Matthew 1:1 - 17 (NLT)
This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar). Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah). Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram. Jehoram was the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon). After the Babylonian exile: Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Akim. Akim was the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.
How often do we read the first part of the gospel of Matthew and just skim over it or tune out the genealogy section? Do we really think about the significance of these names in Jesus’ family tree? For some reason, God must have thought this was important for us to know and think about. Matthew wanted the reader to understand that all that had happened from the time of Abraham to the birth of Christ revealed:
1. God’s perfect plan
2. God’s perfect promises
3. God’s perfect timing
Let’s talk about...
1. God’s perfect plan
Every person in Jesus’ family tree has a story and actually their story plays a part in the first Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Matthew was intentional when listing the 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian deportation, and then the next 14 generations from the deportation to the Messiah, the long-awaited deliverer of God’s people. And Luke records Mary, the mother of Jesus saying,
God’s mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who stand in great awe of God] and fear Him (Luke 1:50 AMP).
When we look back and see God’s plan, God’s promise and perfect timing we are in awe.
Matthew was placed first in the synoptic gospels as it was considered a natural transition from the OT to the NT. We know by the contents of the text that it was written to bring the gospel specifically to a Jewish audience. Matthew uses Jewish terminology, talks about Jewish customs, and refers to Jesus as the Christ (Messiah), a term that Matthew feels no need to exposit for his readers. Matthew locates Jesus firmly in the story of God’s relationship and redemption of His people Israel, and as the fulfillment of the covenant promise made to them.
Through this genealogical list, Matthew was setting out to verify Jesus’ origin in fulfillment of four specific prophecies about the Messiah. Before Jesus was born, the Jewish nation was anticipating the arrival of the Messiah. Even though no one was quite sure how God would fulfill His promise nor accomplish His plan, this was their hope through the ages.
There are four main prophecies about the origin of the Messiah: First, the Messiah would be born from the seed of a woman which points to the virgin birth. Second, the Messiah would come through Abraham’s lineage. The third prophecy is that He would come from the tribe of Judah. And finally, Matthew narrows His lineage down to the line of David.
As God’s perfect plan unfolds over the 1700 years from Abraham to the Messiah it’s interesting to see who specifically is mentioned in Jesus’ family tree. Tamar is the first woman mentioned in the lineage. She was Judah’s daughter-in-law who became a widow who later pretended to be a prostitute so her father-in-law would have sex with her so she could have an heir. Who is the second woman mentioned in the genealogy? Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute who was instrumental in the defeat of Jericho. Ruth was the third woman mentioned in Jesus’ lineage. She was from Moab, the inhabitants of whom the Jews despised. The fourth woman mentioned in the line of Jesus was Bathsheba, the one who committed adultery with David and then whose husband David had killed.
Also listed in Jesus’ family line were kings and leaders of Israel who had some serious flaws and failures (moral and otherwise), who were the least likely to succeed, people whom we would not necessarily want mentioned in our own family ancestry. Why would God want to specifically include them? How did they make it on this list? It’s because they were recipients of God’s mercy. What does this tell us?
God's perfect plan includes imperfect people. This gives all of us hope. It shows us how God uses ordinary people with all kinds of faults, imperfections, and even past failures as part of His perfect plan. Despite the character flaws and frailties, despite their times of doubt, poor decisions, and outright disobedience (which didn’t come without its consequences), God’s perfect plan was fulfilled.
Over the generations, God’s plan also included every form of adversity: infighting, famine, slavery, poverty, conflict, untimely or brutal deaths, the exile of the northern and southern kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 years of captivity by the Babylonians and then the slow repatriation back to Israel, the Persian, Greek and the Roman occupation. All circumstances, good, bad, and the ugly were included in God’s plan yet He was able to preserve the Messianic lineage from Abraham for 1700 years, right until the time Jesus was born to Joseph and Mary.
In the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, all of God’s purposes for His people, declared and foreshadowed throughout the writings of the OT and the history of Israel, are coming to their destined fulfillment. This is because God’s perfect plan is based on…
2. God’s perfect promises
Matthew breaks down Jesus’ lineage into three 14-generation eras. In these three eras are three unconditional covenants (or promises) that were made to 3 key people: Abraham, David, and Jesus. The covenant that God made with Abraham, the Davidic covenant, and the New Covenant that God made with all nations through Jesus Christ.
God promised Abraham a good land (Gen 12:1), a great nation, a great name, and great blessing that will extend first to him and then to all the families of the earth (Gen 12:2-3). At the time of this covenant, the big question for Abraham and his wife, Sarah, was “how is this going to happen since we have no children and are so old already?” Well, that was God’s problem to solve, not theirs to worry about. When Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90 she had a son who they named Isaac which even back then was considered a miracle. So we see that Matthew begins the lineage with a miraculous birth and ends the lineage with the miraculous virgin birth.
