The opening chapters of 1 Chronicles are a series of lists of names which can seem confusing when we read them today. However, we are going to be brave and choose not to skip over them to get to the juicier stories that lay ahead.

The lists, or genealogies, begin with Adam and would have helped the original readers of Chronicles to understand and relate themselves to Adam, the first of God’s creation, to Abraham, the first of the covenant people, and to David, the divinely chosen king.

An important theme in Chronicles is that from David’s line would come the promise of future salvation through the one that God would send as Messiah. By providing as complete a genealogy as possible right back to Adam, the writer of Chronicles draws a straight line from the fall of mankind with Adam, to the expected salvation of mankind through the Messiah – Jesus – who was to come.

Through countless generations, the hand of God has been on his people. We get a tiny glimpse into the lives of long-gone individuals, like Segub who owned 23 cities in Gilead, and Seled who died without having sons, but God knew each one of these people fully, inside and out. As we read through name after name after name, the sheer scope of God’s role as Lord of all of humanity unfolds before us.

There is nobody who has ever lived or who will ever live whose name is not known to the Lord. These names on a page lived full and rich lives, just as we do, and the Lord knew them all, just as he knows us.

David once wrote, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” (Psalm 139).

In a world of more than 7 billion people, we can quickly begin to feel insignificant, but none of us are insignificant to the Lord. Be assured today that the Lord of all creation knows your name.

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