Tag: genealogy

A Royal Mess

matt 1 1

Day 1 of your new Bible reading. You are psyched! You are committed. You brew a cup of coffee, clean off the kitchen table, and pull out a new set of highlighters.   You grab your large-margined Bible and you open up to your first reading:  Matthew 1. This is it. Your moment of great revelation, and then…you are instantly deflated. Genealogy. Blah. Wait…No…You are committed to do your reading.  You have new highlighters after all! Okay. Here we go. A couple verses down, and…still nothing worth highlighting. “Maybe I will just skim this,” you say to yourself, feeling a compromise is essential to keep up your determination.  The sea of names continues. Sigh. “I think I got the gist, I’ll just go to the end.” Although you made it through Chapter 1, you feel a bit defeated. No highlights; no underlines. You have made a royal mess of your reading.

 

So what is the significance of Matthew 1 anyways? Why not just hop into the Christmas story?  The answer: context. This genealogy of Jesus through his earthly father, Joseph, is to establish the pedigree pointing to Jesus as a descendant of the ruling class of Israel.  God’s so purposely positioned Jesus that there should have been no doubt remaining that Jesus is the Messiah or “The Anointed One”, the one who would reestablish the throne of David.  A fact made instantly clear upon the arrival of the Magi and Herod’s petitioning to and response from the scribes (Matt 2:1-6). As much as God was at work in these plans, He did so in spite of many actions taken by those who make up the family tree.

 

How did the ancestors of Jesus depart from the ways of God? A few quick examples. Abraham laughed at God. Jacob, and subsequently his son, Judah, both betrayed a brother.  David, God’s chosen King, is mentioned alongside his mistress (later turned wife), Bathsheba, and the man he murdered, Uriah. Among the other names are hidden even more wayward actions (idolatry, stealing, lying, etc.), culminating in Jeconiah, who did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 24:9), which leads to a curse that cuts off the line of David, seemingly forever (Jer 22:30).

 

If you only looked at part of their story, collectively, it would seem like a pretty hopeless lot.  Thankfully, many of the these men and women wrestled with, fought for, and maintained their relationship with God.  In the midst of sin, reputation, or nurture, they connected, repented, and praised God. They were a royal mess, a line of sinners seeking God and putting their hope in his promise of redemption and restoration.  It is no surprise that we find many of their names in Hebrews 11, among those who are waiting to receive their promise (v. 39,40) of a hope and heritage found in Jesus Christ.

We are equally “messed-up” and have fallen short of the standards set by our King (Rom 3:23). When we struggle with sin, our history, or circumstance, it makes us feel unworthy of the faith and hope we have. Don’t give in.  Remain Psyched. Wrestle. Fight. Maintain. You may be a mess, but you are a royal mess, an heir according to the promise, directly tracing your spiritual heritage (the only one that matters) to Jesus Christ.(1 Pet 2:9; Amos 9:11) Having these roots means, we receive a special connection to God through His Holy Spirit (John 14:16,17) and are covered by grace when we miss the mark (Eph 2:8,9).  Today, spend some time examining the stories behind these names a bit more closely, but also look at your own faith story. Whether you relationship is God is slightly disharmonious, somewhat distant, or completely disconnected, you are not disowned; your heritage is Jesus Christ. He will restore the throne of David, and He will restore any mess appealed in His name.

-Aaron Winner

Your Spiritual Genealogy (I Chronicles 3-5)

Tuesday November 15

cog-pastors

These chapters continue the genealogy starting with the sons of David.  We see some great people listed.  David ruled as king, and is considered one of the greatest kings of Israel, although he was definitely not without fault.  Solomon, who was granted great wisdom, and used that wisdom to judge the people of Israel.  He also had his faults and downfalls.   In this list are also people who turned against God’s plans and did evil.

 

Yesterday, I wrote about the genealogy of the country, and the families.  Something I read about this genealogy mentioned the spiritual genealogy that is in this list also.  These leaders listed sometimes helped improve the people’s relationship with God, and helped increase their faith.  Others tore down their faith.  This goes across family and ancestral lines.

We have a genealogy of our faith too, and will be part of others genealogy.  There are people who have affected the faith of each of us.  Some people have built it up and others have torn it down.  The people who affected us were affected by others.  The people who founded your church have affected you, because they brought the church family together and passed their knowledge and experience down through generations.  Those that founded the Church of God, and the Bible College have affected your faith through training of pastors, among other ways.

 

All of us are influencing others, and not just those we encounter personally.  A Sunday school teacher can plant the seed that develops into a passion to be a pastor, a missionary, a teacher, or something else.  A friend can be the seed that brings a new person to church, and causes their family to know God.  On the other hand, someone can lead those around them into sin, cause them to doubt God, or something else negative.  This could stop them from being an influence for God.  Our actions can spread much further than we ever expected.

 

As a shepherd boy, how could David have ever expected to be king of Israel, or to be an example listed in the Bible that generation after generation of children learn.  Please consider the question, “What will my part be in the spiritual genealogy of those around me, and those that I don’t even know?”

 

I encourage everyone to pray that we will each see how we can build up the faith of those around us, so that they can build the faith of those around them, etc.  Our spiritual genealogy is much more important than our family genealogy.

– Andrew Hamilton

 

Adam, Seth, Enosh … (I Chronicles 1-2)

Monday November 14

 

i-chronicles

Andrew Hamilton

The list of names continues, and a majority of the words in these first two chapters are name.  We have the list from Adam to Jacob in chapter 1, and then the tribes of Israel through the time of David.  There are many names in here that are familiar, and many that I don’t recognize at all.   What is the purpose of this genealogy?  Who wrote it?   Why was it written?  Who was it written for?  Why do I care?

 

Although scholars do not all agree about who wrote it, and we can’t know all the details about why it was written, both Jewish and Christian traditions provide the same possible answer.  The writing is credited to Ezra, as are the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  1 and 2 Chronicles were written after the return from exile, probably during the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

God’s chosen people had been in exile for 70 years.  At least most of the people returning to Jerusalem  had never actually been in Jerusalem, and all they knew was the Babylonian captivity.  This book was probably written as a reminder and source of hope for God’s people.  The genealogy shows them where they came from, reminds them of their great ancestors, the growth of the Israelites into a great nation, and where they fit into God’s plan.

 

So, the hard question for me is still why do I care to read all of these names, most of which I can’t pronounce.  If we want to understand and learn from the Israelites, Gods chosen people, we need to understand what was important to them.  Their genealogy and history of their people was one of these important things to them.  It was used to show how they were all related together, and remind them of all the great people in the history of their nation.

 

As you read this, try to read every name.  Try to think about the names, and why the ones you know were important to the history of Israel.  Try to imagine going to your promised homeland that you had never been to, that was destroyed, that needed tons of work, and think how knowing your history would give you hope.

What do we use to give us hope?  What do we need to look at daily to remember the hope we have?

 

 

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