SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT

Hezron, Ram, Amminidab, Nahshon and Salmon

In our journey through Matthew 1:1-17, we have seen a Messiah King promised, One who would be Son of David and of Abraham. After thorough introduction, we trudged our feet, deliberately and diligently, through the lives the first six names Matthew records in Christ’s earthly lineage: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez and Zerah. We pause now at the outset of another series, this time five names: Hezron, Ram, Amminidab, Nahshon and Salmon. Unlike the first leg of our journey (with great detail attending each life) these names we will encounter today are five to whom little attention is given throughout scripture outside of genealogy.  Regardless, included they are. Don’t be fooled by lack of information, friend, as I was. These lives, seemingly insignificant in our eyes, I know were quite significant in the eyes the One whose lineage they were carrying! And, as we journey, if that be the least we discover, that is fine with me for that lesson in itself is huge. Significant we are because He makes us so! And that, my friend, is what really matters.

Following the study of Judah and his twin sons, Perez and Zerah, we find these names in succession in Matthew’s genealogy: Hezron, son of Perez; Ram, son of Hezron; Amminidab, son of Ram; Nahshon, son of Amminidab; and Salmon, son of Nahshon. There is little information offered on their lives throughout scripture, we can, however, know the period, events, and circumstances relevant to God’s people, the Israelites, during the time in which they lived. Beginning with Abraham’s faith that led him to Canaan, we have sojourned through the lives of few individuals through whom God promised to bless nations. At last study, we found Jacob caravanning the entirety of his family, including Judah, to Egpyt. It is here with pick up His story…

Walking across the pages of Exodus through Deuteronomy, we find that Israel multiplied, emerging initially as prosperous but eventually fell under oppression to the Egyptians. As you know, God raised a deliverer in their midst, Moses, who led through a parted Red Sea straight out of bondage. Israel, wrought with unbelief, however, failed to enter the Promised Land. Regardless, God, yet again, provided, sending manna from heaven. Despite their wanderings in the wilderness, God, through Moses, would give His people His commandments, His law, and His plan for the tabernacle. Following Moses’ death, Joshua would lead Israel across the Jordan into Canaan, the Promised Land.  Yes, through it all, His people would question. They would grumble and complain. They would fail. They would stumble, Moses and Joshua included, but nonetheless, amidst mistake after mistake, just as we have seen through the lives of those we have studied, God would prove faithful in purpose, plan and provision. Red Sea parting ways. Jordan River halting flow. Whose ways are these? They are only His, and they are stamped all across the pages of Israel’s story. Amazingly, His way, His plan would continue to unfold, unraveling strand after strand as time marched forward toward His cross…

Now that we have a bare-boned historical context, let’s dig where we can concerning our list of five! Roll up your sleeves, hike up your pants, steady your resolve. Dig we shall, and blessed we’ll be, as through the genealogies we go...  

In 1 Chronicles, we find our names (Hezron, Ram, Amminidab, Nahshon, and Salmon) in the family line of Judah’s son, Perez. The book itself was written after exiled Jews had returned to rebuild their lives, and interestingly enough, it opened with an entire nine chapters devoted to nothing but genealogy! (Funny, huh? More begats we uncover on this quest to dig…) Winding through the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then fanning out through Jacob’s twelve sons and their families, including Judah, the first nine chapters provided the framework a rebuilding Israel would have needed. It may seem dry to us at first glance, or second or third for that matter, but take comfort, sweet reader in this: God knew each of these lives individually just as He knows yours… 

After the genealogies, in chapter 10, we find Saul defeated and David made king. Why the initial nine chapters of framework? For great purpose: to connect the past with the present to a people who had been captive, demolished, and were left to rebuild. God still cared and His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob not quickly forgotten and never forsaken! David may have been Israel’s greatest King, but God knew His people would need reason to see His hand through entire generations and, more importantly, to realize His grace began long before David’s throne with a promise God intended to keep, the Promise of a Coming-to-Reign-Messiah-King! Once again, full circle we come. Never did I realize this we would discover! In the same way, the book of Matthew opens the New Testament with a bridge right back to the Old! It is through that filter, we see Christ validated as Prophet, as Priest and as King! And that, my friend, is exactly what this journey is all about… Once again, we find Him reason enough!

