And we might read passages like John 1:16-17 and believe it helps underline this thinking:

But I want to suggest to us that our God, as revealed in the old covenant, is full of grace, mercy and love. Of course, Jesus is the greatest expression of God’s love and grace, the exact representation. He is grace and love incarnate. But our God has always been a God full of ferocious chesed and agape from the beginning. And He has always been a just God as well, though I would argue His justice is about making things right, which becomes good news for believers, but bad news for non-believers.

And so, in Genesis 3, maybe the great black mark for humanity, where our first parents ruined it for us all, I still believe we can find great expressions of God’s grace even in the midst of pronouncements of judgment.

Let me suggest 6 points of grace:

1) The seed promise of the gospel (Gen 3:15). Here we find what theologians call the protoevangelium, or the first gospel. The promise that a seed would come from the woman to crush the serpent, the great enemy of God and His people.

2) Woman would still bear children (Gen 3:15-16). This was important on 2 accounts. First, this would allow for the original Great Commission of Gen 1:28 to continue, in that they could continue to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Secondly, we are told that the seed was going to come from the woman, and so she needed to continue to be able to bear children to bring about this all-important seed.

3) Man would still work (Gen 3:17-19). Some might imagine that work was part of the curse. But it was not. Work is good and part of God’s good purposes from the beginning. Rather, the curse was that man would now work by the sweat of his brow.

4) Food would still be brought from the ground (Gen 3:18-19). Just as God could have shut up the womb, so could He have shut up the ground from producing food. But God graciously allowed for the provision of daily bread.

5) Naming of his wife (Gen 3:20). After the Fall, Adam names his wife Eve, meaning ‘life’ or ‘living’. Now, it could be argued that this was Adam’s action, not God’s. But something must be going on in the account here. Adam could have responded wrongly, negatively or even worse – like how his son, Cain, would react in Gen 4. But with God’s grace evidently present within the whole account, here we have an extension of that grace as Adam names his wife Living.

6) God’s provision of skins (Gen 3:21). In the loss of innocence, these skins were given to cover the nakedness of our first parents. And, of course, here was the first blood spilt, a picture of the blood-spilling event of the cross, the ultimate expression of God’s love and grace.

So I hope you can see a little bit of the generous grace of our God, even at the worst point of humanity. Covenant had been broken, self-worshipping independence had come in, and all seemed lost. But, being the Father that He is, God steps in with both judgment and mercy, discipline and grace, justice and love. And of course, these characteristics meet in Christ at the cross.

I am looking forward to this visit on several fronts.

1. It’s been a while since I was last in Zambia. It’s actually been 4 and a half years since my last visit, which is a bit crazy to think since I had been travelling down to Zambia once per year from 2004-2007. But coming into a transitionary situation like our church in Belgium, I needed to stay focused on the main task at hand. So it will be good to again walk the land, greet the people, teach and preach, and sip some Mosi beer down in the evening.

2. I will be teaching. In the past, my hand was a bit more in the arena of teaching at the college-university level. But I have now moved more into practical-pastoral leadership within a local church context. Both are good, both stir me in ministry. But at times, I do miss teaching. So here I am able to teach for a full week, about 6 to 7 hours per day. The topic will be centred around Genesis & Bible Themes - giving an introduction to the Bible as seen through Genesis, and then launching into some themes that run through the whole of Scripture. I’ve not yet taught this course, so it should be refreshing to approach something new.

3. I am also introducing a special project to the college, one of internet tablet training (think iPad, but it’s a less expensive Android tablet). The world is moving more and more towards electronic training resources. Amazon now sells more books via the Kindle and Kindle app than paper copies. So here is a resource for books, Bible translations, internet, email, social networking, Bible software, teaching notes, audio lectures and more. It does not replace personal teaching and training. But rather comes as supplementary. Currently, this is a kind of ‘tester’ stage, as I have raised money for 5 tablets thus far to be given out to a small group of pastors. If all goes well, if we receive positive feedback from the pastors in a few month’s time, then we can consider raising more funds to supply all pastor-students in the future. And not just in Zambia, but in varying other places around the world.

My prayer is for my family while I am away, as my amazing wife cares for our 2 boys. And that my heart be stirred and enriched in God, while seeing fruit borne during this time in Zambia.

Verse 18.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about…

Not a bad place to start. But it’s not the beginning of the Christmas story, at least from Matthew’s perspective.

For Matthew, a Jew also writing to Jews, what we call the ‘Christmas story’ actually begins in vs1.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah…

Well, it must begin there if he started off his account that way.

It’s just that we aren’t too sure what to do with all those names, much less pronounce some of them.

You see, Matthew is telling a story. One that doesn’t just begin in vs18, though that is an exciting part of the story. It’s one that begins in vs1, connecting the story of God’s Messiah through to the old Hebrew story in what we call the Old Testament.

