Peter Allison's sermon, 'He Gave Us Stories,' focuses on the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3, emphasizing its importance in establishing Jesus' credentials as the Messiah. The sermon explains the placement of the genealogy between Jesus' baptism and temptation, highlighting its role in demonstrating His legal and divine right to the throne of David. Allison explores the challenges and apparent contradictions in biblical genealogies, proposing possible solutions like the concept of levirate marriage to reconcile differences. The genealogy underscores the narratives of covenant breakers and keepers, illustrating God's sovereignty and faithfulness throughout history. Allison emphasizes that every part of Scripture, including genealogies, is profitable and points to God's enduring truth. The sermon concludes by reflecting on the broader theological themes of redemption and inheritance in Christ, encouraging believers to live with gratitude and awareness of their role in God's story.

Luke chapter 3. I would like to read for our scripture this morning our consideration. Luke 3 beginning at verse 23. Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have preserved your word and that you have preserved these names. We ask now as we look into your word that you would teach us. I ask that you would sanctify these sinful lips and that you would speak through a vessel of clay that the glory may be yours. In Jesus name, amen." Well, if you haven't seen, there's a little mini outline of the sermon on the back panel. But there's also a handout.

It should have been with your bulletin. If you don't have it, I think there might be some on the back table there, and we can make more copies if we run out. But I think you'll find the front section there on Jesus' genealogy to be helpful when we get to certain places in the message today because in some ways this is a very complicated matter that are presented in these genealogies. Every word of scripture, Paul said to Timothy, is profitable. Every word.

Jesus said not one jot or tittle would pass away. So even the jots and the tittles of the Word of God are part of the Word of God. And they are important. They are profitable for our instruction that we might be thoroughly equipped and furnished for every good work. And so this genealogy, this list of names that some of them are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, this list of names that it's easy to get sleepy reading through.

It's easy to read them without reading or even to jump over them entirely. This list of names is part of the Word of God. And it's therefore profitable to us. Now granted, as Spurgeon said, there are big texts that are important, that present vital truths. And we are not saying that this is one of those select big texts of the scripture, but this is nevertheless the Word of God.

And there is much that we can learn from this. It's very placement in Luke's account, Luke's historical account that he is preparing for theophilus. He doesn't place it at the beginning. Usually genealogies are placed at the beginning. Matthew places his in the beginning.

But Luke places his right here between this baptism of Jesus when Jesus begins his ministry at 30 years of age and the temptation by Satan that followed his baptism. Luke is doing something here with even the placement of this. And I think it points to establishing the credentials of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. This is His pedigree as it were. He's putting it right in here, right in the middle of two very significant events in Jesus' life, at the start, the very beginning of His ministry.

Now We're going to look today at this genealogy, but I'd say by way of introduction that these genealogies are often the source of great angst on the part of Christian scholars, and much glee on the part of the atheists and skeptics seeking to discredit the Word of God. Because there are challenges here, there are things that would appear to be contradictory statements when compared with other parts of the Scriptures and other genealogies. But we come this morning wanting to believe the Word of God. We want to believe that the Word of God is true. Even if it makes every scholar, every expert, every archaeologist, every Hebraist, Even if it makes us all wrong, the Word of God is true.

So when looking at some of these solutions that we can propose to some of these textual challenges that are before us, The issue is not to find the exact solution to resolve them. That's not our point this morning. The point is to simply demonstrate that there are many possible solutions that do take the Word of God as true, every jot, every tittle of the Word of God as true, because that's what God has promised. He said He will preserve His Word. He's going to preserve it from scribal emendations and omissions and errors.

God has preserved His Word. That's what He has promised to do through all time. His Word endures forever. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. There is no part of God's Word that is wrong or in error or a mistake.

And God has promised otherwise. And God's promises are yea and amen in Jesus Christ. And so as we come to this genealogy, we need to come with that faith in the promises of God that what is written here is true. And begin to look then for solutions as to how this is true and how this passage is consistent with the other passages that might seem initially to be in conflict. And we will see, as I trust the Lord enables us today, we will see that there are many possible solutions.

