The story begins on page one of the Bible: the first word of 1 Chronicles is “Adam.” From there, the Chronicler has woven the entire story of Abraham’s family leading up to David and beyond into a series of elaborately arranged genealogies.
For ancient Israelite readers, these genealogies weren’t just a matter of family lines but a shorthand way of retelling the stories of all these characters in an annotated form. These names would have provoked whole memories of earlier scriptural stories.
The genealogies were meant to activate all kinds of mental links and collective stories deeply ingrained in Hebrew culture. After reading through the genealogies, readers come to the very brief story of Saul’s reign and failure as a king (1 Chron. 10). Then we quickly move on to King David (1 Chron. 11-29), which retells the stories from 2 Samuel.
You might even come to appreciate these genealogies. They are the introduction to a retelling of Israel’s entire story, focusing on the future hope of a messianic king like David, who will restore the temple and God’s kingdom over the nations.