The Scriptures provide extensive detailed lists of genealogies concerning biblical history and Messiah. Today there still remains a fascination with exploring and understanding our ancestry, since that is linked with our identity. Book stores are replete with magazines on family history. Some people pursue this interest with a passion as a pastime. Websites offer the same and there are several services provided that provide DNA information even specifying the percentage of an individual’s Jewish identity.
From the outset Genesis 5 lists the family of Adam through to Noah. Genesis 10 picks up from Noah and details the nations descended from Noah. The book of Numbers provides us with the names contained within two censuses of Israel. First Chronicles commences from Adam, lists the family trees of the tribes of Israel, in addition to a few other nations.
Prophecy about the Messiah is interwoven with important genealogical information. In Genesis 49 Jacob utters his last words and blesses his sons. In Genesis 49:10 we discover that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah. In Micah 5:2 (1) this is narrowed further since Messiah will come from Bethlehem Ephrathah from the Tribe of Judah and will be the Ruler of Israel. More astoundingly, His goings forth are from of old, from everlasting! Messiah was to be born in a family line, yet His origins were everlasting and this helps us to recognise that Messiah is to be fully Man, yet fully God.
In the very first chapter of the Brit Hadasha (New Testament) in Matthew 1:1, the ancestry of Yeshua (Jesus) is provided from Joseph’s line and He is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David and came from the line of Judah. In the following chapter we discover that He was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah in accordance with the Micah 5:2 (1) prophecy. Matthew presents the Messiah as the King of Israel.
If that were not enough, Luke’s gospel lists the family line from Adam to Jesus, through His mother’s line and moreover, He is the Son of Levi. So His ancestry includes the kingly line and the priestly line since He is Messiah the King and Priest. He is the Son of David and His reign is an everlasting reign (Isaiah 9:6-7 (5-6) ). He is also the Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4; cf. Hebrews 5:5-11; 6:13-7:28).
You may have traced your family history with avid attention and interest, but where is your spiritual identity and where do you belong? John the Baptist was the forerunner of Messiah and John’s ministry in preparing the way for Messiah is foretold in the Tanakh (Old Testament) in Isaiah 40:3-4 and Malachi 3:1. John spoke of Jesus the Messiah. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).”
