I'm not making any promises here, but I do hope that I will be able to post at least once a week from now on. I hope that you will keep checking back in and seeing if there is something new. Also, please respond/comment if you wish. I think that probably every person that writes a blog really loves it when a person comments on the things that they have written. I have a tracker on my page that tells me how many people have viewed my blog that day, and I love seeing the numbers, but I would really like to hear what you think. Whether it is disagree or agree, I want to hear it all. But hey, no pressure.
Soooo, I figured that I would use the remainder of my time here to reflect on some thoughts that I have had about Christmas. Well, I guess I should clarify that. I want to talk about something that is pretty cool about Matthew chapter 1. If you haven't read it recently, take a minute or two and read it. Isn't that genealogy incredible? I think that it is fascinating that Matthew, a Jewish man writing to Jewish people, would use his first statement of his gospel to set the precedent for the entire book. Essentially what he says is that Jesus Christ is greater than David, the greatest king in all of Israel, and Abraham, the father of all Jewish people. You may be saying, "What? Where does he say that?" He is making that statement by placing Jesus first in the genealogy. Typically, if this were the genealogy of anyone else, then Abraham would be listed first according to his importance and the fact that he is the patriarch of the the Jewish people. If not Abraham, then certainly David, the greatest and most beloved king of Israel. But Matthew doesn't do that. Matthew, making the case throughout his entire gospel that Jesus is the promised Messiah and true King of Israel, places Jesus prominently at the head of His own genealogy.
Another amazing thing about this genealogy are the people that it is made up of. First, the women. Women were never included in genealogies. If there was a woman mentioned in a genealogy it would be extremely rare. Matthew places five women in the lineage of Jesus. Each one of them was either marked by scandal or the appearance of scandal. Tamar was a Canaanite woman who posed as a prostitute to seduce Judah, her father-in-law (Gen. 38:13-30). Rahab was a prostitute from the destroyed city of Jericho (Josh. 6). Ruth was a Moabite woman and a worshipper of idols (Ruth 1:3). Bathsheba, “Uriah’s wife” committed adultery with King David (2 Sam. 11), and Mary bore the stigma of pregnancy outside of wedlock. This shows us that the Lord can use scandal and what the devil meant for evil for His purposes and His glory.
Secondly, the men. These were not a collection of winners themselves. Jacob was a liar, Judah had sex with a prostitutes (one was his daughter-in-law), David was an adulterer and murderer, Solomon led the nation into worship of false gods and Rehoboam split the kingdom of Israel. So why did God choose this group of people? I believe it is because He likes to show how great He is in spite of how pathetic we are. He likes to display to world that He can uses the broken down and beaten up. I know that is is true because I can read it clearly from His Word and I have experienced it in my own life. I'm a nobody. I have screwed up more than I have succeeded and yet Jesus still loves me and wants to use and does use me for His glory. I get the feeling as I read the Word of God that the Lord is drawn to broken things. It's not because He likes to fix things/people. No, God is not a fixer. It is because He like to make them brand new. Born again, if you will. He is the Creator.
I will continue these thoughts later. Merry Christmas.
You are right about the women. Well said. Good thoughts about the men, too.
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post on Christmas that has gotten the most comments, many of them quite interesting, at least to me.
we are so glad the God has started a NEW CHAPTER for us all at FBC Athens!
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