Kevin DeYoung / Dec 13, 2015 / Exodus 6:10-30
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I invite you to turn to Exodus 6:10-30. This section may seem strange or a little disjointed to you,
but I hope you’ll find that it makes a good deal of sense. My prayer is that you will be surprised
at how relevant Biblical genealogies can be. Follow along as I read from Exodus 6, beginning at
verse 10:
10 So the LORD said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the
people of Israel go out of his land.” 12 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold,
the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh
listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 13 But the LORD spoke to
Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and
about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land
of Egypt.
14 These are the heads of their fathers' houses: the sons of Reuben, the
firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the clans
of Reuben. 15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar,
and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the clans of Simeon.
16 These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations:
Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the years of the life of Levi being 137
years. 17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, by their clans. 18 The
sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, the years of the life of
Kohath being 133 years. 19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These
are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. 20 Amram took
as his wife Jochebed his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and
Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years. 21 The sons of
Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri. 22 The sons of Uzziel: Mishael,
Elzaphan, and Sithri. 23 Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of
Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu,
Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24 The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph;
these are the clans of the Korahites. 25 Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his
wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These
are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites by their clans.
26 These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said: “Bring out the
people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” 27 It was they who
spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel
from Egypt, this Moses and this Aaron.
28 On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, 29 the
LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I
say to you.” 30 But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised
lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”
(Exodus 6:10-30)
In my parents’ formal dining room, there is a floor-to-ceiling china cabinet filled with china and
dishes that are never used. Also in the cabinet is one of my family’s prized possessions: a
massive, old Dutch Bible—one of those Bibles with thick, brown pages, a thick leather cover,
and a metal lock on the side. This is a family heirloom that has been passed down for
generations.
In the front cover of the Bible are the names of the firstborn DeYoung sons. I may have
mentioned before that my family has a unique tradition. The firstborn sons alternate
names—first Peter, then Tunis. My Dad’s name is actually Tunis. My brother’s name is Peter
(he’s the firstborn). My grandpa was Peter. My great-grandpa was Tunis. It goes back and forth.
So you either had the name Tunis, or you had to name your son Tunis. You can see these
alternating names go back for 12 or 13 generations (maybe 200 years) in this old Dutch Bible.
Though my Grandpa DeYoung is still alive, he travels back and forth between Wisconsin and
Arizona, so my dad has kept this Bible for a few years. It is a great thing to bring out and show
our kids. They like to look at this massive, old Dutch Bible.
Family history is important to most of us. You probably have some similar heirlooms, passed on
from generation to generation. We like to know where we’re from. We like to see if there are any
famous heroes—or even infamous scoundrels—that inhabit our family tree.
One of my great-uncles did a bunch of genealogy work on the DeYoung family tree a number of
years ago. He passed on some of his research to me. I have it stored in a box somewhere. He
was able to trace our family, as far back as the late 17 th century, to Dordrecht (or Dort), in the
province of South Holland in the Netherlands. It makes sense, because my family is from South
Holland, Illinois. I’d like to think that I had a relative at the Synod of Dort, so I’m just going to
assume that I did. Either way, the DeYoungs were (at some point not too far removed from the
Synod of Dort) from that part of the Netherlands.
Some of you have probably done work on genealogy. It’s of great interest to you, isn’t it? It’s
great fun to find out who you are, whom you belong to, and who else is in your family tree. Most
of us would be interested in genealogies if we were included in them.
When it comes to genealogies in the Bible though, it’s a different story. The names are strange.
Some of them sound almost humorous in English. I like Simeon’s son Jamin: “All right, man!
You’re jammin’!” I’m not sure about the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. Some of these names
mean strange things like ‘baldie’. That kid must have been a real cue-ball when he came out.
One of the son’s name meant ‘brilliance’, or ‘excellence’. That’s a lot of pressure that his parents
put on him.
We’re tempted to think that Biblical genealogies are a waste of time. We’ll skip them, plow
through the names, and hope that somebody can pronounce them halfway decently. We think
they’re unnecessary interruptions in the story. We like to know our history because it’s our
history. But you have to remember that this was their history—and it’s our history. Think of how
much it would mean to you to have your name included in a list like this in the Scriptures. “That
was my Grandpa. That was my Dad.”
