PREPARING TO READ THE MATTHEW

What you will read in the first half of Matthew 1 is a genealogy, which has the same root word as Genesis. If Genesis is the account of the beginning of our known world, so Matthew’s genealogy is the beginning of the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

We begin four year journey through the Bible with a bang: a long list of names from Matthew 1:1-17. Are we really going to read this and preach on it? Why? Because we miss a huge piece of Matthew’s possible intent when we skip over what is called the “Genealogy.”

What we miss is this: Genealogy is like saying, The study of the beginning. So when he says, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham,” he could have easily written, “This is the genesis of Jesus life on earth.” 

Matthew is for the New Testament what Genesis is for the Old Testament. It’s the account of the beginning of the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham.

Why did Matthew begin his gospel account with a list of ancestors of Jesus? Matthew wants to connect Jesus and the good news that he is God’s response to Israel’s cries and hopes for a Messiah, a cry that began in Genesis 12 with a promise of God to Abraham that all nations would be blessed, not just Israel.

PRAYER

God of Abraham and David revealed through the generations to Jesus. The genealogy shows from Abraham to David, from David to exile, from exile to Christ, the gospel promise is being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

NEXT STEPS

I suggest as a practice that you stop skipping portions of scripture that don’t look savory to you, that you think are repetitive or dull. Our practice over the next four years is to trust that God has intended for Scripture to be formed in partnership with the church over 3,500 years, and we are intended to read it together.