“Boring Genealogy?” Part 2.5

Hello All, 

Rob gave me permission to guest post on his series, and so while I won’t add much to the content of any of the specific genealogies in the Bible, hopefully here I’ll give you a few tips that will help you get more out of them. In short, this post is subtitled, “How to Read (a Genealogy).”

1. Read The Genealogy: Okay, it sounds pretty basic, I know. But really, this is the fundamental part. Read the genealogy. Read the actual words, the actual names listed in it. Don’t skim, don’t skip, but read it. (I know, this can be the hardest part. After all Jehoram and Joram and Jehozadak and Zerubbabubbebezzer all begin to look the same after a while, but do your best.) Why is this so important? Because it’s a general rule for all of Scripture (and reading in general) that you have to understand what it says before you try to understand what it means. That is, you have to get what the words are (for instance, you have to know that Adam bore Seth) before you can realize what it means for you (for instance, that God is faithful in carrying on the line of his promise and he will provide in the midst of tragedy). Don’t rush to find application.

2.Look At The Genealogy As A Whole: Enjoy the history. Look at the people, the names. Recognize any? Are any of them people you’ve taken notice of? Appreciate God’s sovereignty over history and human hearts (a fallback interpretation of any genealogy that is, technically, true). Notice how God includes people you never otherwise hear of, appreciate his attention to detail. Ask why the author and even God pay such attention to the minutiae. 

3. Read The Context: As always, the three most important rules for interpretation are “Context. Context. Context.” Is it significant that 1 Chronicles 1-9 comes on the coattails of the return from exile? Does it matter that Genesis 5 comes after the curse on Adam and the death of Abel? What’s the deal with the opening genealogy to the 1st century Jewish readers in Matthew? Think about it, they matter.

4. Look For Patterns/Look For Pattern Breakers: Our big problem with genealogies tends to be that they’re lists. They’re just so repetitive. And that’s true, they are. But that should make us excited when the pattern breaks. I mean when an author (especially a divinely inspired author spends time (verses or even chapters) setting up a framework, and then shatters it for a couple phrases, those couple phrases tend to be especially important. For instance, in Genesis 5 the first six men end with “and he died,” but then we get to Enoch and we find “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Woah, that’s weird. Wonder why. Or again, in Matthew 1 we have 41 instances of man begetting man, and then it ends with, “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;” it ends with a woman begetting, not a man. (Overtones of Genesis 3 and Isaiah 7?) 

So there you go, happy reading.

-djstevens

Boring Genealogy? (Part 2)

Jesus’ Family of Sinners

As I wrote in my first post in this miniseries, I have made it my endeavor to attempt to answer the question, “Why are genealogies in the Bible?” In my last post I discussed genealogies with respect to God’s faithfulness, but today I want to present the pedigree of Christ with regards to Christ himself.

In ancient times, it was extremely valued to have a respectable and honorable bloodline. This meant that your ancestors did not have immoral relationships or habitual vices. To have such a family history was a disgrace, even if it was not your fault. Being the perfect son of God and all, you would think that he would come from a line of rich, powerful, righteous people. This is our righteous God we are talking about here! But when you take a good luck at who Jesus’ family members were, his line is far from what you would expect. And while there are rich patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob, powerful kings like David and Solomon and righteous men like Joseph and Boaz, in Jesus’ genealogy, those are just a few godly men (all of which are still sinful, and some of which are recorded having made some pretty serious mistakes) out of a plethora evildoers that defile the the pedigree of Jesus.

To name a few, the great patriarch Judah that founded the greatest of the twelve tribes of Israel slept with Tamar, his daughter-in-law . . .  . on accident! (Are you kidding me? I’m still trying to figure out how that’s even possible.)Then there’s  King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, the foolish king who rejected the advice of the elders, which ultimately lead to the Israel’s division into the Northern and Southern Kingdom. And let’s not forget King Manasseh, who in my opinion, comes close to the wickedness of Ahab. He encouraged pagan worship, went as far as to build a pagan altar right smack-dab in the middle of God’s temple, practiced sorcery, consulted spiritists and even sacrificed his own son. He’s remembered the one led Israel astray “so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed before the Israelites. And let’s not forget Jehoram, Ahaz, Abijah who’s conduct was described as one that “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

Well that was depressing wasn’t it? What’s my point in exposing the depravity of Jesus’ great great great grandfathers? In living a human life, and enduring physical affliction on the cross, Jesus lived a human life so that he could sympathize with all of our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15), so he could prove that he understands us not only on a cosmic omnipotent level, but on a personal relational level.

