Don and Boonetta had two children, one of which was named Beverly. Glenn and Alice had six children, one of which was named Richard. Richard and Beverly met, fell in love, married, and had two children, one of which was me. I am the product of a specific family tree. I am deeply blessed to be a part of this family and this legacy. In order to understand many things about me, you need to understand many things about my family. So many of the things I care about, and so much of who I am, I can directly trace back to my roots.
The names and the legacy vary from person to person, but everyone reading this post are a product of a family. Things as simple as hair color, the size of your nose, and height can be traced back to family. Things as complicated as personality, intellect, and interests can be traced back to family as well. Humanly speaking, in order to understand who we are, we need to flow back upstream.
I was thinking about this truth today as I read and meditated upon the prophecy God gave through Isaiah in Isaiah 11:1 as it speaks of Jesus saying, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit . . .” This verse (written 700 years before Jesus was born) reminds us that the Messiah would one day come from one of Jesse’s descendants. This was a very important thing because Jesse’s son, David, would become King of Israel and be promised an everlasting throne (see yesterday’s post). By saying that the Messiah would one day grow out of Jesse’s family tree, God was basically reminding His people that when Messiah comes, He will come in human form, and be the rightful heir to a real throne that He will reign from. Indeed, the Bible goes to great lengths to point out Jesus family heritage to us. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 both include detailed genealogies of Jesus. These genealogies provide strong evidence for us who read them that Jesus was indeed fully human ( He was also fully God), and humanly speaking, He was qualified for certain roles, offices, and responsibilities on the planet.
If you have time today, read the Matthew 1 and/or Luke 3 (the sections detailing the genealogies of Jesus) and try to answer the question, “What do I learn about Jesus by looking at His family tree? Just as my family tree helps people to understand me, so Jesus family tree helps us to understand Him . . . including His role as King.