In my last blog I took a look at Isaiah 43 and God’s
incredible love for Israel in the middle of their ripe disobedience. Today, we’re going to look at the genealogy
of Christ in Matthew 1 as it has spanned throughout Old Testament history. In this, I hope you begin to see a
theme. I pray you see that no matter how
disgusting and murky our past is, how sinful and unfaithful (like Israel) to
God we are, God can still use us.
Let’s begin with a quick look at Matthew 1, “The book of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the
father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the
father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron
the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of
Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by
Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and
Jesse the father of David the king. And
Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah
the father of Asaph, And Asaph the
father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the
father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of
Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and
Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the
father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to
Babylon. And after the deportation to
Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of
Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and
Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father
of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who
is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen
generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations,
and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”
Confused? Why would I blog about a bunch of names? How can God possibly speak through a list of
names that led to His birth? What does
this genealogy have to do with you? With
me?
In
case you’re lost, Matthew 1 is a family tree of Jesus. Yeah, that
Jesus. The incarnate son of God, the
maker of the entire universe, who sent Jesus to die upon a sinner’s cross for
the sin and shame we bear. This is that Jesus’ family tree. But what makes it so important?
Let’s
begin.
Abraham’s
story starts in Genesis 12 when we see God calling him for God’s divine
purpose—ultimately to father the nation of Israel. The first thing we see Abraham do is lie
about his wife Sarah being his wife while passing through Egypt. If the Egyptians knew Sarah was his wife and
they wanted her, they’d have to kill Abraham to get to him. The first thing we see about the father of
Israel is that he’s a liar who doesn’t really trust God to protect him. Genesis 15 is important because it’s when God
establishes the Abrahamic Covenant with Abraham. God promises Abraham to make him into a huge
nation—the nation of Israel that Jesus will eventually come from. Basically, God promises Abraham that out of
his descendants will come Jesus, the Messiah, who is promised to end evil
(Genesis 3). We’re told throughout this
story that Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren; she couldn’t have children. Now even though God promised to open up her
womb and bring forth an entire nation, Abraham and Sarah both think it’s a
pretty swell idea to try to bring forth God’s promised nation with Sarah’s
servant, Hagar. In Genesis 16, then, we
read about Abraham doing the nasty with Hagar and bringing forth a child,
Ishmael. Sounds like a pretty good
example of morality, right? He was first
an untrusting liar, now he’s sleeping with his wife’s servant to try to
jumpstart God’s promise for a child.
Yup, he’s a great guy. Four
chapters later in Genesis 20 we see Abraham lying again about Sarah being his wife.
If there was ever anybody who didn’t trust God’s promises, it was this
guy. God promised to make him into a
nation, which didn’t happen yet, so Abraham should trust that God will still
bring that about, but we don’t. Abraham
fears man more than he fears God. Isaac
is eventually born (Genesis 21), and through his birth the nation of Israel
begins to form. Through the nation of
Israel comes Jesus. So the first guy in
Jesus’ lineage isn’t the morally upright man that we make him out to be. Even though Abraham is one of the most
important characters in the entire Bible, and he does do the world a lot of good, we can see that he has a lot of
character flaws that birth sin. And yet
God chose to bring his perfect son into the world to save the world through
this man. Amazing.
Over
the next…while, I guess, I’ll be going more in depth about more people in the
genealogy of Christ. Hopefully as these
blogs come together you can begin to see that even though a lot of these people
are screwed up and ridden with sin, God still chose them and used them to do
mighty things just like He chooses us to do mighty things.
Remember
this: You are never too far gone to be
used by and for God. There is always redemption at the foot of the
cross.
To be continued...
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