Recently, I was reading the book of Genesis and saw how God protected the Messianic lineage that would result in the birth of Jesus Christ some 42 generations after Abraham.
Interestingly, I observed that the Seed (of Christ) passed through many common folk, some of whom have questionable character issues and would have never passed a selection committee of sorts. Very much like Jesus’ selection of His disciples, we need to realise that it is never about us, and all about Him.
Judah, Jacob’s eldest son, for example, was abdicating his duty to contribute his seed to Tamar, his late son’s wife (it was a cultural practice then). Perhaps unbeknownst to Judah, that responsibility was critical in ensuring that God’s promise to his great-grandfather Abraham would be fulfilled.
Yet despite Judah’s weakness, God saw to it that Tamar had her rights to her own child, and Abraham/Isaac/Jacob, their promise. Without that fulfilment, Jesus would not have been born 42 generations later.
In our limited ability to fully comprehend circumstances, the best that we can do is to observe patterns to learn from them. God’s big picture game plan is beyond any one person and it endures through generations.
It behooves us therefore to find out what our role is in seeing His plan and purpose come to past during our generation and lifetime.