Historical genealogy from Adam to Saul the first king of Israel.
My aunt Janet was a librarian in Texas all of her adult life. I don’t much about the early years but I do know she started researching the Dawson family history and the genealogy of the Dawson clan when I was a teenager. It was a multiple year project that took her and my uncle all across the United States, into Europe, and finally into Poland where our family line, my grandmothers line, started. She published a book one year and gave it to us for a Christmas present. We had cattle ranchers, lawmen, criminals and so much more in the family line. My dad still jokes about naming the first grandbaby, Temperance Queen Dawson, after one of our female descendants. He made that joke when we were having kids and my wife was a hard pass, NOPE! Some names are just meant for the history books only I guess.
I Chronicles chapters 1 through 9 is a detailed genealogical record of the Israelites from Adam to Saul, the first king of Israel. Just like my family where our name is important, family history for the Israelites was much more significant. The twelve tribes of Israel were named after Jacob’s or Israel’s 12 son’s. Each clan had a place in the Israeli government and the worship of God the Father. Here the important thing to grasp is the lineage from Adam to David. This lineage is the lineage from the promise of a messiah mentioned in Genesis 3 to king David who would carry on until Jesus Christ was born into this world.
A brief overview: Adam and Eve had Cain and Able. Cain killed Able and got driven away due to the sin he committed. He was already married and starts a family elsewhere. Meanwhile, back at Adam and Eve’s home God gives them another boy named Seth who would be the start of the lineage to Jesus. Eight generations later, we have Noah and the ark. God brings a flood and Noah and his three sons are all that are left. They are Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem line brings us to Abraham’s father, Terah. Abraham follows the Lord’s direction to go to Canaan and we have the start of the Israelite nation. From Abraham we have Isaac. Isaac’s son is Jacob which is later Israel. From Jacob we have the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israel. Judah is the fourth born son to Jacob and from the line of Judah we have king David from a little town called Bethlehem. It would be from this young shepherd boy made king by God that Jesus Christ would be born into this world many years later. A promise fulfilled from Genesis chapter 3. What a story.
Today take a good hard look at your genealogy. We all have great people in our past and if you are like me we also have a leader of gang of criminals that spent time in Huntsville. Our past history can define us and it has for so many. Bad parents, bad siblings, or even bad choices that seemed to have shaped our lives. I just went through a very brief line from Adam to Jesus. Not all of the history from Adam to Jesus if filled with great people. A few to mention are three women who were all gentiles and one was even a prostitute. Some of the men where down right scoundrels and some made some life altering decisions for selfish reasons and left a family member to die.
My point is we all have a past and it is filled with all kinds of things and people who we would rather not mention around the water cooler. John 8:36 are words from Jesus Christ, the promised messiah, it reads, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Your past does not have to define you. Christ was defined by the Father God. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be defined by Christ than by my past. Christ came so that you would be set free from all the past and He will give you a hope and a future just like He told Joshua.
Today, let Him be the Lord of your life, the entire life, and let him begin to a work in you that redefines you from this point forward. One more analogy we should all have in mind is Paul. He was killing Christians before He was Paul the apostle and wrote 1/3 of the New Testament. No matter how bad it seems, Christ can bring you out of your pit and into a new life.
Prayer: Father we all have a past we would rather not mention at all. You know all things and yet you still died for me and my sins. I commit to you today, not only my past but my future. I cast the crowns I have achieved at your feet and bow in reverence and honor to the one and only King Jesus. Amen.
Let It Go 
Leave a comment