Hidden Treasure Series

Matthew 1: 1 – 17

Hidden Treasure

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: 2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. 8 Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. 9 Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. 11 Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. 14 Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. 15 Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. 16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

I was going to name this teaching ‘Don’t Skip The Boring Stuff’. Oh, don’t look surprised. If you are like me when you come across this genealogy stuff we have the tendency to just skip right over these verses. Come on now, tell the truth and shame the devil. You do the same.

But in all seriousness, our Precious Holy Spirit did not just put down this information to fill up the pages of His Book. No, when you take the time to thoroughly go through the genealogies hidden treasures abound.

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:

Without looking, which book precedes this book? The answer is ‘Malachi’.

Now think about this, for over 400 years our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – had not spoken to us humans. That’s Four Centuries folks. Then He spoke to Matthew to tell us about His Holy Son. No, that is not correct. You see our Majestic Holy Creator spoke again to us through whom? The answer is John the Baptist.

We will read about John in our future studies. So, why is Matthew placed after Malachi? Well, for one reason, John the Baptist didn’t write any books.

Around the year 50 AD or so, many people under the encouragement of our Wonderful Holy Spirit urged Matthew to write down the things he heard and witnessed our Lord Jesus Christ say and do.

Matthew wrote his Gospel principally to a Jewish audience. His motivation was to let his fellow Jewish people know that our Lord Jesus Christ Is ‘The Messiah’.

If you ask a Jewish person who are the most important Jewish people who ever lived, who do you think they say? The will most likely answer Moses first since he led them out of the slavery of Egypt and wrote the first five books of the Bible which they call the ‘Pentateuch’. You will next be given most likely Abraham and David. Why? Well, Moses was important as I just mentioned because of his work for God but Abraham and David are more important because of their religious significance. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race. David is the greatest king and through his descendents a promised son would be born that would be the ‘Greatest’ of all. Can you now see Matthew’s significance in just this first verse. Look again – ‘The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham’ Matthew not only places our Lord Jesus Christ in with the two greatest Jewish individuals who ever lived, he places Him in prominence above them. In effect Matthew is saying that both these guys existed in leading to the ultimate significant One – Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.

From this verse can you derive a golden nugget? – I did. How many brothers were there in total? The answer is twelve. Since our God Is a Master of Perfection I can see here the mentioning of 12 which interestingly enough this is the amount of men the Lord selected to be apostles. And there is possibly something else hinted out here. As you know our Lord Jesus’ Genealogy as we read here descends from the line of Judah. So, when we read - ‘and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers,’ We are in effect saying that Jacob begot Judah and his [eleven] other brothers. So, we have Judah’s descendent which is our Lord Jesus Christ and eleven. What happened to the twelfth? Could this be a hidden note that one of the twelve would not be there at the end?, which we all know is Judas.