Dec 18, 2017- Suggested Reading 1st Service Genesis 15

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:”

Matthew 1:1 (NIV) 

This week, our suggested readings connect into the genealogy of Matthew’s gospel. His gospel starts with this genealogy and there is a tendency to yawn as we read the names- but this is an amazing list to study. We notice that Matthew links Jesus the Messiah (Christ) to Abraham as well as David, which takes us back into Genesis 15 and the absolutely amazing record of the Creator of the universe making a promise to a man, an irrevocable promise- as God’s fire passed thru the carcasses. This type of oath simply means; may what happened to these animals happen to Me if I don’t fulfill My promise to you. The 3-fold promise of Genesis 15 was that God would give Abram a biological son, that Abram’s offspring shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky and that this land would become Abram’s possession. When Abram asked how can I know that I will possess this land? God swore by Himself (Hebrews 6:13-15) that these promises would come true. Matthew says that 42 generations passed between Abraham and the birth of the Messiah – some 2,000 years from the date of the promise to the birth of the Son thru whom the promise would be fulfilled. Oh friend – that we would believe the promises of this great and awesome God who loves us and gave us His Son, that we might be part of the offspring of Abram, and possess the promise!