A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Aram.
Aram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.
Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David the king.
David was the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asaph.
Asaph was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram.
Joram was the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amos.
Amos was the father of Josiah.
Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
This was at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Achim.
Achim was the father of Eliud.
Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary—of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.
So there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to Babylon to the Christ. (Matthew 1:1-17, CEB)
If you are like me you might have not read this. I usually skip over lineages, because they are boring. But this one is important. Kind of like when you go to the doctor and they ask you about your family history. You need to know if there is diabetes, or heart disease in your history, your lineage, because that can change your care.
This lineage of Jesus is our lineage too.
And if you skipped over it you missed the fact that 3 women are listed by name and another is mentioned as the wife of someone else. These women are all important to the history of Jesus and us.
One of them was known as a prostitute. God works in mysterious ways.
If you don’t know the story of Rahab, you should read it. You can find it here.
If you don’t know the story of Ruth, you should read it. You can find it here. (make sure you read all 4 chapters.
If you don’t know the story of Uriah’s wife, you should read it. You can find it here. If you have about 20 minutes you can watch the Veggie Tales version of this story here.
It is important for us to know why Jesus was a big deal in his birth, and after. We need to know the story not only because it is about Jesus, but it is also about us.
Loving People. Loving God.