Nehemiah saw God’s activity in all areas of his life. He even attributed God’s movement to recording the genealogies of the returned exiles. He says, “Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, officials, and people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the genealogy book of those who came up at the first…” The rest of the chapter records the lists of the “sons” of those who “belong” to the original immigrants and their hometowns.
I’ve become interested in my genealogy as I’ve grown older. But I can only trace my father’s side. My mother was adopted and never knew her father. Therefore, I never knew my grandfather on her side. I’ve tried several things but can’t find out who he was. Further, I can only trace my father’s side back a few generations because they came from Denmark and didn’t maintain their genealogies. There were times when that bothered me, and I know it broke my mother’s heart when she learned she was adopted and never knew her birth father. There is a sense of identity in our heritage.
The scriptures teach us that when we come to faith in Jesus, we “belong” to Him, and our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Although we may have lost our original heritage, we’ve inherited a new one. Maybe that’s another reason why coming to faith in Jesus in a truly biblical sense is referred to as being “born again.”
There’s a fascinating difference between the genealogies of Genesis and the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. The constant refrain in Genesis 10 is “and he died…” Death is never mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy, even though the physical men and women did die. But it suggests that we are in Adam’s genealogy of death by our sinful nature, but by our spiritual “new birth,” we appear in Christ’s living register of the redeemed. Maybe you’ve heard the story of the man whose name appeared in the obituaries by mistake. He complained to the newspaper, “This is terrible! How could you do such a thing??” The editor apologized and said, “Cheer up, I’ll put your name in the birth column tomorrow and give you a fresh start!?” That’s what happens when we find new life in Christ. Now I know who I am!