Importance I Cannot Understand

Scripture: The sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, cattle-rustlers, killed on one of their raids by the natives of Gath. Their father Ephraim grieved a long time and his family gathered to give him comfort. 1 Chronicles 7:20-22

Observation: In this passage explaining the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, it starts by stating Ephraim's son (Shuthelah), then follows his line six generations, then ... a comma, an "and", then randomly names two more people (Ezer and Elead) who died ... and THEN says they were Ephraim's other sons, thus Shuthelah's brothers, from six generations ago. Because they died there are no clans from them. From there it says Ephraim had a daughter and thus she is not a clan. And finally it names another Ephraim son (Rephah) and his lineage down eight generations to Joshua. (It is also worth noting that verse 7:6 names three sons of Benjamin, but Chapter 8 begins by naming five sons of Benjamin, and only one (Bela) is common between both lists.)

For a people group that cared so very much about ancestorial ties to the patriarchs, and who organized their societal structure - from land holdings to career options - around their lineages, they could not have made the documentation of such more confusing if they had tried.

Application: I am quite confident that thousands of scholars over the centuries have reviewed all the scriptures in painstaking detail, and documented the family trees of the Israelite clans, and that if I Googled it I could find it neatly and simply laid out. However, I am always fascinated by the ancestorial documentation in scriptures for three reasons:

1) Ancestry is considered critically important for understanding many aspects of the Bible, including Jesus as Messiah, John as a prophet, David as king, Samuel as a leader worthy of selecting David and Saul, all the chief priests, etc.

2) The fall of Jerusalem to the Romans destroyed the ancestral documentation, which is one of the strongest cases for the fact that, since it was now impossible to trace ancestry to David, therefore Messiah had already come.

3) Despite all this importance, the documentation is - on the surface - a rats-nest mess of redundant names, seeming contradictions, and meaningless dead-ends, requiring extensive research to even try to comprehend.

And maybe ... maybe ... that is the point. This is an element of the Bible that reinforces many of the paradoxes of faith:

-- Significance (very important) vs. incomprehension (can't really understand)

-- Simple (just read it) vs. intellectual (study to find meaning)

-- Mundane (we all have ancestors) vs. complex (untangling God's meaning)

In the Bible, I often see the simplicity of the Lord's instructions, but also see immense wisdom that I cannot possibly fully comprehend. We are often told over and over again, in the midst of events (both in the Bible and in our everyday lives), that while we may have an earthly understanding of the events, we cannot understand the full breadth and depth of the Lord's purposes for everything that happens. In some cases, we need special teachers with years of study just to scratch the surface of understanding.

I don't understand the lineages in the Bible, but I can have faith in the importance of the Bible nonetheless.

Prayer: Lord, your word is perfect and wonderful. May I continue to find your meaning, your truth, and your love in everything I read in the Bible. Amen.