September 26 I Monday

Isaiah 1-2

Galatians 5

 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”      —Jeremiah 29:11

I met a man who shared with me, “I have great difficulty in believing in my own value because I should never have been. My mom met my dad at a wedding, they drank too much and ended up sleeping together. My mom later discovered she was pregnant with twins, but never saw my dad again. I said to myself that I never should have been in the will of God.”

       After hearing this man share his story, I thought of Jesus. In Jesus’s genealogy at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, it says, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). There should not have been a son of David, or a royal line to which Jesus belonged because when God brought Israel into Canaan, He wanted them to be a theocracy, which means “God ruled.” Yet, the Israelites demanded for a king and, although it was against the desire of God, God allowed it. Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel, who was a good man, but later became a disaster. Afterwards, Samuel anointed David, a man after God’s own heart. David’s line became the ruling line of the nation of Judah.

       About David in Jesus’s genealogy, Matthew writes, “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matthew 1:6). Even though the event happened almost a millennia ago, Matthew did not hide the sin that David committed with Bathsheba in Jesus’s genealogy. In fact, not only did David commit adultery with Bathsheba, he also intentionally sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to be killed in battle.

       We see this is not the only scandal in Jesus’s genealogy, but regardless, God’s will, plan and purpose still prevailed. A well-known verse that comes to mind is, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God...” (Romans 8:28, KJV). We tend to apply this verse to things that have gone wrong, believing things are going to work out for good for those who love God. But a better and truer translation of the verse goes, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (NIV). It is not that things work for good, like here is something broken and it is going to do something good, but God works through even the most messed up things for His good to come about. God used the dysfunction of His Son’s genealogy to demonstrate this truth: no matter what our past is, He is sovereign, working out His good purpose.

Prayer: Dear God, even though there may be moments in my past that I am not proud of, I know You are sovereign and You are working in my life for Your good purpose. Thank You, Lord.