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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. ~ Matthew 1:2-17
Today, we continue our study of the gospel according to Matthew who was led to provide us with a descending genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ which means he started with the beginning and ended with the Lord Jesus. Whereas in Matthew the genealogy of the Lord Jesus led up to Mary's husband Joseph, Luke's gospel starts with the Lord Jesus through his mother Mary and goes back to Adam. The genealogy that Matthew employed reveals the legal descent of the Lord Jesus as the King of Israel, whereas Luke shows us the blood line. The royal line always passes through the father but the Lord Jesus had no human father. So, in order to have the blood line, he had to be a descendant of David through his mother. Through Mary the Lord Jesus had the blood of David, and through Joseph he has the right to reign as King through King David.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ."
Matthew did not say he was the father of the Lord Jesus, he said that Joseph was the husband of Mary. The Bible never calls Joseph the father of the Lord Jesus. The prepositional phrase "of whom" was written in the feminine gender, meaning the Lord Jesus was born not of the seed of Joseph. The Lord Jesus was Joseph’s child legally because He was adopted into Joseph's family. And, since the father was the one who granted the royal line, in every way possible Jesus Christ had the right to be the King of Kings.
When the Lord Jesus was born most people thought, at least at the time of His birth, that He was the son of an illicit affair. They called him the son of Joseph because Joseph was constituted his legal father but Joseph was not His biological father.
In v.11 of today's passage we read, "Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon."
Josiah begot Jeconiah. Here, Matthew provides Joseph’s lineage leading up to the birth of the Lord Jesus. This is some very interesting and important information. In Jeremiah 22:30 we read, "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."
The man to whom this refers is Jeconiah, the son of Josiah. God had said through the prophet, "None of Jeconiah’s offspring will ever sit on the throne of David." God said these words because a curse had been placed on Jeconiah due to his evil choices. The problem with this curse is it seems to invalidate the right of the Lord Jesus to the throne of David. The Davidic Covenant promised that the Messiah, "the Son of David," would reign forever on Jerusalem’s throne. If the Lord Jesus were a descendant of Jeconiah, then how could He be the Messiah, since the curse keeps any of Jeconiah’s descendants from assuming David’s throne? That is, if the Lord Jesus had been the real son of Joseph, but He wasn't the descendent of Joseph. God devised a plan by which the Lord Jesus could be the legal heir to the throne through Mary. The plan that God devised was the virgin birth. The purpose for Matthew's genealogy is to present the fact that the Lord Jesus is the One who has the right to reign.
Once again, in v.16 of today's passage we read, "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ."
Mary was unknown before this. She was also a sinner who needed a savior and the Lord Jesus Christ had to be her savior.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "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."
Here, Matthew provided three sections of 14 generations. There are 42 generations listed from Abraham to Christ. The first period began with Abraham and ended with David, the period of the great patriarchs and the great judges. The second period is the period from David to the carrying away of the people to Babylon, which was a period of spiritual decline. The first was a period of ascendency, as Israel grew as a people group. The second period was the period of the monarchy. And as soon as the monarchy came things started to go downhill because the people began to look to man for direction and meaning rather than from God.
From David following, we were given the glory days of Solomon. But after Solomon, tragedy upon tragedy came. It was a period of apostasy that ultimately ended up in the destruction of Israel and their captivity in Babylon. The third period was from their captivity in Babylon to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a period shrouded in darkness. It was 600 years of datelessness. We don’t even know the names involved. The story of Israel is the story of three eras. And, even though the whole nation went down the tubes, it is nevertheless through that nation that the Messiah came to redeem us.
The odds that the Lord Jesus Christ overcame in order to fulfill the predictions made in the OT are overwhelming. The odds that the Lord Jesus would fulfill just 8 of the 300 Old Testament prophecies was one and ten to the 17th power. If we were to take the entire State of Texas and fill it with silver dollars two feet thick. If we were to pre-marked one silver dollar and blind-fold a man and send him throughout the state of Texas to find the silver dollar we marked, the odds would be one and ten to the 17th power, the same odds of the Lord Jesus fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies. Staggering! And most interesting, this provides us a peek into the greatness of our God. We should never doubt Him. His track record speaks for itself.
