Joseph's Ancestry

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 29, 2019

Joseph's Ancestry

Page 35-36

Matthew 1:1-17

When Matthew wrote the Gospel bearing his name, he did not consult Ancestry.com to learn about the genealogy of Jesus. He learned about Jesus’ ancestors from Jesus. Jesus knew we can learn much about the nature of God, and how God has been working His plan of redemption, by taking the time to look and see how He has been working through generations of His people to accomplish His purposes.  Reading the list of names is like walking through a hall of fame. Two parts of this genealogy stand out to me.

First, there are five women mentioned among Jesus’ ancestors. This is important beyond the fact that each of the women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary) contributed greatly to God’s redemptive work. The inclusion of the women at the writing of this Gospel was hugely counter-cultural, and underscores that from the very beginning of the story of Jesus’ life, gender equality was emphasized.

Next, the promised Messiah was to be a descendant of King David. This ancestry flows to Joseph, but Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. There is much theological debate on this point; however, for me it is very personal. I am not the biological father of two of my children. Even so, to me they are as much bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood as my biological child. I know Joseph understands how I feel.

My Takeaway: Matthew’s inclusion of the genealogy and references to fourteen generations is a common Jewish literary technique of diving epochs into equal parts and thus is not intended to be taken literally; these are signs. The signs point to the truth that the history of God’s redemptive work is not haphazard. It is both orderly and purposeful, just as are the heavenly bodies of His creation.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.