The Plan

A few mornings ago, I was reading the genealogy of Jesus when something fascinating jumped out at me. (See Matthew and Luke for the two lists)

Many of us, myself included, don’t really understand or pay much attention to the genealogies scattered throughout the Bible. They are simply boring, and filled with a lot of hard to pronounce names. At best, when we reach a spot with one of these lists, we begin to skim through the names and pray we never have to recite the list aloud.

I had read these two genealogical lists before, and noticed many of their differences. One of the biggest differences is that Matthew looks forward from Abraham while Luke looks backward all the way to God.

But that morning, something new stood out as I read. It had to do with the ‘precision’ of God. Mathew pulls out that there were three groups of 14 generations between Abraham and Jesus, but Luke (while having many more names in his list) also has a special number attached: 77.

Luke doesn’t specifically say it was 77 generations, but if you count the names listed in Luke all the way back to God, we reach 77 generations from God to Jesus.

Two lists, while very different, reach the same conclusion: God is very detailed, and specific. In addition to all the prophecies scattered throughout the Old Testament, we have two records that point to one conclusion: God had a plan from the very beginning.

We can also conclude that if God had Jesus in the plan from the very beginning, He also has a plan for your life. With my limited logical mind, I can also reach the conclusion that if God has still blessed us with the breath of life, then there is still a reason for us being here on earth.

God doesn’t make any mistakes, and while we don’t always understand the reasons for why things happen the way that they do, know that as we blaze forward into 2012, God does have a plan for your life — because you are alive!