Archive for category: Verse By Verse Matthew

Remember, we’ve already prayed that God the Father will enlighten us through His Word by the Holy Spirit and so, by faith we expect to receive that understanding.

We’re also going to accompany Jesus, through His Word, on his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness and see why he didn’t fall for the temptations bought to Him by Satan.

Before we begin, let’s be sure of the timeline that these events surrounding John the Baptist took place. The days that Jesus walked on this earth also fit into this timeline. Let’s also be sure of who John’s audience is.

John, as we’ve said before is the last of the Old Testament prophets. Although we’re studying the first book of the New Testament, the events that are taking place at this time are actually still taking place under the Old Testament. Everything that happens here is dealing with the Jewish nation just as every other Old Testament book. The audience is the Jews of Judea, and the time is before the age that we’re living in today known as the Church age, or the Age of grace, or the Age of the Holy Spirit or even the age of the Gentiles. This age that we’re living in today had not yet begun at the time we’re studying today. Jesus had not given up His life yet and was not yet buried and risen after three days according to scripture. Also, the Holy Spirit hadn’t yet come to indwell man and create the new birth that signifies this new age that we live in today. The Holy Spirit came upon mankind as God saw fit, but he did not indwell men as he does today to those who believe in the Lord Jesus, The Christ, The Messiah.

John’s call to these people to repent was a call to the Jews to turn back to God who they had largely rejected in favour of religious tradition and self-centred, self-righteousness.

God is sending John as a messenger to the Jews with the message to prepare for the coming Messiah which the entire Jewish nation were expecting. The trouble was that unless they turned back to God and back to His Word they were never going to recognise the Messiah when He came because in their natural thinking, they were expecting something quite different than what the Word of God said. Unless they “repented” or turned back to God, they simply wouldn’t recognise the Christ, The Messiah when He came and now His coming had arrived.

So, we see that although we’re studying the first book of the New Testament we’re still actually in the Old Testament age.

 

We’ll put in today at Mattew 3 verse 10 where John the Baptist is still talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Maybe we’ll start from verse 7 again to get the flavour of what John’s saying,

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 

And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

 

The New Testament talks a lot about fruit bearing. Fruit bearing is the result of having the right kind of tree. Only a fruit tree can produce fruit. John the Baptist talks here about the axe being laid to the root of the tree, and the reason is simply that the tree’s not bearing fruit.

An apple tree bears apples, and an orange tree bears oranges, but when a tree bears thorns, or poisonous berries it’s not an apple tree or an orange tree or any tree that bears any type of good fruit, and it must be cut down. The root and the fruit go together.

A tree must have the right kind of root to bear the right kind of fruit and that’s exactly what John the Baptist’s saying to these religious leaders here. He’s telling them that the wrong kind of tree is going to be taken down and cast into the fire. He’s likening them to the tree that doesn’t produce good fruit. There’s no room for their useless pretending of holiness. Their self righteousness is as filthy rags to the Lord as we see in Isaiah 64:6.

Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down by irreversible judgment. The axe represents Divine Judgement and unless this demand is met, there’s no other alternative. The useless tree is condemned to be firewood and it relates to the unbelieving Jew who’ll be excluded from the kingdom of the Messiah.

Now to verse 11, and John is till speaking,

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

 

John’s saying, “l baptise with water. But He is coming, meaning the expected Messiah, and when He comes, He’ll baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire”.

The “and” that’s used here “and with fire” is now nearly 2,000 years long.

You and I are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. Christ Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit in this present age. Now, when He comes the second time He’ll baptize with fire, and fire means judgment.

We really need to understand this difference here.

Many people, especially in Pentecostal churches, believe that on the Day of Pentecost, the believers were baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire, because it says that tongues of fire sat upon each of them.”

My friends, we really need to read Act 2:2-3 properly.

Let’s read,

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 

Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 

The King James reads.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

See, it wasn’t wind, and it wasn’t fire; it was the coming of the Holy Spirit and it was likened to wind and fire. We must be specific with God’s Word.

When the Holy Spirit came, it wasn’t the fulfillment of the last part of that all-important sentence, the baptism of fire, only the first part. Let’s be sure to understand that.

 

Now someone might say, “Well why would John mean that these two events were at least 2000 years apart? Why would he not separate them?” Well, this is something that appears in prophecy and Jesus Himself did the exact same thing.

In Luke 4:17, we see that Jesus went up to the temple and the book of Isaiah was given to Him to read from. He opened the book at Isaiah 61 verse 1 and read,

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”

Then He closed the book.

