by Giles Day

Created on: October 02, 2008

The Bible contains numerous genealogies of men and women who were extremely important in Jewish history. Whether for good or for bad (most were for good) each name cotains a wealth of information that cvan prvide a spiritual bleesing to all believers. This is why it is so important to have the bewst, complete working knowledge of the Bible that we can. To achieve this, takes much study and prparation.

There are endless lists that can be pored over and countless names that are available for our memorization. As Christian, we cannot ignore the importance of such books as I Chronicles, Ezra, etc. but for the sake of time and space, we can reduce the number down to three very important genealogies that speak very elquently of our spiritual roots.The first two are found in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The third one is found in the account of Jesus' ancestors in Matthew One. (Remember, this is the start of Jesus' human history background, but it is also the fulfillmetn of Old Testament history).

There are twety-three generations from adam to Joseph in the book. This nis referred to as the goldy line fo Adam through his third son,Seth. These twety-three men were mostly saved, but perhaps not all of them were believers. (Joshua 24:2) GReat spiritual giants like Enoch encourage us to have a closer a deeper spiritual walk with God. As Scripture states, Enoch never died becasue of the purity of his life before God. (Genesis 5:24)HIs son, Methuselah was n ot killed by the flood, but died prior to the flood. This man outlived his own son, Lamech, by five years (5:26),because fo God's un ending patience and His not being willing that any should perish. Lamech obviously followed the way of God, as illustrated by the name he gave his own son, Noah.(5:29) Noah, of course, found grace in the eyes of the Lord and was saved with his family during the flood (5:29) HI son, Shem, kept the line going two years after they landed on Mt. Ararat.(11:10)

It certaily seems possible that Adam's wife, Eve, thought the promise in Genesis 3:15 pertained to her son, Seth. It was true in directly, but of course, not directly. Jesus, who was a direct descendant of Seth, did defeat Satan and evil of course at the cross.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three great patriarchs of Jewish history are in this line. So was Judah, the fourth of the twelve sons of Jacob.

The line picks up in Matthew 1,with Abraham. From Matthew 1:2-Matthew 1:11 the Old and New Testament histories come together.

From verse eleven through the birth of Jesus, we pick up the kingly line of Judah after they had gone into the Babylonian capitivity. It breaks down to inlcude more common personages, but nit still shows the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. If logically followed through, Joseph would have been in line to the Davidic throne and would have been king. Jesus was considered the eartly son of Joseph, and would have been expected to acend the throne. Contrast Matthew 1:16 with John 1:12,13. Of course, it didn't work out that way, but that was the historical line of King David. Contrast the life of Joseph with that mentioned in Matthew one and in Luke.

Biblical histories can be a tremendous wealth of spiritual truths. Many people might consider them boring, but this is not true for the dedicated Bible scholar.As in Luke 3:38, they can be traced all the way back to God.

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