You may not be aware that next year we will be celebrating 50 years as a church. It’s our 50 th
anniversary. We began holding services in 1966. We have a committee of folks who are already
starting to make plans for how to celebrate and commemorate that anniversary and put together
some of our history. I’ll bet that when you get to reading and looking at some of that history,
you’ll do what I would do. You’ll say, “Where am I? Where did I come in the picture? Oh, there I
am, back in”—some of you go back forever—“the ‘6os, ‘7os, ‘80s, ‘90s.” Some of you came just
recently, and some of you just today. This is just as much your church and your history. We all
like to know history when we’re a part of it.
Well, this genealogy doesn’t only pass on Israelite history. It is placed here in Exodus in order to
answer a specific question. If we were putting together Exodus, we would probably think, “This
genealogy should go back in chapter 2, where we read the cool story about the Nile, the
bulrushes, and Moses being born. We should have a little genealogy there to just give a history
of when he was born and who his granddad was. That’s where it belongs.” No. Moses, the
author, puts it here in chapter 6—and he does so for a reason.
If you were to read most commentaries on Exodus, they do not put these verses which we’ve
just read together. They often put verses 10-13 with verses 1-9, and put verses 26-30 with the
first part of chapter 7. This genealogy stands by itself. But I’ve read it together with the first part
(about Moses, his lips, and God) and the second part (with Moses, his speech, and God).
However disjointed the narrative may seem, they belong together as a single unit.
Let me explain why. I’m going to introduce you to a Greek letter and a concept in writing that is
actually quite common in the Bible. The Greek letter is the one that looks like a big ‘X’. It’s called
‘chi’. Sometimes people pronounce it ‘kie’, but it’s ‘kee’—an ‘X’. And there is this thing in writing
that’s called a ‘chiasm’, or a ‘chiastic’ structure. It’s called that after the Greek letter, because in
this structure of writing, things sort of funnel down to the middle and then repeat themselves out
the bottom. Sometimes you see it written as “a b c c’ b’ a’”. It’s repeating itself.
Actually, there are all sorts of sayings that you’re familiar with that use a chiastic structure.
There are very simple ones like, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” There you
have ‘going’, ‘tough’; and then you repeat the order inverse: ‘tough’, ‘going’. Or there’s the
famous quote by J.F.K.: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for
your country.” He goes from ‘country’, to ‘you’, and then from ‘you’, to ‘country’. Do you see how
that works? Or this wonderful piece of poetry from 1970: “If you can’t be with the one you love,
honey, love the one you’re with.” I guess all of the hippies here will say “Amen!” to that little
song.
There are lots of chiasms in the Bible.
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:27b)
Sometimes it’s a verse like that; sometimes it’s several chapters. Sometimes it’s a stretch of
prophecy. The purpose may simply be to focus your attention on what is in the middle of the
chiasm, or may be to present the material in a more poetic way. Saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country” is more elegant than saying,
“Don’t ask what your country can do for you. You should ask what you maybe want to do for
your country.” There’s a poetic sense to it.
It also can indicate sections, and what is meant to be held together in them. That’s what we see
here. Look at verses 10-30. Let me show you this chiasm, this funnel, that then reverses itself
on the way out. In verses 10-12, you have Moses’ dialog with the Lord, where he says, “…I am
of uncircumcised lips…” Then in verse 13, you have a narrative summary of that conversation.
In verses 14-25, you have the genealogy for Moses and Aaron. But now, in verses 26-7, you
have again a narrative summary of the conversation between Moses and the Lord. Then, in
verses 28-30, once again, you have Moses’ dialog with the Lord, where he speaks of being
“…of uncircumcised lips…” So you would write it out in a classroom assignment as “a b c”—‘c’
is in the middle—and then “b’”, because it’s the same as the other ‘b’, and then “a’”. It is that
same sort of funnel structure.