And that we do not need to resort to errors and scribal errors and omissions and these sorts of things when dealing with the Word of God. But rather it is often in seeking to resolve these apparent contradictions that we learn a lot. We discover many amazing things. And time and time again, the Bible is always shown to be right. That shouldn't surprise us.

When they go digging in Iran or Iraq or anywhere else in the world, in Israel, we should not be surprised when they dig down 3 or 4, 000 years, 5, 000 years and uncover exactly what the Word of God has said. And that has been the history in recent times, with this renewed interest in archaeology. There are many things that Luke wrote that skeptical scholars have called into question, which have subsequently been shown to be true. Now we don't believe them because archaeology shows Luke to be true. We believe the Word of God is true because it is the Word of God and God is truth.

He cannot lie. There are no errors in His Word. Even if we don't know the exact solution, we know there are many, we can point to any number of probable and even maybe likely solutions that are perfectly consistent with the rest of Scripture. We also see in these genealogies that God has given us stories. God has given us stories.

And you are part of God's story. You and I, we live our lives in oftentimes a very small part of God's story. You know that's what history is, God's story, his story. And in these genealogies, we are reminded of all of these stories. And I'd like to, in our time together today, to just briefly recount and remember some of these stories that are alluded to in these families, in these names.

But we see that there are two kinds of stories. There are two kinds of stories that are listed here in this genealogy. There are the stories of the covenant breakers. Those people who were not faithful to the Lord, who didn't walk in his ways, who rejected his commandments, who renounced his laws, who killed his prophets, who walked in their own ways, who followed the world. And these are stories that are in God's Word.

They are alluded to here in these names. These are stories of people that have been cut off. The people that have fallen under God's judgment for their sin, for their rebellion and wickedness. There are also the stories of covenant keepers, those who have been faithful, who by the grace of God have walked in the ways of God, whose story and example is recounted and remembered in places like Hebrews 11 as an example for us to follow. These are the great cloud of witnesses that Hebrews speaks of who are in heaven witnessing this race that we are now running.

These stories are also alluded to here. You see, God's plan in history is far greater than any one of our stories. Our perspective is often the narrow focus, the narrow point in time of our life. And we think of our lives from when we were born or shortly thereafter, when we begin to have a memory until today, and that is what we think of. But we might think of God's work in our life and his saving of us and his opening our eyes and translating us out of darkness into light, this kingdom of light.

And praise the Lord that He does that. And we can remember that. We can give thanks for that. But that's just a small, small piece of God's story. We often don't know the bigger role that We are playing in God's story.

We may never know, often never do. The New Testament says many of these people died not having seen the city that they were seeking, not having seen the fulfillment of God's greater plan. And we would have to say, even though we're farther along, we're in the same situation. We haven't seen the fullness of God's plan of redemption. We still have bodies that get sick.

Our redemption, our salvation is in that sense ongoing. Yes, we have been justified and adopted and we are being sanctified, but we are not yet glorified. So as you see this, think of all these people who died not knowing what would happen, not knowing what would come from them. But God did. And God wasn't defeated by those covenant breakers, by those people who sought to destroy this line of Christ.

God wasn't defeated by anything that they did. God's plan is far greater because God is sovereign and He works His plan. There is no one that can say to Him, What are you doing? There is no one that can stay his hand. There is no one that can fort his purpose.

And so this genealogy then does a few things. Genealogies determine inheritance. Who is your father determines what you will inherit, what will belong to you. And so in this genealogy we see several things. We see first Christ's human nature.

Humans have a genealogy. They were born from somebody who was born from somebody who was born from somebody who was born from somebody who was born from somebody who was born from somebody who ultimately was born from Adam who was made by God. Humans have a genealogy. Every one of us was born from someone, from a woman, who in turn was born from someone. And so this genealogy shows to us that Christ is Christ's human nature.

He has a genealogy. He has a human genealogy. He was born of Mary, supernaturally conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Secondly, this genealogy shows that Christ has a legal right to the throne of David. He is a descendant of David.

In Psalm 89, God promised David that there would not fail to sit on his throne one of His descendants. I have made a covenant, well, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever with my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall be built up forever, your faithfulness you will establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to my servant David, your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations. Your seed I will establish forever and your throne to all generations." David prayed the same thing, prayed that back to the Lord when the Lord made that promise to him.

