Americans do many things well:
Space travel, radio and television transmissions, weather forecasting, computers, automobiles, jet flight, modern medicine, antibiotics. We have stopped polio in its tracks and rid the world of smallpox.
But Ancient Israel did one thing better:
RECORD KEEPING.
The Bible includes the most detailed records of so many things. The writers count days, weeks, months, and years, nails, plates, bowls, priestly garments, swords, shields, timber, precious metals, animals used for sacrifices, tithes received, crops harvested, days with rain, days without rain, spoils of war by pound and by category, and on and on. There is even a tally of the number of “left-handed men who could sling a stone at a hair without missing” (there were 700) Judges 20:16.
Americans also keep a lot of records. I manage a massive spreadsheet containing an incredible amount of data, and I can print reports at the push of a button. Our nation has buildings—warehouses—filled with records, all of them rapidly being copied onto servers for digital storage.
But America remains a land of independent people who want to be off-the-grid: we may enjoy access to each other’s records, but we like to keep our own business private.
In Ancient Israel, people took pride in written records. Written records gave you and your family legitimacy. The records proved you belonged—and you did not belong unless you could prove it. The American Dream is a uniquely New-World concept: you show up, put down roots, and in a few years, you are one of us. In spite of decades of controversy over U.S. borders and immigration policy, it remains true that most nations are not as quick to welcome newcomers as we are. In older nations, it is sometimes understood that you will only be welcomed–you will only belong–if you can prove that your distant ancestors also belonged.
Israelites kept family records—generations and generations of births and deaths. The Bible contains a sampling of these records, but if you read it closely you learn that the records it includes are but the tiniest fraction of the records available at the time of the writing.[1] There must have been shelves and shelves covered in scroll after scroll, everything carefully written down by hand.
The Bible includes some 25 genealogies, filled with names only speakers of Hebrew can understand. And while these lengthy registries are only a fraction of the records Israel had in storage, to us they are hard to read and about as interesting as a phone book. So why are they in the Bible?
Families matter to God.
The Gospel of Matthew—the opening of the New Testament—begins with the most important family line of all time:
“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” Matthew 1:1.
This is an astounding claim, one that would have been the most incredible headline in the entire lifetime of those who read it. Nothing in Jewish history was more important than the birth of the Messiah, the Promised One, who would be descended from both King David and Father Abraham. Jesus was among the many in Israel whose entire family line was a matter of public record.
God used family trees and ancestral records the way He used prophecy: He was creating a setting for the coming of the Messiah, so that when Jesus arrived, it would be clear to those “who have ears to hear” (Matthew 11:15) that this was indeed, the long-awaited Anointed One.
Families matter to God.
But the Bible’s use of family lines highlights another key point, the New Testament principle of grace. When the Hebrews were released from 70 years of captivity in Babylon and began returning to Jerusalem, each family was required to produce records indicating that they were, in fact, descended from Abraham. Moreover, those who descended from priests had to come up with written records to prove their priestly ancestry, or they would be disqualified from the priesthood.
“The following are those who … were unable to prove that their families and ancestry were Israelite: Delaiah’s descendants, Tobiah’s descendants, Nekoda’s descendants [a total of 652], and from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai…. These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood” Ezra 2:59-62.
The Bible is the story of
God’s Chosen People.
God had a story to tell—a story He would participate in—but He had to start somewhere. He began by choosing Abraham, blessing his descendants, and calling them His Chosen People. Through the family of Abraham, “all the world would be blessed” Genesis 22:18. That family line was important. There were the 12 sons of Jacob (re-named Israel), and those 12 fathered the 12 tribes. The tribe of Levi was chosen to be the priestly tribe—and only those descended from Levi could perform the duties of a priest.
Unfortunately, following seventy years of captivity in Babylon, some were unable to locate records proving them to be descended from the priesthood. Others were unable to locate records proving them to be Israelites at all. The consequences to these gaps in the written record were severe. You wanted to be a member of God’s Chosen People. And if you were supposed to be one of the priests, you did not want to lose that privileged calling, for it would mean the loss of your career.
Genealogical records could make you or break you.
BUT—Jesus, the Anointed King who fulfills prophecy and fulfills family lines, changed all that. Because of Him, none of these things matter any more.
In Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female,” Galatians 3:28. Jesus tore down the dividing wall between people and each other and between people and God (Ephesians 2:14), literally ripping the curtain from the temple, Matthew 27:51. Not only are we all one, not only are Gentiles now invited into God’s presence, but no more human priests or earthly sacrifices are required in order to reach God’s presence. Hebrews may come to God through the sacrifice of Christ—and non-Hebrews may come to God through the sacrifice of Christ. In His Grace, we are all one. None get a boost because of their “privileged” family line, and none get pushed aside because they lack records proving they are among the chosen.
When you read Genealogies, remember:
(1) The Bible deserves your patience—hang in there when you read the boring stuff and God will bless you as you read.
(2) If you ask the right questions and read with some imagination, you will find useful nuggets of truth even in lengthy genealogical records.
(3) Realize that family trees seem to matter to God; perhaps you should learn a little more about your own.
(4) Remember that we are all part of the human family—if you dig much, you will find that your ancestors include kings, queens, saints, and sinners, war heroes and murderers, slaves and slave owners. There are good and bad people in every family tree, and you will find them if you can locate enough records.
(5) Be thankful, because in Christ NOTHING in your family of origin or ancestry controls your life today. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you can come to God just as you are. He will forgive your sins, restore your life, and fill you with joy and hope for the future.
GRACE.
When you see the lengthy genealogies—thank God that no one expects you to prove your worth by coming up with ten generations of records.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heir according to the promise” Galatians 3:26-29.
ΑΩ
[1] I suspect the Bible includes far less than 1/10,000 of the genealogical records available at the time of the writing. I have no basis for the number; it’s just a wild guess. The point is, the records in the Bible are but the tiniest sampling of the records available.
*The picture above is of the Czech scrolls from the Memorial Scrolls Trust at Westminster Synogogue, London. This collection of 1,564 Torah scrolls (nothing to do with genealogies) was rescued from the Nazis by Rabbi Yablon who donated them to Westminster Synogogue, New Kent House, London, where they arrived in 1964. Gradually many of these scrolls have been returned to the synogogues in the communities from which they were stolen. See https://www.westminstersynagogue.org/our-czech-scrolls.html