We are all connected to a single point of creation. Everyone we will ever meet in our lives, on this planet is related to us if we had the resources to trace our family linage back far enough. Embracing this fact might help us to obey the Master’s Great Command to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength and love one another. Only then might we be able to live without laws, rules, or regulations.
If we could ever let this truth of creation sink in we might wake up each day ready to love one another, help one another and live our lives in a less selfish way. The realization that all men, regardless of skin color and ethnicity, are part of one family tree that has been growing and expanding since our creation, would birth a new paradigm ushering the church into the Kingdom of God!
As I contemplated my epiphany, it dawned on me what God’s purpose was for inspiring men to write down all the books contained in the bible. First off, I would agree with many that the bible is indeed a love letter from God, to His creation, which had its origin outside of time and space.
The books contained in the bible record world history from the point of view of the nation of Israel. Being firmly anchored at the mountain top of literature the New Testament books record the birth of the Redeemer of the World, the Messiah, Jesus Christ as well as His death, resurrection, birth of the church and future events. The pages of the bible also contain poetry, wisdom and parables that guide us in the correct way to live our lives.
The building blocks of all life are uniquely contained in the proteins and amino acids making up every living cell in our bodies. Carefully, fearfully and wonderfully the DNA in our cells coordinate cellular mechanisms and activities that continue to confound scientists and boggle our imaginations. Contained in these vast storehouses of information are organic records that point to a singularity in creation. We are all indeed related to one another, brothers and sisters who have forgotten from where we came and where we are going.
I have come to realize that the bible is clearly the Messianic family tree. It carefully and quite magnificently records a single family line that leads to hope, a future and a solution. It records from the first man, Adam, a very select family line, a thread, that weaves a colorful tapestry of redemption.
The pages of the bible carefully record the names of this family to the point where Noah builds the ark. The meanings of this family’s Hebrew names, when strung together in their birth order, provide an outline for God’s plan of redemption.
After the destruction of the world, through a worldwide flood, only eight people disembark the ark and stand on dry land: they were Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives. Through Noah, Ham, Shem and Japheth the entire new world would be populated. However, God’s plan to remove the curse levied in the Garden of Eden would only be fulfilled through the family line of Noah’s son Shem. As we trace Shem’s family line through the Patriarchs we eventually arrive at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The bible narrows the Messianic line of our redeemer even further as it traces the prophesized Messiah through one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob’s twelve sons would be the foundation for the nation of Israel. However, it would only be through the family line of Jacob’s son Judah that both Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, would be born.
Keep in mind that all of these histories, describing this one, select family line were written and recorded hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The family line from Judah, also includes several distant grandmothers of Jesus, Ruth and Rehab, recorded in the books of Ruth and Joshua, respectively.
If that was not enough to convince any jury of our peers of Devine inspiration, this family line is further delineated through Jesse, a herder of sheep living in the hills of Bethlehem, and his son David, who would one day become king of all Israel. I cannot stress the importance of inspiration here as God’s hand led men to record these facts long before the Messiah’s birth!
The clincher however, is how God articulated Cesar to impose a worldwide census that moved Mary, who was in her last term of pregnancy, and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem where Mary gave birth to Jesus, fulfilling many prophecies concerning the Messiah! We are all wonderfully connected to one another through God’s indescribable purpose!
