14 Kings?

My first order of stalking… gather info from Josh’s friends.

In my (almost) decade and half since knowing Josh, I’ve learned much of what I know about him by listening to his comrades–you know, the guys who did time with him in the foxholes. Their accounts are solid and say pretty much the same thing, so they validate one another. For the sake of introducing you to Josh, however, I’m going to stick with the testimony of his buddy, Matt. Like some of Josh’s friends, Matt also been a “Josh-disser” at one time… I guess, kind of like me.

The first thing Matt shared about Josh was his family line. I mean, he schooled me in a serious  Ancestry dot com kind of way.

And, hey, I’ll admit, I’ve done a bit of where-did-I-come-from-surfing on that website as well.

BTW, I’ve been able to go as far back as my great, great, grandparents (that’s five generations!) and have learned that I came from… well, pretty much poverty in the hills of Eastern United States. No monarchs in my history that we know of. No stately commanders in the British army or wealthy barons. So, I’m not a very big deal.

I mean, it’s fun to learn about our roots, right? Yet, sitting through an Ancestry.com Power Point of a total stranger… meh. Not quite as fun. In all honesty,  when Matt first tried to talk to me about Josh’s roots and lineage, I was like,

“Blah, blah, blah. Just give me the good stuff, Matt.”

But I did listen.

And, now all I can say is,

“Wow.”

Matt taught me that Josh’s lineage had been traced back 42 generations.

Dude.

Seriously? (My five looks pretty paltry now.)

Please don’t allow my casual lingo encourage you to think that Josh is just a made-up guy and, his story an old fable. Not only is this ancestral line awesome, it also TRUE.

Historians, as well as the friends of Josh, all testify to his authenticity. These testimonies were put together with many other historical documents and compiled into what we read today as the Bible. The crazy thing is that anyone who doesn’t know Josh might cringe a little bit when they hear the word “Bible” referenced. I have to admit, before I read it, I also thought it was just a bunch of malarkey (or worse.)

But, stalking is believing.

So, do you want to know who else was in Josh’s ancestral line? Well, the first person Matt knew of in Josh’s family line was Abraham. This is the guy who every Jew today originally came from. (Did I mention that Josh has Jewish blood? If not, beg my pardon. Josh was born into a Jewish family.)

Another fun fact is that unlike this poor hillbilly gal, Josh came from a royal line. Fourteen generations of Kings, as a matter of fact.  (I mean seriously, how many of us can lay claim to that?)

Anyway, as impressive as that sounds, Josh’s lineage also had its share of not-so-stately folks. Murderers, prostitutes, adulterers, and plain old folks whose moral compass wasn’t always pointing toward the divine.

Maybe that’s what makes him so incredibly cool. AND, not only that, because I was able to read the stories of how the lives of many of his ancestors played out in real time, I really cared about the people who contributed to Josh’s physical genetic makeup.

Food for thought: I wonder what each of those folks would have thought if they knew they were going to be included in the awesome story of Josh? I mean, unlike reality TV, they didn’t know they were being filmed. I wonder if they would have lived their lives differently if they’d known their stories were going to be broadcast to hundreds of generations?

Well, that’s as much as I’m going to divulge about Josh today. If you want to read along, and comment as we go, feel free! Me (and Josh) encourage it!

We’re in the Gospel of Matthew. The verses we just covered are in Chapter 1, verses 1-16.  I’ll be back next Friday with more background info on Josh.

Hope to see you then!!

P.S. If you’d l like to follow along in the reading, but don’t have a bible, no worries!! Just click on this link.

P.S.S. If you’re just tuning in to this blog, I recommend heading back to the first post titled, “What’s in a Name?” and following from there.