The next unconditional covenant or promise was one that God made with David where He told David that the Savior would come through the tribe of Judah and through his own descendants, and that this Messiah would establish a kingdom that would endure forever (2 Sam 7:12-13). So now with this unconditional promise, people were not only wondering, “who is this Messiah that will come through the tribe of Judah” but “how will He reign forever?”
Even while the Old Covenant was still in effect, through His prophets Moses, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel, God was pointing people to the Messiah who was the only One who could fulfill the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenant. The New Covenant (or New Testament) is the promise that God made with mankind that He would pay for the sins of the world and restore the broken relationship between Himself and those whose hearts are turned toward Him. This gave the nation hope through the ages.
When Mary realized that she was going to give birth to the Messiah, she said:
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, just as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants (Luke 1:54-55 AMP).
But who is the One who could or would be the long-awaited deliverer and when would this happen? Matthew was saying, if you want to know who the Messiah is, follow the ancestry of Joseph and Mary who were both from the line of David, the tribe of Judah and from the family of Abraham. And in the fullness of time, Mary gave birth to Jesus who was the long-awaited Messiah. Who fulfilled these prophecies and all others regarding the Messiah. When Jesus came as God incarnate, He offered the good news of salvation to all people, including the most despised people in society. In fact, Jesus came to save precisely such people and Matthew’s genealogical record of Jesus the Messiah foreshadowed the hope of the gospel - that because of God’s infinite grace and mercy, anyone can be part of God’s family through Jesus Christ. Which brings to my third point. God wants us to know that He will always fulfill His perfect plan and keep His perfect promises, but it will always happen in...
3. God’s perfect timing
Even when it may seem like God is slow in fulfilling His plan and His promises, there is always a purpose behind everything He does - including every seeming delay. When God gave Habakkuk, an OT prophet, a vision about the future judgment of the nations, Habakkuk asked God when it would take place. God answered him:
Write the vision and engrave it plainly on [clay] tablets so that the one who reads it will run. For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time. It hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail. Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it, because it will certainly come; it will not delay (Hab 2:3 AMP).
People have asked why God waited all those generations to send His Son to be the Savior of the world? But we know that according to His perfect plan, God sent the Messiah at the perfect time in history to fulfill His promises.
But when [in God’s plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law, so that He might redeem and liberate those who were under the Law, that we [who believe] might be adopted as sons [as God’s children with all rights as fully grown members of a family (Gal 4:4-5 AMP).
Jesus came to give His life for the sins of the world at just the right time. Rom 5:6 says,
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners (NLT).
When Christ was born, it was during the time called the Pax Romana because the world was at peace. Greek was the international language of the time and everyone spoke and understood it. At that time, people could travel great distances because of the Roman roads which went from Northern Africa all the way up to England and across the Middle East. And because it was a time of peace, there were no wars hindering people from getting from place to place.
When the Gospels and all of the NT letters to the churches were written, they were written in Greek, and because of the ease of travel the message could be taken from town to town, city to city, and read by a vast amount of different people from all over the Roman Empire. God’s timing was perfect.
Another question people have asked was “when the Messiah did finally come, why didn’t He set up His kingdom, judge the nations, and deal with evil in fulfillment of the entire promise?”
Isa 60:1-22 tells us that, when the time has arrived for the Lord God to set up His kingdom, judge the nations, bring peace, and transform the entire earth, He will do it quickly and in His appointed time.
This appointed time is known only to God, and when the promises are fulfilled, the predicted glory will burst all at once with startling suddenness and will be fulfilled for those who have waited patiently for Him and put their hope in Him. One day the Lord will return! God’s plan will come to pass just like He promised. This has been the hope throughout the ages and is our hope today.
How does the Christmas Advent season relate to us? We can look back and know that Christ, our Hope, came to pay for our sins of the world as God’s perfect sacrifice, according to His perfect plan, promises and timing. It also means that we can look forward with hope that one day Christ’s will return to fulfill the rest of the promises, that He will gather his people to himself bring judgment to the nations, remove all evil and to restore all of creation where He will rule the earth with perfect justice and there will be peace.
The record of Jesus’ genealogy tells us that God’s family is culturally diverse and no matter how messy your life may be at times, there is hope in Christ for anyone and everyone who places their trust in Jesus. The fact that God has a perfect plan, executes it in His perfect timing and always keeps His promises tells you that you are not an accident. You were born in this specific time in history, in a specific location, and for a specific purpose. God has a plan for your life, and it is perfect, and He will use imperfect people like us, in imperfect circumstances, to bring about His perfect plan according to His perfect promises in His perfect timing. Let’s ask God how He can use us as individuals and as a church to be part of His perfect plan of redemption for this city of Vienna, for this country of Austria, and for the nations for His glory.
