I just finished my eighth reading of Holman’s Chronological Bible (READING GOD’S STORY: A Chronological Bible, 2011, Nashville). The Bible is so deep, so rich, so LAYERED with meaning—you can keep reading the Bible all your life and ALWAYS learn something new. You may become a master of the scriptures, but you will never stop learning. You may be a Bible scholar, but this book is LIVING AND ACTIVE AND SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD, Hebrews 4:12. God will never stop speaking to you through His word. If you’re reading it, you are learning.
So what did I learn today?
I read a familiar passage, the first chapter of the New Testament, Matthew 1. It begins with a rather humdrum account of genealogies.
Then Matthew summarizes:
“So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David until the exile in Babylon, 14 generations, and from the exile in Babylon until the Messiah, 14 generations” Matthew 1:17.
Seven is the perfect number, right? Often called, “God’s number”? So God arranged the generations in three groups of 14, building on multiples of seven. And the larger point is the division of time into three parts: Abraham to David, David to the Babylonian Exile, and Babylonian Exile to Jesus. What interests me is that the exile to Babylon plays a key role, but slavery in Egypt is not mentioned. My point? We should be more familiar with the Babylonian exile[1]. It means something to God.
By contrast, Luke provides another genealogy of Jesus, this one going back to Adam:
“…son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God” Luke 3:38.
How many generations from Creation to Jesus? Luke does not count them. But we can! So I did—it’s 77. Talk about a perfect number. Seventy-seven generations! But I would not know if I had not taken the time to count.
(Don’t be afraid of those long, boring parts—laws, genealogies, blueprints—you will find NUGGETS in there if you dig a little.)
God, help us read well and study Your word seriously! Thank You for teaching us every day!
ΑΩ
[1] It was likely the Babylonian Captivity that caused the “Wise Men from the East” to be familiar with the scriptures, to recognize the Star that they followed to Jerusalem, then Bethlehem, where they discovered the Savior of the world—a Savior not only for the Jews, but for ALL. God used the captivity in Babylon to reach the Oriental peoples of the East, just as He later used Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch to reach the people of Africa.
** In the interests of full-disclosure, I should note that some online commentators agree that there were 77 generations from Adam to Jesus, some do not. Either way, it is certainly an interesting number.
Household Words: 