Genealogy and Who We Are

Matthew 1:1–17 CSB

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: 2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, 4 Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife, 7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa, 8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah, 9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah, 11 and Josiah fathered Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon Jeconiah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor, 14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud, 15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob, 16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations; and from David until the exile to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon until the Christ, fourteen generations.

What is so important about genealogies? Why are there so many of them in the Bible? What good can they do? Is there any reason for us to be so involved in these things today? What do we think about programmes such as ‘So you think you are royal...’ or ‘Who do you think you are?’

Do we find programmes on TV about others interesting? I think that if we watch them then maybe we find something interesting in their journey – especially as TV tends to spruce things up and make it Hollywoody...I doubt very much they would find good TV from my genealogy. My brother is into all that tracing family history - and he has traced a few branches back to over the last 400 years or so - and what has he found? Just a few paupers and those in the workhouse though he has traced some of my family back to Suffolk that I did not know about and thereabouts as well as a Welsh line going to the top of the valleys and an Irish one that persistently stayed in Dublin. But without all these people, they conspired together, yet unknowingly, to my very existence.

When we read lists of genealogies we soon get bored of so and so begat so and so who begat so and so who begat so and so as there seems so little juicy bits that we just skip over such lists of people’s names.

But if it were that you were on that list of names – perhaps we would scrutinise it more closely – are we not interesting? With future generations will we be noticed? It is one thing for there to be those who stand out immediately because of notoriety. Are there criminals? Are there royals? Is there anyone famous? Anyone clever? Anyone recognised? in our own genealogies?

There are two accounts of genealogy of Jesus in the NT – the passage in Luke 3 which traces Jesus back to Adam and shows that Jesus is the Son of God. But the passage we read in Matthew was to show that Jesus was King of the Jews as Jesus was the legal heir to the throne because of his lineage through David.

Remember that Joseph was not the father in the technical way – that is because of the virgin birth – Joseph was the legal father as Jesus was his adopted son. Matthew traces Jesus line back through Joseph whilst Luke does so through Mary hence the different names at times. Remember that each of us have two sets of grandparents.

This list not only establishes his roots as being a Son of David but also his historicity. That is, this Jesus was a human being who lived here upon the earth. There was a time when historians and theologians alike doubted whether it could be established but nowadays if you don’t think that Jesus was an historical figure you are laughed out of court. And this is because there is overwhelming evidence outside of the bible too.

This is now with a nod to Helene who said to me on Sunday, “why do we not hear more sermons on women?” and to be honest there is not a great deal to say - most of what we have about most of the women is quite brief in the bible but with that said there are some notable ones but we should not forget the giants in Christian history such as Corrie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby, Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, Susanna Wesley and so many, many more of which I may say about on another occasion. Now back to our bible passage today - Mathew mentions five women - this would not be remarkable except that this was a departure from the way Jews do their genealogies. The five women are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.

Tamar (in Gen 38.6-30) is very interesting as she slept with the father of her husband Er after he died. It was custom that the brother of the husband who died should become her husband so that they would raise an heir in the first husband’s name. So Onan married her but he did evil in God’s eyes and he died too and their father Judah was afraid to give her the youngest son, Shelah, in case he died too.

So Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with Judah, her Father-in-law though technically no longer as both husbands were now dead, and she bore a son whose name is Perez: A direct ancestor of Jesus who was not a Jew. You might think that this is ridiculous in our day and age but back then, well, firstly, you needed a man who would bring in the income and second, a progeny was all important for land passed down through to the children - and unusually in society of that time, daughters would inherit if there were no sons.

You also have to think about Judah - why would Tamar think that this would be successful? Two reasons that are immediately plain: 1) His wife had died by this time and 2) This must have been his practice - it must have been known that sleeping with prostitutes was his thing. Crazy right? And Tamar almost got stoned for it until in her cunning plan she revealed through the payment Judah had paid her that Judah actually had slept with her.

So, Tamar played the prostitute but then we actually come across an actual prostitute, or in our politically correct world, a sex worker and her name was:

Rahab. We find her story in Joshua 2.1-24. She lived in Jericho and taking her life in her own hands she gave safe sanctuary to the spies of Israel. She did this because she feared God and Israel and because of what she did, she and her family were saved. They were led to safety when they destroyed Jericho. And interestingly she was the mother of Boaz. Who was Boaz but the man who married another of the women mentioned here named Ruth.

