Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Chapter one, verses one through 17. There’s a long list of people who are recorded in God’s word as being those forebearers of Jesus Christ. Probably for most Christians, genealogies are very boring. And if you are anything like most who read the scripture, when you come to the genealogy, you jump over it and go to another portion of scripture. I know a man who is in the ministry who is a convert from Judaism, primarily because he studied the genealogies of Jesus Christ. It was that study of individuals and generation which followed generation, and the great impact of each of the lives it was recorded that caused him to say that Jesus Christ is my savior and my Lord. Today we’re going to be looking at the record of the genealogies.

It is found in the first chapter of Matthew and in the message where I simply make reference to a name, it is because that is all that is known about that person, their name. And there are a number of people who find themselves in that category in the genealogy. I pray that as we look at this genealogy, that you will be looking for. What was it that God was doing through this long genealogy of people, men and women, who God used to be the bearers of the Messiah? Let us pray. Our God and our father.

We ask now that as we would study this, your precious word, that, Father, you might take these names, that you would lift them before our eyes, that we might get a greater glimpse of the wealth of your word and, Father, that we might see, that contained even in this genealogy is to be found a wonderful truth and a wonderful line that we might understand ourselves, that we might understand your son, that we might understand you. We ask that your holy spirit would help us. In Jesus name. Amen. My name is Abraham. When I was 75 years old, the Lord told me that he would give to me a land. He told me also that he would give to me a descent of children that would be as numberless as the stars in the sky.

And the Lord promised that to me when I was 75 years old, 25 years would pass. I was 100 years old before the Lord fulfilled that promise. And the Lord brought to my wife and I a son, a young boy, Isaac. He was the son that I loved. And you can imagine when the Lord asked me to take my son Isaac, and to bring him to the top of a mountain and there to take my knife while he lay on an altar. And the Lord instructed me that I should take the very life of my only son. And at the very moment when I was ready to thrust that knife into the breast of my son, the Lord prevented me. And there was a ram that he left in a thicket.

And that ram I was told to take and to give as an offering to the Lord. And I did not have to give up my son Isaac, for the Lord provided a sacrifice. I’m Abraham’s son, Isaac. I was very obedient. And in my obedience as a follower of the living God, I agreed to an arranged marriage to my wife, Rebecca. We had two children. They were twins. The elder was named Esau, the younger Jacob. While the babies were still in the womb of my wife, the Lord made this amazing declaration. He said that there are two nations in the womb of your wife. Now, the custom was that the older son should be blessed. But what was promised to my wife and myself was that the older son, Esau, this older son, will serve the younger Jacob.

And my great mistake was that I loved Esau more than I loved Jacob, even though the Lord had said it was to Jacob that the promise was to be given. And so, as I was close to death, I wanted to call my son Esau. But my wife overheard the plan. Instead, she told Jacob that the blessing was ready to be given. And I, Jacob, whose name means the deceiver, I had already been given the birthright by my older brother, Esau. He had already sold to me the birthright. So you can imagine the shock when I found out that my father was about to give the blessing upon Esau. And so I deceived my father. And I came in the appearance of my brother. And my father blessed me, and I received the blessing. But I, who was the great deceiver, would become deceived.

Because, you see, I wanted to marry a woman. Rachel. I loved Rachel. I went to her father. He said that if I worked seven years, I would have her. And at the end of those seven years, rather than receive her, I was given her sister Leah. And so I came back to my father in law. And I asked for the hand of Rachel. And he said, if you are willing to work another seven years, you can have her as your wife. And so I, having had two wives, gave birth through those women to twelve sons. Those twelve sons would become the twelve tribes of what you refer to as Israel. May I introduce you to the fourth son through whom the line continued? My name is Judah.

And it was to me that the promise was given that one day, through my line, a messiah would be born. Now, I had a son. He died. His wife’s name was Tamar. She did what was appropriate. She wore the clothing of a widow. And whenever I would see Tamar there, she was clothed in that garb. How was I to know that one evening she would take off those garments and she would wear a veil. The veil, which is a sign of a prostitute. And I must admit that I went to a woman of harlotry. Never did it occur to me that it was Tamar. And for her favor, I gave to her a ring and a sash. And you can imagine, three months later, my shock when Tamar came to me pregnant.