Jesus’ genealogy shows us that his family is not composed of the most intelligent, most powerful, or most all-together, and as we see in Jesus’ family tree, its quite the opposite, its composed of some of the worst sinners and biggest fools. And if God allowed Jesus’ physical family to be this broken, depraved and weak, then it should be no surprise that in the same way, Jesus’ spiritual family is open to even the basest sinner.

I believe, at least in part, that God accepted the sinful line of Judah for physical family of Christ, because it shows us that God is equally accepting of sinners in the spiritual family of Christ. Even Jesus had a messed up family. But it shows us that Jesus loved us so much, that he was willing to associate himself with some of Israel’s greatest villains, so that we might have a greater hope of salvation.

-RBChew

Behold him there…

This one goes out to Brian Chiu.

Today as I was singing to myself, I realized something, I really like the song “Before the Throne of God Above.” And I don’t think that it’s just because it’s a hymn, nor is it because I have heard it so many times it’s been imprinted on my brain. It isn’t even because it has a perfect abab, etc. rhyme scheme or that it’s written in iambic tetrameter. (Kudos to those who don’t have to look that last one up.)

It’s because “Before the Throne” is a song for the sinner. It’s a song for the one who needs a strong and perfect plea before God. It’s a song for someone who Satan has more than enough ammunition to tempt to despair. It’s for those who need our names in the wounds and on the heart of Christ lest God see our sin and bid us depart. It’s a song for me.

Ultimately, “Before the Throne” is a song of the wonderful peace that the gospel brings. Really it’s a song for all of us, because the gospel is for all of us. We need to be reminded of it every day, whether it be in beautiful song or pained meditation, solitary reading or corporate worship. We, I, need to be reminded daily that our sin is so bad that on our own we really should despair, for hell is our rightful lot. But not only that, no, Christ is ours as well, and none of our sin is borne by us any longer. He is, truly, our perfect spotless righteousness.

And so as we go off into summer, let’s remember these things and live like them. So often we find it hard to stay faithful during the summer. But if these realities were always on our minds, I don’t think it would be. Institutions and fellowship will ebb and flow, but the strength of the Gospel is a constant stream.

Let us remember. Let us sing.

-djstevens

Life is Short

John Wooden passed away today. It is an unfortunate loss for the world, but a great gain for the kingdom of Heaven. Arthur Hsieh often spoke highly of him (and if you’ve met Arthur Hsieh, you’d know that means something). I had already held high respect for John Wooden because of all his major accomplishments in basketball, but after hearing of his great love for God, my respect for him grew even more. By all accounts, he was a wonderful man who was humble despite being regarded as one of the greatest coaches ever. By far, however, his greatest accomplishment was definitely the way he lived his life: constantly pursuing a stronger relationship with God.

Life is short. Whether you live to be 99 or die before you even hit 1 year old, in the scheme of all things life is incredibly short. In my baby cousin, I saw life cut short at a tender age. In my grandmother I saw life cut off in the middle age. In my great-grandmother I saw life cut off after many years. No matter how you look at it, there’s no telling when we will die. Some of us may live well into our nineties, as John Wooden did, and yet some of us may only live to be nineteen. Heck, there was a chance that I might have died while still writing this post, and there’s a chance that you might die while still reading it. We never know when death will find us. There is an oft-quoted adage: “Live every day as if it is your last.” But what does it really mean to live in that manner? The saying is often referenced to make the point that we should live uninhibited; doing what we want when want. While I agree with the statement, I do not agree with that interpretation. That interpretation is only given as another excuse for us to live as selfishly as possible. Yes, we should live every day as if it is our last, but in the sense that we should always be fervently seeking after God and really, really, glorifying Him in all that we do. There should be no procrastination on our parts to share the Gospel or to grow closer to God. Instead, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, we should live with a passion for God that speaks volumes to others about His glory and His majesty and His power. We shouldn’t think “Oh, there’s still tomorrow.” Instead, we should constantly be striving to worship God like there is no tomorrow. When I went to GOC a couple weeks ago, the speaker pointed to Daniel as an example of this. On the eve of his death, what did Daniel do? He did the same thing he did every day. He worshipped and prayed to God with his heart and mind focused on Him. We should be the same; we should always be looking to God and make the most of every second in glorifying Him. He is our creator and He is our master. There is no one greater than Him and there is no one more worthy of praise. John Wooden knew this. Wooden knew that, in spite of all the incredible milestones he reached in his life, all his accomplishments paled before the works of the Almighty God. His life reflected this. I pray that ours may as well.

