1 Chronicles 9:1
9 So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.
Response
Details from our past—where one comes from (place) and who one comes from (biological lineage) and related experiences—provide material for envisaging our possible futures, so shaping attitudes, decisions, and behavior. The Chronicler’s details of “all Israel,” including why the present situation fell short, provide a picture of what his hearers could become under God as his people together faithfully worshiped him.
We now continue the story on to Christ and have experienced two thousand years of the growth of the church, which has in its diversity, like Israel, been both faithful and faithless. We too have experienced the consequences of human behavior and God’s continuing grace and provision. This is our past that has shaped us and provides images and language for envisaging the future. Today the vision leading us on is the exuberant expansion of the Chronicler’s “all Israel” in the double picture in Revelation of “144,000” from all the tribes (listed with Judah first and Benjamin last) and of a “great multitude . . . from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:4–9).