Matthew 1:12-17  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.

    So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

    I was born in 1961. My dad was born in 1930. Keeping the same span for generations, if I go back 14 generations, my ancestor was born around 1570! That’s a long time ago! None of my ‘greats’ were thinking about me back then. In today’s usually-skipped-over-passage, we read of 14 generations. Matthew had also included two previous sets of 14 in this gene-alogy of Jesus. God had promised a Messiah and One was coming. But it took so long! I’m sure that for many of them, it seemed that nothing was happening. But, God was working. He was preparing every day for the time He planned. God’s people were waiting. But what else were they doing? They were living their lives, following God. Sometimes better than others. Just trying to live for Him. 

    Then, Jesus was born! He came! The Messiah Who was promised was delivered. He lived His life and wee read about it in the Gospels. As His work on earth was done, He ascended to Heaven. Angels told the disciples that He would be back. (Jesus Himself had told them this, also.) They thought His return would be immediate. But it wasn’t. And so they waited. No one likes to wait! No one likes to, but everyone does. We wait for all sorts of things. But for those who follow Jesus, we wait for Him. 

    His first coming was foretold. They waited a long time. His second coming is foretold and we are still waiting. We have waited such a long time! It’s been 2000 years. Is He ever coming?! It seems like nothing is happening sometimes. It’s so easy to be discouraged or to assume that maybe He’s not coming back. But He came the first time, like we were told. We can trust that He will come again. But we wait. 

    Advent means coming. It is a season of waiting. We commemorate the long waiting for Jesus’ first coming and we look ahead to His second coming. Why is God waiting so long? I don’t know. But I trust Him and I know that He will do what is best. If He doesn’t come today, He has a good reason. He is working. He is preparing every day for the time He has set aside. I don’t like to wait. What should we do in the meantime? We live our lives, following God. We share His message with our world. We are His followers. We are His servants. You might even say we are His slaves! (Peter and Paul did!) We wait. But we wait in the confidence that He always keeps His word. The manger and the empty tomb are proof enough of that!

 

Blessings,

Pastor Russ