December 12
“Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminidab, Amminidab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.” Ruth 4:18-22 ESV
This story is one of my favorites. There are so many things I could say about it in relation to Advent. Most often, authors point out the kinsman redeemer Boaz and how it reflects the way Jesus redeems us. However, my mind is stuck on something else today—genealogies.
Bible genealogies are not that much fun for us to read. The names are difficult for the American tongue to say and there doesn’t seem like there is much information to be gained. At first anyway. When you know what you are looking for, these portions of the scripture are vastly important for our understanding of the prophesied Jesus.
For Jesus to be considered the true Messiah, we have to be able to tie his lineage to prophecy through recorded history (among other things). Remember a few days ago when we read that from Judah’s line would come the prophesied Child? If we take a look at the last few verses of the book of Ruth, we see this come to fruition:
{Judah fathered Perez with Tamar}, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminidab, Amminidab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
Did you catch Boaz toward the end of the list? The child he brought into the world with Ruth, was grandfather to the great Kind David!
And we see in Jeremiah 23:5: “Behold the days are coming declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch…” I won’t list it here, but the rest of the genealogy from David to Jesus is in Matthew 1. This chapter finishes by saying that “The generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”
Isn’t that beautiful? I know a lot of people who love to hop on genealogy websites to research their family history. Most people can only find solid records going back five to eight generations. Think about how remarkable, and necessary, it is that we have all the names from Abraham to Jesus. God has truly kept his promises through the generations—praise his holy name!
Prayer for today:
Heavenly Father, you are the LORD our God, faithful through the generations. We sing praises to you for your great works! Thank you for showing us through Ruth and Boaz how you redeem us, make a way for our salvation through your son Jesus. We give thanks to you and bless your holy name. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