So this establishes Christ, this genealogy establishes Christ as a descendant of David. First Chronicles 17, I will establish him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. That was the promise to David. His throne would be established forever. His seed would sit on the throne and it would never end.

His kingdom would be everlasting. This genealogy shows us that Christ descended from David, that he sits as the greater son of David, on the throne of David, and his kingdom, the Bible says, Christ's kingdom, has no end. The increase of his government has no end. This genealogy establishes that. It is the legal record.

This genealogy establishes Christ as the seed promised to Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve that The seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. And Saint John would crush his heel. The seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. This genealogy establishes Christ is that seed Who has come he is this he is a descendant of Adam This genealogy establishes Christ as the seed promised to Abraham Remember in Genesis 22 after Abraham had in obedience to God offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice and then God as he was about to bring the knife down into his son to slay him, believing that God would be able to bring back to life his son, the angel stops him, and God said to him, By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies and in your seed, singular, zara, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

Abraham here is a covenant-keeping man. And we know from Paul's letter to the Galatians that seed there is singular. And in your seed All the nations of the earth will be blessed." And Paul says that seed, that singular, it's not seeds, but seed that was Christ. That seed was Christ. And so this genealogy establishes then that Christ is that seed that God promised to Abraham.

This genealogy also establishes Christ's legal heirship as the Son of God. Son of Adam, Son of God. Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 speak of God giving to His anointed, to His Son, the nations of the world as their inheritance. But Psalm 2 says that God has established His Son. This day have I begotten you.

Ask of me and I will give the nations for your inheritance. Lord says, I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. God says he has set his son as king. And this genealogy establishes Jesus as the son of God. You see, it establishes Jesus then as that second person of the Trinity with two distinct natures, the divine nature and the human nature in one person.

He is both the son of David and the Son of God. This genealogy, interestingly, is really the last genealogy in the Bible. Christ ends all genealogies. There are Many genealogies in the Old Testament, beginning with Adam, they give us a lot of information, they give us a lot of information about the age of the earth and so forth, but it all ends with this genealogy. There are no more genealogies after Jesus Christ.

His is the last. It ends with Him because we are all adopted sons of God and fellow heirs with Jesus Christ. We, you and I, brothers and sisters, we are the adopted sons of Jesus Christ and fellow heirs with Him. He is our elder brother. There are no more genealogies.

There are no more genealogies. Now what are some of these stories that are in this genealogy? I'm going to start from the beginning and work to Christ. Luke gives the genealogy starting with Christ and working backwards. I don't know why he did it that way, some many ideas, but I don't know.

Matthew, in giving his genealogy, goes the other way. He starts in the beginning and works forward. So I've listed on the back of that handout, I don't know how helpful it will be, but I've listed out the entire genealogy, 77 names that Luke gives. 77. Some people have noted that's 11 groups of 7.

But 77 names that he has listed here. And I've started with Jesus and worked back as Luke gives them. But So you can refer back to that if that's helpful in looking at this list of names. I've also compared it with the genealogy in Matthew because we want to look at a couple of the differences there. But we begin then a brief look at a couple of these stories with Adam and Eve.

Jesus is said to be the son of Adam. And I would point out that Where Matthew before we? Get into these stories where Matthew says begat or begot which indicates generational progression. Luke doesn't use, doesn't say anything. There's no verb there.

There's no begat, there's no had, there's no verb. There's actually not even a word for son. He was, except for Joseph, the son of Joseph as was supposed. But then after that it is the same saying of people, of Heli, of Matthat, of Levi, and so on. So Jesus is of Adam.

Adam and Eve, they were the ones who were given that creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to exercise dominion over all creation. That was why God created man, to worship him, to glorify him, to subdue the earth, to rule over it as his vice regent. Adam and Eve were promised eternal life on condition of perfect obedience, but death in the day that they did not obey, in the day that they ate the tree that God commanded them not to eat. And so you know the story how Adam and Eve disobeyed God, how they lost communion with God, how they were placed under his wrath and curse. They were disinherited, they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and there was a guard set around the Tree of Life lest they eat of that tree.

