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The Scriptorium

So Much to Do!

These little passages are hard workers. Ezra 2.3

Gleanealogy: Introduction (4)

Pray Psalm 132.7-9.
Let us go into His tabernacle;
Let us worship at His footstool.
Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
And let Your saints shout for joy.

Sing contemplatively Psalm 132.8-10.
(Finlandia: Be Still My Soul)
Arise, O Lord, come to Your resting place;
Your holy Presence meet with us in might.
Clothe us with righteousness in Jesus’ grace,
and we will shout to Your divine delight!
For David’s sake, turn not away Your face,
but look upon us in Your holy light.

Read Ezra 2.59-63
.

Prepare.
1. What happened to those whose names did not appear in the priestly genealogy?

2. What does this suggest about the importance of those genealogies to the people of that day?

Read aloud.
So Much to Do!

Such relatively little space, and yet
so much to do! While they can seem to drone
on pointlessly, each list of names its own
appointed task performs. Some help us get
to the next stage of God’s redemptive plan.
Some offer a convenient overview
of generations, speeding deftly through
familiar names and others stranger than
we’ve ever heard. Still others conjure times
and places of significance, or bring
to mind a generation’s faith, or sing
to us in ancient Hebrew forms and rhymes.
  And each long list, when it is diced and spliced,
  points forward to the coming of the Christ.

Meditate.
Those ancient genealogies carried some clout. If your name – or your family’s name – didn’t show up where you claimed it should, you might just find yourself working the land rather than presiding over the offerings of God’s people.

The genealogies of Scripture accomplish a variety of functions besides helping to legitimate claims to office or property.  We’ve already seen that they connect significant sections of the Bible, not just to each other, but to everything that has gone before. The genealogies are one of the Spirit’s ways of keeping the story of redemption on track from Genesis to Revelation.

The genealogies also serve to establish a framework for thinking about God’s work among His people, and His purpose for the world. They keep alive the memory of great people, precious promises, and important events; and they remind us that there are other nations in the world besides Israel (God, as we shall see, never loses sight of them). They bear witness to the nature of God’s dealings with His people, or of the hopes and longings of His people for how He might regard them. And they even delight us with a bit of rhyme, both structural and phonetic.

We’ll be looking more closely at these and other functions of the genealogies in part 2 of this series, Gleanealogy. As we see from the example in Ezra 2, the people of that day didn’t take these texts lightly. They preserved and cherished them, and consulted them for guidance in knowing how to serve the Lord. This is what we want to do as well.

They might not be the most interesting passages of Scripture, but, like the manna of the desert, they are filled with holy spiritual nourishment that can keep us rooted in God and His Word, and living out His plan for the world.

In our next installment we’ll talk a bit more about how the genealogies of the Bible related to God’s covenant, which overarches all of Scripture, connecting eternity past with eternity future, like the majestic New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. Then we’ll examine the literary form of the genealogies, to discover what we can about why they’re written the way they are. Finally in part 1, we’ll run through a master list of all the genealogies, summarizing what each one contains, and how they all point forward to the great tallying-up of the redeemed in the book of Revelation. 

Then, in parts 2 and 3, we’ll look more closely at each genealogy, to discover what we can for the nourishment of our souls. Finally, part 4 will draw out the lessons from our study, and suggest ways of reading the genealogies more profitably.

Reflect.
1. Many people today are interested in tracing their genealogy. What does this say about people? What does this suggest about our being made in the image of God?

2. Why were the Jews in Ezra’s day taking such precautions about who could serve as a priest? What role did the genealogies play in this?

3. Is your interest in the genealogies of Scripture growing? Explain.

Those who undervalue their relation to the Lord in times of reproach, persecution, or distress, will have no benefit from it when it becomes honorable or profitable. Those who have no evidence that they are, by the new birth, spiritual priests unto God, through Jesus Christ, have no right to the comforts and privileges of Christians.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Ezra 2.36-63

Thank You, Lord, for grafting me into the line of Your children. Help me to keep my forebears in the faith in mind, and to live like one of Your heirs as I…

Pray Psalm 132.13-18.
Thank the Lord for His faithfulness in bringing you into His family and securing your eternal rest in Jesus.

Sing Psalm 132.13-18.
Psalm 132.13-18 (Finlandia: Be Still, My Soul)
God dwells among us, and He will forever,
to meet our needs and clothe us with His grace.
He has to us sent Jesus Christ, our Savior,
and made us His eternal resting-place.
His foes are banished from His presence ever,
but we shall reign with Him before His face.

T. M. Moore

The poems featured in the Gleanealogy series are by T. M. Moore. To order T. M.’s most recent collection of poems, Bricks and Rungs, click here. The genealogies of Scripture reveal the heart of God in His covenant relationship with His people. To learn more about God’s covenant, order our book, I Will Be Your God, by clicking here. You can learn to sing all the psalms to familiar hymn tunes by ordering a copy of The Ailbe Psalter (click here).

If you value Scriptorium as a free resource for your walk with the Lord, please consider supporting our work with your gifts and offerings. You can contribute to The Fellowship by clicking the Contribute buttonat the website or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 360 Zephyr Road, Williston, VT 05495.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from
The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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