Matthew’s Begats
I am the son of Dick and Beverly Robinson . . . the grandson of Don and Boonetta Davis and Glen and Alice Robinson . . . and so on, and so on. These facts are personally very meaningful. They describe my earthly heritage and contain the names of people who have shaped my life in profound ways.
Every person reading this ALSO is a part of a family tree. Though my experience as a descendant of the “Robinson” and “Davis” families is very positive, your experience may have been rocky. For good or for bad, we are still connected to and marked by our lineage. Personally, it bears great meaning to each of us.
However, there are some people whose family trees are not just PERSONALLY interesting, but have implications that impact the world. Think about members of the British Royal Family. Their blood lines bring with them responsibility and authority that impacts the society around them.
In Matthew 1:1-17, we see the family tree of Jesus Christ. This family tree lets us know a few things:
1) It shows us that Jesus (the Son of God) became fully human at His earthly birth. He did not just become “human-like,” He PERSONALLY took on flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore, we do not have a Savior who cannot relate to us, but we have One who knows what it means to live in this world. His lineage is a reminder of that.
2) It shows us that Jesus genealogy sets Him up for a WORLD-WIDE impact. He is a descendant of Abraham, reminding us that He is ethnically a Jew, thus continuing the fulfillment of God’s promises to His people long ago. Also, we see that Jesus’ great, great, great, great, great Grandpa was David – a reminder that Jesus would be the promised descendant of David to sit on the throne of God and reign forever. His family tree supports and qualifies Him for not just personal influence.
At Christmastime, we sometimes skip the beginning verses of Matthew 1:1-17 and begin our Scripture reading when the Angels show up in 1:18ff. When we do that, we miss the blessing of generations . . . reminding us of the PERSONAL and WORLD shaping reality of Jesus life. Today’s song takes this long lineage and places it to music in a fun and memorable way.
Matthew’s Begats
Abraham had Isaac
Isaac, he had Jacob
Jacob, he had Judah and his kin
Then Perez and Zerah
Came from Judah’s woman, Tamar
Perez, he brought Hezron up
And then came
Aram, then Amminadab
Then Nahshon, who was then the dad of Salmon
Who with Rahab fathered Boaz
Ruth, she married Boaz who had Obed
Who had Jesse
Jesse, he had David who we know as king
David, he had Solomon by dead Uriah’s wife
Solomon, well you all know him
He had good old Rehoboam
Followed by Abijah who had Asa
Asa had Jehoshaphat had Joram had Uzziah
Who had Jotham then Ahaz then Hezekiah
Followed by Manasseh who had Amon
Who was a man
Who was father of a good boy named Josiah
Who grandfathered Jehoiachin
Who caused the Babylonian captivity
Because he was a liar
Then he had Shealtiel, who begat Zerubbabel
Who had Abiud who had Eliakim
Eliakim had Azor who had Zadok who had Akim
Akim was the father of Eliud then
He had Eleazar who had Matthan who had Jacob
Now, listen very closely
I don’t want to sing this twice
Jacob was the father of Joseph
The husband of Mary
The mother of Christ
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