Adam and Eve died. In the day that they ate of it, they died. They lost communion with God and they were cut off. They were cut off from the tree of life and they were disinherited. Just remember that.

We are going to come back to that. This idea of being disinherited because it figures prominently in this genealogy. Adam and Eve were disinherited and they were cut off. We have a number of patriarchs following Adam. Seth, Enosh, who walked with God.

You did not die because God took him bodily into heaven like Elijah. To heaven like Elijah. We see Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, who died in the year of the flood. And then Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, probably Japheth being the oldest Ham we know is the youngest, Shem would be in the middle. But Noah then was the patriarch who built the ark over a hundred years.

Noah is the patriarch to whom the promise of the rainbow was given, that God would never destroy the earth again because of a flood. In making that promise, it wasn't that God is saying He's going to change His standard of justice. It's rather a promise that He would restrain sin. And He did that through civil government. It is at Noah's time after the flood that civil government is instituting.

It's after the flood that man is given the authority and the right to kill animals and eat them, which he didn't have before. And it's at the flood that God commands that whoever takes man's life by man his blood will be shed because out of respect for the blood which Represents the life of man made in the image of God All these things you see come together in Noah. He is that patriarch to Who received all these promises? He's the last also of the long lived patriarchs, the old ones. After Noah, they lived for a relatively consistent amount of time, around 900 years, some a few more, some a few less.

900 years, but after Noah, immediately the life spans fall down to pretty close to, pretty quickly to where they are today. There are a few exceptions in the Old Testament of very old people like Nehemiah or Caleb and Moses, but for the most part people's lives quickly came to the four score, or three score and ten or four score if there is strength After Noah then Shem is the son through whom The promised line count comes God's people come, our descendants of Shem. And then we come to verse 36 which talks about Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem. And here is our first bump in the road as we are reading through here because Luke adds a son between Arphaxad and Shelah. That isn't in the other scriptures, it's not in Genesis 11.

Genesis 11 simply goes, Shem, Arphaxad, Selah, and Eber, from which the Hebrews come. But Luke has Shem, Arphaxad, Canaan, Selah, and Eber. Now this one word has caused more consternation than probably any other single word in the Bible. More angst, more people questioning or calling into doubt the veracity of the Old Testament genealogies. And so I want to offer one possible solution.

How is Luke's genealogy here the Word of God? Also the genealogy in Genesis 11 also the Word of God. How are both true at the same time? How are both right at the same time? Well, one possible solution is that Canaan is a son, or Seda is a son by adoption or a son by adoption, somebody who becomes a legal heir.

It could be a grandson or it could be a son-in-law Who becomes the legal heir? I think it's more likely that it's a grandson There there are a number of ways that something like this would happen. For example, our Faxad and Canaan both marry young, because we know that our Faxad is 35 when Selah is born. Well, that leaves marriage at 17 for both of them. And that's very typical age to be married.

It's not uncommon in this era for people to be married at that age. And so you have our Faxad marries at 17, has Canaan young, and then Canaan marries also young and has Selah. Now why would, maybe Canaan dies young, or I think possibly even more likely, He is passed over for the blessing. Our fax ad adopts his grandson, Selah, as his son, as his legal heir. Why might a man do that?

Well Jacob did that. Jacob adopted Ephraim and Manasseh. And when you read about the twelve tribes you don't read about a tribe of Joseph, right? It's a tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, because Jacob adopted Ephraim and Manasseh as his legal heirs, and those were the tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, not Joseph. Now, Joseph had done nothing wrong.

Joseph was a great in the house of Jacob. It was really in this case an honor that instead of having one tribe, Joseph now had two tribes because Jacob adopted those sons, those grandsons as his and they became his legal heirs and the twelve descend the twelve tribes of Of Jacob or Ephraim at Manasseh, but there is another reason it might be another reason it may be because of a sin on the part of Canaan. Actually there is no tribe of Joseph except in Revelation. I need to mention that. In Revelation 7 when it talks about the sealing of the 12 tribes, there is a tribe of Joseph sealed, but not Ephraim.

