Soon, Christmas season will be here. And that means children and adults around the world will be turning to the first Chapters of Matthew and Luke and will stumble all over the names of who begat who. And the audience might wonder, "Why do they bother listing everyone, it is as bad as reading a telephone book out loud?"
Genealogies, what a bore, or are they?
The books of Genesis, Numbers, I Chronicles, Ezra, Matthew and Luke all contain lists of families. Most of us don't spend much time in those chapters (although I suspect the list of names in the Lamb's Book Of Life described by John in the Book of Revelation will capture our attention).
The ancestry of Jesus of Nazareth as set forth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke has interested me for a long time. "Hanging by a thread" is a phrase that I use to describe the tenuous descent from generation to generation until the "fullness of time" occurs in a Bethlehem stable. The phrase gets its genesis from the story of Rahab who hung a scarlet cord from the town wall of Jericho to gain safety for her family.
I want to trace what, from a human perspective, seems to be a fragile thin line of hope and salvation that God preserved and protected through the millennia, from Adams sin to the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. And, as you track the miraculous deliverance of God's chosen lineage throughout history, you give evidence again to the grand redemptive program of God.
What proves the existence of God? Philosophers, theologians and scientists have concocted many arguments over the centuries to "prove" the existence of God. Most of the arguments remind me of a salesman talking to a farmer who has never seen the Pacific Ocean. The way to convince him of the ocean's existence, is to take the farmer to the ocean and let him jump in.
Well, one of the best proofs for the existence of God is to track the promises made to Abraham regarding the nation, and the rulers of that nation, that would come forth from his loins, and to see what has happened to the people called Israel throughout the centuries. Hundreds and hundreds of fulfilled promises and prophecies make the nation Israel as clear a trumpet of God's existence as any esoteric philosophic argument.
Within the history of Abraham's descendants is an equally compelling testimony of God's preservation and protection of the blood-line from which the Lord Jesus Christ will come. And that is the tale I want to describe now.
Matthew's list found in chapter 1 is as follows: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez (from Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed (from Ruth), Jesse, David, Solomon (from Bathsheba), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Akim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, Jesus.
Luke's list found in chapter 3 (inverted starting with Abraham) is as follows: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez (from Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed (from Ruth), Jesse, David, Nathan, Mattatha, Menna, Melea, Eliakim, Jonam, Joseph, Judah, Simeon, Levi, Matthat, Jorim, Eliezer, Joshua, Er, Elmadam, Cosam, Addi, Melki, Neri, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Rhesa, Joanan, Joda, Josech, Semein, Mattathias, Maath, Naggai, Esli, Nahum, Amos, Mattathias, Joseph, Jannai, Melki, Levi, Matthat, Heli, Joseph, Jesus.
Both lists are almost identical from Abraham to David, but diverge thereafter. Many evangelical commentators assume that Matthew follows the kingly line (perhaps, Joseph's lineage) while Luke follows a priestly line (perhaps, Mary's lineage). I want to focus on the people in Matthew's list because their lives and times are detailed throughout most of the books of the Old Testament.
From Abraham to Jesus encompasses about 1700 years of time. During this period of time there were countless wars, famines, invasions, relocations and disasters that impacted this steadily growing people that were prophesied to become as numerous as the stars of the heavens.
Consider a few of the following historical events that impacted these people, events that cut across the lives of the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah were nomadic herdsmen who were often threatened by famine and relocation in land ruled by other regional powers, most notably Egypt. Perez was born of Judah's incestuous relationship with Tamar, his daughter-in-law. Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, and Salmon lived during the invasion of Canaan by Joshua and the Judges of Israel. The Philistines, Midianites, and all of the other "ites" were a constant threat to the life and home of Abraham's seed.
Boaz fathered Obed from Ruth of Moab. It was only Naomi's travels to the land of Moab to avoid a famine in Israel that caused Ruth to come to Bethlehem to live. Jesse, the father of King David, brought forth all of his other sons to "audition" for Samuel.
David the King was earmarked for death by Goliath his enemy, by Saul his King, by Absalom his son, and by others. As king, he murdered Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, after he impregnated her. Their second son, Solomon, became king and acquired hundreds of wives and concubines, many as part of peace treaties and alliances. He started the country on a path of idolatry that would bear terrible consequences during the following 400 years.
