Writing for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Matthew Holst has some very helpful tips for one of the most difficult Bible genres for modern readers.
The genealogies in Scripture are so important that it may rightly be said that we cannot fully see the glory of the metanarrative (i.e. the storyline) of the Bible without them.
His 6 tips are:
- Read them.
- Pay attention to every word.
- Pay attention to every missing word.
- Consider how they remind us of life and death.
- Consider how they present to us two seeds.
- Consider how they present to us a faithful, promise-fulfilling, covenant-keeping God.
We get out of genealogies from what time we are willing to put in. If we are prepared to spend the time, do the work and be guided by the Spirit, we will be presented with potted-histories of God’s kindness to man. So we must read the genealogies of Scripture and study them. They, like every other part of Scripture, are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, that you may be made perfect, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16).
