Category: Devotions

Who is Shealtiel?

 

Luke 3:27 “the son of Shealtiel”

 

Do you carry appreciation? Not from people but for people, do you appreciate them?

 

The name means “I have asked of God” in Hebrew.

Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel

 

The Hebrew actually means “I asked El (for this child)”. Zerubbabel is an answer to Shealtiel’s prayer to God (El) for a child.

 

The final element of his name is El, which was the prominent Canaanite god but whose name became applied to the God of Israel, for example, Elohim which simply means God.

 

Maybe the father of Shealtiel named him so because he had a change of heart, a change of worship from that of a god (el) to God. More of that tomorrow.

 

How would it be for you if you realised you are an answer to someone’s prayer?

Can you imagine?

Perhaps you are.

How would you live if you knew that people really appreciated your life, not only for what you have done but who you are?

Shealtiel spent his whole life being reminded every day he was the outcome of a request to God for his life.

Do you have someone who appreciates you that much?

May be you can begin to list names: your parents, grandparents even, that close friend who has always been there and has prayed for you through it all, your spouse, your Church leader, the list can go on. But you have names of people who either prayed for your life or prayed for you to live in this life. Thank them today.

 

 

Who is Zerubbabel?

Luke 3: 27 “the son of Zerubbabel”

The name means ‘offspring of Babylon’. He was the governor of Jerusalem having returned with the people of God from exile.

Joshua was the high priest serving alongside Zerubbabel.

On arriving back to Jerusalem he and Joshua set up the altar and laid the foundation of the Temple.

He faced much opposition and the work was soon stopped. It looked like a huge mountain to move to get the permission to continue and then the people motivated to build again.

God raised up the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to move His people back into action. They brought messages alongside and in support of Zerubbabel.

He completed the work of the new Temple within 4 years and it was dedicated.

The message that all of us remember the most is this:

Zechariah 4: 6-7 This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. ‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of “Grace, grace to it.”

So …

1. It doesn’t matter if you are the offspring of a past captivity you can rise to become the leader of people.
2. Whatever you do in life first build an altar of worship.
3. Doing the work of God means you will face opposition but compared to the Spirit it is nothing.
4. God will raise the prophetic voice to help you.
5. You will complete what He has called you to do.

Who is Rhesa?

Luke 3: 27 “the son of Rhesa”

1 Chronicles 3 tells us that Zerubbabel had 1 daughter and 7 sons and the firstborn son was Meshullam. The name Rhesa means ‘prince’ or ‘head’ and it is highly probably this title was given to Meshullam as the representative of the Jews in captivity.

So here is someone in the ancestry of Jesus who isn’t named except for his title. That has to have a degree of importance about it. I wonder if he could cope with that. Give someone a title and you soon find out what they are really like. But I’m not against them.

Titles can bring confidence in those who are needing help from that person. It means that person has credibility.

Titles bring respect, a recognition that the one with the title is in a more knowledgeable position that the one coming to see them.

Titles can release the person to serve better because it gives the authority perhaps that is needed.

On the other hand …

Titles are all people have left when their ministry/office/work is fading.

I think in my culture we should leave the titles to Jesus:

“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” Rev. 17:14

 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:9-11

In some places we have de-titled the One to no more than a friend, a mate and at the same time held on to our own titles. Someone gave me his business card once and it took me a few minutes to finish reading the titles he had given himself which were printed all around the sides of the card.

 

My name is Paul, it means small.

Who is Joanan?

Luke 3: 27 “the son of Joanan”

He was the grandson of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah who laid the foundation of the second Temple. During the time of trying to motivate the people, an angel spoke to him, “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” (Zechariah 4:7)

The name of Joanan means “Yahweh has been gracious.”

Whenever Joanan was called or used his name ‘Grace’ was shouted! Whenever he saw people going into the Temple he knew it was because of Grace.

Grace attaches itself to who we are and our identity. We become gracious. We sow graciously, reap in grace, move in grace and give with grace. In Acts 4: 33 it says “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”

All of your life and achievement, all that you own or have become, it’s not yours by entitlement, God has graced it to you for others.

If you really want to gauge your love for God then look at your love for people.

Jesus did not spend time with the sinners who may have stopped reading their Bible that morning. But he spent time with people society called sinners.

When we get to heaven we will be standing with countless people dressed in white robes according to the Revelation. Who will these people be? Will it be those who have ticked all the right boxes of Christianity?

The people who knew all there was to know?

Or do you not think there will be the prostitute who found herself in this situation by deception and lies; the sexually abused boy who is now selling his body; the addict; those in debt; those scorned and shamed; how did they get here?

I was welcomed into a Church recently where the person at the door made a sarcastic remark about gays not being welcome. I was appalled. It made me sick.

I challenged the person later and what shocked me the most was that there was no hint of grace.

I want to shout from the rooftops over every Church in the UK, “Where is grace? Show me grace!”

The key to revival is grace.

There is no Church without grace.

