God Knows You by Name

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are still continuing on in 1 Chronicles chapter 7. I'm going to let you guess how many verses we have for the family of Naphtali. Go ahead. Maybe you want to write it down in the comments. How many verses are we dealing with? Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.

Father, we thank you so much for blessing us with your Word. We thank you for your care for us and we pray that you might not forget us, Lord, but we thank you. Thank you that you are our God. Please help us to understand your Word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Here we go. 1 Chronicles chapter 7 beginning at verse 13.

The sons of Naphtali were Jezeal, Guni, Jezer, and Shalom, the sons of Belchah.

That's it. That's all we have for the family of Naphtali.

We have all this other stuff for all these other tribes, but remember this is a post-exilic,

after the exile, after Nebuchadnezzar, after 70 years in Babylon.

They're coming back, they're searching the ancient books, trying to find out who were really part of the tribes of Judah,

who weren't, and Naphtali, we've got the sons of Naphtali, we've got the sons of Naphtali, we're Jaziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shalom, the sons of Belchah.

That's it.

That's all we got.

So, A, what's this about?

The tribe of Naphtali.

B, what's the best for us to summarize this?

Well, verse 12, or verse 13, sorry, the sons of Naphtali were.

So, what are we see called to do?

How is this passage, if it has any hope of Christ or the covenant of grace?

Well, again, this is where the beautiful thing is, right?

There's writing.

This is historical documentation.

The Jewish people really were Jewish people, and hey, I got to tell you, as a church historian, there are times where paperwork just goes missing.

I remember looking through a church's documentation, and they were just years, gone.

Elder died, the clerk was gone.

Nobody knows where the minute books went.

Don't know.

This is real life.

This is what happens.

And yet, what I want to encourage you is that there's a book that's never lost.

They may not have been able to prove their genealogy here, but yet every single person who is of the tribe of Naphtali,

who believed, who trusted in Jehovah, their names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

They were written in the Book of Life, and they were not forgotten by God.

So, maybe you, maybe you're an orphan.

I mean, I was doing my family's genealogy, or one of, I shouldn't say I was,

one of the families in the church was trying to help me with my family's genealogy.

And at some point, I get to the mid-1800s,

I know there's people coming from, they migrate from Tennessee up to Illinois,

and their names, well, they're just not there anymore.

Just gone.

We can't get further back.

They weren't the first son.

And in the census records back then, if you weren't the first son, you were just a tick mark.

So, he was probably just a tick mark on the census records.

Does that mean my family doesn't matter?

The history is incomplete?

Yeah, as far as we know.

But God was at work.

God's at work in your life.

God knows who you are.

Knows you by name.

Counts every hair on your head.

Cares for you more than all the birds of the air.

And it's going to provide for you.

Cares for you.

Knows you.

And if you are one of his, loves you with an everlasting love.

So, hope in him.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that nothing can ever snatch us out of your hands.

We thank you that you loved us so much.

Even though we are frail and weak.

Lord, you are mindful of us.

How amazing.

You are a good God.

Please, Lord, let us trust you and love you always.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

May God bless you.

May you walk today knowing that your Lord loves you.

Knows you by name.

And will always keep you.

I'll see you next time.

Bye.