So there is a bit of a fluidity there where even though Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as the legal heirs, yet Revelation still speaks of the tribe of Joseph. What if Canaan was guilty of gross immorality? That wouldn't be unheard of. Reuben went into his father's concubines and he was passed over as the firstborn in favor of Judah. Judah's son Perez, who is in this genealogy just a little later, and it was by Tamar, his daughter-in-law.

So Judah has an heir in this genealogy that is through his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son, Er and Onan. Absalom lay with his father's concubines. Lay with his father's concubines. Zedekiah, in the descendants of Josiah, the last sovereign king of Judah, Zedekiah is said to be both the uncle and the brother of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim. So Josiah had four sons as they are listed, And one of the sons had a son and this son is said to be the brother of that son but also the uncle.

Well that's possible if Jehoiakim, this king, he was the biological father by his father's wife. I think that's very possible and probable in that case because it solves all the difficulties of the age. There's a whole lot of things that work out if that's the case. The Bible calls him both the uncle and the brother, the same person. That's only possible with incest.

And so it's very possible then that Canaan had a son through incest, And so he is passed over as the heir. And yet he is there and Luke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit puts him in the genealogy. I don't know. The point isn't that what happened or what didn't happen. The point is there are many possible solutions that would explain the addition of Canaan that do not resort to saying that the Bible has a mistake in it.

But that's one possibility. And there would be many other examples similar to it in the Scriptures. We then go on further down this list of people, or up the list I guess as I put it there, and we come through Abraham. Abraham enters the land of Canaan at 75 years of age and begins the 430 year sojourn. Jacob moves down to Egypt under Judah.

Then there is the time in Egypt, the Exodus from Egypt in the days of Anashon. Then we have Salman who marries Rahab, the harlot, whose story is told in Joshua and Salman and Rahab have Boaz their son and Boaz marries Ruth the Moabitess the cursed land of Moab, but she is brought into the godly line because Boaz marries her in a levirate marriage. And then Boaz and Ruth have Obed, and Obed has Jesse, and Jesse is the father of King David. And so we're all the way down to 10, 055 BC when David begins to reign. The temple is begun to build in the fourth year of Solomon, in the 480th year after the Exodus.

And then we have a number of, well here we have a division now between, up until this point Matthew and Luke are in close agreement with each other. But here we have a difference. Luke traces a genealogy now through Nathan. Matthew traces a genealogy through Solomon. Solomon was the kingly line.

That was the line that reigned as kings in the land of Judah. Nathan was not the Kingly line. That's the line that Luke traces for us. These lines are different. The names are different.

The number of generations between them is different. I've listed them side by side in that handout, but that's not to say that they were contemporaries. There are a number of more generations that Luke gives through Nathan than that are given through Solomon by Matthew. They don't line up. So I just put them there.

I didn't have a good way to represent that fact, but they don't line up. They're totally different names. Most of them are unfamiliar to us. Many of them are not mentioned in other places. A few are mentioned in other places.

But till we come to Xaltil and Zerubbabel, And now all of a sudden these two names are matched in the genealogies again. And this is right at the return from captivity. So Josiah is the last sovereign king there. He's listed under Matthew's genealogy. I have him next to Melchi, but that's not saying that they're together.

It's very common if you've traced your line. Like Moses is the grandson of Levi through his mother's line, but the great-grandson through his father's line, because Moses' father, Amram, married Levi's daughter. And so you go through, depending on which side you go through, you have a different number of generations, and so that's very possible that there's different numbers of generations between Luke and Matthew. But you get to Shealtel. Now we have here another another big bump.

So Jeconiah is the son of Jehoiakim who is the son of Josiah. And Josiah is the last sovereign king. Jeconiah is cut off. Is cut off. And God says, you take the signet ring from Jeconiah and no one would ever reign on his throne again.

Shealtiel is the son born to Jeconiah in captivity and Zerubbabel is the governor of Judah. In the second year of Darius, in the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai to the prophet Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, giving them the word that they were to come and to work on the house of God. It is the promises of the glory of the new temple are given to Zerubbabel, this temple that they would build. God spoke precious promises to him in Haggai chapter 2. We don't have time to read all these promises.