Joanan and his grandfather would come today and point the church outwards to a needy broken and sinful world and say the kingdom of God still needs building.

How will this mountain be removed?

By means of strategic strength, might, energy, power?

But by grace!

Joanan! Grace! Grace! Grace!

Who is Joda?

Luke 3: 26 “the son of Joda”

This name along with his grandson Semein is unique in this ancestry of Jesus. There isn’t any similar names nor is there any definition and neither is he listed anywhere else in the Old Testament.

There isn’t anyone like him.

And there isn’t anyone like you also!

I have just had a few days rest beside the sea. Yesterday the sea battered the sea walls shooting huge waves into the air. This powerful energy was attractive but it can also of course be devastating, which breaks into pieces anything that stands in its way.

What do you fear? Is it the sea?
Are you being knocked about? Are the attacks coming like wave after wave crashing in on you? Is your circumstance speaking louder than you can think?

But there was something else that I walked on in the last few days that is as powerful and even more so.

Genesis 22: 17 “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” This was the promise to Abraham.

A recent newspaper article stated: “Viewed at a magnification of over 250 times real life, tiny grains of sand are shown to be delicate, colourful structures as unique as snowflakes. When seen well beyond the limits of human eyesight, the miniature particles are exposed as fragments of crystals, spiral fragments of shells and crumbs of volcanic rock.”

God’s promise to Abraham is that his descendants (that is Joda, you and me) would be colourful structures as unique as snowflakes.

There is no one like you! You are unique, Joda!

 

Who is Josek?

Luke 3: 26 “the son of Josek” (or Josech)

So a quick delve into the books reveals that no one can agree what the name means. Actually they all do agree that Josek is an uncertain derivation of something else, though the Revised Version goes for it and uses the name Joseph. Google will keep asking you ‘are you sure? Don’t you mean Joseph when you type Josek?’ So whether it is spelt Josek or Josech it seems an uncertainty clouds his name.

But his name speaks to us today doesn’t it?

Many can find themselves uncertain from all they knew, from people they loved and their purpose for life. Uncertain about their past and future whilst trapped in the grip of an enemy. Uncertain about who they are and where they fit into this life.

The things you face today and the uncertainty of your life may have chased you into a place where you are now surrounded by enemies of fear, doubt and of pain.

Those around you may not know how things will become certain for you or how you will get free from this enemy plaguing your life.

But Josek/Josech in all of the uncertainty sits in the line of Jesus. The voices around you and within you may sound an uncertain message and yet God is for you and with you and the One who saw your beginning will make a way to the end.

Even if in years to come people come across your name and don’t understand who you were, they may say it all seems uncertain. But you were here, you made a mark on the earth, you played a part in God’s story here. You were meant to be.

So in the uncertainty of tomorrow perhaps, in the uncertainty from others perhaps, where there seems to be little meaning, be certain of one thing, you are here, you are meant to be, you can play a role that only you can fulfil, you can serve a living God, you can impact your day, you can worship the Alpha and Omega and you can love others. Now that is certain.

Who is Semein?

Luke 3: 26 “the son of Semein”

In brief it means to hear or obey.

The mark of discipleship are these 2 traits. Hearing and obeying.

Autobiography in 5 short chapters by Portia Nelson

Chapter 1: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the pavement. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the pavement. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe I am in the same place, but it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the pavement. I see it is there. I still fall in. It’s a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the pavement. I walk around it.

Chapter 5: I walk down another street.

 

In Hebrews 5 the writer tells us that Jesus struggled in prayer and cried out with tears to the One who could save him from death. In this place of prayer where he was heard but where he also heard he learnt obedience. The writer more than anyone else is the one who declares time and again that Jesus is perfect. So what is learnt obedience? It is tested obedience. Every response to every test was perfection.

 

It isn’t until you sit with someone starting out in ministry with all their youthful energy and passion to change the world that you realise hearing and obeying is something that isn’t high on the agenda. It is to be heard and to be obeyed which is the loudest voice. Similarly, it isn’t until you stand with someone at the end of their ministry, retired even, (though in some places I find that strangely the word ‘retired’ has become slanderous) that you realise hearing and obeying has been replaced by many experiences often hurtful ones and that the spiritual deaf aid went in ages ago and the self-preservation wall was erected soon after.

 

Hearing and obeying is a journey of discipleship till we die isn’t it?

If it was good enough for Jesus then surely …?!

 

Today be Semein. Hear through opening your eyes, slowing your life down, in prayer, meditation of the Bible, reading this blog (!), listening to others. Some have already decided they will not hear through certain perfectly good channels. Why? Why block out what could be God speaking?

Obey through change, through the difficult day of testing, it may not be the devil having a go, it may just be the testing and perfecting of your obedience by God. So don’t run ahead thinking that hearing and obeying doesn’t apply and it is too slow a process for you and don’t become embittered by your life like one man who recently boasted, “No man can take me on, I win every argument.”

 

Hear or obey. Let’s do both.

