2)
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father
of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3)
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was
Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,
4) Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the
father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5)
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the
father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
6) and Jesse the father of King David. David was the
father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, 7)
Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of
Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8) Asa the father
of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the
father of Uzziah, 9) Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10) Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father
of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11) and Josiah
the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile
to Babylon. 12) After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah
was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13) Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father
of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14) Azor
the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the
father of Eliud, 15) Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar
the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16)
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of
whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
This genealogy establishes Jesus' claim to the throne of David
through his adoptive father Joseph; this is not His blood
lineage through Mary, but His legal lineage through Joseph.
In this genealogy is the unusual
presence of four women; women were rarely mentioned in ancient
genealogies, and the four mentioned here are worthy of special
note as displays of the grace of God.
Tamar (verse 3):
She sold herself as a prostitute to her father in-law Judah to
bring forth Perez and Zerah. Perez and Zerah are the
illegitimate offspring of Tamar by Judah when he thought she was
a prostitute and lay with her. In Leviticus an illegitimate son
prohibits inheritance until the 10th generation.
Rahab (verse 5):
she was a Gentile prostitute, for whom God took extraordinary
measures to secure her salvation from judgment and her lifestyle
of prostitution. Thus, Boaz had a Gentile mother, Rahab!
Ruth (verse 5):
she was from Moab, a Gentile.
Bathsheba (mentioned by
implication in verse 6): she was an adulteress, infamous for her
sin with David.
What is the
purpose behind the listing of these women? To demonstrate that
Jesus Christ was not some kind of "blue blood" in the sense that
He did not come from some "pure" aristocratic background. To
demonstrate that Jesus identifies with sinners even in His
genealogy, even as He will in His birth, baptism, life, and
death on the cross. To show that there is a new place for women
in the New Covenant; Jewish men would pray every morning
thanking God that they were not Gentiles, slaves, or women.
The Blood Curse
“Jeconiah”: 2 Chr 36:8; Jer
22:24. Jehoicakim had a son named “Jehoiachin” (also referred to
as “Jeconiah” or “Coniah”). Jer 22:24-30. God pronounces a blood
curse on Jeconiah! Matthew takes us down the royal line through
Jeconiah to David and then Joseph. The Messiah must be eligible
for the throne of David, yet can’t be under the blood curse of
Jeconiah. Luke gives us the answer
(Luke 3). This genealogy from
Adam to Abraham through David is the same as Matthew, but at
David Luke goes through Nathan (not Solomon) down to Heli, the
father of Mary. Of the house of David, yet NOT under the blood
curse of Jeconiah!
17)
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to
David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon,
and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
Matthew's organization of the genealogy: Matthew is pointing out
that this genealogy is not complete; there were not actually 14
generations between the landmarks he indicates. The practice of
skipping generations at times was common in the listing of
ancient genealogies; Matthew is doing nothing unusual here. The
organization around the number 14 was perhaps for the purpose of
easy memorization.
The Scepter of Judah
In Genesis 49, Jacob prophesizes
over each of the twelve tribes. Among these seemingly cryptic
riddles, the best-known one concerns the royal tribe of Judah:
The Scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be.
Genesis 49:10, The term “scepter” refers to their
tribal identity and the right to apply and enforce Mosaic Laws
and adjudicate capital offenses: jus gladii. The term
“Shiloh” was understood by the early rabbis and Talmudic
authorities as referring to the Messiah.1 It is significant that
even in their 70-year Babylonian captivity (606 - 537 B.C.) the
tribes retained their tribal identity. They retained their own
logistics, judges, etc.
The Scepter Departs
In 6-7 A.D.,
King Herod’s son and successor, Herod Archelaus was dethroned
and banished to Vienna, a city in
Gaul.
Archelaus was the second son of Herod the Great.4 The older son,
Herod Antipater, was murdered by Herod the Great, along with
other family members. (It was quipped at the time that it was
safer to be a dog in that household than a member of the
family!) Archelaus’ mother was a Samaritan (1/4 or less of
Jewish blood) and was never accepted. After the death of Herod
(4 B.C.?), Archelaus was placed over Judea as “Entharch” by
Caesar Augustus. Broadly rejected, he was removed in 6-7 A.D.
He was replaced by a Roman
Procurator named Caponius. The legal power of the Sanhedrin was
immediately restricted and adjudication of capital cases was
lost. This was normal Roman policy.
This transfer of power is
mentioned in the Talmud and by Josephus: After the death of the
procurator Festus, when Albinus was about to succeed him, the
high priest Ananius considered it a favorable opportunity to
assember the Sanhedrin. He therefore caused James, the brother
of Jesus, who was called Christ, and several others, to appear
before this hastily assembled council, and pronounced upon them
the sentence of death by stoning. All the wise men and strict
observers of the law who were at Jerusalem expressed their
disapprobation of this act...Some even went to Albinus himself,
who had departed to Alexandria, to bring this breach of the law
under his observation, and to inform him that Aranius had acted
illegally in assembling the Sanhedrin without the Roman
authority.
This remarkable
passage not only mentions Jesus and His brother James as
historical figures, it also underscores that the authority of
the Sanhedrin had passed to the Romans.