And she said that I, Judah, was the father of a child of harlotry. She gave birth to twins. The first to come from her womb was Perez. I am Perez. A son of harlotry. A son of incest. My son was Hezram. His son was Ram. Ram’s son, Aminadab. And it was my children, one of my children, who was the wife of Aaron. Aaron, if you remember, was the brother of Moses. And I, Aminadab would have been certain that if God was going to trace his genealogy to his coming messiah, that certainly he would go through this priestly line. But instead, God did not go through the line that led back to Moses. But instead, he went through another son, Naishan. And it was through Naishan that the lineage to the Messiah can be traced. And his son was Salman and I.

Salman married a harlot who lived in the city of Jericho. Now, Jericho, were planning to attack. We sent two spies into the land. Joshua and Caleb, who went into the city of Jericho. When they got into Jericho, they were looking to understand the strength of the city. And they found a woman named Rahab, a prostitute, who let them into her room. She protected Joshua and Caleb. And later, when we destroyed the city of Jericho, we preserved the life of Rahab, the harlot. Now, Rahab was not of the household of faith. Rahab was not a Jew. But we allowed her to live with us. And I, Salman married Rahab. And we had a son. I am that son. Boaz. Boaz, who was a wealthy farmer in Bethlehem.

And in Bethlehem, one day, much to my surprise, during a severe famine, there came a family relative, Naomi. Naomi returned to Bethlehem with a woman named Ruth. Ruth, who was her daughter in law, and Ruth, who was widowed. Ruth was of the tribe of Moab, a despised tribe. We were married. We had a son, Obed and I. Obed was the father of Jesse and I. Jesse had eight children. I had inherited the property in Bethlehem from my grandfather, Boaz. I shall never forget when the prophet Samuel came to our house and he asked if I had any sons. And I brought before him seven of my sons. He was looking for a new king. He asked if there were any other children. Oh, yes, there’s one other. My youngest son, David. He’s out tending the sheep.

I brought David in and the prophet Samuel said, here is the next king of Israel. It is said of me, David, that I walked with God. And that’s true. I love the Lord. But I also sinned greatly. I seduced a woman, Bathsheba. I had her husband, who was one of my faithful soldiers. I had him killed that I might continue my immorality. I had a son born of that illicit affair. He died. I had another son, Absalom, who I loved. I loved more than this world. And yet he would revolt and go into rebellion against me so that I, the king, would go into hiding. And then word came to me that my son Absalom died. And I cried, Absalom. Absalom, my son. I had another son who seduced his half sister.

And in later life, trouble still stayed with me because my son Adonijah plotted to take my throne. And when I learned this, I acclaimed in the public square that my son Solomon shall be the next king. And I, Solomon, am considered to be the wisest man who ever lived. Why? Because the Lord came to me and asked me whatever it was that I wanted. And the thing that I wanted more than anything rather than riches, rather than gain and material things, I wanted wisdom. And the Lord made me wise. And he taught me in his ways. And it fell to me. To build the temple in Jerusalem, we used the best materials, great cedars from Lebanon, gold, brass, bronze. And I prayed on the day of that opening of the temple.

O Lord, God of Israel there is no God like thee keeping thy covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all of their heart. And I prayed that I would walk before the Lord with all of my heart. My mistake was 700 wives, not to mention 300 concubines. And each of those wives worshipped a different God. And I agreed to build altars to these foreign gods. And my heart turned away from the Lord. And I, Rayabom, am the son of Solomon. I became the king at 41. For three years I followed the Lord. But then there came a day when I had to make a decision about how I would rule the nation. The older men were telling me to go more gently. The younger men told me to be harsher than my father, Solomon had been.

I went with the advice of the younger men. I stood before the people and I said, my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. And having made that proclamation, it was as though the Lord himself took that garment and he ripped it in two. And from that day forward, the kingdom that you and I think of as Israel would be divided. It would be divided between Israel and Judah. Ten tribes in Israel, two in Judah. My son was Abidjah. And I ruled for only three years. I walked in all of the sins of my father. I did not turn my life to the living God. Call me King Asa, Abidjan’s son. I tore down all of the altars that were given and devoted to these false gods.

And you know that in my kingdom for ten years, there wasn’t a single war. There was peace. But I made a mistake. The mistake. I sought political unity with Syria against the northern kingdom of Israel. I relied on political strength rather than relying on the Lord. And later I became sick. And it’s amazing to me now that never once in my affliction did, I cry out to the Lord. Never once did I call upon him. And I am Jehoshaphat. I did not seek after these false gods. Rather, I sought after the Lord. I called the Levites, those religious leaders, to go throughout all of Judah and to teach them the truths of God’s word. And during my reign, there was prosperity. There was military strength, there was religious reform. But you know how people are.

