Exodus 6:23
Following along in Exodus we are in the middle of the genealogy of Moses. We know that Moses’ and Aaron’s parents were Amram their father, and Jochebed was their mother. To make it more confusing in the family tree their mother was Moses’ and Aaron’s great aunt. Yes, Amram married his father’s sister! Since there was no law against marrying your aunt, at this time, the law against marrying a blood relative didn’t come until after they left Egypt.
We know God created Adam, the first man; and Eve, the mother of all the living. And they were to be fruitful and multiply. So, of course children from that family grew up and paired up and had many, many children. It was not a problem because the gene pool had not yet been contaminated so there were no adverse conditions created that now come with inter marriage. No harmful genetic traits had emerged at this point that could have been expressed in the children of closely related partners.
They seemed to appear after the flood of Noah. Solar and cosmic radiation, chemical and viral mutagens, and DNA replication errors, led to the multiplication of genetic disorders. God protected His people by instituting strict laws against incestuous marriages in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus. They actually came when Moses was given the law about 2,500 years after Adam and Eve. Going back to the genealogy of that family we would expect to see Moses’s children listed next, but we don’t.
The first son Moses and Zipporah had was Gershom. At the time of his birth Moses declared, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”. He named him Gershom which means “sojourner there.”
The birth of Gershom seemed to be a sign for Moses that he had done the right thing by fleeing from Egypt. Moses and Zipporah then had a second son and named him Elezer, which means “God is my helper”. He is the son who Zipporah circumcised.
To go back to this episode, we are told, Moses who was about to lead a circumcised people out of Egypt was so busy he forgot to circumcise his own son. That is why Zipporah completed that task and told Moses “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
It could appear that Moses was so busy leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and with the work of the Israelites that he didn’t have time to nurture his own two sons. In fact only one son, Eliezer is mentioned twice in the Torah, or the Pentateuch as we know it., and then he is only mentioned as Moses’ son. We can only guess why those two sons seem to be neglected in this passage of Scripture unlike the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Aaron, it’s easy to assume Moses was much too busy with the Hebrews to pay much attention to his own two sons. The genealogy then continues with the son of Korah, whose name was Eleazar and he had a son named Phinehas.
The reasons for keeping or checking our own family’s genealogy pales in comparison to that of the Hebrews. Family lists and genealogies are a prominent part of the Old Testament books. These genealogies were obviously important to Israel, and the Jews kept meticulous records.
One reason family history was important to Israel is that it proved one’s identity as a Jew, a partaker of the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and part of the people chosen by God. If a person was not a Jew, he or she could not truly be a Jewish citizen and participate in all of the aspects of Jewish life and culture.
Family history was also important due to where one lived. Each of the Jewish tribes had received a land inheritance in Israel. For a person to inherit land
in a particular tribal area required evidence that he was descended from that particular tribe. Genealogies were essential to proving whether a Jewish male could serve in the Levitical priesthood. Priests could only be from the tribe of Levi and descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. If a man could not prove this connection, he was unable to serve as a priest. A family’s history could also show an affiliation with people of significance.
Today, people delight in finding proof that their ancestors are famous people, such as John Adams or Wyatt Earp. In the same way a Jew descended from someone like Moses or Gideon was considered to possess a significant blessing.
Genealogies emphasized the importance of the family unit in Jewish culture. Traditional Jewish culture emphasized marriage between a man and a woman who were responsible for raising children and continuing the legacy of their family with the next generation. The Jews took seriously their responsibility to continue the line that would bring honor to the family name.
Finally, the genealogies of the Jews were important in tracing the line of the Messiah. The Old Testament made it clear that the Messiah would be the Son of David so records of family history were vital. Matthew and Luke both include genealogies of Jesus in their Gospels to show Jesus’ connection to David. Matthew’s Gospel, written for Jews, traces Jesus’ genealogy to Abraham. Luke’s Gospel, written for Gentiles, traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam.
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