Introduction

If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter one. This book (Matthew) is the beginning of a new chapter in the Bible. You can see that it comes right after the divide between the testaments. Not all the books of the Bible are in chronological order, but Malachi does actually take place last in the Old Testament, in order of time. There is a span of 400 years between Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew. This time period will be important to our story, but we will get to it later.

Matthew writes this book as a new beginning. Of course, what he wrote is fully inspired by God, so God wrote this too, but it’s almost as if Matthew knew these words would be penned as the beginning of the New Testament. And there’s a big reason behind that. Look at Matthew chapter 1 v. 1

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Now, this will get a little bit nerdy, but bear with me, because I found this extremely interesting. It’s really easy to read past this line and sort of think nothing of it because the next few paragraphs are the very genealogy Matthew wants to introduce. But Matthew is doing something else here that every original reader would have picked up on, but its something we can easily miss today.

Remember that Matthew wrote in Greek which was like the English language of his day. It was the common language, the trade tongue. The Old Testament, which was originally written in Hebrew also got translated into Greek a few hundred years before Christ. This was called the Septuagint. The Septuagint (OT in Hebrew) would have been the Bible most were familiar with and read. This is important because most of the time a New Testament writer quotes from the Old Testament, they quote from the LXX not from the Hebrew.

So also when a New Testament author alludes to the Old Testament, they allude to the LXX not the original Hebrew. So, the point of all this is, Matthew makes a direct allusion to Genesis.

Genesis is, as you all know, the first book of the Bible. The Hebrew word that forms the structure of the book of Genesis is תוֹלֵדֹת. This is usually translated as “generations” or “record.” So most translations of Genesis 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” And that translation reflects the original Hebrew.

However the Greek Septuagint translates the word תוֹלֵדֹת as a word that sounds like “Genesis” where the book gets its name. So Genesis 2:4 from the LXX reads like, “This is the book of the “genesis” of heaven and earth.” Likewise, the LXX for Genesis 5:1 reads, “This is the book of the “genesis” of mankind.”

Matthew purposefully uses that same Genesis word. . .which could be rendered, “The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ. . .” When we think of the term “Genesis” we think of a term of origin. And there is some truth to that, but we do not want that Christ had an origin point. Jesus is eternal. He says in Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” So Jesus never had a beginning, but he did have a birthday. This is why we refer to his birth as the incarnation: Jesus, who always exists as fully divine, became fully man in order to fulfill God’s plan.

The term in Genesis, תוֹלֵדוֹת in Hebrew and “genesis” in Greek functions more as a stage setting term. It puts a spotlight on the main focus of the book. And in the gospel of Matthew, this term works the same way: it puts the spotlight on Christ. Matthew words things carefully to point to the fact that Jesus is the true Messiah and King.

I believe this is where our main application lies. We always want to strive to make the main point of the text the main thing we apply to our lives. And that can be a difficult thing to do, especially when we are reading something like a list of names. How many times have you gone through a genealogy in the Bible, got to the end of it and wondered, “What’s the point of all these names?” Well, I pray today, we can find Matthew’s point and apply that point to our lives.

Our first name on our list is Abraham, but before we get to him, there’s some other history we should cover. In the beginning, God created everything good. Mankind was the peak of this creation, in his image, designed to rule over his created realm. But mankind rebelled against God and decided to rule on their own terms which lead to disaster, destruction, and death. But not all hope was lost. God promised a seed, and offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). And so satan makes it his job to so corrupt this seed that God’s promise may never come to pass.

And it seems as though he had succeeded by Genesis 6, all of mankind’s thoughts was only evil all the time. But God wasn’t done working. He chose Noah out of that wicked generation to continue his plan. The wicked world was destroyed in the historic flood, but again, not all hope was lost. Matthew presents the rest of history up until the time of Christ in three major epochs. Look at verse two

Epoch 1: Abraham

Matthew 1:2–6 ESV

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,

Abraham was promised something specific in Genesis 12. So not only does Abraham continue the promise given to Eve in Genesis 3 to have a head-crushing offspring, now this head-crushing offspring is said to be a blessing to every family on earth. Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

Notice that interesting promise to Abraham at the end of verse 3 of Genesis 12? “All the families of the earth shall be blessed” How is it possible for the offspring of a seemingly insignificant man bless every single family on the earth? Matthew seems to pick up on this promise by mentioning Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. These women were outside God’s chosen people, but brought in to God’s people by his grace, thus, being a foretaste of the Abrahamic promise.

The Abrahamic promise is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. 1 Peter 2:10 “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Epoch 2: David

Look back at verse 6, I’m going to reread that entire verse to note something significant:Matthew 1:6–11 ESV

and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

I reread the entire verse six to point out the significant pause Matthew gives us. He brings attention to the fact that David was the king. And just as the promised seed was further clarified through the promise to Abraham, so too is that promised seed further clarified by a promise to David. 2 Samuel 7:12–13 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Now this promise has some dual-fulfillment. In some ways Solomon fulfilled it, but only as a picture of what was to come. You see, Solomon, though great and the wisest man, failed. The kingdom split right after him. But God promised to establish the throne of David forever, and so he has in the Messiah. You see, the Messiah is predicted to be the head crusher, the blessing of every family on earth, and to be king for all eternity. All of these promises find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

After David the lineage takes a significant turn away from Luke’s account of Jesus’s genealogy. Some take ...