Who enjoys reading a biblical genealogy? (Or any genealogy?) I confess, when I come across those chapters that go on laboriously “begetting” one ancient dude after another, almost all with names ridiculously impossible to pronounce, verse afterad nauseumverse, I start to skim, and I whisper a prayer, “Lord, get me to the end of this!”

Obviously, though, succession and lineage were big deals in ancient Israel, as we see in tracing the lineage of Christ from the pages of the Old Testament to the New. But what’s really in an Old Testament genealogy for us?

Let’s take a look at the half-tribe of Manasseh’s men who were numbered in the census of today’s reading. These guys were prolific, their bravery in combat was celebrated, and they were even known asfamous! But what became of them, for all of their heroism, valor, and manliness? The record of Chronicles reveals that because they were “unfaithful to the God of their ancestors” and gave themselves over to the worship of foreign gods, they were taken into exile by the king of Assyria. In the end, their careers were forgotten, their heroic reputations counted for naught, and their legacy was a moral embarrassment.

We remember in this excerpt from a forgotten genealogy that no matter how impressive our resume looks by earthly standards, God in the end measures and rewards our worth as men and women first of all by the measure of our response to his calling, and then by our character and the consistency of the witness our lives produce.

So my aim in life, then, should be that when my name appears in some future volume ofgenealogy.com, my descendants will be proud to read, “David was faithful to the God of his ancestors, both in practice and in worship.”

If such is the measure of our lives, then we are certain that we will not be exiles, separated from God’s blessing and presence. Furthermore, and best of all, our children and grandchildren will inherit the blessing of a truly life-giving legacy, a legacy that gives life because it points to the giver of Life.