Our Ancient Future Story

Welcome! To Our Ancient Future Story: Navigating Scripture Through the Eyes of Family. Where I share with you, Biblical stories, as a family member would tell a story around the dinner table. As children of God, we are a part of God’s family, and His family story has a lot of history. Each week, we will take one story and talk about it, the cultural, historical, geographical, and sociological impacts. We will be looking at these stories from the perspective of our ancestors, through the lens of ancient times, in hopes of learning more about our family. This is Our Ancient Future Story.

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Hello everyone, I’m Vic, and this is Our Ancient Future Story. Before we begin jumping into our very first story, I wanted to let you know a little bit about why I decided to start this podcast. 

 I wanted to begin this podcast was because I believe we are a part of the family of God. In my personal family, I am the Oldest of three girls, Vic (that’s me), Caroline, and Alisa. I am 3 years older than Caroline, and Caroline is 10 years older than Alisa. As a toddler, one of Alisa’s favorite things to do, was to ask us to tell her a story. She would constantly say, “Tell me a story of when Vic and Caroline were little.” So, we did. We told her every story we could think of. Stories of Birthday parties, swimming lessons, family vacations, and sibling rivalries. We even told her about the houses and neighborhoods we lived in. We told her about out Holiday traditions, and we watched home videos. We did everything we could think of to tell her about the family that she is a part of. 

And this is how I want us to look at scripture. 

We are children of God, co-heirs with Christ, adopted into God’s family, but now that we are in the family of God there is an Ancient Future story that we need to learn to tell us all about this Amazing family we are now a part of. God’s family has A LOT of History! Stories of great victories and terrible despair. Stories of war, slavery, miracles and the provision of God. Stories involving the ancients of old, the prophets and the disciples. Stories of God’s love and mercy and protection! And it all points to the leading character of Jesus! And we need to know this story. 

Throughout this podcast we will open the pages of history and step back in time to recount and relive our story. We will walk with family and discover each town, explore major kingdoms, and experience miraculous victories. My hope is that at the end of this study we will see that these are not just characters in a story that someone just thought up and wrote down. But that these are Actual people, who really lived, and who are our ancestors. 

So, I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and find a comfortable place to sit and get ready to hear scripture like never before…Through the Eyes of Family. 

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 As we prepare for this study, I want to give us a quick crash course, of our family tree from Adam to Jesus. This part may be a little technical with our genealogy, but I promise it will help us see how all of our family stories fit together. So, here we go!

 First on our family tree is ADAM and EVE. 

 We know that God created men and women in Genesis 1-2. They were living in the Garden of Eden hanging out with God. It was perfect Bliss. They only had ONE RULE, “Do Not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” They were living their happy lives until one day, the serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit of this forbidden tree. After she had eaten the fruit and saw that it was good, she gave some to Adam and he ate the fruit. So, because they disobeyed God, they were both kicked out of the Garden. 

A little while after that, Eve bares a son and names him Cain, not long after she bares another son named Abel. These two sons are at odds with one another their whole life. They were as different as two brothers can be. Abel was a shepherd, and Cain was a great gardener. God asked them to bring him a sacrifice, Cain gathered crops and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s. This made Cain angry to the point that he ends up killing his brother, Abel. God confronts Cain about his actions. Cain admits that he has sinned, then he leaves the presence of the Lord and wanders the earth the rest of his life. 

After many years passed, Adam and Eve have another son and his name is SETH. We are not told much about his family. We only know what Genesis 5 says about him. That he had a son named Enosh, along with other unnamed sons and daughters, and that he lived to be 912 years old. 

Now, I do have to pause here, because as we will see as we continue this study that numbers can sometimes be exaggerated because of the author’s purpose. Sometimes the author is trying to prove a point or show emphasis by using a particular number. So, we must take that into account while we are reading scripture. However, I also believe that every word in our Bible is breathed from the mouth of God, so the numbers we have are the numbers we are meant to see. 

With that said, it is also biologically likely that the humans in Genesis 5 had longer lives because God did not design Adam and Eve’s body to die. The plan in Genesis 1 and 2 was for God to live among humanity and all his creation in perfect unity. It was only after Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that the body began to decay. Nevertheless, we have Seth’s age in Genesis 5 as 912 years old. 

A few generations later, we get the next link in our chain, Seth’s Great-great-great-grandson, ENOCH was born.

We know Enoch as the man who walked with God so closely that God took him. He didn’t die, just went with God to Heaven. But, before the Lord took him, he had a son named METHUSELAH. 

 Methuselah is also famous because he is the oldest person to ever live. He lived to be 969 years old.  

 Before Methuselah died, he had a son named, Lamech. Again, we do not know much about him, but his son, NOAH, is one of the Biggest names in Christian History. We know him of course as the guy who built the ark. When God flooded the Earth, Noah, his wife, his three sons, Sham, Ham, and Japheth and their wives, all boarded the ark and were saved from the devastating Flood. After the flood and after the water returned to its place. Sham, Ham, and Japheth all had children, who play apart in our story. 