-JCLi

Tests

If someone asked you how genuine your faith was, how would you answer them? What if they told you to show them? What would you point to?

As odd as it may seem at first, finals prove the authenticity and strength of your faith more than how you served through the year. Indeed for many students it seems that finals week is the greatest test of faith. Now why do I say this? It’s because when time grows short and pressures grow high, you are forced to give time to whatever is most important to you. You can’t help but show your heart by your time. And so I ask, do your devotionals suffer when finals week comes? Do you read the Bible less? Do you pray less? 

Brothers and sisters, shouldn’t it be the opposite? If we shorten or completely neglect our time with God because we need to study for a test, it is a testament that our grades are more important to us than our God. It’s not when you’re rested and all’s easy that you can see the strength of your faith, but when you’re tired and stretched and short on time. We are all faced with a choice here, and it really is who will we serve. 

And so as finals week approaches I ask myself and I ask you all, will you be faithful to meeting with God? Will you pray more, not less, as things get difficult? Will you seek more strength in his word? Now I’m not saying that if you do this you’ll do better on your tests. I’m not saying you’ll learn more when you study because you’ve been faithful. In fact, you’ll have less time to study than those around you. You might even get a worse grade or lose more sleep, but what, ultimately, is more important. A good question to ask ourselves would be, “If I knew for a fact that doing devotionals would get me a lower grade, would I do them anyway?”

Finals week is a battle for our hearts, we must choose what is better, what is lasting, we must choose Christ. We must be faithful even in these little things. 

-djstevens

The Complexity of Life

As I sat around pondering what I should post this week, I was encouraged by my sister to think about what I did today. I had spent basically my entire day working on Bioengineering stuff and as I looked back on the day, I thought about just how nastily complex the homework was. As these thoughts went through my mind, I recalled a conversation that I had with my brother about how I am glorifying God with my classes and my major (after all, our ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God in all that we do, is it not?) I remember my answer: My classes have taught me the complexity of life. That is, everything that makes up our physical bodies and this physical world are incredibly complex! As a Bioengineer, I have the privilege of looking at many of the mechanisms of life (i.e. thermodynamics, diffusion, cell reactivity, etc.) and as I learn all the theories and mathematics behind it, I realize just how amazing God is. When we hear “diffusion” we think “moving from high concentration to low concentration,” but really (as I and my fellow Bioengineers have learned) there is so much more to it than that. There are so many factors, so many concepts involved in these “basic” mechanisms in life. Life is extraordinarily intricate and it is impossible, when you truly start to understand all of these things behind it, to deny that we were created by an all-knowing, all-powerful God.

Humans have always attempted to figure out how things work. As the centuries have passed, we have learned much about such biological processes. All in all, however, we still know very little. If I have learned anything in sitting through all my classes, it is that almost everything humans have theorized or tried to work out break down at a certain level (think Schrödinger’s cat) and that none of what we know is for certain. Practically all of the scientific “knowledge” we have is based on “probability” and in the end, we really have no idea how anything works. After millennia of research and thousands of scientific geniuses, we have well-nigh nothing to show for it. It is God and God alone who fully understands the way life works. After all, He created it!

As I came to this realization, I felt totally humbled yet amazed by God’s marvelous power. Truly, God is the most glorious being in the universe. We can spend billions of lifetimes trying to figure things out, but in the end it is all up to Him.

-JCLi