I couldn’t prevent the people from having clandestine religious meetings to worship false gods. And so the people would not follow me, nor would they follow the Lord. I’m Josephat’s son, Joram. I became king when I was 32 years old. I reigned for eight years. I did evil in the sight of the Lord. Call me Uziah. I did right in the eyes of the Lord. However, I did not remove the false altars to the false gods. And so despised was I by the people who watched after me, the servants in my very home. That one evening, those very servants came in and killed me in bed. My son Jotham took over during the later years of my illness. And I. Jotham was loyal to the lord. But I allowed the people to worship false gods. And Hezekiah was my son.

And while I was king Hezekiah, the lord, as though he were cleaning a plate, clear, came and he cleared the northern kingdom. Those ten tribes, they were taken into captivity by Assyria. Never to be seen from again, never to be heard from. No one to this day knows what happened with those ten tribes. I destroyed all of the pagan altars. I reopened in Judah, the southern kingdom, the temple. I reinstated the tithe. And when I was close to death, the prophet came to me saying that this night I should die. And I asked him and I prayed that the Lord might grant me more life. And the lord did. The lord gave me an additional 15 years of life. And during those 15 years, the same nation of Assyria that had come and taken away those ten northern tribes now threatened the southern kingdom.

They threatened my kingdom. And what was I to do? I took the very letter that they placed in my hand, saying that they were going to attack and destroy us. I took that letter to the Temple. I opened that letter on the Temple floor, and I prayed to the lord that he would protect us. And the lord miraculously defeated the Assyrians, and were safe. My name is Manase, the son of Hezekiah. I reigned the longest of all of the kings, some 55 years. I rebuilt the altars that had been destroyed. I reinstated the worship of Baal. I even brought my own son to be sacrificed on an altar of Baal.

The nation of Babylon would come in to the southern kingdom, and with fish hooks, they took me out of the City of Jerusalem, and they bound my hands, and they brought me to that foreign City of Babylon. And there I stayed. And there, for the first time, I met the living God. And I was sorry for my sins, and I repented. And the Lord brought me back to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem, I returned the people to the worship of the true God. I, Ammon, did not humble myself like my father Manasseh had. I did evil in the sight of the Lord. My servants would conspire and take my own life. My name, Josiah. While still a boy, I began to seek the Lord. I began to reign.

At the age of eight, I destroyed all of the Temples, all of the altars to false gods. I had all of the priests of Baal killed, and then I had their bones burned. On those altars, I found a book, the book of Moses, the book of the law, which for 20 years, no one had, those old Testament books. And when I found them, we began to teach the people, and we reinstituted worship and prayer. And I promised, and so did the people promise to follow the Lord. I, Jekhaniah, the son of Josiah, was taken into captivity along with some 70,000 people from the southern kingdom of Judah. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed for 60 years, were in exile. Why? Because the people had rejected the living God. And I am Shialtiel, the son of Jeconiah.

I had no biological children, but I did, through Jewish custom of adoption, bring into our family Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel. I, who lived in captivity, returned from Babylon with a group of people, and we rebuilt the temple. And under my leadership, the city became restored. And I, Zerubbabel, had a son, Abayad. And Abayad had a son, Iliachim. Iliachim had a son, Azor. Azor had a son, Zadak. And Zadak a son, Acham. Acham, a son, Iliad. Iliad, a son, Eliezer. Eliezer’s son Mathan. Mathan’s son, Jacob. And Jacob’s son, Joseph. I was a carpenter. I was betrothed to a young woman. We were planning to get married. And I learned that she was with child and that child was the son of God. I, Joseph, became the adopted father in this earth of God’s son. It was to my wife, Mary, that this babe would be born.

And I can tell you this about my son, who would adopt me as his earthly father, that he adopts all who by faith, would want to be his son or his daughter, and that this child, Jesus Christ, who would be born in a manger, who would grow to manhood, who would teach, be crucified, and raise from the dead, that this Jesus Christ offers to you, that you might be part of the spiritual genealogy, that you might know who your heavenly father is, that you might know that your sins are forgiven, that you might know that heaven has been prepared for all those who by faith, would trust in this son, Jesus Christ. Joseph and Mary were the parents of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Our God and our Father, we thank you for the lives, generation after generation, some 14, followed by some 14 generations. Father, we thank you for what Christ Jesus has done, that he came into this world through the line of men, through the line of people who are sinful. And yet Jesus Christ knew no sin because his father was the living God. We ask now that you would help us by faith to see our spiritual genealogy to him, that we might know that all of those who are of the household of faith shall be with you forever. And we give you thanks in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries, post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.