 But for this series we will follow Sham’s family line. 

 After the flood Sham fathered many children, and seven generations later, a man named Terah was born. He fathered three sons, ABRAM, Nahor, and Haran. Haran died at an early age, but Abram and Nahor both took wives. Nahor married Milcah and Abram married SARAI, who was barren. 

 We now know Abram as Abraham, the Father of all Nations, but when God first came to Him and promised him a son, He was childless. Abram’s wife Sarai, now known as Sarah, got tired of waiting for this promised son, so she takes matters into her own hands and gives Abram her servant, Hagar to produce an heir. They conceive and ISHMAEL is born. You may know Ishmael because he is the founder of modern day Islam. 

25 years go by, then finally God’s promise comes true and Abraham and Sarah have a son. They named him ISAAC. Isaac, we know as the one who God asked Abraham to sacrifice, to prove his trust in Him. Isaac grows up and marries REBEKAH.  

Together they have twin boys, JACOB and ESAU. We know these two brothers because of their differences. Esau was hairy, strong, and a gifted hunter, while Jacob, was clean shaven, cleaver, and helped his mother care for the home. They had a constant war over who has the birthright and who gets their father’s deathbed blessing. Spoiler! Jacob steals them both from Esau, forcing him to run away from his brother. 

While on the run, Jacob, ends up at his mother’s family’s estate. There he sees and meets RACHEL; it was basically love at first sight for Jacob. He asks her father for her hand in marriage, and her father, Laban, agrees. But only if Jacob agrees to work for him for seven years. Jacob was ecstatic and eager to get started. Seven years felt like no time at all, because of how much he loved Rachel. But on his wedding day, it wasn’t Rachel standing there, it was her older sister LEAH. Jacob had been burned by the birthright law he had stolen from Esau.

Furious, he confronts Laban, who agrees again to let him marry Rachel if he will work for another seven years. Jacob agrees and marries his beloved Rachel. Though Jacob loved Rachel, she was barren and could not produce an heir for Jacob. But Leah, Jacob’s first wife, born him 4 children: RUBEN, SIMEON, LEVI, and JUDAH. Rachel seeing this offers her servant BILHAH, to Jacob to produce an heir. She conceived and gave birth to DAN and NAPTALI. Leah, seeing that Rachel gave her servant to Jacob, decides she will also give her servant, ZILPAH to Jacob to produce an heir. Zilpah has two children, GAD and ASHER. Shortly after Asher’s birth Leah had two more children, ISSACHAR and ZEBULUN. Then finally, God allowed Rachel to have children, and she and Jacob had two boys, JOSEPH, the one whom, Jacob gave the coat of many colors, and BENJAMIN. These are the Twelve sons of Jacob, that will become the 12 tribes of Israel. 

We will discuss each one individually as appear in our stories. They each play major roles in our history, but for the purpose of this genealogy, we will follow Leah and Jacob’s fourth son, Judah. Judah grew up and had many children. About 140 years and several generations later a man named BOAZ marries a Moab woman named RUTH. Their story is one of kindness and redemption. Ruth is a widow, who follows her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to her hometown of Bethlehem after the death of their husbands, in hopes of finding someone to provide for them. Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi’s late husband, steps up to the plate, and takes on the responsibility of them both. 

Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed. Obed fathers a son named Jesse. Now Jesse had eight sons. And the youngest was DAVID. That is King David. He was anointed king as a child. He is famous for his fight with Goliath, as well as his war with King Saul. David continued to grow, and God made a covenant with him that there would always be a son from his line on the Throne. He had many children, but his son SOLOMON, would take his place as King. 

We know King Solomon, because he is the wises man who has ever lived. When he was crowned King in his father’s place, God asked him what he wanted, and he responded with Wisdom. And God granted him his request. Solomon wrote 3 books in our Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastics, and Song of Solomon. He is also famous for building the Temple and his infamous palace. He is legendary for all the women in his house. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. He fathered hundreds of children and is credited with advancing the nation of Israel. 

After the passing of Solomon, the nation of Israel experienced some serious ups and downs. The nation of Israel split, they were captured and exiled to Babylon, but God brought them back to the land he had promised Abraham. And then 14 generations later, from David’s lineage there would be a virgin named MARY who would conceive a son by the HOLY SPIRIT, and she would give birth to GOD’s son JESUS, who is the Eternal King! 

 Alright! We did it! I hope you were able to follow all of that, I know that genealogies can be hard to sit through sometimes. But I hope that you were able to see that 1. You already knew some of these people and their stories, and 2. I hope that you see the connections between each member of our family. Yes, some of these people lived thousands of years ago, but we can still read their story and see God’s provision in the past, and how he set it all up for the future. 

 I hope that you will join me for our next episode where we dive into our very first story of when God calls Abram. 

See you next time on Our Ancient Future Story. 

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Thank you for listening to today’s episode of Our Ancient Future Story, I hope that you really enjoyed it! This episode was written and produced by Vic Harmon. Executive Produced by Amanda Gilliam. Music is Embarking on Adventure by Evan MacDonald. See you next week! Bye!