Ruth (of the book of Ruth) was the woman who followed Naomi, her mother-in-law, back to her home after her husband died in that she said that My God will be your God, your people my people. Because she ended up in the field of Naomi’s relative, Boaz, they met, fell in love and married and are direct ancestors of Jesus.

Then of course there is Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11.1-27)– the woman bathing naked on a rooftop for David to see and seduce. So an affair with his friend’s wife, a murder by proxy, a cover-up, secret exposed, conviction, marriage death of a child, birth of a child named Solomon who became King and wrote Ecclesiastes, Song of songs, and most of Proverbs.

And then last of all there was Mary who bore the King of kings.

If we were to research our own ancestry I doubt we would find much that is all that interesting – but either way it will give us some sense of where we have come from – it gives us our identity – and because of that we have interest in our own background.

What is amazing about this list of names is that so many of these men and women were failures in their everyday lives but are still part of the lineage of Jesus. None of us have been without failures whether financially, morally, in the things we have aimed for, diets not kept, being dreamless, aimless, loveless, and letting us and others down – such were the ancestry of Jesus.

Many Christians have gone before us and marked out the way – many Christians have left their story as part of the cloud of witnesses that encourage us to be more Christ-like. Many of those whose stories were left to us didn’t get it right all the time but their faith saw them through. Only by grace is our motto – only by grace did these people both Jews and Gentiles be part of the legacy of Jesus. Of the five women only one was a Jew, Mary. Which on its own is incredible in a Jewish geneaology.

Whether we are interested in genealogies or not, and for the most part most Brits are not that interested, we should find value in our Christian Heritage. The Bible makes clear that as Christians we ought not be caught up in endless genealogies in 1 Tim 1.4 so for us Christians our sense of belonging and our sense of true identity can only be found in Christ. We are not of this world as we are heirs and citizens of the Kingdom of God. Women and men equal before God.

This list of names in Matthew shows us that Jesus was the rightful heir to the throne of David: He is King and Messiah and we being his sons as it were are heir to the promises of His Word. We are inheritors of eternal life, Heaven, and of God Himself who has loved us with such love by giving us His only Son who gave His life for us.

Just as Jesus was adopted by Joseph we have been adopted into the family of God and as such we have gained a different genealogy which is made up such illustrious people who, on the whole, were going about day to day lives but made at least one good decision and ended up as part of our own heritage for they led to Jesus. That should be a question we ask ourselves - do we lead to Jesus? Well, indeed we should be interested in or own history that stretches all the way back to Jesus and beyond. I recommend reading some of the biographies that you will find in all good Christian bookshops - there is the one at Swansea market after all.

These people are inspirational and encouraging to us because they have been there and done it and left a mark on history because they had put their faith and trust and hope in Jesus. And it is never too late to do this - I told you before of an 84 year old woman coming over to Macedonia from America to help for a couple of weeks. I was surprised back then but now I am never surprised when an older person gets involved - it is never too late to be involved in the work of the Lord. It might just be that you will be remembered just for that.

I am going to add something else today that you may not be aware of:

Today in Israel is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Because I have mentioned this person I thought I would add a very brief biography of her and maybe I’ll extend it another time.

The Ten Boom family of Haarlem, Netherlands, hid, fed, and cared for Jews during World War 2 in their home above their father’s watchmaker shop. Eventually, the entire family was arrested and sent to concentration camps. Only Corrie ten Boom survived.

Their story is chronicled in Corrie’s best-selling book, The Hiding Place.

Corrie elsewhere wrote:

My father had a watchmaker’s shop. He would sometimes say to me, “My name is on the shop, while it’s God’s name that should be on it. I’m a watchmaker by the grace of God.” Each Christian is building the kingdom of God, no matter whether you’re a watchmaker, a mason, a housewife, or a professor, or [whatever] you may be called to be. . . .

We are only asked to be faithful. Whether we are remembered by others or not - God remembers us. But we do remember those who are like Corrie Ten Boom.