Devotions
Rev Gav
Adopted
Matthew 1.1–17
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
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.
Reflect
If you made it through this morning’s Bible Reading without glazing over, well done! Haha! The lineage of Jesus isn’t the most exciting Bible reading, or is it?
Matthew was writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, and we can tell this because of the language he used, the stories he included, and the emphases he applied. Now, lineage was incredibly important to the Jewish people. It established your identity, role, place in the community, and reinforced your heritage, and this is why Matthew began his gospel with the lineage of Jesus.
In Judaism, your Jewish status was passed down through your mother and your tribe through your father. In other words you could (pretty much) only be Jewish if you had a Jewish mother (no matter who the father was). Therefore, because Jesus clearly had a Jewish mother, he was Jewish, and his adopting father was of the ‘royal’ tribe of Judah which linked him to King David.
“In the first seventeen verses of Matthew we meet forty-six people whose lifetimes span two-thousand years. All were ancestors of Jesus, but they varied considerably in personality, spirituality, and experience. Some were heroes of faith such as Abraham, Isaac, Ruth, and David. Some had shady reputations, such as Rahab and Tamar. Many were very ordinary, such as Hezron, Aram, Nahshon, and Achim. And others were evil, such as Manasseh and Abijah. God’s work in history is not limited by human failures or sins, and he works through ordinary people. Just as God used all kinds of people to bring his Son into the world, he uses all kinds today to accomplish his will. And God wants to use you.” (from the Handbook of Biblical Application)
Jesus was adopted into the royal line of Judah. We are adopted, by Jesus, into God’s family, and we can tack our names on to the end of this list because we are all children of God, with Christ as our adopting parent.
Some of us may be heroes of the faith, some of us may have shady reputations, some of us are very ordinary, and perhaps some of us have done some pretty wicked things, however, God still adopts us and calls us children. How cool is that?
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash
Pray
Holy God
How good it is
to be adopted into your family
and to be called your child.
Thank you for accepting me
and welcoming me
into your heavenly home.
May my life honour you
and bring you great joy.
Now and forever.
and then