Do you think genealogies are boring and have nothing to teach us? Think again! #Reflectonthis #DailyReflection https://youtu.be/t2w7P1I6y4Y

Scripture Reading
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. [Please read the in-between text from the Bible].
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Reflection
I'm pretty sure many of you were waiting for that to get over. You were probably wondering why Matthew would start his gospel with a long genealogy instead of getting straight into the action as Mark did. Or telling a story of two miracle births like Luke did. Or having the operatic opening we find in the Gospel of John (You know: In the beginning was the Word). The reason is because genealogies were very important to the Jewish people. The Jews were Matthew's primary audience. So, when Matthew begins by writing: "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham," he is introducing Jesus straight off the bat as the Messiah, the long-awaited Savior, linking him to the line of Abraham and to the line of David.

Being of the line of Abraham places Jesus in the nation. Being of the line of David puts him on the throne. Establishing this shows Matthew's Jewish readers that Jesus is from the lineage there were so many prophecies about. Next, Matthew arranges his genealogy in three sections of fourteen. One reason for this was undoubtedly as an aid to memorization. Seriously? Yeah. People in those days didn't find genealogies boring; they were exciting things. And they would actually be able to recite their own origins back to Jacob, whose sons led the twelve tribes of Israel. A second reason for this arrangement is to highlight the importance of David in this genealogy. The numeric value of the Hebrew name David is 14.

There are quite a few lessons we can learn from this genealogy. One is the overriding providence of God. He overrides the "rules" of succession time and time again, deciding who comes next in the line. For instance, he chose Abraham, who starts off this genealogy table; but then he chooses Isaac, not Ishmael, to continue the line. Later, he chose Jacob, and not first-born Esau, to continue it. David, too, was not the oldest in his family. On the contrary, he was the youngest of Jesse's eight sons. Amazing, ya?

Another thing we learn is about the grace of God. Five women are included in this genealogy (see if you can spot them all), four of whom were Gentiles. Three among them were guilty of sexual immorality. This shows us that the gospel is about everybody, and it is for everybody. It is for male and female, for Jew and Gentile, for rich and poor. And, of course, for the sinner. And, finally, we learn that God keeps his promise. Remember, way back in Genesis, he said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Well, here was the seed of the woman: Jesus Christ, redeemer of the world.

So, not so boring after all, ya?
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Today's devotional — Roots — is based on Matthew 1:1-17, the gospel reading for the day. The reflection is by Aneel Aranha, founder of Holy Spirit Interactive (HSI). Follow him on Facebook: fb.com/aneelaranha

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