Yesterday was a good day. I hope you can say that as well. I found my day being capped off last night at church, around a table with 5 others, simply studying and worshipping the Word of God. I need this. We all do. Sweet time with our brothers and sisters in Christ. To talk, to pray, to vent, to share the triumphs and the struggles of life. You see, God never intended us to walk the Christian walk alone. You can try it, I have. But believe me, it’s not God’s intended way for us to try to traverse this world ourselves.
I talk to many people that have an aversion to church, they see it and its offerings as a non-essential of modern organized religion. But church is more. A church is not a building, it’s a body. A collection of believers that are all struggling and yearning to hear from their Lord. The old saying, “there’s strength in numbers” is the body of Christ. My home church, Southcliff, is a source of strength, encouragement, wisdom, counseling, spiritual enlightenment, and love. And folks, very little of that comes directly from the Pastor, it comes from my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. By the way, I see way too many people that expect their Pastor to somehow magically endow them with all of the knowledge and wisdom of God’s Word in just 30 minutes every Sunday morning (if they go every Sunday). That’s not how it works. The power of the God's church is in the entire body, not one person or one staff team.
If you’re not regularly attending and serving at a local church, change that today. You were never meant to shoulder the burdens of life alone. Don’t forgo the myriad of blessings that result from being a vital member of a body of Christ. As I move along through this journey with God, I know that I could not exist without it. It’s God’s plan, for you to be an essential part of His family.
This morning we find ourselves in Genesis 36 and brace for it…it’s one of those dreaded genealogy chapters. Ahhhh! Does anybody really enjoy these chapters besides some rare, geeky Bible historian in some dark, dusty library? (sorry, no offense meant to you geeky Bible historians) As I regularly talk to people about the 5MC and their daily personal time in God’s Word (or lack thereof), it seems these chapters are the first excuses that arise. Something like, “I try to get into God’s Word, but those long boring genealogies just put me off.” Hey, I can understand. When I’m cruising along through God’s Word and come to a chapter long genealogy, it definitely puts the brakes on. But if you’re really going to use genealogies as an excuse for why you don’t spend regular time in God’s Word, it’s a pretty weak excuse. Why? Well, there’s 1,189 chapters in the Bible and only about 29 contain genealogies.
So why all the genealogies? Well, I think it comes down to one word…truth. God is truth. And truth is everything. Whatever God says, you can take it to the bank. So how can you have pure truth without proof? And God gives us just that. Do you want the full lineage of Jesus Christ all the way back to the first man, Adam? Sure, no problem, flip over to Luke 3:23-38. Do you want the genealogy of Moses and Aaron? Ok, turn to Exodus 6:14-27. How about the full lineage of giant slayer, King David? No worries, flip to 1 Chronicles 2. You see, God doesn’t need ancestry.com. He gives us all we will ever need to know about the lineage of His chosen people, His servants, His fallen leaders and yes, of course our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As I look at these genealogies, they give me great comfort. God used a lot of printers ink on these genealogies and they are here to show His truth. To show the true nature of God.
This morning, chapter 36 looks at the lineage of Esau and the land he bore, Edom. Recall that Esau was a twin to Jacob and these two have been the central focus of Genesis for the last 10 chapters, a full 1/5 of the entire book of Genesis. Esau’s line was not what you would call God’s chosen. Esau was a worldly, fleshly man and he begat just what he was. The apples did not fall far from the tree. In Esau’s line we see the first Kings and dukes in the Bible, men that exalted themselves above their own brethren. Oh, doesn’t our flesh want to be lifted up over others. In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, we see God speak of the land of Edom, the land that flowed from Esau:
“I have loved you (Israel),” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.” Malachi 1:1-4
The truth of God is that He doesn’t just document the lineage of the people that faithfully served Him, but all people, just as He did here with Esau and his descendants in Edom. The next time your moving through God’s Word and you stumble into a genealogy, look at it with different eyes. See it as what it is, God carefully and truthfully documenting and reassuring you of the absolute truth of His Word. God doesn’t need ancestry.com to document the characters in His book…He wrote the book.
God bless you in your pursuit today to light the world with the light of Jesus Christ.
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