But Haggai 2, the promises of the glory of the temple. Zerubbabel was the builder of the temple. You probably have memorized Zechariah 4, 6. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he shall bring forth a capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it. The hand of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple. His hands shall also finish it." There were many promises given to Zerubbabel, But Zerubbabel also is the one who gets back this signet ring that is stripped from Jeconiah. In Jeremiah God says, as I live through Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, if he were my signet on my right hand, I would pluck it off. But to Zerubbabel and Haggai, God says, I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtel, says the Lord, and I will make you like a signet ring for I've chosen you says the Lord of hosts." So I think what we have here is there was a disinheritance, a cutting off of Jeconiah and his line where It was a curse put on him.

He would never have a son to sit on the throne. That's what God said. And yet there is this redemption through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel that there is in this line probably a legal transfer of the rule that brings this legal line and the physical line together. And I will explain that in a minute. We get down to how that can happen.

And this is where we get, if we come down to the end of this genealogy, or the beginning of it, in Luke, where we read that Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age being as was supposed the son of Joseph. And if I read the words that are in the Greek text, being as was supposed the son of Joseph of Heli. Now in Matthew, Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob. So if you pull out your little handout there where I've laid this out, and I apologize, this is complicated, but I think it's so important that I want to try to walk through what might be going on here to show something pretty amazing. To show something just pretty amazing.

Well obviously, Joseph can't have two physical fathers. There's two different men here. They're two different names, they're two different people, and he is said to be the son of both of those. This is not a mistake though. There are some credible ways that this could be true.

And again, just like earlier, the goal here is not to decide which is the right way, the goal is to simply show a couple of the ways, or at least one way, that this is true, and I think likely true, and it leads to an amazing and precious promise. So if we look at the as-was-supposed, that word nom idzo in the Greek means to follow or practice what is customary. To follow or practice what is customary. That's the first definition in one of the main Greek lexicons used today. To follow or practice what is customary.

A.T. Robinson, that great Greek scholar, says Luke, quote, Luke evidently means to suggest something unusual in his genealogy by use of the phrase, as was supposed." So the word there of Heli is not son of Heli, it just says of Heli. Now how could this happen? What's going on here? Well, some people have tried to resolve this by saying that this is Mary's line.

I think there's some problems with that. One, it's a recent idea. Bach says it originated about 1490 when Columbus is sailing to America. That came to be suggested. The other, it's an inconsistent use of relationship in genealogy.

Jesus is the son of Joseph, who is the son-in-law of Heli, if that's the case. And so it's not the same relationship. It's not just saying son or begat, which could mean a son or a grandson. This is a son, but then a son-in-law. And also the preposition of that's used there, of, remember there's no son there, it just says of, of Heli.

The preposition is masculine, not feminine. And no woman is listed in Luke's genealogy. Mary's name is not there, nor any other woman's name is there. I think rather that there is a solution that was proposed by an early church father, Julius Africanus, in the late second century. He lived maybe 160 to 240 or something, so somewhere around the end of the second century, he proposed that, and he said he was basing this on records, genealogical records, and he has the name for at least the first wife there, I didn't put her there, it doesn't really matter for our purposes today, but he has a name for her.

There are some issues, but this is how this levirate marriage would have worked. Remember the levirate marriage is described in Deuteronomy 25 where if a man dies and he has no descendants, then a brother was to marry his widow, and the first child that is born would be the first brother's heir. And that's why Boaz's relative didn't want to do it, when he found out that there was a woman involved, a widow involved, because the heir wouldn't be his. In fact, this was Judah's son, Heir, died because he was wicked. And so Tamar, his wife, was given to the second son, Onan.

But Onan didn't want to raise up a seed to Tamar because he realized the heir wouldn't be his, it would be his brother's. And he didn't want to raise his brother's son. He didn't want to raise the son that would carry his brother's name. And so the purpose of the Sevirot Law was, according to Deuteronomy 25, so that this man's name would not be blotted out. That was the purpose of it, the name not be blotted out.

