Genealogy of Jesus

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The genealogy of Jesus of listed in more than one place in the Bible, but in reality a lot of the stories in the
old testament are actually about Jesus's "ancestors". Consider the following.

Matt 1:1; The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matt 1:2; Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

Now of course, just about everyone knows about Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob (who was a twin
to Esau). Of course Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Judas (Judah) was one of them.
This is why Jesus is called the Lion of Judah ( Rev 5:5; )

Matt 1:3; And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

Some of the names don't match up exactly as expected, so you have to do some research.. For example, Judah had a son named Er who had a wife named Tamar. (Gen 38:6; )
Er was wicked, so God "took his life". So Er's brother.. Onan was supposed get Er's wife pregnant.
It was interesting old Jewish customs didn't require the brother to marry his brother widow.
He was only required to get her pregnant. The thought being, if the child was a male, he could carry
on the family name.

Onan didn't want to get Tamar pregnant because he "knew the offspring would not be his" (to raise).
(Gen 38:9; ) So he kind of "pretended to get her pregnant" in a manner of speaking.
But God didn't like this either, so he took Onan's life also. ( Gen 38:10; )
Tamar takes off her widow clothing, and dresses up as a prostitute. She tricks Shelah into thinking
she is a prostitute and he gets her pregnant.

It's interesting how the stories of the Bible are as real as our own dysfunctional families
Jesus's great, great, great... grandmother pretended to be a prostitute so she could get pregnant.
Tamar eventually has twins herself ... Perez and Zerah. The lineage of Jesus is carried on through Perez.

... to be continued ...

 

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Joseph is never specifically mentioned in the lineage of Jesus. But technically he is an ancestor of Jesus.
Jesus's bloodline doesn't run though Joseph, but Joseph was of course, one of the 12 sons of Jacob.
I suppose that would make Joseph the great, great, great.... uncle of Jesus.

In Gen 46:12; and Numb 26:21; we see the Perez had a son named Hezron. We don't hear much about Perez and Hezron,
but they show up again in Matt chapter 1.

Matt 1:3; Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.

We have to jump over to Ruth 4:19; to find out that Ram was the son of Hezron. This is also mentioned in 1 Chron 2:9;

not much is mentioned about these people, other than they are "ancestors" of Jesus.

 

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Matt 1:4; Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon.

In Ruth 4:20; and 1 Chron 2:10; We see that Ram was tthe father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nashon was the father of Salmon.

Now if you're like me... reading all these names and genealogy is kind of boring. Especially when not much is said about someone.
But in Ruth 4:21; we see Salmon was the father of Boaz. Things get interesting again.

The story of Boaz is of course in the book of Ruth. (starting chap 2 ). Boaz is considered a "type" of Christ. ( kinsman redeemer).

Someone who is wealthy, marries someone who has nothing. This is a picture of Christ "marrying" us as the body of believers.
In Ruth 4:1-12; Boaz "redeems" Ruth.

... to be continued ...

 

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Matt 1:5; Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse.
Matt 1:6; Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.

We see this also in Ruth 4:17; and Ruth 4:22; .

We hear about Jesse the father of David in 1 Samuel chapters 16 and 17.
Of course David takes up most of the rest of 1st and 2nd Samuel. This is the same David that killed Goliath the giant.
The story of David and Bathsheba the wife of Uriah is in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
David is also in 1st Kings chapters 1 and 2.

Again, David has an affair with another man's wife, he even (indirectly) has this man killed.
David gets this woman pregnant. This first child dies. But their second child grows up to be King Solomon. ( 2 Sam 12:24; )
Of course David wrote quite a bit of the book of Psalms.
Did I mention thew Bible has stories of dysfunctional families? God uses these people through all their problems!

The story of Solomon is all through 1st and 2nd Kings.
Solomon has his own problems. God gave Solomon a supernatural wisdom ( 1 Kings 4:29-34; )
and God also gave Solomon great riches. ( 1 Kings 10:23; 2 Chron 9:22; ) but yet despite all of this, Solomon eventually turned away
from God to follow other gods. ( 1 Chron 28:9; Nehemiah 13:26; 1 Kings 11:4; )

Solomon is credited with writing most of the Song of Solomon, the book of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

And yet, this Jesus's great, great, great... grandfather.

.. to be continued ...

 

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Matt 1:7; Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa.

Rehoboam is actually mentioned quite a bit. Mostly in 1 Kings 12 and 14. As well as 2 Chron 11 and 12.

1 Kin 12:6; King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, "How do you counsel me to answer this people?"
1 Kin 12:7; Then they spoke to him, saying, "If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."
1 Kin 12:8; But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.
1 Kin 12:9; So he said to them, "What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"
1 Kin 12:10; The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!

This is pretty good lesson here on listening to elders with more experience instead of your friends.
There is more to the story of course, but I'll let you read that for yourselves.

The story of Abijah is mostly in 2 Chron 13.

2 Chron 13:1; In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah.
2 Chron 13:2; He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. Now there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
2 Chron 13:3; Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant warriors, 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 chosen men who were valiant warriors.
2 Chron 13:4; Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel:
2 Chron 13:5; "Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?
2 Chron 13:6; "Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master,
2 Chron 13:7; and worthless men gathered about him, scoundrels, who proved too strong for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and timid and could not hold his own against them.

Because Rehoboam listened to these "worthless men" who were "scoundrels" the kingdom was divided.
I think still happens even today, because we listen to the wrong people and wrong advice.
Sometimes we are "young and timid" and cannot hold our own against them. Sometimes we are easily swayed.

We hear a lot about Asa as wll in 1 Kings 16 and 2 Chron 14. But I like how the description starts off.
I wonder if this could be our legacy, kind of what we are known for?

1 Kin 15:11; Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father.
2 Chron 14:2; Asa did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God,

Another thing about this story, is it shows how reading different parts of the Bible can
bring out details not mentioned in one place. For example, we don't really know that
Rehoboam's friends are scoundrels in 1 Kings, we have to jump to 2 Chron to find this out.

.. to be continued ...