Now, notice something vital here. He didn’t read the whole sentence. He cut off in the middle. The rest of the passage continues with, “And the day of vengeance of our God”. That gap in Jesus’s reading is another 2000 year old gap. You see He came at that time to heal the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives (the liberty from sin), And the opening of the prison, (the prison of sin that we’re all in) to those who are bound (bound by sin); but HE DID NOT READ , “And the day of vengeance of our God”. That part is yet to come friends.

The baptism of fire will take place at the second coming of Christ. It’s the fire of Divine judgement, God’s terrible judgement.

 

In the present age of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes upon every believer. Not just some, but every believer is baptised by the Holy Spirit, which means that the believer is identified with the body of Christ; that is, he becomes part of the body of Christ. This is one of the great truths in the Word of God.

Now John continues to speak of Christ’s second coming in Verse 12

 

His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 

 

Chaff is the worthless residue of a wheat stalk after the kernel of grain’s been removed.

These proud and unrepentant leaders were just as useless to God.

 

Judgement and purification by fire is common in prophecy. We see it in Isaiah 4:4; Zechariah 13:8-9; Malachi 3:2; and Isaiah 1:25. John predicts a real cleansing that’s coming in the future, whereas his baptism is just an outward sign of it.

In this agricultural example John gives the wind blew the chaff away, and the heavier grain fell to floor where it was gathered up from the ground. The scattered chaff was swept up and burned and the threshing floor cleared.

The Jewish leaders thought that the Messiah would come with judgment, they had no problem believing that, but they thought it was going to be only against Israel’s enemies. They were blind in their self-righteous confidence that only others needed to get right with God, not themselves and boy do many of us today have the same idea.

Now, just a quick sidebar here referring to the judgement prophecy we cited in Zechariah 13 verses 8 to 9. It’s a terrible prophecy. It’s said that in Europe during the Nazi persecution of the Jews, one in three Jews died, but in this prophecy we see that two in every three will die.

My friends, we can’t really know God if we see only His love, mercy and grace without understanding His wrath and the awful power of His judgement as well, which will one day, possibly soon, come upon the world.

 

Matthew 3 verse 13 now,

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 

 

Now we’re going to try to answer the question: “Why was Jesus baptised?”

 

Verses 14 and 15,

And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 

But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

 

So, why was Jesus baptised?

There may be several answers, but the main reason is already stated right here, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus is identifying Himself completely with sinful mankind. The prophet Isaiah prophesied in the immensely powerful verse in Isaiah 53 verse 12 relating to the coming Messiah, that He would be numbered with the transgressors.

Here’s a King who identifies Himself with His subjects. This’s actually what baptism means. Identification. It seems that identification was the primary purpose for the baptism of the Lord Jesus.

The reason Jesus was baptised was not to set some sort of pattern or example for us to follow today. Christ was holy, He didn’t need to repent. The Old Testament Jews needed to repent, to turn back to God, You and I do need to repent to turn TO God by believing the Gospel, but He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He was baptised to completely identify Himself with humanity.

There was a second reason Jesus was baptised.

Water baptism is symbolic of death. His death was a baptism. When we get to Matthew 20 and verse 22 we’ll see what Jesus said to James and John when they wanted to be seated on His right hand and on His left hand in the Kingdom. In fact, we’ll read it.

But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?”

He was speaking to them about His coming death on the cross. You see, Christ’s death was a baptism. He entered into death for you and for me.

There’s a third reason for the baptism of Jesus.

At this time, He was set aside for His office of priest. The Holy Spirit came upon Him for this priestly ministry. Everything that Jesus did, His every act, was done by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us,

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

There was sin ON Him, but there was no sin IN Him, you see.

My sin was put ON Him, not IN Him. That is a most vital detail. He Himself was sinless but he bore our sin, it was put on Him, therefore, you and I are saved by being identified with Him. He identified Himself with us in baptism.

And Peter says in 1st Peter 3 verse 21 that we’re saved by baptism. How? By being identified with the Lord Jesus. To be saved is to be in Christ. How do we get into Christ? By the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment we believe.

Now the ritual of water baptism after we believe is still important because that’s the way we declare that we’re identified with Christ. It’s an outward act to represent an inward change.

The Lord Jesus Himself said in John 6:37

“the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”

We must recognise that we have to be identified with Christ, and that’s accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

Our water baptism is a testimony to this.

When we come to Christ, my friends, we should be baptised by immersion in water because it’s our duty and our outward testimony of our inward change from death to life, our salvation. By itself it’s not a part of salvation but it’s a necessary testimony to the fact that we’re now identified with Him, Jesus, The Christ who gave Himself for us.

The whole subject of baptism needs to be seen for what it is, identifying with and standing for Christ.

