Wednesday – History

Reading – 1 Chronicles 1-3

Highlight Verse:

“These were the sons of David, not including his sons born to his concubines. Their sister was named Tamar.”
‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭3‬:‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Every family tree has some interesting branches.

My own grandmother was a servant in my grandfather’s parents’ household when they ran off to America together.

In the Bible there were many interesting characters and incidents.

Did you know that two of them were named Tamar?

They are both mentioned in today’s reading.

One was the widowed daughter-in-law of Judah.

Then there was David’s daughter who was a victim of her half brother Amnon.

I had to wonder if there was any significance to the name “Tamar.” Nope.

I looked it up. It means “date palm.”

While it was not a common name, it was not completely uncommon.

Its variants can still be found throughout the western world (Tamara, Tammy, etc.).

Then I wondered how similar their stories were.

Both were victims, but of very different wrongs.

David’s daughter lived out her life in presumed righteousness in another brother’s household.

Judah’s daughter-in-law fought back in a rather questionable way, tricking Judah into fathering her twin sons.

One of Tamar’s twins was an ancestor to King David and eventually Jesus.

God took that crazy messed up situation and turned it around for good.

He does that.

A lot.

Just look up the stories of Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba and many others.

If your family tree has some cracked branches or you feel like you are a sagging branch on your family tree, know that God has a habit of repairing branches, even grafting them into His own branch.

Will you let him repair your branches?

What is your favorite story of redemption in the Bible?
What is your story of redemption?