Mon.’s Devo - The Lineage of Christ

Read: 1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17; Acts 23:11-35; Psalm 3:1-8; Provers 18:14-15 The Chronicles were written by the priests and highlight the kings of Judah since the priests lived in Judah under the authority of the kings of Judah. The Chronicles of the Kings were probably written by Ezra after the exile was over and they were under Persian rule. It starts with Judah’s spiritual heritage beginning with Adam. Notice that Cain is not mentioned since he was not from the seed of Adam but from Lucifer. Seth was the replacement of Abel who gave the perfect sacrifice just like the Body of Christ replaced Christ (became his presence on the earth…Christ in us). A better way of saying that is that we took up where Christ left off just as Seth took up where Abel left off. If you take the names Adam to Noah and look up their meanings you will get this: Jesus set man as the praise of God on the earth. A deceiver shot the dart (lie) that initiated death - where they would rest. His sons began a name of tumult that would expand on the earth thus perpetuating the cycle of sin. We see that Ham which means “tumult” had a son named Cush which means “black”. His son was Nimrod which means “we will rebel”. He became a champion of evil and hunted men for sport. From this line came the Philistines who were enemies of the Israelites. Man was once again on a collision course to hell until God chose Abram and built up a family line through him. He redeemed them through circumcision. Even Abraham missed God’s perfect will and had Ishmael but he was not the promised son. Abraham repented and God blessed he and Sarah with Isaac. Isaac had Jacob, who had the twelve tribes of Israel and through Abraham’s seed, the whole earth is blessed. Ishmael’s line is important because he carries the seed of Abraham. After the sons of Israel were named the account begins with the line of Judah since that line will be the line of salvation. It started out pretty shakily with God killing Judah’s first two sons because they were so evil. Tamar had to trick her father-in-law into doing the right thing and had Perez and Zerah. Perez’s line carried the seed of Christ. His twin brother, Zerah, produced Achan who was killed when he took plunder from the battle of Jericho. From Perez’s line came Salmon, who had Boaz who with Ruth would have Obed. Obed had Jesse who had David. Jessie had other sons and daughters and one of his daughters named Abigail married an Ishmaelite and had a son named Amasa. Amasa would become David’s commander of his army instead of Joab. Joab would kill Amasa out of jealousy. In Acts, God appeared to Paul and told him that he was to be his witness to Rome like he was to Jerusalem. That had to be not so good news since there were men in Jerusalem who had bound themselves with an oath not to drink or eat until they had killed Paul. Paul’s nephew heard of the plan and told the Roman officers. The Roman commander ordered 470 trained soldiers to sneak Paul out of the city at night and take him safely to Governor Felix. He sent a letter with the soldiers who took Paul. It explained Paul’s dilemma and defended Paul’s innocence. They got Paul safely to Caesarea where his case would be heard when his accusers arrived. Don’t you know they were surprised to see that Paul had made it safely there! Lord, I love how you outsmart your enemies. We have nothing to fear against Satan because he has no power over you. Thank you for giving us salvation through Abraham.