From Rehoboam the country was torn into two parts, Israel and Judah. Then begins a list of Kings such as Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, and Zerubbabel.
Hezekiah was stricken with a sickness unto death, but he prayed and was granted 15 additional years of life - during which time he sired Manasseh, arguably the most wicked king ever to reign in Judah. Josiah, his son, was killed in battle against the Egyptians led by Pharaoh Neco who removed Josiah's son (Jehoahaz) as king and replaced him with another son, Eliakim, whose name was changed by Pharoah Neco to Jehoiakim.
Finally, in 586 B.C., after many forays into Israel and Judah, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, took some 10,000 of the leading populace of Judah and deported them to Babylon where they were to remain as captives for 70 years.
At the end of the 70 years (about 450 B.C.), Nehemiah led over 40,000 people back into Judah to restore Jerusalem and the temple, among whom were 468 male descendants of the tribe of Judah - the kingly line from which Messiah was to come. Interestingly, the descendants of the priestly tribe of Levi are listed at Nehemiah 12, and it is from these ancestors that Luke may have traced Mary's lineage (remember that Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist and related to Mary, were descended from Aaron).
After the return of the exiled Jews from Babylon, the country was ruled through administrators appointed by their Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman conquerors. There were to be no more "Kings of Israel" after the Babylonian captivity until the birth of the babe in Bethlehem.
The little known descendants of Abraham who lived from the Babylonian captivity to the time of Julius Caesar, i.e., Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Akim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, lived through the years of the Babylonian captivity, the return of Nehemiah and Ezra to Judah, the invasion of Alexander the Great, the Maccabean revolts, and the Roman occupation of Palestine. They were unknown compared to King David and King Solomon, but each carried the birthright to be King, and it was from this lineage that the future King of Israel of Isaiah 9:6, and the Messiah of Isaiah 52:12-53:6 was to come.
Well, that is an awful lot of detail to plow through, but, after all, it was 1700 years of living. The thought that keeps coming back to me is this: That before Abraham was, the "I am" set in motion a redemptive plan that would span the centuries and culminate in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, born King of the Jews. This redemptive plan included the passing on of the blessing, birthright, and inheritance of the royal and priestly lineage through human agencies. Look carefully at the men (and some women) named above. Note how close some came to being killed (David). Think how easily some might have been lost in the Babylonian captivity, or chosen not to have returned.
What if Abraham's ploy to have Sarah taken into the Pharaoh's harem had worked? What if Joseph had died in prison, or not been sold as a slave? What if Ruth had stayed in Moab with Orpah?
You see, the miracle of the genealogy of Matthew and Luke is the mathematically astounding probability that God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 12) could be fulfilled in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth given the vagaries of human life during the 1700 years that intervened between them. All sorts of human failings including death, illness, and war could have intervened to break the chain of ancestry. And who can doubt that the machinations of Satan were not at work during those 1700 years in various attempts to defeat the plan? One little virus or bacteria could have been fatal to Boaz or David or Mary. Through it all, God preserved his promise to Abraham.
The God who created the universe, the God who makes something from nothing, and then maintains that creation, is all knowing, all powerful, and all present (omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent for our theological friends). The eternal beauty of God's intervention in our lives is this: that the God who created galaxies from nothing and sent them spinning in prescribed and fixed orbits; the God who created the intricacies and beauty of our world and the countless life-forms that dwell herein; the God who could not be known by his creation, chose to involve himself in the affairs of men. Even to the extent of identifying himself with Abraham's progeny for 1700 years, ensuring that "when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law . . ." (Galatians 4:4).
We will always stumble at trying to understand what God is up to. We want Jesus to ride into Jerusalem as a conquering king on a white horse with military pomp, but he comes on a donkey with only poor people waving palms. We want Jesus to subdue nations, but he chooses to die on a cross. We want God to do what we want him to do, but he always does what he chooses to do. God's plan is for the eternal ages. He knows no 24-hour day or 365-day year. His comings and goings are not based upon a Gregorian calendar or a Chinese New year, not even the 70 or 80 year annual solar cycle of Neptune or Pluto around our sun counts. Nothing and no one, absolutely nothing and absolutely no one, dictates to God what His calendar of events will be. God's plan and program transcend our lifecycles as we know them.