I show that to you so that you can see how this whole section was deliberately put together.
Why would Moses, inspired by the Spirit, put this genealogy right in the middle of this section?
Here’s why: the genealogy is meant to provide an answer to Moses’ question. Moses says to
the Lord, “Look, I was almost killed once for having an uncircumcised child. Before we go down
that road again, maybe we should just call this quits, God, because I do have uncircumcised
lips”—meaning, “I’m not very good at speaking. I’m not very refined.” Well, God wasn’t
convinced.
Remember, this genealogy was not what Moses heard in the moment. The Lord didn’t say,
“Okay, you think you can’t speak. Let me tell you about your family tree.” Rather, this is Moses
writing later, inspired by the Spirit, for the Israelites. As they wander in the wilderness, on the
verge of entering the Promised Land, they need to be reminded of their own history. What
Moses wants to do is show God’s people that he was wrong and God was right. The genealogy
is meant to reassure them that God did not pick the wrong person for the job. Moses was the
right man, not only because of what would happen, but because the Israelites, who were
reading this and hearing this, knew what happened. They were on the other side of the Exodus.
But they could also trust Moses because of where he was from. What I want to do is show you
four things about Moses’ family tree from this genealogy. I think you’ll be able to see how each
of these points reinforces the notion that Moses had no business quitting on God. The
genealogy is here to provide a response to Moses’ objections. When Moses says, “Let’s call it
quits,” this genealogy appears to say, “Nope. Let’s think about who you are and where you’re
from for a moment.”
A Priestly Family
This genealogy, like almost all genealogies in the Bible, is selective. It isn’t meant to include
everyone. It doesn’t go through all 12 of Jacob’s sons. It just goes through the first 3. There are
a couple of unique elements. Unlike most genealogies in the Old Testament, this one includes
women. Two women are mentioned by name: Jochabed, Aaron’s mother, and Elisheba (or
Elizabeth), his wife. You may not have noticed that Elisheba is the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, so she is from the tribe of Judah. Aaron did not marry a fellow Levite, but one
from the tribe of Judah. It is a fascinating intermingling. Here at the beginning, the priestly tribe
intermarries with what will be the kingly tribe from which the Messiah will come. Aaron the Levite
marries Elizabeth (Elisheba) from Judah. There is also an unnamed daughter of Putiel who
gave birth to Phinehas. So it’s unusual that women are mentioned.
The order of Moses and Aaron is also striking. “Moses and Aaron”, in that order, appear 78
times in the Old Testament. It makes sense. Moses is the main figure. But, in verse 26, you see
the order reversed:
26 These are the Aaron and Moses…
We only have that order of Aaron and Moses 5 times in the Old Testament, and each of those
are related to genealogies. As Moses talks about his family tree, Aaron’s family is even more
important than his family, because Aaron is going to be the priestly line. One of the things that
needs to be demonstrated is that they have a rightful heir to this priestly line. The more
important brother, as far as the family tree is concerned at this moment, is Aaron, because the
priestly line will come from him. This genealogy is here to show where they come from. They
were true sons of Israel, and they can trace their lineage all the way back to Levi, who was a
son of Jacob (Israel). They belonged to the priestly line.
Now remember, no one was called to be a priest in the Old Testament. You could be called as a
prophet. There were schools of prophets where you could be trained as a prophet. You could
take upon yourself the mantle of a prophet. You did not decide to be a priest. You were born into
the priestly family. Similarly, you were born into the kingship. So you have prophet, priest, and
king, and only the prophet is one that can be called as a vocation. The others were born into.
Aaron and Moses are a part of this Levitical line, and Aaron (in particular) will be the priestly
line. One of the things that this would remind God’s people of is that Moses and Aaron are the
right sort of folks to intercede on their behalf. Moses says, “I can’t go into Pharaoh and talk to
that guy. The people of Israel won’t even listen to me!” This genealogy is here to say, “No, wait.
Let’s back up a second. You’re a part of the Levites. Your brother, Aaron, is going to be the chief
priest, and the priestly line will come from him. You are precisely the sort of people that should
go in, make intercession for the people of Israel, and plead on their behalf. That’s what priestly
families do.”