In addition to 1 Chronicles, we find our succession of names within the family line of Judah’s son, Perez, also in Ruth 4:18-19. Verses they are rather than chapters; regardless, they are important! At first glance, they are ten names leading up to the throne of David. The book itself opens with turmoil, famine and hopelessness. Through four chapters, God winds for us a story of a life changed and filled by one who would redeem. From emptiness to completion, I love that the book closes with this genealogy pointing to Israel’s greatest King. What a powerful picture of a life redeemed, gone from empty to full at the nail-scarred hands of our greatest King! Easy it would be to jump forward to study the life of David, but we will purposefully slow our steps and steady our pace lest we forgo those names through whom God carried out His story. They may be included in a seemingly insignificant list, but they were there just as God knew they would be. And, regardless of what we know of their stories, they were part of a list of names leading up to the throne of Christ! Their line’s end can be found in our text, Matthew 1:1-17. We know Him as Christ and fulfillment of promise!

Even more specifically, we find two of our five names surface in Exodus 6. Again we find a genealogy, this time given of Moses and Aaron as they were, at God’s command, to go before Pharoah and intercede for Israel. In verse 23, we find that Aaron, brother of Moses, married the daughter of Amminidab, Elisheba (sister to Nahshon). Overall, the genealogy showed Moses and Aaron were Israelites, brethren of those they were sent to deliver, but remarkably, deep in the midst of it, we discover a gem we may have missed should we have chosen not to dig. Aaron married Ammindab’s daughter, Elisheba (Elizabeth). Moses married Miriam (Mary)! [Matthew Henry’s Complete Bible Commentary] Sound familiar? Gloriously, it does! For there would one day come another Elizabeth and Mary, through whom would come two children, one the True Deliver and the other to proclaim Him! In so many ways, Moses and Aaron, raised up to deliver and faithful to fulfill, point, yet again, to Christ, who, in a way that only He could, was also raised up, this time to deliver His blood upon a cross.   

In Numbers 7, we likewise discover Nahshon taking part on behalf of the tribe of Judah in the offerings to dedicate the altar. Moses, just finished with the tabernacle, had before him the heads of all twelve Israelite tribes, including Nahshon representing Judah. Later, he is described in 1 Chronicles 2:10 as the “leader of the sons of Judah.” Specifically, in verses 12-18, we find Nahshon, the son of Amminidab of the tribe of Judah, and we see that he is first to present offering. For eleven days following, (one tribe per day) each tribe brought to the altar a sacrifice, exactly the same in form and measure and consisting of items for service within the tabernacle, a burnt offering, a sin offering, and a peace offering.  In the midst of much joy and celebration, they still brought forth a sin offering! I can’t help but think they knew who they were in light of Him! And we, on the other side of His cross, have nothing to bring in order to justify ourselves before Him! How much more then should we live our lives yielded and fully broken before the One who became sin offering for us!

In Joshua chapter 2 through 6, we discover Salmon hidden within a story you well know. Joshua, after just crossing the Jordan River, sent two spies into the Canaanite city Jericho. As you may know, those two spies returned to Joshua safely, but not without the help of a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab. Making arrangements for her protection and that of her family, Joshua fell the city of Jericho, sparing only Rahab and her family. (We will, in depth, view Rahab along with the other four women mentioned in Matthew’s 1:1-17 in a later study. For our purposes today, however, we must put aside her story and focus our attention back to today’s study – Hezron, Ram, Amminidab, Nahshon, and Salmon). What you may not know is that, eventually, Rahab would marry none other than Salmon, an Israelite from the tribe of Judah! Together they would seed Boaz (whom you may know as the husband of Ruth), but further still, their seed would continue through David, the King, and find ultimate end in our study of Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17!

Through genealogies we have once again muddled, this time as before finding more worth than we ever dreamed would be waiting! From five lives we almost deemed at the outset insignificant, we have found lesson after lesson pointing us straight around to His story! So what have I learned? I am not sufficient to determine the worth of another – that is His territory. What’s more, I am not sufficient to determine the worth of myself! Precious one, as I write I am moved. Should you be walking through your days feeling insignificant or simply wondering if anyone cares for your story or even knows your name, wonder no more. You have One who, with eyes watching sparrows and hands clothing lilies, has also eyes for you and hands enclosing you behind, before and above! He catches your every single tear; He knows the number of hairs upon your head and your thoughts before you form them! Who better to keep watch over your story, your name, and your worth? As we close today’s study, know this: you are precious because His loving you makes you so! And that, my friend, is what really matters. Significance? I shout yes!