So, pay attention to those genealogical masterpieces. They are not there to bore you, but to show God's hand in the history of our world, and to demonstrate His redemptive plan to man.
Genealogies, what a bore, or are they?
The books of Genesis, Numbers, I Chronicles, Ezra, Matthew and Luke all contain lists of families. Most of us don't spend much time in those chapters (although I suspect the list of names in the Lamb's Book Of Life described by John in the Book of Revelation will capture our attention).
The ancestry of Jesus of Nazareth as set forth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke has interested me for a long time. "Hanging by a thread" is a phrase that I use to describe the tenuous descent from generation to generation until the "fullness of time" occurs in a Bethlehem stable. The phrase gets its genesis from the story of Rahab who hung a scarlet cord from the town wall of Jericho to gain safety for her family.
I want to trace what, from a human perspective, seems to be a fragile thin line of hope and salvation that God preserved and protected through the millennia, from Adams sin to the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. And, as you track the miraculous deliverance of God's chosen lineage throughout history, you give evidence again to the grand redemptive program of God.
What proves the existence of God? Philosophers, theologians and scientists have concocted many arguments over the centuries to "prove" the existence of God. Most of the arguments remind me of a salesman talking to a farmer who has never seen the Pacific Ocean. The way to convince him of the ocean's existence, is to take the farmer to the ocean and let him jump in.
Well, one of the best proofs for the existence of God is to track the promises made to Abraham regarding the nation, and the rulers of that nation, that would come forth from his loins, and to see what has happened to the people called Israel throughout the centuries. Hundreds and hundreds of fulfilled promises and prophecies make the nation Israel as clear a trumpet of God's existence as any esoteric philosophic argument.
Within the history of Abraham's descendants is an equally compelling testimony of God's preservation and protection of the blood-line from which the Lord Jesus Christ will come. And that is the tale I want to describe now.
Matthew's list found in chapter 1 is as follows: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez (from Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed (from Ruth), Jesse, David, Solomon (from Bathsheba), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Akim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, Jesus.
Luke's list found in chapter 3 (inverted starting with Abraham) is as follows: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez (from Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed (from Ruth), Jesse, David, Nathan, Mattatha, Menna, Melea, Eliakim, Jonam, Joseph, Judah, Simeon, Levi, Matthat, Jorim, Eliezer, Joshua, Er, Elmadam, Cosam, Addi, Melki, Neri, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Rhesa, Joanan, Joda, Josech, Semein, Mattathias, Maath, Naggai, Esli, Nahum, Amos, Mattathias, Joseph, Jannai, Melki, Levi, Matthat, Heli, Joseph, Jesus.
Both lists are almost identical from Abraham to David, but diverge thereafter. Many evangelical commentators assume that Matthew follows the kingly line (perhaps, Joseph's lineage) while Luke follows a priestly line (perhaps, Mary's lineage). I want to focus on the people in Matthew's list because their lives and times are detailed throughout most of the books of the Old Testament.
From Abraham to Jesus encompasses about 1700 years of time. During this period of time there were countless wars, famines, invasions, relocations and disasters that impacted this steadily growing people that were prophesied to become as numerous as the stars of the heavens.
Consider a few of the following historical events that impacted these people, events that cut across the lives of the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah were nomadic herdsmen who were often threatened by famine and relocation in land ruled by other regional powers, most notably Egypt. Perez was born of Judah's incestuous relationship with Tamar, his daughter-in-law. Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, and Salmon lived during the invasion of Canaan by Joshua and the Judges of Israel. The Philistines, Midianites, and all of the other "ites" were a constant threat to the life and home of Abraham's seed.
Boaz fathered Obed from Ruth of Moab. It was only Naomi's travels to the land of Moab to avoid a famine in Israel that caused Ruth to come to Bethlehem to live. Jesse, the father of King David, brought forth all of his other sons to "audition" for Samuel.
David the King was earmarked for death by Goliath his enemy, by Saul his King, by Absalom his son, and by others. As king, he murdered Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, after he impregnated her. Their second son, Solomon, became king and acquired hundreds of wives and concubines, many as part of peace treaties and alliances. He started the country on a path of idolatry that would bear terrible consequences during the following 400 years.
From Rehoboam the country was torn into two parts, Israel and Judah. Then begins a list of Kings such as Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah, Shealtiel, and Zerubbabel.
