Boring Genealogy? Reprise.

I’m not sure if Rob intends on carrying this series any further, but here’s a fun way to help you remember the genealogy of Matthew. It’s called “Matthew Begats” and it’s by a man named Andrew Peterson, whose “Behold the Lamb of God” album I am quite a fan of.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snURV57_tjo

-djstevens

Boring Genealogy? Part 3

A Hilarious Genealogy?

After you read the subtitle for this post, you might have asked yourself, “Is a hilarious genealogy even possible? I’d like to think so. Thus, I thought I’d share this funny thought to prove that genealogies can even make you laugh. (But you may need to have a silly juvenile mind like me.) You’ll have to forgive me for any irreverence.

Behold, my favorite pseudo-genealogy! From Judges 10:1

1After Abimelech there arose to(A) save Israel Tola the son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in(B) the hill country of Ephraim.

Haha. Oh Bible, you are so wonderfully wise, sanctifying and even comical at times. Thank God for a God with a sense of humor.

(And yes, I do understand that our English phonetical pronunciation is different from way the names were actually pronounced.) But this post is just for fun anyways.

-rbchew

“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

Boring Genealogy? (Part 1)

Every once in a while, especially when we don’t feel like studying, Daniel and I will randomly break out in song, singing (or more precisely, rapping) to “Bible in a Minute”, a musical Youtube hit we found a while back (We particularly love to do this when lots of our friends are around which force them to endure our off-tune singing.)

The song attempts to summarize the Bible by essentially stringing together a bunch of hallmark Bible stories in chronological order from Genesis to Revelation, all within the course of a minute. When I first clicked on the link, I was pretty skeptical, afraid that I had just browsed into a secular attack on Christianity, but I remember being quite impressed, agreeing with all the lyrics they said.

It wasn’t until later that I realized that I disagreed with one particular lyric. Let’s see if you can find it.

Verse 1
EARTH MADE, ADAM EVE
CAIN KILLS ABEL, HAS TO LEAVE
BORING GENEALOGY
GREAT FLOOD, OLIVE LEAF

Did you find it? In truth, I think that the majority of people would agree with everything written here, but as I began to read 1 Chronicles chapters 1-9, I realized that I had to completely disagree with the notion of a “boring genealogy.” Sections of the Bible such as the genealogies of 1 and 2 Chronicles and the priestly ordinances of Leviticus have been the graveyard of many Bible reading plans, largely because at first glance, its boring, it doesn’t entertain us. If all Scripture is god-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, then, why are these genealogies there? I think there many reasons why, but one is to show God’s enduring faithfulness

I recently decided to memorize the genealogy of Matthew 1 from Abraham to Jesus in an attempt to solve this mystery, at least in part. As I began to memorize I realized that Jesus could not have been any John Doe, (yes I know that he had to be God himself), but what I am saying, is that Jesus had to come from Mary and Joseph. If he came from anyone else, then God would have been lying to Eve, Judah and David when he promised that the Messaiah would come through their line. And if God were to lie, that would defy his holy character. The genealogy is vastly important because the fact that Jesus came through Judah even after centuries of exile, war and poverty shows that God is faithful to his promises. God promised Eve that her seed would crush the Serpent. God promised Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. God promised David that he would never cease to have a king on the throne. How could all these things come to pass if Jesus had not come through the line of David? Think about it for a moment. Jesus could not have come through anybody, it had to be through the line of Judah. Jesus had to be born exactly in the way it happened, through the exact line it happened. there could be no other way. God promised people salvation in a very specific form, and the beauty of God’s faithfulness, is that He ALWAYS delivers, and He ALWAYS does so with precise detail. So there we have it, Jesus’ genealogy is the fulfillment of a plethora of divine promises all which came together in conformity with the purpose of his will.

Biblical genealogies are the proof of promises fulfilled.

I think if I could do a cover for “Bible in a Minute” I’d change the first verse to “awesome genealogy.”

So for those who aren’t satisfied and still would prefer to conveniently skip the first several chapters of 1 and 2 Chronicles, I’ve decided that this post will be the first post in a mini series I will be calling “Boring Genealogy?” in which I will be digging into the beauty and majesty of the pedigree of Christ.

-RBChew