everybody what is going on you know what time it is you're listening to join the journey podcast

with your host emma daughter thanks for joining today we're starting with a challenge

can a genealogy a long list of dead people's names really deepen our relationship with the

lord and get us excited about reading his word? But because it's our

first day, I want to pause and take a moment to make sure we're all on the same page. Normally,

we'll jump right into the text, but today, everybody's new. And this year we'll be reading

through the New Testament together, one chapter a day, Monday through Friday, which is awesome,

because if you happen to fall behind,

you've got the weekends to catch up. And today, we read Matthew chapter one, where we saw God

is at work, even when we can't see it. Now, if you're anything like me and you've tried to do a

Bible reading plan before, like a Bible in a year kind of thing, there are always those passages where

it gets really, really, really hard. Typically, they're marked by one of two things, names or

numbers, maybe even both. And today, we're starting with a lot of names, which might seem

unfortunate, but it's actually super cool. And trust me, I get it. Hardly anybody

finds reading through a long list of names refreshing or thinks that's the perfect start to the

year, but that's okay because we're in it together. And if you happen to be one of the few who's

pretty familiar with genealogies, hang with me because I bet God's got something for you

too. Matthew 1 starts with a really important key verse. It's literally the key to understanding

why the book starts with three incredibly long paragraphs of crazy names. It says,

The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. To put it

plainly, that first verse is telling us we're reading God's story, but we're starting in the middle.

Matthew originally wrote this book to the Jews, who were very familiar with the first half of the

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