Moses, at this point, is not aware of all that. So he doubts. Listen, it is okay to doubt what you
can do, but do not doubt what God can do with you. They didn’t know everything God had in
store for their family. They didn’t need to know at this point. What they needed to do was trust.
It’s easy for us to look back and fault Moses and Aaron, saying, “Come on, guys. Why are you
so cowardly? Just get in there! This is going to be an awesome movie! It’s going to be great!
This is really going to help Charlton Heston’s career. This is going to be fantastic! Just go in.
This is going to make a great scene: ‘Let my people go!’ And you know what? If he says no, it’s
just going to get even more spectacular.” Of course, they didn’t know all that. They didn’t know
the end from the beginning. All they had was God’s word to go and to do it, and that He would
be with them.
What would you attempt right now if you had the perspective of forty years from now? Would
you look back and say, “Ah, okay”? Of course, we don’t have that, but where might we be too
fearful? Where might we be too cautious? Where might we be shrinking back from God’s calling
in our lives? Surely we want to be like Moses and Aaron: that is, to look back and say, “Oh, let
me write a story to show how I was wrong—and God, You were right, because we were just the
right people to take this message to Pharaoh.” God doesn’t just see what you are. He sees what
He can make you to be in Christ. This was a priestly family. These were the right people to
intercede on the behalf of God’s people.
A Passionate Family
There are two pretty remarkable stories at the front and end of this family tree. At the front end
is Levi. Remember Levi? When hear ‘Levi’, if you don’t think of jeans, you think of Leviticus, or
priests who are very nicely dressed up and very proper. Do you remember how Levi got his
start? It was in a terrible story in Genesis 34. Dinah is raped by Shechem, and Shechem wants
to marry Dinah. So her brothers, sons of Jacob, say, “We’ll let you marry her if your people
become like us, and all of your men are circumcised.” Which was a trick. On the third day, when
all of the grown men had been circumcised, and were very sore, two of Jacob’s sons—Simeon
and Levi—went into the city, killing all the men, who were too weak to fight. Jacob later said,
“You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of
the land…
(Genesis 34:30)
Later, when Jacob blesses Simeon and Levi, he says,
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
6 Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
(Genesis 49:5-7a)
This is how Levi got his start. That kind of man is at the top of this family tree for Moses and
Aaron.
Then remember Exodus 32, with the golden calf. We often forget this. Remember? Moses
comes down. All the people are worshipping this golden calf, and God is furious. Then Moses
says,
“Who is on the LORDs side? Come to me.”
(Exodus 32:26)
And you know who came? “…all the sons of Levi”, it says. The sons of Levi came, and Moses
said,
…each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And
the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about
three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you
have been ordained for the service of the LORD…
(Exodus 32:27b-29a)
That is a strange way to be appointed for the priesthood. So we see that this family of Levi are
some fiery dudes. They’re passionate. He’s the first in this family tree.
Now go to the last person here in the line of Levi, who’s mentioned in Exodus 6:25. This guy,
named Phinehas, is Aaron’s grandson. Phinehas’ name means “dark one”, or “Nubian”, which is
the people from southern Egypt—or today, parts of northern Sudan. It was a popular Egyptian
name. It’s likely, then, that his mother—one of the daughters of Putiel who’s mentioned
here—must have been darker skinned, or from further south in Africa.
Numbers 25 tells the story of Phinehas: Israel had begun to, it says, “…whore with the
daughters of Moab.” The Moabites invited the people of Israel to sacrifice to their gods, and it
says that the people were yoked to them. They worshipped and bowed down to the gods of
Baal of Peor. And the Lord was angry. He said, “Hang the chiefs of the people. Judges, go out
and kill the people who have yoked themselves to Baal.” This sounds a lot like what happened
with the golden calf. Who’s going to stand up and take care of this mess?
