Matthew’s gospel was one of the first written in the decades after the resurrection (50 A.D.). At the time the many forms of Judaism were on the wane. After the fall of Jerusalem, in fact, only two remained: one was Rabbinic Judaism (which came from the Pharisees) and Jewish Christianity. It was becoming an either/or situation, and the Jews needed to know some important things in deciding whether this Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Matthew was a tax gatherer. Matthew became a disciple of Jesus—we see this in chapter 9.
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
Julius Caesar required the Herodian government of Israel to collect taxes. Associations of tax gatherers formed. They collected customs, port duties, and fishing tolls. They were hated. They were not allowed to be witnesses, their money was not accepted as charity, and given the chance, the mobs might actually lynch one if they could catch him. The tax gatherers would extract money sometimes by torture. They were considered “robbers”.
(www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org)
So why Matthew? Why would the Jews listen to a hated tax collector? Perhaps, as we will see going through this, that a theme develops—Jesus, the Messiah, comes to those who are least deserving of grace and mercy, and shows them just that. If a robber can find a savior, maybe I can too.
But Matthew would also have been all about the enforcing the law, and so his demonstration of the kingship of Jesus is important. He shows that though he was hated by the Jews, he knew the Scriptures well, and uses them effectively in his proof.
Matthew had several important things to tell the Jews:
Jesus was promised and prefigured in the Scriptures
Jesus is the son of David (here in this chapter)
Jesus is the Messiah
Armed with this information, a Jew who served God “with a whole heart and a willing mind” (1 Chronicles 28:9) could make a decision for Christ. And if we will draw our hearts to “seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God” (1 Chronicles 28:8), we too can see the proof that Jesus is the promised Savior.
1
I’ve notice as we’ve been studying the Old Testament that there seem to be two hills that between the creation and the Messiah. Those hills are Abraham and David, heading up to the summit, which is Jesus Christ.
Son of Abraham—the first covenant with the Jewish people, through which all the nations of the world would be blessed. So Jesus would be the Messiah, the Savior.
Son of David—who received a promise that one of his heirs would sit on a throne and have a kingdom that would never end. So Jesus would be the King and ruler for all of eternity.
Matthew writes to the Jews so he traces Jesus back to the father of the Jews, Abraham. David was the pinnacle of all the kings of Israel, and so in His rule, Jesus would be like David, loving God, ruling fairly but firmly and pointing everyone to Yahweh. In 1 Chronicles 29, we see David’s heart “who am I?” he says to God, that he should have been chosen. Jesus repeatedly said that his task was to glorify and follow the will of the Father.
The lineage traced here through Joseph shows that Jesus has a rightful place as a Jew and as a member of David’s house, and thus can legally be the Messiah.
2 – 16
Verses 2 through 6a show the line from Abraham to David, verses 6b through 11 show the line from Solomon to the exile, then 12 through 16 follow the line from Jechoniah to Jesus.
(16) Joseph is mentioned as “the husband of Mary” not the “father of Jesus” because he was not the biological father. But he was His father by way of paternal care and legal standing—Jesus gains his legal right to be the Messiah through the line of Joseph (but He is also biologically related to David through Mary – her genealogy is in Luke’s gospel).
This actually started back in 2 Samuel 7:16. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” This is what Nathan the prophet told David.
The connection to the Messiah was revealed to Isaiah:
Isa 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
The connection to Abraham actually predates the connection to the Jews, because Abram was not a “Jew” when God gave him these promises:
Gen 17:7-8 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
In these 17 verses we meet 46 people. Some were heroes like David; others were of less noble birth, like Rahab the prostitute. Others were not all that great in terms of character, such as Manasseh. Yet God used all of them, some despite themselves, to bring the line of Messiah from Abraham up to Jesus. Also note verse 11. Jechoniah (Jehoiachin) was cursed as a leader of Judah (Jeremiah 22:24-30) and “none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.” Jesus was not the natural son of Joseph, but the adopted son. Mary’s line goes through David’s son Nathan. Though man suffers under the curse, Jesus came to lift that curse by His death. (Jechoniah’s curse doesn’t change Jesus’ legal claim to the throne). It also shows us that while man’s efforts by himself will lead to sin, Jesus life will lead to righteousness for all.
