Genealogies of Jesus

If you follow me on Instagram there’s a chance you saw the stories about the genealogies of Jesus. You can find these in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.
We all know that we’re tempted to just skip over any sort of list of names. But if they were meant for us to skip over, God wouldn’t have inspired these men to include this information if it wasn’t important and purposeful.

What Can We Learn?

Genealogies teach us multiple things. They are more than just lists of names, especially when you start looking at the lineage of Jesus.

• Life & Death // In the simplest form, these lists show that fathers have sons and family lines continue.
• Sin // As long as there is death, there’s sin. But these family lines remind us of stories of sin.
• Prophecies Fulfilled // Genesis 17:19, Genesis 21:12, Genesis 22:18, Numbers 24:17, Genesis 49:10 – These prophecies and promises made are fulfilled by Jesus and proven in the genealogies that Matthew and Luke include in their gospels.
• God Can Use Anyone // If there was ever a time that you didn’t feel worthy or purposeful, stop that thinking. These genealogies are evidence that God uses all things for His glory. This includes rape, incest, murder, along with loving faithful people.

Now, I want you to look at these lists of names differently now. Go ahead… open your bible to Matthew 1 and then Luke 3. Find the names that stick out. You don’t have to know everyone’s story, but once you see the familiar names, the story of the Bible becomes a little more clear and easier to see.

Also, historically women weren’t named in these types of lists. But in Jesus’ story, there’s some women who must be named. Can you find them? Do you know what makes them so important that they must be named? Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (wife of Uriah is how she’s recalled), and Mary. More on these women soon.

Below is a simplified look at both lineages for Jesus. This is pretty basic written out form of the scripture. If you’re interested in how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecies, you might enjoy Guarantee.

Those who would like to retrace their own family history and discover their own lineage should go here to learn about an extremely useful tool online which grants access to newspaper records and in excess of two billion genealogy records. It might not go back as far as Biblical times but it should enable you to fill out the gaps in your family tree.