Hezekiah was stricken with a sickness unto death, but he prayed and was granted 15 additional years of life - during which time he sired Manasseh, arguably the most wicked king ever to reign in Judah. Josiah, his son, was killed in battle against the Egyptians led by Pharaoh Neco who removed Josiah's son (Jehoahaz) as king and replaced him with another son, Eliakim, whose name was changed by Pharoah Neco to Jehoiakim.
Finally, in 586 B.C., after many forays into Israel and Judah, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, took some 10,000 of the leading populace of Judah and deported them to Babylon where they were to remain as captives for 70 years.
At the end of the 70 years (about 450 B.C.), Nehemiah led over 40,000 people back into Judah to restore Jerusalem and the temple, among whom were 468 male descendants of the tribe of Judah - the kingly line from which Messiah was to come. Interestingly, the descendants of the priestly tribe of Levi are listed at Nehemiah 12, and it is from these ancestors that Luke may have traced Mary's lineage (remember that Zacharias and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist and related to Mary, were descended from Aaron).
After the return of the exiled Jews from Babylon, the country was ruled through administrators appointed by their Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman conquerors. There were to be no more "Kings of Israel" after the Babylonian captivity until the birth of the babe in Bethlehem.
The little known descendants of Abraham who lived from the Babylonian captivity to the time of Julius Caesar, i.e., Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Akim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, lived through the years of the Babylonian captivity, the return of Nehemiah and Ezra to Judah, the invasion of Alexander the Great, the Maccabean revolts, and the Roman occupation of Palestine. They were unknown compared to King David and King Solomon, but each carried the birthright to be King, and it was from this lineage that the future King of Israel of Isaiah 9:6, and the Messiah of Isaiah 52:12-53:6 was to come.
Well, that is an awful lot of detail to plow through, but, after all, it was 1700 years of living. The thought that keeps coming back to me is this: That before Abraham was, the "I am" set in motion a redemptive plan that would span the centuries and culminate in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, born King of the Jews. This redemptive plan included the passing on of the blessing, birthright, and inheritance of the royal and priestly lineage through human agencies. Look carefully at the men (and some women) named above. Note how close some came to being killed (David). Think how easily some might have been lost in the Babylonian captivity, or chosen not to have returned.
What if Abraham's ploy to have Sarah taken into the Pharaoh's harem had worked? What if Joseph had died in prison, or not been sold as a slave? What if Ruth had stayed in Moab with Orpah?
You see, the miracle of the genealogy of Matthew and Luke is the mathematically astounding probability that God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 12) could be fulfilled in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth given the vagaries of human life during the 1700 years that intervened between them. All sorts of human failings including death, illness, and war could have intervened to break the chain of ancestry. And who can doubt that the machinations of Satan were not at work during those 1700 years in various attempts to defeat the plan? One little virus or bacteria could have been fatal to Boaz or David or Mary. Through it all, God preserved his promise to Abraham.
The God who created the universe, the God who makes something from nothing, and then maintains that creation, is all knowing, all powerful, and all present (omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent for our theological friends). The eternal beauty of God's intervention in our lives is this: that the God who created galaxies from nothing and sent them spinning in prescribed and fixed orbits; the God who created the intricacies and beauty of our world and the countless life-forms that dwell herein; the God who could not be known by his creation, chose to involve himself in the affairs of men. Even to the extent of identifying himself with Abraham's progeny for 1700 years, ensuring that "when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law . . ." (Galatians 4:4).
We will always stumble at trying to understand what God is up to. We want Jesus to ride into Jerusalem as a conquering king on a white horse with military pomp, but he comes on a donkey with only poor people waving palms. We want Jesus to subdue nations, but he chooses to die on a cross. We want God to do what we want him to do, but he always does what he chooses to do. God's plan is for the eternal ages. He knows no 24-hour day or 365-day year. His comings and goings are not based upon a Gregorian calendar or a Chinese New year, not even the 70 or 80 year annual solar cycle of Neptune or Pluto around our sun counts. Nothing and no one, absolutely nothing and absolutely no one, dictates to God what His calendar of events will be. God's plan and program transcend our lifecycles as we know them.
So, pay attention to those genealogical masterpieces. They are not there to bore you, but to show God's hand in the history of our world, and to demonstrate His redemptive plan to man.
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