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I am using the YouVersion 49 Week Bible Challenge for these devotions. Today’s readings are Luke 3; Genesis 10; 11; 1 Chronicles 1; 2. In today’s readings, do you notice a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, a warning to heed, or an encouragement to rest in? What do you learn about God, about yourself, or about the world? Is there one verse or thought that stands out to you today? Talk to God about it.
Luke 3:7-18
John said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
We have a Bahn-Grimm Family tree hanging in the front entryway of our house. It dates back to the 1400’s, showing the generations down to my great grandparents. My great grandfather was one of 11 children born to Johannes Bahn and Anna-Margarethe born Grimm. Three of my great-grandfather’s siblings died in 1846 and two others in later years. This particular chart was a gift to my uncle who traveled and taught in Germany and other places world-wide. Based on his travels and records we were able, years ago, to visit and be allowed into the Bahn family home in Benshausen, Germany. It was quite a treat to sit in the very house in which our ancestors lived, dating back to the 1600’s.
That is all well and good, but it holds no candle to the genealogies listed in today’s readings. List after list, tracing lineage back to Adam, Noah, Abraham, David and others are given. These things mattered to the people of Jesus’ day. And Luke records this in his genealogy, tracing Jesus’ lineage backwards to “Adam, son of God.” Jesus is the Second Adam (cf. Romans 5:12–21; 1 Corinthians 15:45), and the perfection of all that God had intended Adam and his descendents to have been.
But I notice, also, the warning John the Baptizer makes in the face of the lineage of Jesus: “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
Lineage is one thing. It gives us a sense of who we are. “My great-grandmother survived that. My family overcame great hardship. I come from a long line of political elites. I’m a fifth generation Texas LCMS Lutheran” (I am not such a one). But lineage does not guarantee favor before God. A careful reading of these genealogies reveals not a few scoundrels in the blood line. We seldom hear, “My great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a murderer and adulterer (King David). Or, “My great-great-great-great-great-great-great….got drunk one night, fell asleep naked, and had to be covered by his sons (Noah).
John makes this clear. Our claim to a lineage is one of faith. Those who are of faith are the true sons of Abraham, Paul writes (Galatians 3:7). Genealogies were important to trace the human lineage of the Messiah. He was promised to Eve, tied to the tribe of Judah, the Son of David, and born of a virgin. (cf. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:12-13)
We who believe in Jesus are children of God. By his gracious choice. Honored to be brothers and sisters of Christ. John’s word to us is simple: bring forth the fruits of repentant faith. Love God. Love your neighbor. Thank God for the One who alone is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise. Jesus traces his lineage all the way back to Adam. He is the very Son of God.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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