Quite often I get asked why there are such detailed lists of names in Scripture. Not that I claim to know everything about God, but I think He does give us every Word for a reason.
God wants you to know that you matter. Every single person who accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior is an heir with Him.
Families don't leave out an heir. We don't just count the firstborn. I'm sure about that because now Christ is the firstborn. Even if you're the oldest son, you're still second to Christ.
In our humanity, this may not be what you've experienced. It may not be what you've been taught, or what your religion tells you. But God is not concerned with human traditions. When He sent Jesus to be the lamb of God, to die for my sins, and yours, He told us in the Old Testament that it wasn't only firstborn sons that were important.
You may have heard of David, who was the youngest of eight brothers. Of Abraham's sons, Isaac received the inheritance, even though Ishmael was older. Between the brothers Esau and Jacob, Esau was the older son of Isaac, yet Jacob received the blessing.
Even though none of these men were perfect, they had the heart to serve the Lord. This matters more to God than the order they were born.
In the list of Jesus's genealogy in the book of Matthew, there are also several women listed. Tamar tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her and she got pregnant. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth wasn't even a Jew. Solomon's wife had been married before. Mary was a young virgin.
And so, my friends, because God is unchanging and He loves you, He can use you, right where you are. Your name matters to Him, even if you feel dirty, less than, or not enough because you're a woman, or because of a sin against you. He even loves you if the sin that you are remembering was your own, and it's a big one. The reason that He can do that is because when you accept the price that Jesus paid for you, when God looks at you He sees the stamp:
PAID IN FULL.
So even though the lists of names are long and hard to pronounce, they are important. Because God created each person individually. You are not a random accident, even though the world may tell you that. You are God's masterpiece, made in His image, with a purpose right now.
If you've never read through the full Bible, the beginning of the year is a great time to start. And when you get to the lists of names, remember that your name will be in the book that is opened when Jesus comes back, and you'll be super happy that it's there!
Wonderful