The Genealogy Of God Series

My wife was telling me during the sermons, she was distracted because one of the hairs was just sticking straight up. And I said, “Which one?” She said, “I think it was Joe!” I have started to name them because they are so precious. So I put Joe back in place, and it looked much better.

We tend to name the things that are precious to us. This morning we are going to be looking at names, and that is one of the things in the Bible that is quite often we like to avoid. We get to the genealogies, and what is it that you do? Genesis 5, for example is the chapter of insomniacs. If you have trouble sleeping, open to Genesis 5, and you can read all the “begets”. You read Adam who begat Seth, who begat Enoch, who begat etc. Before you get to the 10th or 12th beget, you begin to fall asleep.

We are going to begin a series in the book of Matthew. And this is the beginning of the series.

Matthew has a list of names that are special to him, because they had some significance in the genealogy of Jesus. Some people consider reading genealogies as the most uninspiring text. Yes, they may say it is inspired, but it does not seem to be inspiring.

READ Matthew 1:1-17

In this interesting list, we have famous, infamous and unknown people.

There is an old Italian spaghetti western that was made. They call it, “The good, the bad, and the ugly.” We might have a little bit of all the three in the list, and some people who are also in between.

1. FAMOUS PEOPLE

These are people that are heroes of faith. In each of these names is a story; a real human being, who lived and loved, who experienced life, who sometimes served God, and sometimes disobeyed God, and who died. They are not just a list of letters arbitrarily joined together.

We have stories of people whom we all admire. We have Abraham, David, Boaz, Solomon etc.

ABRAHAM

Abraham is the father of faith, not just of Christianity. He was the father of Judaism. The Muslims also looked to Abraham as the father. The Arabs think of him as the father. He is one of the most revered historical character in history.

BOAZ

Boaz, a large portion of the book of Ruth is about Boaz. We often think of it as Naomi or Ruth. Although the book is called after her name, the story is about this extraordinary man, Boaz. He ended being one of the great grandfathers of David.

SOLOMON

Solomon was recognized worldwide as one of the wisest human beings in history, who wrote Proverbs, and probably the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes as well, and a bunch of other writings which we do not have in the Bible. He was quite a prolific writer, and an extraordinary man in history.

ASA

Asa was one of the good kings in Israel. When you look at the kings of Israel and Judah, and you want to make a list of the good kings in Israel, it is only a short list. If you look at the list of good kings in Judah, it is slightly longer. By good kings, I mean that they did what God told them to do, and lived a life of obedience to Him. However, most of the kings lived in rebellion.

UZZIAH

Uzziah was such a godly man that when he died, Isaiah was grieved. And he marks a vision he had in the year that King Uzziah died in Isaiah 6. He was an important person to Isaiah because of his godly leadership, and when he died Isaiah felt that a godly reign had come to an end. Yet, Isaiah saw that it was God Who was sitting on the throne.

HEZEKIAH

Hezekiah did extraordinary works in Israel. He built a great reservoir and connected the water outside the city to the water inside the city. When the army laid siege over Jerusalem, they were able to survive because they had the water supply. He had some areas of disobedience too. When he gave birth to a son, he gave birth to one of the most evil kings in history.

2. UNKNOWN PEOPLE

There is also a long list in this genealogy of unknown people. How about Abihud? When was the last time you heard a sermon on the famous Abihud? Eliakim? He is not to be confused with a more famous Eliakim, one who was there during the time of the Judges. Azor? Zaddok? Akim? Elihud? Eleazar? There is a well known Eleazar, and this is not that person. How about Matthan? How many of us have named our children Matthan? History has no record of them, except that we find them in the genealogy of Jesus.