I’ve picked up an interest in genealogy over recent years. I’ve been tracking what I find on Geni.com as well as our own family Wiki site.
It’s interesting to track where you’ve come from.
Some interesting folks in our family tree include:
President James Madison, Jr
Wyatt Earp
Gen Edmund P Gaines – Gen. War Of 1812 and man who arrested Aaron Burr on charges of treason
Robert/Richard Gaines – who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence
As I was reading Chronicles last night I came across another family tree — the heritage, genealogy of the Jewish people.
Like any family tree, just reading the names doesn’t mean much, but if you stop and delve into the characters and stories behind the people — you find some really interesting stories.
From the line of Shem (Noah’s son) we find Abram who is told to leave everything and move to Canaan and who has an interesting story in and of himself.
A guy who lies that his wife is his sister in order to protect his tail. A guy who sleeps with his wife’s concubine in order to take God’s promise into his own hands. And yet God still blesses him and promises his descendants will be as numerous as the stars and his family will be a blessing to everyone.
Abram’s son is Issac, who follows his father’s footsteps in lying about his wife. He then gave birth to two sons, Esau and Jacob (of whom it’s said in Malachi and later in Paul’s writings – Romans 9:10-13, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated”).
Jacob ultimately steals his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing and then works for seven years in order to marry the girl he loves — Rachel.
Rachel’s father tricks Jacob (either because he’s two drunk to realize it — or by some other means) and gives Jacob Rachel’s older sister Leah as his wife. Jacob then goes back to work — for another seven years — in order to marry Rachel.
Of course Jacob’s first wife, Leah felt rejected, and “when the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive.”
She gave birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah (among others). And yet Jacob still loved Rachel more. Ultimately Jacob has 12 sons between Leah, Rachel and their servants. Their decedents ultimately become the 12 tribes of Israel.
Of course these sons of course were no angels. Two of the brothers murdered the men of an entire city out of revenge. A great story in and of itself (Gen. 34) — tricking the men into circumcision and then attacking while they were still trying to heal. The brothers even sold one brother into slavery.
And then Judah, thinking he’s sleeping with a prostitute, commits incest by sleeping with his daughter-in-law, Tamar.
This daughter-in-law becomes pregnant with twins, Perez and Zerah.
From Perez’s line we find Boaz — who marries a Moabite woman (Ruth). Which doesn’t sound like much, but is quite a big deal when you understand that, Moses had said that no descendants of the Moabites may enter the assembly of the Lord — down to the 10th generation.
So why is it a big deal?
Well, Boaz and Ruth give birth to Obed, who is the father of Jesse, who is the father of a small shepherd boy, who becomes a warrior king over Israel — King David.
And of course David is the same guy who had an affair with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and then had the Uriah killed in order to cover up her pregnancy.
And yet — “David was a man after God’s own heart” and his son Solomon (born to David and Bathsheba) was a king of peace who was instructed to build the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
So that’s a pretty crazy lineage, from Abram, all the way down to Solomon. And yet — from this line comes the Savior of the World, Jesus the Messiah.
It just proves to me that God is definitely in the redemption business. If he can redeem this lineage of thieves, adulterers, incest, murderers and more — he can redeem any one and lineage.
But none of this makes much sense until we know the stories behind the names.
Chronicles 1 and Matthew 1 doesn’t have an impact when you just read it as a list of names — but when you know the stories, it suddenly makes sense that Matthew — a tax collector who had been personally redeemed by Jesus — would include things like “whose mother was Tamar” and “whose mother was Ruth.”
They’re not just insignificant names and people — they’re evidence of God’s redeeming power among his people.
And reminders that before we judge someone’s past, history or lineage — take a look at Jesus’ lineage. God can redeem any situation for his glory. He’s in the business of making beauty out of ashes.
“I will surely bless you… And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed…” (Gen. 22:16-18)
Photo of nuts from steffenz
