DAY 110 Read Psalm 78; 1 Chronicles 3 and 4.
Today's reading: These long lists of names can become more readable if we realize the importance Hebrew people attached to names and genealogies. Try to think of the names as people.
Memory gem: "That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments" (Psalm 78:7).
Thought for today:
In Bible times, a name really meant something, usually about the person named. It would be interesting to know how our names originated. Our ancestors in many cases were named after their trades; so we have our Smiths and Carpenters and Masons and Taylors and Hoopers, and many others. Some were the sons of distinguished fathers, and so we have the Johnsons, Williansons, and scores of others. Some took their names from the place where they were born, so we have the Dutch van and the German van prefixed to names, indicating the town or family from which the child came. Indians sometimes named their children after some incident of their own experience or of the child's in its early surroundings. We have such names as Black Hawk, Laughing Water, Crying Thunder, White Eagle, etc., from some incident connected with the day of the child's nativity.
So names were given, and are given, for various reasons; but sooner or later they all come to stand for the personality of the persons bearing them. It is a fine thing when boys and girls really like their names, for a person will bear his name as long as he lives. It will be written on his marriage certificate, on the church register, and in a dozen other important records. It will be engraved on his tombstone, and may it also be written in the Lamb's book of life! (see Revelation 21:27).
Today's reading: These long lists of names can become more readable if we realize the importance Hebrew people attached to names and genealogies. Try to think of the names as people.
Memory gem: "That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments" (Psalm 78:7).
Thought for today:
In Bible times, a name really meant something, usually about the person named. It would be interesting to know how our names originated. Our ancestors in many cases were named after their trades; so we have our Smiths and Carpenters and Masons and Taylors and Hoopers, and many others. Some were the sons of distinguished fathers, and so we have the Johnsons, Williansons, and scores of others. Some took their names from the place where they were born, so we have the Dutch van and the German van prefixed to names, indicating the town or family from which the child came. Indians sometimes named their children after some incident of their own experience or of the child's in its early surroundings. We have such names as Black Hawk, Laughing Water, Crying Thunder, White Eagle, etc., from some incident connected with the day of the child's nativity.
So names were given, and are given, for various reasons; but sooner or later they all come to stand for the personality of the persons bearing them. It is a fine thing when boys and girls really like their names, for a person will bear his name as long as he lives. It will be written on his marriage certificate, on the church register, and in a dozen other important records. It will be engraved on his tombstone, and may it also be written in the Lamb's book of life! (see Revelation 21:27).
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