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6 Ways to Benefit from Reading Genealogies

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Writing for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Matthew Holst has some very helpful tips for one of the most difficult Bible genres for modern readers.

The genealogies in Scripture are so important that it may rightly be said that we cannot fully see the glory of the metanarrative (i.e. the storyline) of the Bible without them.

His 6 tips are:

  1. Read them.
  2. Pay attention to every word.
  3. Pay attention to every missing word.
  4. Consider how they remind us of life and death.
  5. Consider how they present to us two seeds.
  6. Consider how they present to us a faithful, promise-fulfilling, covenant-keeping God.

We get out of genealogies from what time we are willing to put in. If we are prepared to spend the time, do the work and be guided by the Spirit, we will be presented with potted-histories of God’s kindness to man. So we must read the genealogies of Scripture and study them. They, like every other part of Scripture, are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that you may be made perfect, equipped for every good work  (2 Timothy 3:16).

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How Jesus Read the Old Testament

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Jesus read and studied the Bible, just as you and I do. He observed, interpreted, and applied the main points of each passage, just as you and I work to do.

One difference between Jesus and us, however, is that Jesus knew the entire Old Testament was written both to him and about him.

Nick Batzig, writing at the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, lists 10 implications of this fact in his recent article “How Did Jesus Read the Old Testament?” Batzig admits these are not the only 10 implications, but they get us started.

  1. Jesus understood that the entire Old Testament revealed that He would be the law-keeping Redeemer of His people.
  2. Jesus understood that all the promises of God were made to Him–first and foremost–as the Son of Abraham and Son of David.
  3. Jesus understood that the Old Testament spoke preeminently of His own sufferings and glories (1 Peter 1:10-12), as revealed by His Spirit through the prophets.
  4. Jesus understood that the Old Testament saints were not–first and foremost–examples of moral uprightness for fallen sinners to emulate, but were themselves sinners who were looking forward to Him by faith (Heb. 11).
  5. Jesus understood that all the Old Testament types, shadows and symbols pointed to some aspect of His saving work or benefits.
  6. Jesus understood that every prophecy was about Him.
  7. Jesus understood that He was the True Israel, who came to recapitulate Israel’s history for the redemption of His people.
  8. Jesus understood that His ministry was to be one of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the Good News of redemption to hopeless and helpless sinners.
  9. Jesus understood that all the festivals and feasts in the Old Testament were pointing forward to what He would accomplish in the work of redemption.
  10. Jesus understood that marriage was ordained at creation in order for Him to have a spiritual bride in the church that He would redeem.

This man, Jesus, understood the fulness of God’s revelation, and he bore the weight of fulfilling it. He did it so we might know him and have eternal life.

Batzig’s article explains each point in further detail. I commend it to you that you might grow in amazement and thanks for your marvelous Redeemer and King.

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