Let’s repeat Matthew 3 verse 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. John baptised Him.

 

Verses 16 and 17,

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

 

Here we have a wonderful picture of the Trinity, God as One God and yet in three manifestations. As the Lord Jesus is coming out of the water, the Spirit of God descends upon Him like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven.

The Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Lord Jesus is now identified with His people. What a King He is!

 

We now come to the 4^th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew where we see the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, the beginning of His public ministry at Capernaum; and the calling of four of His disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

Before we begin let’s look at the movement or the flow if you like, of the Gospel of Matthew leading up to this temptation of Jesus.

Jesus came down to be born among us and to be identified with us. He grew up as any other child would, except that He was without sin.

In His baptism, He’s been identified with us, He’s put on our sin.

Now He’s going to be tested and the testing takes on a threefold nature physical, spiritual, and psychological. The testing covers each of the areas that we ourselves are tested in, that is each part of our triune nature or the trinity if you like that makes us a whole person, body, mind and spirit.

There’re some real questions that need to be answered in relation to this testing.

Is the King able to withstand a test, a tempting, and can He overcome that test?

You see if He couldn’t stand up to real temptation how could the sinner be condemned? How could Adam and Eve and all their children after them suffer the wages of sin, which is death, if it was impossible for even God in the flesh to withstand temptation and to not buckle under trials?

Now, the word tempt has a twofold meaning:

The first meaning is to “Incite or entice to evil or to seduce.” There’s something in each of us which causes us to yield to evil, but this wasn’t true of Jesus. In Hebrews 7 verse 26 we read that, He was “… holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners …”

And in John 14 verse 30 Jesus Himself taught, “… for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” As we’ve seen before the ruler of this world is Satan.

So, the temptation for Jesus had to be different from that which would cause you and me to fall. It needed to be a much greater temptation.

The second meaning of the word tempt is “Test.” God does not tempt men with evil as we read in James 1:13. That passage reads,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 

And yet, we’re told in Genesis 22 verse 1 that “… God tested Abraham …” or tempted Abraham as the King James reads. What does this mean?

Well, it means that God was testing the faith of Abraham.

Jesus is now to be tested. Could Jesus have fallen? We need to answer that with an absolute no! He could not have fallen. If Jesus could have fallen, then you and I don’t have a sure and certain Saviour.

Now we may ask, “Well then, if Jesus couldn’t have fallen, was His temptation a legitimate and genuine temptation? Because if it wasn’t and the temptation of Adam and Eve and by extension you and me was real it makes a mockery of the test.”

However, we can be very, very sure that not only was Jesus’s temptation real, but it was also much greater than anything that you and I’ve ever had to bear.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ was tested to demonstrate to you and me and to the entire spiritual and natural universe that He was exactly who He claimed to be, and that sin could not be a result of His testing and temptation.

Many years ago, I had a business making steel safety cabs for tractors. They were made under stringent safety rules because up to that time many farmers were killed when tractors rolled. So, each newly designed cab prototype had to undergo a test where the cab was fitted to the tractor, the tractor was then immovably fastened to the floor of a testing facility and a huge steel block was raised by a winch and dropped on the cab. The cab was required to have no more than a very slight movement and only a very small amount of twisting was allowed. You see the test was not to intentionally break the cab but to prove that it could withstand a real life accident.

Just like Jesus’s testing, It was to prove, to demonstrate, that He could not be broken down and He would not collapse under pressure. His testing, therefore, was greater than ours. There’s a limit to what you and I can bear. Give us enough temptation, and then keep building up the pressure, and finally we’ll succumb to it.

But Christ never gave in even though the pressure continued to increase.

Another really interesting feature of this temptation is the comparison and contrast with the testing of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Christ was tested in a wilderness while Eve was tested in a garden. What a huge contrast!

 

Now let’s look at Matthew 4:1,

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

 

He was to be tested by the Devil.

 

Matthew 4:3-4

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 

 

This is the same kind of temptation that came to Eve. The first one was physical. She saw that the tree was good for food as we saw in Genesis 3:6. The Lord Jesus was told to turn stones to bread.

 

Verse 4,

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ ” 

This verse that Jesus is quoting is found in Deuteronomy 8 verse 3. Jesus absolutely knew Deuteronomy, and He quite obviously believed it was the inspired Word of God.

Now the second testing comes in verses 5 and 6,

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘HE SHALL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE OVER YOU,’ and, IN THEIR HANDS THEY SHALL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU DASH YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’ ” 

 

Now we see that the Devil himself is quoting Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12 but notice he doesn’t quote it accurately.

