“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1

Many today are fascinated by genealogies. There’s no shortage of services we can use to trace our family’s history. These services help us see where we come from, who we are related to, and what our ancestors accomplished. We, as a people, want to know what our story is, how we are connected to one another, and how we are related to history. It may come as a surprise, but the Bible is actually full of genealogies. Family records are found all throughout the Old Testament and are a central component of the Biblical story. The authors of Scripture often use these genealogies to unite several stories into one, showing how various parts of the grand narrative relate to one another – forming one united story.

In Matthew 1, we find the most important of the Bible’s genealogies – the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The word that’s used here for genealogy is actually the word “genesis.” Matthew is, in a sense saying, that with the birth of Jesus, we are seeing a new Genesis, a new beginning in the grand story of the Bible. Matthew’s genealogy begins with Abraham, a man we are first introduced to at the end of Genesis 11 in…you guessed it…a genealogy. In Genesis 12, God makes a covenant with Abraham promising to make him into a great nation, to bless him, and to make his name great. God promises that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Later in Genesis 17, God tells Abraham that He will make Abraham the father of a multitude of nations and that kings shall come from him. Kings of people will come from Abraham and Sarah, and there will be an everlasting covenant between God and Abraham’s offspring which would lead to the blessing of all nations (Gen. 17:6-7, 16). God selected Abraham, by His grace, and made this grand promise to him through this everlasting, unconditional covenant.

You see, centuries before the arrival of Jesus in the first Advent, God was working out His plan of salvation, a plan that would overturn the curse of Genesis 3 – a plan that would be accomplished in God’s timing. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus – the True King from the line of Abraham, a king whose arrival was anticipated generations before the angel ever appeared to young Mary of Nazareth.

As we begin this Advent Season, we look ahead with Abraham through the storyline of Scripture, anticipating the King who is to come. Join us in this journey as we walk through the Bible from Abraham to Jesus, awaiting the True King – the son of David, the son of Abraham.

• What are some things that you look forward to about the Christmas season?
• Why is it significant that Matthew begins the story of Jesus with a genealogy that goes all the way back to Abraham?

P.S. If you want a fun way to learn all the names in Matthew's genealogy of Christ, check out this tune from Andrew Peterson - Matthew Begats