If you are of sufficient age you may recall a television mini-series called Roots. Roots are something we all can get into. Today there are abundant resources on line to help you find your ancestors going back pre colonial America and with DNA you can trace your biological ancestry even further. All very impressive.
When I read this passage from Matthew it overwhelms you with the lineage of Jesus. It's intention for one is to note that Jesus has the 'creds' for the job. He's an itinerant preacher with a pretty highbrow background.
I know from working in big organizations that very often it is who you know that may help get you a job. An introduction. But like Jesus, you wind up having to stand on your own actions and performance. We have to know who we are inside, that we have the goods and not really as much as our ancestors did.
How do we find out if we have what it takes? How do we even know who we are aside from who are ancestors were? A tried and true method has always been heading into the desert. Often a literal trip of solitude it can easily be a personal desert, a barren time or challenge that tests our mettle. Some people call it testing by fire. We are tested and we succeed, now we can lead, that's pretty much how it goes.
It would seem fool hardy to literally march off into the desert these days. What we need to do is search our soul, get to our own depths, challenge the easiness we may have in life, challenge the temptations we face and with prayer and guidance emerge better off, better prepared to live a life of leadership and faith in God's name.
Matthew 1:1-17, 3:1-6
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.
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” ’
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
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