July 13, Matthew 1
Who’s your great-great-grandfather? Maybe your family has some of those five generation photos, but few people in our time and place can trace their ancestry back through more than two or three generations.
I remember my great-grandparents. We took a trip together to St. Augustine, Florida when I was a small child. I knew my grandparents. My son has some silver dollars they gave me long ago. But my mother is the only grandparent my son ever really knew.
I know a little more about my ancestry than I can personally remember because one of my mother’s brothers was very interested in genealogy. He went to courthouses and cemeteries, linking our family’s past to the present by studying musty old public records and weather-beaten grave stones.
Genealogy is a hobby to some people, a passion to others. Most of us long for some sense of connection to past generations as we wrestle with identity and mortality.
But to ancient Jews, genealogy was more than a hobby or a quest for identity. Knowing their place in Abraham’s family was crucial to their economic, social and spiritual lives. When the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D., more than a building was lost. The genealogical records upon which Jewish people had based their identity for centuries were lost as well, a devastating blow to a people who defined themselves as “children of Abraham.”
What does the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 mean to us as modern Gentile (or even modern Jewish) readers? I believe we should get a sense of the timeless faithfulness of God’s promises and purposes. Generations were born and died, nations rose and fell through about two thousand years spanned by the brief record of who was the father of whom. God’s announcement to Abraham about a descendent through whom all nations would be blessed looked far into the future. His plan would be realized even though some human agents in the story would be faithless and all would be flawed.
Through old prophecies and older promises, God assured his people that one was coming who would redeem and restore. After all those generations lived and died, Mary and Joseph trusted what the angel told them and accepted God’s plan. The carpenter was willing to share the shame of Mary’s premarital pregnancy in a culture that was all about clearly defined lineage. The angel said the baby in Mary’s womb would be named Jesus because he would be the savior of his people. The prophet said his name would be Immanuel, because he would be God with us. And from the opening chapter of the New Testament, we are challenged to believe and embrace those trustworthy promises—to know him as Savior and live with the reality of God with us.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide
for Your Journey Through the New Testament,
Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—July 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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