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1:1-17
A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the
son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
(I Chron. 1:28)
Jacob the father of Judah and
his brothers,
(I Chron. 2:1)
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar,
(I Chron. 2:4)
Perez the father of Hezron, (I Chron. 2:5)
Hezron the father of Ram, (I Chron. 2:9)
Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon, (I Chron. 2:10)
Nahshon the father of Salmon, (I Chron. 2:11)
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose
mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
(I Chron. 2:12)
and Jesse the father
of King David.
(I Chron. 2:15)
David was the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been Uriah's wife, (I Chron. 3:1,5)
Solomon the father of Rehoboam, (I Chron. 3:10)
Rehoboam the father of Abijah, (I Chron. 3:10)
Abijah the father of Asa
[NU
reads: Asaph], (I Chron. 3:10)
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of Jotham, (I Chron. 3:11)
Jotham the father of Ahaz, (I Chron. 3:13)
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, (I Chron. 3:13)
Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, (I Chron. 3:13)
Manasseh the father of Amon
[NU reads:
Amos],
(I Chron. 3:14)
Amon the father of Josiah, (I Chron. 3:14)
and Josiah the father of
Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to
Babylon. (I Chron. 3:15)
After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, (I Chron. 3:17)
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, (I Chron. 3:19)
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph,
the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called
Christ. 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 Christ. (NIV)
These opening verses of Matthew's gospel establish that Christ Jesus is both the son of David and the son of Abraham.
One last note ... when comparing Joseph's genealogy in
Matthew with that of Mary's genealogy in Luke 3 ... at verse 7, above,
the two genealogies divide. Mary's line (Luke 3:31), branches off and comes on down through Nathan, Solomon's brother.
...as the son of David, Jesus fulfills the Kingdom program of God ... as we can so clearly see from the scriptures above.
...as the son of Abraham, he fulfills the redemptive program of God. As you have it in Galatians 3:14-16,
He redeemed us in order
that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through
Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the
Spirit. Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no
one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly
established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham
and to his seed. The Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ. So, Jesus is both King of Israel and Savior of the world.
Coming back to the genealogy above, please notice that to one side I
have given the references to the names of these same people as they are
also found in the ancient Old Testament genealogies of First
Chronicles. I have done that so that we can check the accuracy of
Matthew's genealogy and discuss any interesting points, discrepancies
or gaps that we might discover. At verse 13, however, we leave the
First Chronicles list since, at that point, Matthew is recording the
most recent people in Joseph's line.
Now, let's look at the differences in Matthew's genealogy and that which is recorded in First Chronicles.
First, in verse 9, two names are left out that are recorded in I Chronicles 3:12. The names are Amaziah and Azariah.
In Hebrew culture and reckoning, this is not a problem because any
single descendant in one's lineage can be referred to as the son of
any other ancient ancestor. This is common reconing in Jewish
genealogies. For example, that is why Jesus is legitimately called, the son of David
here. For what it is worth, Matthew left these two men out of his
genealogy in order to round out his three divisions into three equal
sets of 14 descendants each (see verse 14).
Second, in verse 11, Jehoikim is left out. He is found recorded in the genealogy in I Chronicles 3:15-16.
Third, in verse 12, there appears to be an error. According to First Chronicles 3:17, Salathiel was not the father of Zorobabel. Rather, his father was Salathiel's brother, Pedaiah.
On this one, however, I am going to go with Matthew's account as
probably being the correct one because the First Chronicles text, being
many hundreds of years older, may contain a copyist's error at that
point ... wherein the two names may have been accidentally inverted so
that Salathiel was, in fact, Zorobabel's father. We can say that because Matthew's genealogy is also inspired Scripture and was without error in its original manuscript.
Before we move on, let me point out that there are four Gentile women
... distant great-grandmothers of Christ ... who are found here in the
genealogy of Jesus. Two were Canaanites, one, a Moabite and one, a
Hittite.
One Canaanite woman is Tamar.
Her story can be found in Genesis 38. If you would like to read
additional thoughts on that fascinating story, I would invite you to
turn to my commentary on Genesis at:
http://biblebookofgenesis.com/Genesis37-38.htm.
The second Canaanite woman is Rahab,
the harlot. Her story is found in Joshua 2, and she is also recorded in
the Bible's great hall of faith chapter, Hebrews 11, at verses 30 and
31.
Then, there is the Moabite woman, Ruth.
An entire book of the Bible is dedicated to her ... the book of Ruth.
An interesting side to her story is the fact that anyone from her
nation had been barred from the congregation of Israel to the 10th generation
because of the way the Moabites treated the people of Israel when they
attempted to cross Moabite territory under Moses when they were on
their way to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 23:3-4).
And last, we find the Hittite woman, Bathsheba.
Her story is found in Second Samuel 11, where it is recorded that King
David succeeded in having her husband, Uriah, killed in battle in order
to get her for himself. It was a great sin and King David paid for it
dearly. Subsequently, though, Bathsheba became the mother of the great
King Solomon.
I must tell you that I am so very glad that our Lord has these women in
his ancestry. Jesus came into our world to identify with and to save
sinners, you see. He was no respecter of persons. He brought no
prejudices with him. He only brought mercy and grace. He took upon himself human flesh and truly became one of us. As you have it in Hebrews 2:16-17,
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. (KJV)
And again, as the Apostle Paul so aptly put it, in I Timothy 1:15,
Here is a trustworthy
saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners; of whom I am the worst.