The devil left out the words, “To keep you in all your ways.” The “keep” here means to care, to preserve and guard. Notice the words “in all your ways”.

This is a promise of God to keep Jesus, and by extension you and I, as we go through the journey of life. We’re never promised that we’ll be “kept” if we intentionally put ourselves in harm’s way for no other purpose than to see if God’ll protect us. I doubt if there’s a person among us who’d purposely jump in front of a speeding semi-trailer just to prove God would supernaturally get him out of the way and yet this’s exactly what the devil’s trying to make Jesus do.

The devil’s intention here is the same as his intention always was and always is, deception. He’s trying to make this word a promise that’ll be fulfilled even if Jesus neglects his duty and voluntarily throws himself off the pinnacle. He’s trying to get Jesus to “prove” who He is by tempting God the Father with an unnatural act.

Now, this is the spiritual temptation. For Eve it was that she saw the fruit was “… to be desired to make one wise …” as Genesis 3 verse 6 states. For the Christian, it is the “… pride of life …” that we see in 1 John 2:16.

I don’t know about you but for me this particular temptation of Jesus by the Devil is remarkable because it’s such a weak, almost pathetic argument, but it also makes me ashamed of how quickly and easily I personally buckle under the same kind of deception.

 

Verse 7,

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘YOU SHALL NOT TEMPT THE LORD YOUR GOD.’ ” 

 

Jesus simply counters the devil’s attempted deception with the Word by quoting Deuteronomy 6 verse 16.

Now we come to the third testing in verses 8 and 9 which is psychological,

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 

And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 

 

Satan showed Him the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

This, you see, is a psychological temptation. Man lusts for power, power and control. Eve was subjected to the same temptation in Genesis 3 verse 5 where Satan tells her “… you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Many of us buckle to this test. We crave for the things of this world.

Jesus came to win all the kingdoms of the world and their glory back from Satan’s domain, and now Satan offers them to Jesus, without needing to endure the cross, if He’ll only fall down and worship him.

We can’t exactly say how Satan showed Jesus this, but we can certainly say what Satan did not show Jesus. Satan offers the kingdoms of the world and their ‘splendour’ without showing their sin.

Satan says, “I will give You” and Jesus doesn’t challenge Satan’s authority over this world and its governments and his right to offer them. This temptation couldn’t have been real if Satan didn’t have the authority and the right to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

Adam and his descendants gave the devil that authority. God gave Adam the stewardship of the earth as we saw in Genesis 1 verses 28 to 30, and Adam willingly turned it over to Satan.

Ultimately, all things belong to God, of course, but God allows Satan to function as the god of this age for a purpose, His purpose, as we see in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4. This is why this fallen world is in the mess it is.

Notice the answer the Lord Jesus gives to Satan in verse 10,

 

Verse 10,

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND HIM ONLY YOU SHALL SERVE.’ ” 

 

Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy again, this time chapter 6 verse 13 and chapter 10 verse 20.

Notice friends, that our Lord answered each time with Scripture. Certainly, that ought to have a message for all of us today.

Why is it that many of us are having trouble living the Christian life? Well, we can’t soft soap it. It’s ignorance of the Word of God.

Our Lord always answered by giving the Word of God. The Word of God has an answer for our particular problem. God has an answer for your problem, and it’s in His Word. That’s the reason we should know the Book better than we do.

The Lord Jesus didn’t say to Satan, “Well, I think this” or “I believe there is a better way of doing it.” He said very definitely that the Word of God says this and the Devil seems to have got the message because in the next verse, verse 11 we read,

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. 

 

We see here that after the third temptation, the Devil left the Lord Jesus for a while. He certainly didn’t leave Him alone permanently though. Luke 4 verse 13 tells us that the Devil left Him for a time. Quite likely he was back the next day and, in fact was testing Him throughout His life. We especially see that in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus endured indescribable suffering.

 

Friends we have a King who could and did withstand temptation. He understands our weaknesses, because he faced all of the same testings we do in spirit, soul, and body, yet he didn’t buckle, He didn’t sin. Until the next time may our Lord, who could not be tempted, be with you to comfort and guide you in your testing and trials.

There were quite likely many people living in Christ’s day who knew and studied scripture and were well aware of these prophecies and they must have wondered how all of them could be fulfilled. It would have seemed difficult, if not impossible.

Let’s see list several of them here here, then we’ll see how they were fulfilled at the time of Christ’s birth: He was to be born in Bethlehem and that’s prophesied in Micah 5:2. He was to be called out of Egypt in Hosea 11:1. There was to be weeping in Ramah so says Jeremiah 31:15 and He was a root from the stem of Jesse and therefore to be called a Nazarene we see in Isaiah 11:1.

