Koz

Koz sat down at the end of a long, hot day.  The sun had been unusually strong, and the work very hard.  He mopped his brow and prepared himself for dinner, reminding his boys that they should clean their hands too.  Dinner would be taken as the stars began to light the dark Eastern night.  Koz was proud of his boys and expected that his family, though certainly not the one of the greatest, would have a secure and growing future.

5 Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah. 

6 Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni and Haahashtari. These were the descendants of Naarah.

7 The sons of Helah: Zereth, Zohar, Ethnan, 

8 and Koz, who was the father of Anub and Hazzobebah and of the clans of Aharhel son of Harum.

9 Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ 

10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.

A few years one American preacher managed to build one of those embarrassing evangelical empires around two verses that shine out amid the names in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 - the prayer of Jabez (you could even buy a Prayer of Jabez key ring or mug).   Jabez is only mentioned here in the Bible but his North American attraction is that he prayed for God to enlarge his territory - and God did.  I'm mildly surprised Mr Trump hasn't referenced this but I think his marriage of convenience with the Bible probably doesn't reach as far as Jabez. 

Near Jabez's little island of meaning in an ocean of genealogical names are of course many other names and with a detailed commentary even some of these names yield fascinating details.  The one that gripped me though did so because his name seemed very 21st century (and certainly easy to pronounce) - Koz. 

He had never, and would never, be a subject of eccentric Bible entrepreneurs.  Only this could be said of him - that in his day he was a significant figure in his growing, but minor, clan and that God has arranged that, unlike any modern preacher, or Shakespeare, Nero, or Alexander the Great, Koz’s name appears in the Word of God.

I like to think that Koz and others are in Scripture precisely because their names are like a church rota.  When the story of a church is written the priests, vicars or pastors (even the naughty ones) are listed, the organist who was pulled stops for 50 years, the woman who began the Girl Guides and the local dignitary who opened the new hall.  The rest?  Well, Jesus may know his sheep by name but they are passed over on earth into congregational historical anonymity.

For all of us threatened with genealogical anonymity there is the encouraging thought that most of the names in Scripture are of people as unknown as Koz.  Yet they and we are all known and all matter to our Lord.