I think the genealogical table was put in the first chapter of the New
Testament, not only to show our Lord's pedigree, but to show that a
man may rise up in an ancestral line and beat back successfully all
the influences of bad heredity. See in that genealogical table that
good King Asa came of vile King Abia. See in that genealogical table
that Joseph and Mary and the most illustrious Being that ever touched
our world, or ever will touch it, had in their ancestral line
scandalous Rehoboam and Tamar and Bathsheba. If this world is ever to
be Edenized--and it will be--all the infected families of the earth
are to be regenerated, and there will some one arise in each family
line and open a new genealogical table. There will be some Joseph in
the line to reverse the evil influence of Rehoboam, and there will be
some Mary in the line to reverse the evil influence of Bathsheba.
Perhaps the star of hope may point down to your manger. Perhaps you
are to be the hero or the heroine that is to put down the brakes and
stop that long train of genealogical tendencies and switch it off on
another track from that on which it has been running for a century.
You do that, and I will promise you as fine a palace as the architects
of heaven can build, the archway inscribed with the words: "More than
conqueror."