Today’s
Scripture Reading (March 29, 2019): 1 Chronicles 1
What do the following have in common; Alexander the
Great, Mohandas Gandhi, Cyrus the Great, Sir John A. MacDonald, and George
Washington? The answer is that each is considered to be the Father of their
Nations. Alexander the Great is the Father of the Greeks. Mohandas Gandhi is
the Father of Modern India, although that designation is unofficial. Cyrus the
Great is the Father of Iran or Persia. Sir John A. MacDonald, although
admittedly his image has deteriorated over the past decade, is considered to be
the Father of Canada. And George Washington leads the list of Founding Fathers
in the United States. Each one has made a significant contribution to either the
founding of the nation or, especially in the case of Mohandas Gandhi, the
current elevation and freedom of the country.
None of the men, interestingly they are all men which is probably an artifact
of the fact that they are from our past, were perfect. The Canadian question is
whether the imperfections of people like Sir John A. MacDonald’s should disqualify
them as a Founding Fathers. My answer is that the shortcomings of the past are often hard to judge in the present.
Their ideals and morals may be different
from ours, but they also didn’t have the influences which have shaped our
modern world. The morals of one generation are often developed and built upon by the next. To judge historical figures
according to the morality of the present is decidedly unfair. And without each
of these men, and the sacrifices that they have made, our nations would not have
the foundation on which the nations are
built.
The opening words of 1 Chronicles are a list of
names. We understand that each is the father of the one who goes before. So
Adam is the father of Seth, and Seth is the father of Enosh. These are not the
only children or even the only sons. They
are also not the oldest sons. For instance, we know that Seth is the third son
of Adam. The argument can be made that
Abel was murdered and Cain was disqualified from this list, but still, this is not strictly a list of eldest
sons of the father. They are the sons who are the most important because the
biblical story flows through each of these men.
The list continues until we get to the Sons of Noah.
In the original Hebrew, the words “The sons of Noah” is absent in the writing. There the list simply continues. “Enoch,
Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth” (1 Chronicles 1:3-4). The list
abruptly changes from father to son, to a listing of three brothers. And the
significance of the change is that these three men become the Fathers of the
Nations in a post-flood world. These men would give birth to nations and shape
the way the world looked after the flood.
It is interesting that
there are three. It might be that Shem, Ham, and Japheth are replacements for
three other men of influence that should have stood in their place. Just as Noah
became the new Adam of the post-flood world, so Shem, Ham, and Japheth became
the new Cain, Abel, and Seth in a world that had been drastically changed shaped by the disaster
of the flood.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 2
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