Monday, December 17 - Monday of the Third Week of Advent Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, 17; Matthew 1:1-17 Tom Martz ‘19 Hope in the Lord “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.” Matthew 1:17 Today, as we start the readings of the Third Week of Advent, we begin to focus more on Jesus’ birth. Matthew starts his infancy narrative with Jesus’ long, barely pronounceable genealogy. He does so deliberately, though, because it points us back to Abraham, to whom God made the covenant of salvation centuries before Christ’s birth. The people of Israel looked to this covenant for hope, from Abraham to David to Jesus. What they didn’t realize, though, is that God had been preparing them for a savior for all forty-two generations! When we ask God for help in our lives, more often than not He does it in His own time, in His own way. When we become discouraged, we can look to the Israelite people. Even though they waited for many, many years to receive the Messiah, they kept hope. Let us keep in mind this Advent season that when it seems that God isn’t answering us, we have to have hope. Like the Israelites, we will get much more than we could have ever asked for.