Well, you know the story. Phinehas then stands up, because he sees a man who is very boldly
and brazenly bringing a Midianite woman into his family—parading her before Moses in a sort of
flagrant thumbing of his nose at what the Lord wants. Phinehas gets up, takes his spear, and
kills the man and the woman, thus ending the plague of 24,000 people dying.
Phinehas was commended by the Lord for his zeal. It says that he was jealous with the jealousy
of the Lord, and that he “…made atonement for the people of Israel.” Later, he leads the troops
in battle against the Midianites. He is celebrated in Joshua, Judges, and the Psalms as a great
leader—as one who had passion and zeal before the Lord.
So you have this family of the Levites. This genealogy starts with Levi. He slaughtered people.
That’s a bad example. Jacob was not happy with what he did. Then you have Phinehas, another
passionate warrior, who stands up and says, “We are not going to take this lying down. We are
going to face the enemies of God head on.” He was commended there for his zeal. In this
genealogy, as told by Moses, the bookends are Levi and Phinehas—as if to say to Moses,
Aaron, and all the people, “I did not pick a family of quitters.” This is not a tribe that backs down
from a challenge. They do not sit idly by as God’s enemies get the upper hand.
Now don’t think that the application here is that you should go out and kill people. It is not.
Courage looks different in different times. God wasn’t asking Moses and Aaron to go kill
Pharaoh—just to confront him. If they would be obedient to God, He would do the rest. It still
took courage. Calvin says,
“What no earthly kings, with all their power and wisdom, their terror and
their threats, could effect, God performed by means of two unwarlike
men, neither experienced nor renowned…”
Neither Moses or Aaron was very warlike. But they still needed courage. They still needed to
embrace who they were as Levites.
I’m sure you’ve had that talk with your kids before: “Remember who we are. Remember what it
means to be (whatever your family is). There’s integrity, honesty, respect, courage, and
bravery.” Well, remember who you are as Christians. Remember your spiritual family.
Remember how we do things: how we love, how we risk, how we’re not quitters or cowards, and
how we don’t have to have renown or fame to go and do what the Lord wants us to do. God’s
family is not full of cowards and quitters.
An Imperfect Family
We could talk about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (or pretty much anyone else who shows up in
Genesis) but just look at this genealogy. There are several examples. In verse 15, you see the
sons of Simeon. One of them is “…Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman…” There was a
mingling of Israelites with Canaanite, which shouldn’t have happened.
You have Amram in verse 20. Now don’t let it go by too quickly: this is Moses’ mom and dad.
20 Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister…
(Exodus 6:20a)
Who’s that? He married his aunt. It would later be forbidden in Leviticus 18, and determined
punishable in Leviticus 20. Even if it wasn’t explicitly forbidden yet, the fact that Moses mentions
it is significant, because he’s received and handed down the Law, and now he’s going out of his
way to mention that his parents would have fallen foul of this Law.
Then, in verse 23, Aaron’s sons (Nadab and Abihu) are mentioned by name. You may
remember them from Leviticus 10. They were struck dead by the Lord because, in their priestly
duties, they offered unauthorized fire. They took their censers instead of the holy censers.
Perhaps they went into the Holy of Holies, where they didn’t belong. They offered the wrong
kind of incense. They were just ordained as priests. They should have known better. They had
been with Moses there at the mountain when God showed Himself in His glory. They should
have had a sense of the holiness of God. But they were careless instead of careful, and the
Lord killed them. He said, “Their bodies are to be carried out by Mishael and Elzaphan”, two of
their relatives. That’s this family.
Then you have Moses’ cousin, Korah. You read about Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16. He was
not content with his God-given place and ministry. This scenario has repeated itself often. Korah
said to Moses, “Who made you the boss of me?” “Well, the Lord.” But he didn’t want to listen.
Pride had swallowed up his heart, so the Lord opened up the earth to swallow up Korah. You
remember the story? “You’re swallowed up with pride. I’m going to swallow you up right now!”
This is their family. This is not a flawless family! You know whose family is a lot like theirs?
Yours. Mine. You’re about to be reminded of that. It’s called Christmas, Christmas Eve, New
Years, and vacation. How much you all long to be with your family—and then long to be away
from your family. We love our family, but even the best of families, where you just have a great
time together, don’t get everything right. Any one of us could tell stories.