So the way this worked is, if we have this line coming through Solomon and the line coming through Nathan gets to Mat-That and Mat-Than. Very similar names but two different people. So if you have Mat-That, Mary's a wife and in Eusebius who is quoting from Africanus he has this as Melchi which is two generations earlier So there's a little bit of a problem there. But the principle still, the concept still is valid. Mathat marries a first wife, and they have Heli.

Now he dies and his widow marries Mathan, another descendant of David through the line of Solomon, and they have a son Jacob. So now you have two people who are uterine brothers but have different fathers, Heli and Jacob. Now if Heli dies childless, then this uterine brother Jacob would marry him, marry his widow and the first child that is born would be his heir. That would then be Joseph, the father of the husband of Mary. So, Heli is Joseph's legal father through the virate marriage.

Jacob is Joseph's biological father, but not Jacob's heir, because the virate marriage raised up the heir to the dead brother who had no children. And so when Luke says, being 30 years as was supposed, remember A.T. Robinson said that the definition of that is to follow or practice what is customary. He was the son according to what was customary, this levirate marriage. We know the levirate marriage, the Sadducees raised that to Jesus.

They were trying to trap him with regard to the resurrection, they raised a case of the Levirate marriage where a guy, where seven brothers all die childless and one woman is married to all of them, then whose wife is she in the resurrection? That was the Levirate marriage. So this is not something that's unknown at that time or they wouldn't have thought of it to bring it up. So that's just is that is that what actually happened? Well, maybe we don't know But you see that is one explanation that is can biblically consistent there are other examples in the Bible of this and it is Very probable it would explain the language that Luke uses the fact that he doesn't use the word son.

He just says of And and it would it would provide then that what Luke is giving us is the legal line of Jesus' genealogy, The legal line. Whereas what Matthew is giving is the biological line. We have that today with adoptions. You have a biological father and you have a legal father. But here's what's interesting.

Here's what I think is just amazing. Everything in the Old Testament points to Christ and His work. The promises, the covenants, the flood, which was a type of baptism, the temple, the sacrificial system, the kingdom, David's throne, all of it points to Christ. Christ is the greater Son of David, Christ is the Lamb of God, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us as our great high priest intercedes for us. He is the temple that was torn down and rebuilt in three days.

He is the light of the world. There is no need for the sun in the New Jerusalem. Everything in the Old Testament is pointing to Christ. What is interesting is that Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3.15. Adam corrupted his seed.

He was disinherited. He was thrown out of the garden, and he died taking all his heirs with him. The scriptures speak of this condition, the second death, as one's name being blotted out of the Book of Life. Exodus 32, we don't have time to read these, but Psalm 9, 5, You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked, You have blotted out their name forever and ever. In Revelation 3, 5, On the other hand, he who overcomes will be clothed in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before the Father and his angels." In Deuteronomy 29, the same thing, we read about names being blotted out for disobedience.

And so in Adam's fall he was disinherited. He died. And like Jeconiah he was cut off. But God's plan was not defeated. Because 4, 000 years after Adam died, God raised up an heir to Adam's line, the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

And that is an amazing anti-type of the levirate marriage. That God has raised up supernaturally a line, an heir, a descendant in the human race by supernatural conception. Luke gives us the legal genealogy of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus. But even as Solomon's line was cut off as covenant breakers, Joseph through a levirate marriage regained the legal title to the throne of David through Nathan's line. And so are all of us, natural physical descendants of the disinherited Adam.

We are given an inheritance in Jesus Christ. We have become his adopted children through God's intervention and raising up of a seed through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We ought to live with this awareness, gratitude, living a life worthy of our calling, as Paul says, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, that we would walk worthy of God who calls us into his kingdom, into his glory. He God has raised up a seed Inheritance of which we are a part and we are brought back into this line that was cut off We ought to live strengthened strengthened according to His power and grateful for this inheritance that we have been given in Christ who is the fulfillment and the anti-type of this levirate marriage. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for so great a salvation. We thank you for Jesus Christ our Savior but also our brother our friend our prophet priest and king and yet The one who comforts us Who assures us who walks with us The one who is the second Adam. The one in whom we share an inheritance. Father, we do rejoice this morning with unspeakable joy At your great salvation in Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.