But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.
Mark 10:6-9
Ever notice with family genealogies, people tend to think of ancestors as how far *removed* they are from their descendants. After all, in every generation the gene line is cut in half, diluted by the mother or father that comes into the family by marriage, usually in this day and age not being related by blood.
Yet isn't it really the other way around? Every new spouse brings IN a new family line. Thus the child is the physical unification of the two parents, the one flesh. Joined together via conception.
In terms of souls and proper matches/mates, the husband and wife are the same soul in two bodies. The child then is the union of *that* soul into one body. One soul was separated but then joined. Keep repeating and what happens? That soul also has its proper match, and when they are joined, the two become one. And so on and so forth. Add in, adding in, two becoming one, not one dividing into two.
Now it seems to me that this process is very important to preserve, to make the right matches, so the system works as intended for the unification of souls. Of course God already knows who is going to mess up, so He always has a workaround for human error. Can you imagine how complicated this gets, how much time it takes to get everything rectified, unified, lined up again to its original state? The humans keep doing stupid stuff, not paying attention, even committing horrible acts to eliminate "unplanned" souls. And then well, the longer it is going to take to work it all back again. And even with a properly matched pair, are all the offspring guaranteed spiritual unions of that soul? It is a physical process, after all. Jacob and Esau, no difference? So yeah, best to be fruitful. :)
Over to the genealogies in Matthew and Luke. Matthew first walks it back from David to Abraham (the first verse), then walks it forward down the line beginning with Isaac. In this genealogy, everyone "begets", as the system moves forward in time. The verb for begat is not mentioned wrt Joseph Jesus' father. Jesus wasn't "begat" by the normal method. Something like a kosher form of IVF, no human method required.
In Luke's record, it is the opposite. Noone "begets". It starts with the baptism, the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove. The direction then moves back in time, all the way to Adam, the son of God.
All of the analysis and commentary over these genealogies pretty much miss the point. One goes up, one goes down; souls are unified, souls are returned to Adam. It all had to work a certain way, in a certain combination, to unify the lines, the souls, to join two people together as one, who would bring forth that certain someone. Well I suppose the conception needed to be pretty selective at that point -- better for God to hand-pick those particular gametes! ;) Only begotten, otherwise who knows how long it would have taken, ha. The names in there, with missing links, "wrong" names"... it all looks rather sloppy. No, it's all very specific. Human lines begotten; spiritual lines unified.
How we long for Your Kingdom to Come, And For Your Will To Be Done Here on Earth, Just As It Is In Heaven. We Lift Up Our American Heroes To You,
Fast forward 2000 years. There's a reason for that. These things take time to line up properly.
One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
FWIW