Mattathias, again?!

Luke 3: 26 “the son of Mattathias”

In the UK we have a TV show called ‘Who do you think you are?’ where celebrities trace their ancestral roots. It is fascinating to watch them discover where they came from, who they were connected to. Some of them are shocked they came from royalty and others are equally stunned to realise they have a villain in their family!

Patsy Kensit, the ‘Eastenders’ actress knew that her late father was a villain who was deeply involved in the Krays’ criminal empire in 1960s London. But she discovered that her grandfather was also a prolific criminal – while another ancestor had been a vicar who dedicated his life to helping the urban poor.

 

Jeremy Irons learned that family folklore about a rebellious great-great-grandfather who rode to Westminster on a donkey to present a petition was true. Thomas Irons was one of London’s first ‘Peelers’, but was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police for deserting his post and being drunk. He helped deliver the Chartist petition, demanding a universal franchise, to Parliament in 1848. After the peaceful campaign failed, he was arrested with 13 others, accused of planning a militant insurrection and sentenced to 18 months in Newgate prison.

 

Why am I spending so much time thinking through Luke’s ancestry of Jesus? Especially when we have little references to many of the names. Why am I thinking again about another Mattathias? Here is the reason why:

Mattathias was a human being, a real person, who lived on this earth.

He was the 6^th line generation down from his namesake.

This Mattathias was the 14^th line generation down from Jesus according to Luke’s list.

Jesus and Mattathias are connected in a human story.

Jesus was really human, he didn’t just appear to be like us. (This was a heresy at the time of Theophilus who Luke was writing to. Luke was saying ‘Theophilus do not listen to the Docetics’).

Jesus had a Jewish heritage and Christianity can trace its lineage to Judaism. (This was also a heresy at the time and again Luke writes to Theophilus, ‘Don’t listen to those Gnostics’)

Jesus, fully human, a Jewish man, veiled in our flesh, knows what we are going through today, he has been in our place. We never pray to someone who doesn’t know how we feel.

Mattathias as we have already seen means ‘gift from God’ came before Jesus who truly was the gift from God. For God so loved the world that He gave …

Who is Maath?

 

Luke 3: 26 “the son of Maath”

Maath was the 7^th generation after Zerubbabel who had led the people from Babylonian exile and the 12^th generation before Joseph. There is plenty in the Bible about Zerubbabel, he achieved so much. There is plenty in the Bible about Joseph! But for Maath, nothing. He is what his name means, “to be or become small.”

 

Many are on a mission today. A mission of wanting to become someone, trying to make a name for themselves.

Ever heard something like this being announced? “The greatest, the most amazing, the most influential, decisive, the best anointed, the fabulous, the charismatic, life-changing servant of God is in the house today!”

“It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.” Matthew Henry

 

“No athlete was ever victorious because he did his boasting in advance.” —Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 1, 1940.

 

Joseph Smith boasted that he did more than Jesus to keep a church together.
“God is in the still small voice. In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devil–all corruption. Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet . . . ” (History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 408-409).

 

“Boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of pride.” John Piper

 

Social media has many statuses of ‘humble boasting’. See how many you can spot today!

 

The desire to get attention for how small we are proves we are in fact not small enough.

When you become small, you choose to become hidden, you decide to promote others and you take your name off things so that it looks like you were not there.

Influence is small for it to be influence. The influencer is not seen, only the one that has been influenced. If God exalts you to a higher platform then the battle is how to become small when more people can see you. It is easier to become small when you haven’t ever done anything. Trying to become small after achievement is another thing. The task is to become small with a big God in your life who does big things through small seeds of faith.

Who is Naggai?

Luke 3: 25 “the son of Naggai”

The name means illuminating, brightness and splendour.

Are you like me today, longing for illumination?

Here is my prayer:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, Ephesians 1:18.

Illuminating God, give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of You (Eph 1:17).

Within me lies the potential to know you more. Outside of me lies the potential for a new illumination in my life.

I need to know your ways. I need to know what is from you and what is from man. I need to know the counterfeit. I need discernment.

I desire wisdom in dealing with people. In my listening and in my speaking I need to not fail. I don’t search for wisdom of my mind only, I do need to grow there in my intellect. But this is a wisdom of my spirit that I seek.

There are days when I walk with what seems to be a flickering candle. Today I ask for more than a candle. I ask for divine beams of revelation so that I may know you more in all that I do. Lead me from the shallow end where the deep calls to deep. Let my words become far more significant. Words are just words. Yet words that are illuminated, that come from the place of wisdom and revelation carry so much more weight. I want my spirit, soul, mind and strength to be in my words. I want my words to move people.

Break me so that I no longer love the dark or the candle. Break into me so that the shekinah fills every part of me. I seek no idolatrous God-shaped substitutes. I seek the glory of Yourself that cuts and burns and melts and removes all strange fire within me. I was made for your glory and your glory I desire.

So I draw near to the light, to the illumination, to You.

Amen