Will The World End After Fourteen Generations?

Matthew 1:17
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Look at that precision. That between Abraham and King David there are fourteen generations. Then between David to the time, Israelites went into exile, there are fourteen generations. Finally between Exile and the coming of Jesus the Messiah there are fourteen generations. Is God acting in a major way after every fourteen generations? Therefore, will the world end after fourteen generations?

Isn’t this good fodder for people who like setting dates for the end of the world in order to seem more knowledgeable and also express commitment depending on how close we are to time? The Bible totally prohibits date setting or attempting to tell when Jesus will return, Matthew 24:36-39, Matthew 24:42, and Matthew 24:44. Our commitment to God should not be based on how close we are to the end of time. We should love God even if Jesus will delay His return for the next million years. The fact Jesus is “confirmed to be coming soon” doesn’t mean we change anything we were doing unless we were hypocrites. If we have been living right, we just keep living right. No need for panic.

The only urgency surrounding the coming of Jesus is the need to win the undecided lot to come to Christ. The converted believers have nothing to worry about. Sins committed by believers should be overcome whether Jesus is returning soon or not. Believers should not rush to be right with God because the end is soon, but because everyone is driven by the indwelling Holy Spirit to be right with God.

Matthew writes his gospel to persuade the Jewish people that Jesus is the authentic messiah. Matthew first does this by presenting the genealogy of Jesus. The genealogy shows that Jesus is the son of David. The prophecy was that the Messiah would be the son of David.

Secondly, Matthew shows that Jesus came at the right time. Matthew shows that between Abraham the father of faith and King David there are fourteen generations. Then between David and the Babylonian exile, there are fourteen generations. Between the end of Babylonian exile and the coming of Jesus, there are fourteen generations. Jesus came at a precise time. That precision shows that God was purposeful in sending Jesus. Therefore Jesus is the Messiah because He came at the right time. Apostle Paul also reiterates that Jesus came at the right time, Galatians 4:4.

Matthew’s purpose in using the fourteen generation gaps was not to suggest that God always does something every fourteen generations. Matthew doesn’t try to apply the fourteen-generation theory backward to Adam. An attempt to apply the fourteen-generation theory forward also leads to a possible conjecture. The application of the fourteen-generation rule is limited to demonstrating that Jesus came at the right time and therefore He is the Messiah.

While Matthew reports that there were fourteen generations in-between, the truth is that the genealogies were edited to make it fourteen. They were not exactly fourteen. While between Abraham and David there were fourteen generations, between David and the Babylonian exile, there were seventeen, and three were edited out to make it fourteen. The reason why jews edited the genealogies was to make them memorable. A set of fourteen each was easier to memorize. Therefore in reality the fourteen generation gap made sense to jews but in reality, it wasn’t really fourteen. Matthew did not lie, for he was addressing Jews who memorized the fourteen set generations but deep within them knowing they were not fourteen. This could be fourteen generations gap, poetically speaking.

It would therefore be wrong to push the fourteen generations gap theory, yet in reality, there were more than fourteen generations. The fourteen-generation gap can only be used as Matthew did for those purposes and nothing more. To use the fourteen gap theory in studying end of the world events would make God predictable, yet Jesus said you can’t know the day or hour of His coming. To apply the fourteen generations gap theory would therefore contradict the words of Jesus and scripture. Eisegesis is when you interpret the Bible with a predetermined meaning and therefore forcing the Bible to say what you want. To use the fourteen generations gap theory outside what Matthew did, would be gross eisegesis.

An aspect of God is that He is a mystery. He acts unlike we expect. A God who is totally predictable is no god. A God who we can expect to do something in the next fourteen generations since it is His pattern is no god. To make God so predictable is to destroy the divine aspect of mystery. God has acted strangely and in ways we never expected, but always in our favor and for our good. God cannot be trapped and imprisoned into acting every time fourteen generations pass. He can act before or after as He wills. He is God!

May we surrender to our God who is a mystery. We may not predict His actions and or know what He does and How He does, but we are sure and He is good at acting in our favor. May God continue being good to us, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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