Memorial Day and the Genealogy of Jesus

Hi, I'm Peter Rosenberger, and I hope you've been enjoying our podcast. I want to do a special bonus thing for today. Today's Memorial Day 2021. And you know, a lot of countries do honor their fallen soldiers.

I think in America, we do something rather extraordinary. It started in 1868 for us as a country, and it's come to symbolize a lot of different things. Some people think mistakenly that it's for all veterans, but it's not, it's for the fallen. Soldiers, people who never took off the uniform. And so for some, they think it's the unofficial beginning of summer.

And I suppose all those things kind of meld into it. But the core of it is to recognize those who never removed the uniform and died in the service of this country. And as I thought about that a lot, I was actually reading in Matthew one, and I found something where scripture speaks to that very thing of honoring those who fell while we're in the uniform of their country while serving in battle. And it was in a most unusual place in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one. And I'm going to read that for a minute because you've probably all read this and like me have probably just kind of slid right past it, but it says Matthew one, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Verse two, Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, which is a whole different subject because the line came from Judah, but they wanted to throw in.

And it went to Perez and Zerah, but Tamar's story, if you get a chance to read that in Genesis, it's a fascinating story. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Menedab, Menedab the father of Nahshon, are your eyes spinning just yet? And Nahshon the father of Salmon, I think you pronounce that Salmon even though it's spelled like Salmon, but I think you pronounce it Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. Now we're getting to somebody that we are very familiar with, King David. Now look here, David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah.

And then it goes on and lists Solomon and Rehoboam and so forth. But isn't it odd that in the most important genealogy in scripture, that of Jesus, that Uriah the Hittite was mentioned. Now for those who don't know the story, what happened was that David saw Uriah's wife, Uriah was off fighting in the battle for David, but David didn't go out to battle. In fact, it said in the spring when the kings went out to war, David stayed home and he was just hanging out and he saw Uriah's wife and she was bathing on a rooftop and he summoned her and committed adultery with her and sent her back home. Well, then she sent him a note says I'm pregnant and then he called Uriah home from the battle. Uriah came home and he wanted Uriah to basically get drunk, go in there, sleep with his wife so that they would think the baby was Uriah's. Uriah didn't do that.

He slept on the doorstep. He wouldn't do that. He was an honorable soldier. And then David got desperate and told his generals that when the heat of the battle is strong, pull back and leave Uriah exposed and they did. And Uriah died while fighting a battle for his king and for his country. He was serving honorably, but his king was not.

The king made a very wicked decision and it would come back to haunt him and many more others, but Uriah paid for it with a heavy price. He was a honorable soldier who died in the service of his country. We have a lot of honorable soldiers in the history of our country who died in the service of our country, oftentimes doing things that maybe politically we feel like we're mistakes or maybe things that were not in the best interest.

It happened. We've had leaders that have not been so honorable in our country. I think we all know that. But God felt it important enough to put it in the genealogy of Jesus to recognize this man's service. And I thought on this Memorial Day, I thought, you know, that's important to God and how many more lives are important to God as well, that he sees these things, things that maybe seemed obscure to put in there.

We've all read through that genealogy. Maybe it wasn't as important to us as we thought other parts of scripture were. But it just goes to reflect again the character of God and what he thinks is important. And he thought it was important to remember Uriah, a man who served honorably and paid the ultimate price of a soldier. Today we think about a lot of those families who have grieved, who have who have wept bitter tears. And I would suggest to you that we have a God who sees those tears and recognizes how important that is. And there are things in all of our lives that we may think that we've been treated unfairly or unjustly. But he is a God of justice and he does not forget these things.

He does not slumber or sleep. And he is acquainted with grief and sorrow. And we we have the privilege of mirroring that and reflecting that by grieving with those who grieve and mourning with those who mourn, knowing that our God does not forget. It struck me on Memorial Day and I felt like it might be meaningful to you all.

And so I hope that this has been and we'll see you on our other podcast and the radio show and so forth. And thank you for being a part of this. You know, caregivers come in many different shapes and sizes and backgrounds and so forth. We all have different journeys that we have, but we grieve. We grieve and we grieve extensively. God sees that.

And I find great comfort in that. So thanks so much. There's more at HopeForTheCaregiver.com.

Hope For The Caregiver. In fact, we just did a whole spot on grieving and mourning. It's called What Do You Even Say? And I thought that might be it was a very interesting interview I did with a friend of mine who's a Messianic rabbi. And I thought you might find it meaningful.

I did. I learned a lot through it. And I think that is part of our journey as caregivers is learn to grieve and mourn in a healthier manner. And knowing that we have a God who who understands that the savior who gets that is very meaningful to me. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.