Read:
Do you ever encounter those long lists of names in the Bible and have no idea what to make of them – let alone how to pronounce them? We sometimes skim over these genealogies and wonder why they’re even in the Bible. But God chose to include them for a reason.
Long ago, back when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, God promised a descendant of Eve would someday conquer death and sin. God said this descendant would crush Satan’s head under his foot without so much as a bruise to his heel!
God makes a similar promise to Abraham, that “all the nations would be blessed” through his descendants (Genesis 3, 12, and 15).
Several prophecies about the Messiah (Isaiah 11 and Micah 5) promise that the Savior will come from the tribe of Judah, who was one of Jacob’s twelve sons. Abraham to Isaac. Isaac to Jacob. Jacob to Judah. All the way down to Boaz, the son of Rahab, who married Ruth. They had a son Obed, who had a son Jesse, who had a son David, who became king over Israel.
God includes all the people in these lists because it must be proven that Jesus, the Messiah that was promised, indeed came from the line of Judah.
But the promise wasn’t just for Abraham. Obed reminds us that God’s plan always involved the Gentiles, those who weren’t Israelites: both his mother and his father’s mother were outsiders, foreigners, Gentiles. God gave the nation of Israel a job, to invite others to come and see what the Lord had done for them.That he had chosen them not because they were powerful or better but because God is gracious and kind, and he accepts everyone who comes to him in faith..
Now, as believers of God saved by grace through faith, we are given a slightly different task: Go and tell the world, Jesus said in Matthew 28, and make disciples. At LCBC we say it this way: we introduce others to Jesus and together fully follow him. We have received God’s promise, and now we share it with others.
Prayer: Dear God, you are gracious and kind to forgive our sins and adopt us into your family. Help me to speak up and share your love with the people in my life. Amen.