Do you remember the first time you decided you were going to read the Bible? You most likely started at Genesis chapter one. Soon you had breezed through the creation story and the introduction of sin and death. You read about Cain and Abel and wondered where Cain got his wife after he was forced to leave home. But then you hit the really hard stuff. You got to Genesis five and suddenly you got bogged down in the genealogies. “Enosh begat Kenan. After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters.” Only historians could stay awake with this material.
There are many genealogies in the Bible and scholars have learned they are far from complete. Only really important people got their name recorded. If it says Sam begat Bill it does not necessarily mean Bill was Sam’s son. It could be that Bill was Sam’s great grandson and his dad and granddad never distinguished themselves thus their names were left out.
It must be horrible in life to have your name left off a list because you were not important, because you did not make a difference. We all want our lives to count. We want to make a difference. And the truth is we all do make a difference. The world is not the same because we have been here. It is just that we might never know what it was we did. Was it a good difference or a bad difference? Romans 8:28 promises that God will make your difference a good one. You can be sure.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 27, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574