Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was (so it was thought) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, th e son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,
the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,
the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Matattha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,
the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,
the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,
the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,
the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Luke 3:23-28
I closed the Gem yesterday by saying: “Just a coincidence, right?” Do you believe the fact that the value of the Gematria of David’s name adds to 14 and Matthew organized his genealogies into sets of 14, where David is the central point around on which the sets of 14 hang, is just a coincidence? I don’t intend to say any more about it. I leave it with you to ponder. In the last Gem I told you “All sorts of things are hidden in genealogies and lists of names as we will see. I would like to explore a new possibility together with you.” I am doing these Gems as part of my live Quiet Time on the Internet. Contrary to popular opinion I don’t have it all worked out. I am still learning and applying things for myself. The approaches and ideas I teach in Deeper Bible I apply for myself. Some imagine that I have this Genealogy of Luke all worked out from long ago. I have learned some things over the years. But I am applying these things live with you now. So I share this with you in the hope that we will apply it and learn together. I have longed for a forum to apply and discuss these things for a long time.
When the Berean Insights website finally gets going there will be an interactive feature on that, but no news as yet on that. All that aside I would be delighted if you go away and ponder and apply these things for yourself. That’s where the true growth happens; then share any gems (or fish – in Deeper Bible terms) with me. The fish don’t need to be gutted, scaled, filleted or cooked. Just in their raw state is fine. If you missed the point in the analogy then let me spell it out clearer. Your thinking doesn’t have to be processed, perfected and perfect. It can be embryo ideas, unprocessed thoughts, raw insights. Whatever you’re on to, just share it with me / us.
I will share with you in a few days what Libby has been doing and it excites my heart. She comes from New Zealand and she has attended a number of seminars and presentations I have done in her church. She is a follower of Gems but has not yet participated in Deeper Bible. Nonetheless she is excited about applying what I share in order to deepen her Bible study. She has little insights and lots of excitement which excites me in return. I want to pick up on something now that I think will excite Libby even further because she will realise she has been doing something that is biblical. When we get excited about the things we personally find in the Bible and when those things have universal acceptance (or at least wider acceptance) that excites us more because we see we can understand the biblical text for ourselves if we will only apply the principles.
I want to share with you now something that happened a few years ago that astounded me. Something that I suspect may well be going on behind the scenes in the genealogy of Luke but have not had time to apply it as yet. I share it with you in its raw state. With some preamble.
I was asked a question at a God’s Awesome Book seminar in Jakarta that I did not know the answer to. Pak Suryadi stood in a GAB seminar (Buku Ajaib Tuhan in Indonesian) and asked, “Why does the list of tribes in Revelation 7 miss out Dan but add Manasseh in Revelation 7:5-8? And why is it in a different order?” I gave a him a straight answer at the time. “Does it? I have never noticed. I don’t know the answer specifically but I assume I know what is going on. He said, “Pak Ian, I have been looking for an answer to that question which satisfies me for 20 years.”
“I said, “I will tell you the answer when we come back to this church for the Digging for Hidden Treasure Workshop.” I thought, “It’s that which will be the answer, or if not that, then this.” It has to be one of those factors. It wasn’t at all. It proved to be a little problematic. Everything I tried didn’t work. I asked God for insight and then an idea came to me which blew my mind. From that point on I included that example in the Digging for Hidden Treasure package.
I am not going to tell you what “that revelation” was yet. We will build up to it and then apply the same principle to Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. I feel that there is something similar in Luke operating like that. More to come in the succeeding days.
For the moment here is the puzzle:
The Standard List of Tribes
- Reuben
- Simeon
- Levi
- Judah
- Dan
- Naphtali
- Gad
- Asher
- Issachar
- Zebulun
- Joseph
- Benjamin
The Revelation 7 List
- Judah
- Reuben
- Gad
- Asher
- Naphtali
- Manasseh
- Simeon
- Levi
- Issachar
- Zebulun
- Joseph
- Benjamin
Now it’s time for you to play “spot the differences” and explain why.
I will leave it there for now and continue in the next Gem with my input. So you can either spend time n it now or just don’t look at the next Gem if you don’t want to know my input as a possible answer. I won’t presume to think it is THE ANSWER but it is pretty amazing.
Still trying to decorate my family tree.
Anon
When a society or a civilisation perishes, one condition can always be found. They forgot where they came from.
Carle Sandburg