35 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
35 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 3:23–38"
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date = "2022-10-28"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk3.23-38)
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A lot of people skip over the "boring" parts, like genealogies. But we're not!
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God's truth is in the lists and tables as well as the prose and poetry.
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The first thing we learn is that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began His
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ministry. For a public teacher, this is a good age to begin because people
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won't reject you out of hand because you're too young. It also means we have no
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idea what Jesus's life was like since His parents found Him at the temple when
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he was twelve. Most likely, He took up carpentry alongside Joseph.
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The genealogy itself is interesting because it anchors Jesus firmly in history,
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with a human lineage that is traced back all the way to the very first man.
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This is no fairy tale, where a mysterious person arrives from some unknown
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place, does amazing things, and vanishes. No, this is real history. It is also
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interesting because it is different from the genealogy given in Matthew 1. Luke
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fits more generations in between Jesus and Abraham, and has several names
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different, especially the ones closer to Jesus. The discrepencies could be
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explained in a few ways: Luke and Matthew may be using "son" and "father" to
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mean "descended from" and each skips some generations; Matthew especially may
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be describing legal inheritance, particularly for the Davidic kingship, rather
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than biological descent; transliterating Hebrew names into Greek might have
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been done differently; and it's possible Luke is describing Mary's family tree,
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though, if true, it is very strange he doesn't mention her name. (I find "as
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was supposed" (_v. 23_) to be pretty compelling, however.)
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* * *
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You are eternal, while we are mere dust. Our lives are like grass while You
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remain forever.
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