Reaction
When the members
of the Sanhedrin found themselves deprived of their right over
life and death, they covered their heads with ashes and their
bodies with sackcloth, and bemoaned, “Woe unto us for the
scepter has departed from
Judah
and the Messiah has not come!”
They actually thought that the
Torah, the Word of God, had failed! They should have known
better.
The scepter had,
indeed, been removed from Judah, but
Shiloh
had come. While the Jews wept in the streets of Jerusalem, a
young son of a carpenter was growing up in Nazareth. He would
present Himself as the Messiah the King on the very day that had
been predicted by the Angel Gabriel to Daniel five centuries
earlier.
Every detail of His life was
foretold centuries earlier. And much of what He is about to do
is also predicted with the same accuracy.
A World Leader will shortly come
and try to change our focus off that one singular, incomparable
life. The world will soon be in for a series of surprises!
The Throne of David
There is another
aspect to keep in mind during the Christmas season. As we recall
the prophecy in Micah that prescribes that the Messiah was to be
born in
Bethlehem,
notice the entire verse:
But thou,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from
everlasting. Micah 5:2
Also, as we recall that other
familiar prophecy in Isaiah, note again the whole verse:
For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his
shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and the peace there shall be no end,
upon the Throne of David,
and upon his
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
justice from henceforth even for ever. Isaiah 9:6-7
The “Throne of David” is not just
an Old Testament concept. Remember the Angel Gabriel’s promise
to Mary:
And, behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and
shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be
called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no
end. Luke 1:31-33
But did Jesus ever actually sit
on David’s Throne? He couldn’t have. It didn’t exist at that
time.
Jeconiah, was the last of David’s
line to sit on the Throne. Remember the blood curse on his
line.11 Herod, appointed by the Romans, was an Edomite (“Idumean”).
He wasn’t even Jewish.
Although Jesus
presented himself as the Meshiach Nagid (“Messiah the King”) on
the very day that Gabriel had announced five centuries
earlier,
Jesus never sat
on David’s Throne. At the moment He is sitting on His Father’s
Throne. The question is, will He ever sit on David’s Throne?
Will the promise that Gabriel announced to Mary also be
fulfilled? Of course!
And it may be sooner than we
think.
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18) This is how
the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was
pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together,
she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Mary, while engaged to Joseph, is
found to be with child as a result of a miraculous conception by
the Holy Spirit.
Matthew plainly (without Luke's
detail) presents the virginal conception and birth of Jesus;
however, it was not popularly believed then (as it is also
doubted now by some)
The enemies of Jesus knew there were
"suspicious" circumstances surrounding His parentage (John
8:19, 48); lies were spread that Mary
had become pregnant from a Roman soldier - here, Matthew is
setting the story straight.
19) Because Joseph
her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her
to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Joseph's reaction: a quiet divorce. Remember that betrothal was
binding in that culture; one needed a divorce to break such an
engagement. Considering it impossible to go through with a
marriage to someone who has been unfaithful to him, Joseph makes
a "logical" decision for a quiet divorce.
20)
But
after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit. 21) She will give birth to a
son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins."
An angel speaks to Joseph
in a dream, convincing him not to do the "logical" thing and
divorce Mary. Mary probably had not told Joseph that it was by
the Holy Spirit; how could she (or anyone except God) explain
such a thing? This was not the angel of the Lord, but
simply an angel of the Lord; perhaps Gabriel, who is
prominent in the announcements made to Mary and Zacharias (Luke
1:19, 26); yet those were actual
angelic visitations, this was presented to Joseph in a dream
The address son of David should
have alerted Joseph that something was significant here; it is a
reference to his legal lineage to the throne of David. The name
JESUS ("the salvation of Yahweh") was fairly common in
that day, but supremely blessed in our day; as it is said, there
is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved
(Acts
4:12)
Saved from what? He will
save His people from their sins; Jesus meets us in
our sin, but His purpose is to save us from them; first
from the penalty of sin, then from the the presence of sin.
22) All this
took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the
prophet: 23) "The virgin will be with child and will
give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which
means, "God with us."
The virgin birth as a
fulfillment of prophecy: This is the first use of that it might
be fulfilled, which will become a familiar theme throughout
Matthew. There has been some measure of controversy raised
regarding this quote from
Isaiah 7:14, primarily because the
Hebrew word Almah can be translated as either a virgin or
just a young woman. But the issue is ridiculous to argue; in
this context, clearly Almah indicates a virgin, because
the Old Testament never uses the word in a context other than
"virgin" and because the Septuagint translates it categorically
"virgin". Immanuel is a title of Jesus that refers to both His
deity (God with us) and His identification and nearness
to man (God with us).
24)
When Joseph woke
up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took
Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her
until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Joseph marries Mary after the angelic announcement. The words
did not know her till imply that Joseph and Mary had
normal marital relations after Jesus' birth; this denies the
Roman Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. This is
an unbiblical, doctrine, that did not appear earlier than the
fifth century after Jesus; it should be placed with the dogmas
of Mary's immaculate conception, assumption into heaven and
present meditative role for believers - all of man's invention,
meant to exalt Mary in an unbiblical manner. The simple
obedience of Mary and Joseph in naming the baby Jesus is
worthy of notice; such simple obedience is sometimes exactly
what being a Christian is about!
Chapter 2
(Subscribe to
Prophecy Updates)