To sum up, then, Matthew opens his
account of the life of Christ with rock solid proof that Jesus of
Nazareth holds the legal right to the throne of David. He proves that Jesus is the son of David and, as such, is undeniably eligible to be the rightful King of Israel.
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First, a marriage contract was signed. This was sometimes entered into by the parents of Jewish children as early as their birth or while the prospective bride and bridegroom were still very young. At that point, as far as Jewish law was concerned, they were legally married.
Next came the retreval of the bride. This took place when the couple became of age or after a reasonable waiting period. Then, the groom and his friends would go to the bride's home to get her and to bring her to her new home where the bridegroom lived.
The third, and final step, was the marriage supper. This was a great celebration that began when the bride arrived at the groom's home and usually lasted for a week. Jesus was attending one of these feasts at the wedding in Cana when the host ran out of wine and Jesus performed his first miracle ... changing water into wine (John 2).
Now, we who have trusted in the Lord
Jesus Christ (a Jew) as our personal Savior ... can also expect to experience all three phases of
this Jewish wedding ceremony:
1. When we received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we were baptized into the body of Christ by his Holy Spirit (First Corinthians 12:13). At that moment, we literally became one flesh with Christ ... members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones (Ephesians 5:30). That was our marriage contract, signed, sealed and delivered by the Holy Spirit. From that day on, we were formally wed to Christ. Every true believer is married to the Lamb of God (Ephesians 5; Second Corinthians 11).
2. What remains is the second step of the wedding ... his coming to get us one glorious day when our Bridegroom and his
friends will indeed come for us, and escort us to his home in Heaven (First
Thessalonians 4:16-17; John. 14:2-3; 17:24).
3. After that, as we have it in Revelation 19:7-9, we will sit down at the great celebration of the marriage supper of the Lamb ... the third and final phase. There is a place waiting for you at that table, dear believer. Then, we will sit down together and celebrate our betrothal to Christ in our permanent residence above. Won't that be wonderful? I suspect there will be more looking, listening, talking, introducing and rejoicing than eating though, don't you?
Coming back to our text ... before the day had arrived when Joseph was to go and retrieve Mary, his wife, to bring her to his home to the wedding feast ... Joseph discovered that Mary was with child. This discovery probably took place right after Mary returned home from visiting with her also pregnant cousin, Elizabeth, who ... in her old age ... was carrying in her womb Christ's forerunner, John the Baptist (Luke 1:36, 56).
One can only imagine the dismay and emotional trauma that Joseph's discovery must have precipitated! Doubtless, he had a few things to say to Mary. His disappointment and heartache can only be imagined. Mary, on the other hand, was really up against it. Nothing she could have said would have helped. Even if she told Joseph the truth about her condition, who in their right mind would have believed such a story? There was nothing to do for it then ... but for Mary to simply remain quiet. She was in no position to do otherwise. Consequently, our text says, Joseph, being a righteous man, decided on a quiet divorce rather than to publically humiliate his wife. Remember, they were legally married in the eyes of Jewish law, even though the marriage custom had not yet been totally completed. Under Mosaic law, by the way, Joseph had the legal right to have Mary stoned to death, although, at that time, he would have had to have received permission from the Romans to do so. As you have it in Deuteronomy 22:20-21,
If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you.
Before Joseph could proceed with the divorce, however, God intervened by sending an angel to him in a dream. It was a dream of the nature that left no doubt, whatsoever, that he had received a message from God. In the dream, the angel informed Joseph that his wife, Mary, had conceived the baby by means of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, the Greek word the angel used to describe Mary's impregnation is the word begotten. It is the same word that is used in John 3:16,
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (NASV)
The angel continued, She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus, ... the song begins ... Oh ... what a name! Jesus ... every day the same. Jesus ... let all earth proclaim. The matchless name ... of Jesus! The name, Jesus, emphasizes his work. It means Savior. As we have it in his own words in Matthew 18:11,
For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Matthew continues, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' which means, "God with us". This whole episode, then, occurred in order to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy of the virgin found in Isaiah 7:14, written over 700 years before. That particular prophecy emphasizes Christ's person. Isaiah prophesied that one was coming who would be born of a virgin and would be none other than Immaneul ... God with us. God in the flesh. Amazing. As you have it in John 1:1,14,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Make no mistake about it, it was Immaneul who was born of the virgin, Mary. The tiny baby who was laid in Bethlehem's manger was God with us. The One whose diapers were changed by his mother, was also the One who ... at those exact same moments ... was holding all of the vast universe together by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:1-3)!
When Joseph awoke from his dream, he immediately went and retrieved his wife and brought her home to his house, completing the Jewish marriage custom. The Scripture, here, tells us that this was because he was a righteous man. Joseph was an obedient man of God and, as such, he was fully prepared to pay the cost of being so ... no matter what it might entail. From that point on, he and Mary would suffer together. One can only imagine the snickers and knowing looks they received as they went about their daily business in the tiny village of Nazareth. He got her pregnant! ... was doubtless a constant whisper and the hot topic of many a gossip session.
Last here, notice
that our text says that Joseph had no sexual union with Mary until after she gave birth to their firstborn son. Literally, the Greek says, was not knowing
her. This matter of fact statement is clearly speaking of the sexual side of
their marriage. After the birth
of Jesus, however, Mary and Joseph had several more children together (Matthew
12:46; 13:55).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.