From Promise to Birth: the Lineage of Christ, part 1 (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)

Let’s be real. Genealogies can be boring. A long list of names seems meaningless to us. But what if, in learning to understand their purpose and who the people in these lists are, we learn more about the greatness of God and the plan He has for the world? What if we are able to see ourselves in that genealogy, and therefore, understand something of how God sees us? This is what we get in the genealogy of Jesus. We see a promise fulfilled and the redemption of God in a simple list of names, and that gives us hope for our own redemption.

In his gospel, Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham, and he highlights the names that are important to the Jewish people to prove Jesus is the Messiah. He uses three sets of 14 names, and as we look at these sets of names, we will see a purposeful design in the way Matthew listed them.

The first set of names, from Abraham to King David, traces the promise of the Messiah. Abraham is really the father of the Jewish nation, so this is where Matthew begins. We’re going to look closely at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because their stories set the stage for the nation of Israel to become God’s people.

God called Abraham to leave his home and family, take his wife to “a land I will show you”, and promised him that he would be the father of many nations, even though he was getting older in years and still did not have a son to carry on his lineage. At one point, Sarah decides she needs to take matters into her own hands to hasten God’s timeline, and she tells Abraham to sleep with her maid, Hagar. Abraham doesn’t need any convincing and goes along with Sarah’s idea. While this was a common practice in their culture, this certainly wasn’t God’s idea. You can imagine the drama this created in the household. Sarah and Hagar are at odds with one another when Hagar does indeed become pregnant with Abraham’s child, Ishmael.

Despite Abraham and Sarah’s lack of trust, God comes through on his promise, and Sarah gives birth to a son at the grandmotherly age of 90. Abraham is a spry 100 years old when Isaac is born. Isaac is one of my favorite foreshadows of Christ in the Old Testament. To test Abraham’s faith, God asks him to sacrifice Isaac on an altar. Abraham walks in obedience, and we see the story of Abraham taking Isaac up on a mountain to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to the Lord. On his back, Isaac carries the wood he will potentailly be sacrificed on (in the same way Jesus carried the cross he would be sacrificed on). Many scholars note that at some point, Isaac would have become aware of what was actually happening. When Abraham tied him up and laid him on the altar, he was obedient. As a young man, he could have easily overpowered his elderly father and gotten away. Just another way he foreshadows Jesus, in his obedience to his father. Just as Abraham is about to go through with the sacrifice, God stops him, and provides a ram for the sacrifice. Isaac’s life was always going to be spared (but Jesus’ wouldn’t be).

Isaac marries Rebekah, and they have twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau and Jacob always seem to be at odds with one another. Jacob, the second born, is a deceiver. He sees an opportunity to steal Esau’s birthright as the firstborn son and takes it. Esau trades his birthright for a bowl of stew because he apparently is so hungry he is going to die, and then what good would his inheritance do him. Later, Jacob and his mother conspire to also take Esau’s blessing as his father, Isaac, is about to die. He tricks his father by making him think he is Esau and Isaac blesses Jacob. Now Jacob is on the run because Esau is furious and wants to kill his brother.

Jacob goes to his mother’s family and gets a taste of his own medicine from his uncle Laban. Jacob falls in love with Rachel, Laban’s daughter, and asks for her hand. Laban agrees to give Jacob his daughter after he works for him for seven years. Sneaky Laban feels for his older daughter, Leah, who is apparently not the most attractive woman, and he gives Leah to Jacob rather than Rachel. You might be wondering how Jacob could be tricked. Leah would have been wearing a veil, Jacob likely would have been drinking, and the tent would have been dark. Jacob didn’t discover what his uncle had done until the next morning, when he woke up to Leah instead of Rachel. Lucky for Jacob, Laban agrees to also give Rachel to him after two weeks of marriage to Leah, if he agrees to work for another seven years. You can imagine the pain and drama both Rachel and Leah experience. This sparks competition between the sisters over who will give Jacob sons. Rachel has been barren for quite a few years, but Leah is popping out babies one after another. Eventually, Rachel gives her maid to Jacob to bear a son for her, and Leah, not to be outdone, does the same. Eventually, Rachel is blessed with two sons from her own womb, Joseph and Benjamin. In all, 12 sons were born to Jacob through Leah, Rachel, and their maids. These 12 sons would eventually be the 12 tribes of Israel.

After Jacob finishes his work for Laban, he decides to return home and attempt to reconcile with his brother. He sends his family ahead of him and has some time alone with God in the wilderness. During this time, he wrestles with God and refuses to let go until God blesses him. At the end of this encounter, God renames him Israel (meaning “God prevails”). Jacob/Israel returns home, and Esau welcomes him with open arms.

The nation of Israel, which comes from Jacob, is the people God chooses to show his favor to. He chooses this nation to be the one from which the promised Messiah would come. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are generally known as the forefathers of the Jewish faith.

We’re just getting started on the genealogy of Jesus, but as we can already see, God used some pretty messed-up people to bring his plan to fruition.