His story

How many generations back can you trace your ancestry? Genealogy has become pretty popular and with modern internet searches and conscientious research many have traced their line back quite far. I, personally, have heard from other relatives who have looked into our family background and found ancestors who actually were on the crew of the ships that sailed to Jamestown in 1607! But I really don't have much knowledge of my predecessors before my great grandparents. I have started reading the Gospel of Matthew to prepare for Christmas. It begins with the genealogy of Jesus and actually goes all the way back to Abraham! What records they must have kept. It was important for the people of Israel to know what tribe they had come from. It played into the transfer of property across generations and preserved the record of God's covenant with them as families and as a nation. Jesus was in the line of King David, but He was also a descendant of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, who gave inside information to the Hebrew spies in exchange for her freedom. Jesus was also from the line of Ruth and Ruth was a foreigner who had been redeemed into the Hebrew people for her faithfulness to her mother in law, Naomi.

-

I am struck with the reality of Jesus. He was a real person, with a recorded ancestry that dates way back to the personalities we read about in Genesis. If anyone has lived and walked the earth in the past and we want assurance of that reality...certainly Jesus was born and did walk the earth.

-

Matthew 1:¹⁶ Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷ All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

-

blessings,

Rob Smith