The Family Tree

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”  Matthew 1:1

The book of Matthew is the first of the four gospels which introduces the New Testament.  The term “gospel” means “good news”.  When Christ came into the world to save sinners, it was definitely good news.  Matthew, who wrote this book, was a Jew and a tax collector, also known as a publican.  Jesus saw him sitting at the “receipt of custom” (the tax commissioner’s office) and called him to come and join with Him and His other disciples.  He immediately left his job and followed Jesus (Matthew 9:9).  My guess that his quick decision to follow Jesus was from a God-sent stirring in his soul, a drawing to be a difference maker in the lives of others.  His job as tax collector for Rome made him a very unpopular fellow among the Jews, but Jesus saw what he could be in service to Him and to the multitudes.  It is believed that Matthew wrote this history about eight years after Christ ascended back to the Father in heaven.  It is also believed Matthew wrote in the Greek language because that was the common language in those days.

Matthew, a tax collector by trade, must have also been an accountant for he was very meticulous about tracing the family tree of Jesus Christ.  All of Matthew’s work was based on historical fact.  Jesus’ ancestors were real people who lived in ancient times.  The book of Genesis begins with the genealogy of the world–how God made the world and made man and how man sinned and brought about the need for a Savior.  The book of Matthew gives the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus and gives us proof that our Lord Jesus is the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham, of which both relationships were required for Jesus to be the Messiah.

Isaiah 53:2 prophesied that the Messiah would come “as a root out of dry ground”.  Jesus was born during the time when Israel was under Roman rule.  The “seed of Abraham”, Israel, was hated by most of the rest of the known world, just as it is today.  Nothing has changed about that.  Jesus’ royalty came not from His ancestors for they did not come from royalty.  Those who rose to positions of prominence only did so because God brought it about to serve His purpose.  David was a shepherd boy who became king (I Samuel 16).  Paul pursued Christians as fugitives until he became a believer (Acts 9).  Gideon was the least in his family, yet by the power of God defeated the Midianite army (Judges 6).  I think God likes to take ordinary folks and enable them to do extraordinary things.  All it takes is a willing heart.  Many of Jesus’ ancestors lived in relative obscurity.  God chose whom He desired to be in the lineage of Christ.  Adam had three sons, but it was his third son, Seth, from whom the line of Christ would come (Genesis 4:25-26).  Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.  Ishmael was the oldest, but he was the son of an Egyptian handmaid while Isaac was the son of promise born to Abraham and Sarah, thus Isaac was the one designated to be in the line of Christ (Genesis 21:12).  Isaac also had two sons, Jacob and Esau, the oldest, but it was Jacob who was the one chosen to be the father of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 27).

Another fact that is found in the genealogy of Jesus as accounted for in Matthew’s careful collection was the mention of four women besides Mary, Jesus’ mother.  Scripture is replete with accounts of events concerning mostly men, but we do find several women who made an impact in the service of the LORD throughout the Old and New Testaments.  The four women who were listed in Matthew’s account were Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law (Judah was the fourth son born to Jacob and Leah-Genesis 29:35-and the son whose descendants would be in the line of Christ).  Tamar had posed as a prostitute to trick her father-in-law and became pregnant by him (Genesis 38:11-30).  It was their son, Phares, who continued the line of Christ.  Rachab was the second woman listed.  She was a Gentile who married Salmon, a Jew, and bore their son, Boaz.  Her story is found in Joshua 2 and 4.  Ruth was the third woman who was also a Gentile and married Boaz.  Their son was named Obed, who was King David’s grandfather (Ruth 4:13-22).  The fourth woman was only identified as the wife of Uriah, but we know her as Bathsheba, the woman who bore David’s son, Solomon, through an adulterous affair with David (II Samuel 11:1-27).  While Jesus is sinless and perfect, His family tree was filled with sinful, imperfect people.

Verse 17 in Chapter 1 of Matthew indicates that there were 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian captivity (II Kings 25), and 14 from the Babylonian captivity until the birth of Christ.  Nothing that God does is haphazard.  Everything is done in order with specific goals to implement His plans.  He can use whatever and whomever He desires to achieve the desired results.  Depending on the number of years used to calculate a generation, it has been from 50 to 65 or more generations since Jesus came to earth the first time, and we do not know how many more generations will be allowed to come into existence before He comes again, but it is certain that He will come again to claim His bride, the church of born again believers.  For this He came, suffered, died, and rose again to give eternal life to as many as would repent and believe on Him.

More next time.