The term “was the father of” can also mean ancestor, so these genealogies do not follow strictly the family tree.
17
Now—this genealogy differs from Luke’s. Why? Most likely, Matthew is recording for the Jews (and us) Jesus legal right to David’s throne. So he shows the royal nature of Jesus’ lineage to David, rather than just the natural human lineage. Matthew focused on important parts of Israel history, and it’s even possible that he was using numbers as symbolic importance. To the Jews, seven was the number of completeness, so Matthew uses 3 sets of 7 times 2 (doubling something meant it was more certain). It’s also possible that he is using David’s name, which adds up to 14 in Hebrew (DVD 4 + 6 + 4 = 14).
Whatever the case, this is a legal case, not a family tree, so the differences are not significant to our understanding of the text or our trust in the Bible.
18 – 25
Here we get into the narrative, a much briefer narrative than Luke records (Mark has no recording of the birth of Jesus, nor does John—both of which start out with John the Baptist and Jesus baptism).
Since Matthew describes Joseph as the “husband of Mary” but not the father of Jesus, he’s got some ‘splaining to do. This is detailed much more in Luke’s gospel, but you are likely familiar with the story.
An angel came to Mary and told her she was going to bear a son. She asked how this could be since she was still a virgin. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and her child would be the Son of God.
Basically, Mary was “betrothed” to Joseph. It was a yearlong commitment before the couple got married and took place after the two families got together and decided on a “bride price” to be paid to the father of the bride. The couple still lived with their parents but could not have sexual relations. In fact, part of the reason for the year was to make sure the bride was not pregnant.
Mary, it says, “was found to be with child.” It seems she did not come forward with her pregnancy until she was showing, perhaps after returning from a three month visit to her cousin Elizabeth, mother of Jesus’ cousin John.
Joseph had two options, have her stoned (Deut 22:23-24), or divorce her. Stoning was not commonly used in those days so Joseph decided on the latter. But you can see his character, in that he did not want to make a public spectacle of Mary so he “resolved to divorce her quietly.” God had other things in mind.
An angel appeared to him and told him not to be afraid of the third option—going ahead with the marriage. Why would he be afraid? It seems likely that the couple would never get past the shame of the fact that Mary had a child out of wedlock. Family relationships would be strained, Joseph might have had a hard time finding work, and socially they would have been pariahs.
God told Joseph that his was not by the hand of man. Mary was innocent, yet also pregnant. It speaks to Joseph’s love and devotion to God that he obeyed apparently without question.
The angel called him “the son of David” which would tell Joseph about this crucial role in this, providing the legal right for Jesus to be king. Odd, isn’t it, that though he had a legal right to the throne, the angel tells Joseph that Jesus’ role “will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus, is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, or “God saves.”
He then quotes Isaiah 7. “Emmanuel” does in fact mean, “God with us.” There is such a cool tie in with the Ark of the Covenant, which was the visible sign of God’s presence among His people. Now that visible presence would be out for all to see, in the form of Jesus.
Why did God do it this way? Why connect such shame and problem with the advent (literally) of such a wonderful thing as the salvation of the world? Well, one reason, of course, is that the sin gene is passed through the father’s seed, so if Mary and Joseph had been completely married, people would question the purity of Jesus, and thus His ability to “save” anyone, since a lamb sacrificed had to be spotless and pure.
But I think there is also a key in this verse: 2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Even from before He was born, Jesus and his family were associated with sin, though they were sinless. In Matthew 9:10-14 Jesus is seen hanging out with sinners—because He was called to us who should be ashamed by our deeds. He came without sin, to make us right.
And here’s the kicker: God doesn’t measure out His love for you based upon how good or good-appearing you are. Rom 5:8-9 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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