Have you ever seen two people who resemble each other walking together? When you ask, “Are you related?” they say, “No, he’s my husband of 50 years!” Or “we’re best friends.” When I was younger, it was ironic that sometimes I’d be walking with my mom, and people would tell me I looked just like her; other times I’d be walking with my dad, and people would say to me I looked just like him. It was hard to decipher who I looked like. This is the beauty of being related. We often look like the people we’re related to, although sometimes the family resemblance can run pretty deep. It’s always good to feel connected to that relative when someone in public inquires how you’re related because of the resemblance.
Have you ever wondered why the Bible is filled with genealogies? Sometimes, they look like many unknown names, don’t they? You don’t get to know anything about most of the people listed in those generations. I’m sure some super Christian went looking for a name for their baby in those at some point. What you can take away from this viewing of names is who’s related to whom and how.
Today, we’re looking at Gen 46. As you glanced at the chapter, did you notice that we’re finally getting the names of Jacob’s posterity? Let’s be clear: I titled these last 21 articles posted on Facebook “The chronicles of Joseph,” but let’s not make a mistake about this. This is the coverage of Jacob’s family line.
Jacob’s family line was listed a little differently than usual for several reasons. As we know, family lines are typically filled with men’s names in a genealogy format. I’ll try to explain five reasons I could ascertain from looking at this generational review of Jacob here.
- Jacob had a unique purpose, which is highlighted throughout the text. He took up more space than any of the other patriarchs before him, Abraham and Isaac. We get to see the him being favored by his mom, but not his dad, and the story of him deceiving his dad and going to live with Laban all those years, learning to shepherd the flocks, a trade he taught to his own sons, all of these things were uniquely connected and are painting a bigger picture.
- How Israel ends up in Egypt is an essential piece of the puzzle when looking at Exodus and understanding the overall context of the Pentateuch.
- Joseph’s life gives us a glimpse of God as a promise keeper and a God of providence.
- Since we learn that Joseph is Jacob’s favorite, we get to peer into the heartache that went into the thought of what this reuniting feels like for them both in this chapter.
- As a bonus, have you ever heard that strong statement, “Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah!?” We get to see more about how his sons came to be since Perez is in direct connection with the lineage of King David.
The Good Life Article by: KevilynJ