It’s a brief summary of the story in vs1-17, and maybe that is one factor of giving a genealogy. But a story, though briefly, is being told.

I remember some 7 or 8 years ago reading a book entitled, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, authored by Old Testament scholar, Chris Wright. The book was a good introductory resource and, so, I had my students read it when I taught Old Testament studies.

But his whole opening point was that the story of Jesus began in Matt 1:1, not Matt 1:18. For Jesus, the stories of the Old Testament were his stories, the stories his parents told him at bedtime. The creation and the flood and the awesome giving of God’s torah and the battles and the songs and the promises and the prophetic imagery.

Jesus didn’t just plop out of heaven one day with no story surrounding him. He stepped into an already-playing drama that God had been outworking from the creation, from Abraham, from Moses, from David, from Isaiah, and on and on. That baby we read about in the Gospels came at just the right time in the midst of the grand story.

Now, for many, when we read the names of Matt 1:1-17, we ask - Who is Amminadab or Nahshon? Who are these blokes?

I ask the same questions about some of the names. What is funny is that this genealogy is rather simple compared to the first 9 chapters of 1 Chronicles!

But Jesus has stepped in to a story that God had been telling for millenia, and still is telling today. And actually, Jesus is the whole climax and central point to the story God is outworking. In Matthew’s opening words, we don’t know some of the names, though most we can go back and get a good idea of who they are in the Old Testament. But, because we don’t know a portion of the names, it is easy to lose interest. Who cares about Abihud and Eliakim?!

Yet, let’s think about our story. Or any story, for that matter. Names mean something. They are pointers to something grand taking place. If I say the names Aragorn and Frodo, you would immediately imagine certain settings, certain battles, other certain characters, and a host of distinct things. The same if I said Harry and Hermione. Or Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy.

Now, in talking of story or other stories that aren’t ‘real’ (i.e. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia), I am not suggesting the Jesus story in the Gospels is not real. I’m simply saying that story is important - whether factual-historical or literary, or a bit of both.

And within each story, there are main elements found in all. And we see these in the story God is telling – a hero, an enemy, an enemy kingdom, a people longing to be delivered by the hero, etc. And so, I believe in every story, even if just a little, there is the story of God being told. Whether it is ‘Christian’ in the Chronicles of Narnia or not-so-Christian in Gladiator.

And, so, we can dive into Matthew’s story, the one that begins in 1:1, because that points to the story that’s already been taking place, the grand narrative of God that will be completed in His Son. We know the ending of the story already, what happens, and so maybe we miss a bit of the glory of the story. But if we approach it as ultimately a story, and not a how-to instruction manual, we might catch something afresh. It’s the most creative, imaginative and stirring story that’s taken place. If we don’t think so, we have possibly failed to understand the story and we also might not be telling the story properly.

This is the genealogy [or story] of Jesus the Messiah……

Why?

Mainly because there were two pastors of megachurches, one leader from a church of 3000 and one leader from a church of 7000, this being quite different from the normal church context of Europe and the UK. In a European context, a healthy church would consist of anywhere from 50-75 adults, while a larger church would consist of 100+ adults. Quite a different scene than what is at times presented on ‘Christian television’ and other marketable places.

It’s not as if one cannot learn from such leaders of large churches. I used to be much more closed to that idea (such as during my days in the UK). I have never really been that excited about megachurches and church growth methods (in the numbers sense, though I love the discipleship sense). But in my own personal maturity, I am humbly realising I can learn from all types of people. And for that I am grateful.

Still, what I struggled with most in those leadership training sessions was how everything was approached from a more ‘business’ perspective while seeing the pastor (shepherd) as more of a CEO overseeing an organisation rather than a shepherd personably caring for sheep.

One greatly disturbing thing was that, as the sessions began that day, the pastor launched his first teaching on leadership from the book of Judges of all places. Yes, there are things to learn right across the whole of Scripture, including Judges. But typically you would approach Judges as a book on how not to do certain things (and that is not how this was tackled). Therefore, we could at least begin with Joshua, right?

You see, what I have always been gripped with and what has been imparted to me is that, when we talk about leadership (or just about anything within our Christian faith), the best place to start is with Jesus. I know that sounds so simple, like the Sunday school answer – Jesus. But I believe he is the best place to start on just about every single matter, if not all matters.

And, so, with leadership, with shepherding, we need to begin with Jesus. It’s just that simple, that easy, that obvious. Not with Judges, not even Joshua, but with Jesus, for he told us he is the good shepherd (John 10).

So, if we are going to understand leadership, at least as God meant leadership and shepherding, there is no doubt we can learn from all sorts of perspectives, since God is Lord over all. But, as Christ’s under-shepherds, as leaders of the flock, I believe it always best to start by looking at the life of Jesus as to what it means to be a leader and shepherd of God’s people. We need that to settle deep in our hearts or I believe we will miss something important.