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.
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.
Now for me I find now a golden rock. I want to focus on Nahshon. You see if you were and a serious student of the bible during our Lord’s time on earth you would see some awesome significance in how Nahshon was used.
Our God did a great job in organizing His people while they were in the Wilderness. The most important element in the camp was in the center where the Tabernacle was positioned. When our Lord wanted to move the people He had developed a system of order. The Levites would dismantle the Tabernacle and in the marching order set forth by God the people would proceed. Guess who led the procession? Yes, it was Nahshon. We read about him in the book of Numbers chapter 10 verse 14, “The standard of the camp of the children of Judah set out first according to their armies; over their army was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.”
In effect he was a type of the future Greater leader Who leads God’s people – The Lord Jesus Christ.
5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king.
As we read our Bibles we see upbeat and good living by the men and women which lead to the birth of Israel’s Great king, David. If you concentrate on the following births of David’s lineage you will note that after David is mentioned as king, the title of ‘king’ is not listed.
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.
We know that Bathsheba had an adulterous affair with David. She is mentioned by our Awesome Holy Ghost as ‘by her who had been the wife of Uhriah.’ Some people try to say that the disciple Luke also gives us the same Genealogy. No, not really. You see David married Bathsheba. The first child that they conceived out of the adulterous affair died. Ultimately, as we read in Matthew they had Solomon. But they also had a son by the name of Nathan. He becomes very important as we will soon see.
You see Matthew’s Genealogy gives us our Lord’s list of ancestors through Joseph who lineage was ‘cursed’ by God. Luke’s genealogy gives us Mary’s lineage who also descended from king David but through Nathan not Solomon and is therefore not under the curse. We read Luke Genealogy in chapter 3, “23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, 27 the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
We read just previously in Matthew’s genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ we come across a guy by the name of Jeconiah - 11 Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. He also went by the name of Coniah. This guy was so wicked that the Lord wound up doing this which we read about in the book of Jeremiah chapter 22, “24 “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; 25 and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear—the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return. 28 “Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol— A vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD! 30 Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.’”
Because of this guy Coniah, Joseph, who was a direct descendent of king David, should have been on the throne ruling as king of Israel instead of hammering wood in his carpenters shop.
Satan thought the Lord had put Himself in a box because of the curse. He thought that no one now could be eligible to sit on the throne of David. Well, come on now, no one can out think El Shaddai – God Almighty. His solution – a virgin birth. You see our Lord was the legal heir entitled to the throne of David through Joseph because He was Joseph’s adopted son and free from the curse. He also qualified to be a legitimate descendent of David because His earthly mom was Mary who was a descendent of David through the lineage of Nathan. Problem solved – way to go Lord!
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.
Our Holy Spirit’s Word Is perfect. The list covers over 400 years. Now if you are a skeptic, you might complain that some of our Lord Jesus Christ descendants are not on the list. My answer to this is – So? The Holy Ghost did not want to list them. By not listing these others descendents does not effect the ones listed. If you want to go and do the research and find every one of the guys who ‘begot who’ you would still come down to the same ending, would you not? The list would end with the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
