-vision, basically
that means that one eye would be perfect for distance and one eye would be
perfect for reading. To be honest, that idea did not make any sense to me. I
understand the value of binocular vision. I have two eyes that help me see this
world the way it needs to be seen. It is one thing to see with one eye, but two
eyes help me see the world more fully.
Often when
we have two accounts of a story we are just getting a fuller view of what the
story is trying to tell us. And sometimes there are disagreements between the
stories, but all that means is that we are getting a slightly different view of
the action.
So,
Zerubbabel in this passage is said to be the son of Pedaiah. The problem is
that Haggai calls Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the older brother of
Pedaiah. So once again we are left with a choice. Either this passage is simply
wrong and the names are messed up, or maybe the Zerubbabel in 1 Chronicles 3 is
a different Zerubbabel than the one that is mentioned in Haggai 1:1, but that
would mean that there would be two first cousins in the royal family that had
the same name. But then we would have to explain why Chronicles mentions this
Zerubbabel and not the one that would be the son of the Governor of Judah and
the successor of the throne of Israel had the nation not been defeated by
Babylon.
Or another
option is that the two passages give us a fuller story of who Zerubbabel was.
And the most likely explanation for the discrepancy is that the Zerubbabel was
the son of Pedaiah. But it was Shealtiel that was the successor to the throne –
and in this time the possessor of the governorship of the Babylonian province
of Judah. But Shealtiel had no son to succeed him, and so he adopted his
nephew. Zerubbabel still had royal blood in him (he was a son of King David,)
but he was not in succession to the throne of Israel until his uncle adopted
him. By the way, Matthew agrees with Haggai and calls Zerubbabel the son of
Shelatiel – and this adopted son not only becomes a part of the ruling line of
Israel, but also becomes an ancestor of Jesus.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 4
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