Family Tree

(Today, Stand in the Rain welcomes Vickie. We're so glad to add a new voice to the 'Choir'!)

The Word for today: Matthew 1

Mark this: Verse 17 "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations."

The page before the book of Matthew, in my Bible, has two words- New Testament. If you are reading along in God's Word with the rest of us, who are moist with His rain, you may have breathed a sigh of relief... an Old Testament break is before us- no genealogies! Then you turn to Matthew 1, good grief, here we go again.

What's God up to with all the "begats" anyway? It's been my experience that the only people who are really excited about their family trees have a lot of good apples hanging there. If I was descended from Swedish royalty, viking valor or Noble Prize winning genes, believe me, you'd all hear about it over the next potluck dinner table! Unfortunately, no notable has come up in my father's sleuthing into our past generations. From Abraham to Christ we see humanity in all it's aspects; the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Not so different from my own or your own family tree. Except this is the most significant genealogy in the history of mankind. It's significant because God reveals Himself as the eternal lover of our souls through His patient connection with us through all the generations of Abraham's offspring.

Matthew's genealogy is God's summary of what He has done to bring salvation to a world of sinners. Before we go forward, we take a moment to look back. It's not because the men on this list are so extraordinary, that we take this pause, but because God wants us to see with clarity- that it's all about Jesus Christ. God could have brought our salvation into the world on a cloud from heaven or in a magical puff of smoke, but He didn't. He connected with us sinners and delivered what he promised (Gen. 3:15) through human generations, in spite of His chosen people's rebellion and Satan's scheming to destroy the line from which the promised Seed would come. He loves us this much. It's about forever family- an eternal family tree.

So, I hope when you read each name in this passage again, you will- with me, add in your heart these words; because God loved me so much.