Genealogy of Jesus Christ

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2019 10:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Jesus’ Genealogy

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 1:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:”

            Let me say first of all that I will copy Matthew 1:1-17 in this SD, and then will not put in on another SD because all it contains is the names of the genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham to Jesus, including Joseph.  I am not saying that none of these names are important because they are important as they show the blood line of the Messiah, which in and of itself is very important.  Each name has a story to tell and the story of each name can be found in the Old Testament.  Some were believers, and some were not believers, but all were important because through them the Messiah was born.

            “1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of

Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. 8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of

Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. 14 Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”

            The Greek word for “book” is Biblos, and this word can also refer to a record or account, as is the case here.  What Matthew is doing is giving a brief record of the genealogy or genesis, (“beginning, origin”) of Jesus Christ.  We have probably stated in earlier SD’s that “Jesus” is from the Greek equivalent of Jeshua, or Jehoshua, which means “Jehovah (Yahweh) saves.”  I remember when I was studying the OT books of Deuteronomy and Joshua that Warren Wiersbe pointed out that it was the plan of God not to have Moses lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, but was His plan to have Joshua because that is the OT name of Jesus.  The angel gave this name to Joseph to give to his Son after He was born.  Joseph knew that it was the Holy Spirit of God who brought Jesus’ life into the womb of Mary and the reason that His name is Jesus is seen in Matthew 1:21 “"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’”  Christos (Christ) is the Greek form of the Hebrew mashie (English, Messiah), which means “anointed one.”  Israel’s prophet’s priests and kings were anointed and Jesus was anointed as all three of these offices.  Jesus was the Anointed One, the Messiah, whom the Jews had long expected to come as their great deliverer and their monarch.

            There was a great deal of evidence that Jesus Christ was the long awaited Savior of Israel, but as we learn near the end of His life the leaders of Israel stated that they did not want this man to reign over them.  I have read that the odds of having one man fulfill all of the prophecies that were written about in the Old Testament for the coming Messiah were that if you stacked silver dollars six feet high all over the state of Texas and you had to find one particular silver dollar that would be the odds of having Jesus Christ fulfill all of the OT prophecies that He fulfilled while on planet earth. 

            At this point I want to quote a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary which he entitles “The Gracious King” and then in our next SD we will begin to look at the sub-section “The Grace of God seen in the Choice of One Woman,” which comes from Matthew 1:16.

            “Even so, From Matthew’s genealogy we learn more that Jesus’ lineage.  We also see beautiful reflections of God’s grace.  Jesus was sent by a God of Grace to be a King of grace.  He would not be a King of law and of iron force, but a King of grace.  His credentials testify of royal grace.  And the people He chose to be His ancestors revealed the wonder of grace, and give hope to all sinners.  The graciousness of this King and of the God who sent Him can be seen in the genealogy of four places and ways.  We will look at these in logical, rather than chronological order.”

            As mentioned the first is “The grace of God seen in the choice of One Woman.”  After that we will look at the other three as MacArthur stated in this highlighted quotation seen above.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I mentioned in our last Sunday school class that God has to word through sinners because that is all He has to choose from, and as we look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ all of them were sinners, and probably a great deal of them never came to faith in the coming Messiah, that can only happen by God’s grace.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have been given God’s grace and this certainly goes along with the learning of humility because God’s grace is certainly undeserved by me.

Our quotation from “Love in Action” today is Genesis 2:18.

“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be along;

I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

11/20/2019 11:21 AM