If you say, “Well, we’ve got believers and believers, and we love being together,” there’s still,
“Well, there’s that thing that doesn’t quite work, and there’s that part in her history—and there’s
that part in my history.” None of us have perfect families. In fact, the more you get to know a
family, the more you realize how imperfect it is.
God is saying to the people—and to Moses and Aaron—“Look, you don’t have to get everything
right. You just have to be willing to go! You don’t have to be clever. You just have to speak My
words to Pharaoh.” Moses is saying, “I have uncircumcised lips! I’m not good at speaking!” And
the Lord’s saying, “I know you’re imperfect. I’ve seen a lot worse in your family. I put up with a
lot worse, I’ve judged a lot worse, and I’ve used a lot worse. Just do what I tell you to do.”
A Promissory Family
This is a family to whom promises have been given. In a legal transaction, you may have a
promissory note, where something is put in writing. When you promise to pay a determined sum
of money, like in a mortgage note, it’s promissory.
God had made a promise to Abraham, in Genesis 15:16. Do you remember this? He said,
“You’re going to go and be oppressed by a people. You’re going to be slaves in a land not your
own. But,” He said, “in the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here.” There was
a promise: “Fourth generation, Abraham. You’re going to be slaves, but four generations later,
you’re coming back. I promise it to you.” The first generation in Egypt would be Levi’s children:
Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The second generation would be the sons of Kohath, like Amram,
who was Moses’ father. The third generation included Moses, Aaron, and their cousins. Then
the fourth generation would include Aaron’s son Eleazar, who succeeded him as high priest.
Here’s what we read in Joshua 14, verse 1:
1 These are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land
of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun…gave
them to inherit.
(Joshua 14:1)
Aaron’s son, the next high priest, Eleazar, was in the fourth generation. The older generation
dies out, and is not going to see it. Even Moses doesn’t get there. Here Eleazar is in Joshua,
during the conquest of the land (chapter 14), standing there as the spiritual leader with the
political and military leader Joshua, appointing the allotted inheritance. God’s word is true. This
is a promissory family.
So here they are, first reading and hearing this, not yet having inherited the land, because
Moses is writing it, and he didn’t make it in. As Moses recounts all of his excuses—this is perhaps the most important point in this genealogy—he says “God promised us: fourth
generation. Here I am. I’m the third. But we see the fourth growing up. We see them there,
taking leadership already. Listen, listen, God’s people. We’re almost there. I didn’t trust at first,
either. But I’m learning, and you need to learn too. God’s promises are true.”
1500 years later, God would keep an even better promise through a genealogy that was and a
genealogy that wasn’t. The genealogy that was is in Matthew 1: from Abraham, to David, to the
exile in Babylon, to Joseph and Mary, and the son conceived by the Holy Spirit.
…you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their
sins.
(Matthew 1:21b)
The son of David, the child of Abraham, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. We are saved by a
genealogy that was, and by a genealogy that wasn’t. What do I mean? Hebrews 7 says there is
another high priest: Melchezidek. Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchezidek. Not a priest
like Aaron, but a priest like Melchezidek. He is without father, mother, or genealogy, having
neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God. He continues a priest
forever.
We’re saved by the genealogy of Christ, as a man born of the virgin Mary; and we are saved by
Christ the high priest, who ever lived, ever existed, and always will reign, live, and exist to
intercede for us—a man without beginning or end. By the genealogy that was and the
genealogy that wasn’t, God’s promises are true.
Are you willing to let God interrupt your story just like He does here in Exodus 6? Things were
going along, and then He said, “I need to tell you something about your family.” You could get
into a lot, talking about your family. It explains some things, but not everything. But don’t just
think of your earthly family. Think of this family, your spiritual family. Think about that
membership list in Heaven, the Lamb’s book of life. Is your name written there? Think about all
the promises God has made to this family—this passionate, priestly, imperfect, promissory
family. All of those promises find their yes and amen in Christ.