Now, since Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, why should there be weeping in Ramah, which is a long way north of Jerusalem? And He was to be called a Nazarene although He’d be born in Bethlehem and called out of Egypt. The question is: How could all of these prophecies be fulfilled in a little baby, especially when the jigsaw peices didn’t seem to fit?

Well, Matthew shows how literally, accurately, and easily all were fulfilled without any strain on prophecy or on history. It just came about as God said it would come about.

In our day there’re certain prophecies that relate to the second coming of Christ, and, just like the times of old, we may find it difficult to align them up and place those jigsaw pieces in the right sequence with what we see in the world today. However, they’ll all be fulfilled in the exact same way that past prophecies were.

More than likely were going to find that it’ll all take place in a normal, natural way without over the top fanfare.

It looks like a jigsaw puzzle to us down here, but, when we get into His presence and it’s all fulfilled, it’ll have been just as natural as the prophecies about His first coming. Every little piece in the jigsaw puzzle will fit into place, and we’re going to wonder why in the world we didn’t see it at the time.

So, we shouldn’t waste or time trying to figure out who the antichrist is or if the rapture’s going to be tonight before dinner. The Lord has it perfectly under control and His timing cannot be interfered with.

 

Now let’s start Mattew 2:1,

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 

 

This is the historical record of the coming of the wise men.

Notice here that they came in the days of Herod the king and the one thing Herod did not want was competition. In fact, the one thing that Herod would not tolerate was competition. So, the wise men coming to Jerusalem really alerted him.

Now, no matter how hard you look at this verse you’ll not find anything about 3 wise men.

All the Christmas cards may say that, and every Christmas play, or Christmas display you’ve ever seen may represent that, but the Bible definitely doesn’t.

Many people know more about the Christmas story from Christmas cards than from the Bible, and therefore they have many ideas that’re simply not true. Let’s try and correct several of them in this chapter and let’s keep in mind some very important scripture as we do.

In Mark 7:9 Jesus said to the Pharisees and Scribes, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition”.

Mark chapter 7 verse 13 talks about making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.

In other words, we cancel the Word of God, His truth, in order to hand down our own traditions and there are a number of other scriptures which reinforce this. God has no place in the traditions of man.

 

So, the Bible record doesn’t tell us there were three wise men. In fact, it doesn’t give us the number at all. But it does give us a clue. For example, in chapter 3 we see that when Herod the king heard about this company of wise men he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him.

It’s very doubtful whether three wise men would have disturbed Herod or excited the whole of Jerusalem in such a way. The number was more than likely closer to three hundred men than three and they certainly would have troubled the king and the city, and we can especially see that when we understand who they were and where they came from. There’s a deep history at the back of who these men were and that history goes right back to the book of Daniel. Like many subjects we’ve looked at in our study so far, we can’t derail the study of the Gospel itself to delve deeper into the subject. Many of these subjects we encounter as we go through the Bible take us down rabbit holes that lead into a maze of truly amazing subjects. However, if we went down those rabbit holes we’d spend an entire lifetime getting through Matthew.

These travellers are called wise men, which in the ancient Greek is magoi which we know as magi. Misconceptions and legends abound about these wise men. They were not kings as tradition holds but wise men, which means they were astronomers. They were not followers of the pagan astrology that’s rampant today, but they understood God’s plan of salvation that’s clearly seen in the stars. This is what’s known as the Mazzaroth.

The Mazzaroth is 12 constellations that circle the earth and in it God’s entire plan of redemption is displayed including the virgin birth of Christ.

My friend, the heavens really do declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork as Psalm 19 verse 1 tells us.

These wise men came from the East. Notice that they were from the east, and we’ll see why that’s important shortly. They evidently came from different areas but from the east. They’d been studying the stars, the Mazzaroth and when this new star appeared, they joined forces and came to Jerusalem. As we’ve said, we don’t know how many there were, but we can be almost certain it wasn’t three. Probably three hundred would be more near the truth, and if they were the powerful group of kingmakers, and nation builders that we understand them to be from a deeper study, there could have been a thousand or more of them and they would have more than likely been travelling with a powerful armed escort.

Now that certainly would have disturbed Herod and the whole city.

But the wise men came in verse 2,

saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” 

 

These men were looking for a King, and that certainly got Herod’s attention.

“We have seen his star in the east.” They said. Here’s another misrepresentation that we’ve got from manmade Christmas tradition.

If they’d seen His star in the east and it had been an eastern star, the wise men would have ended up in India or China because, you see, they were already in the east. East of where? Well, Jerusalem. So, if they followed a star that appeared in the east of where they were, then obviously they would have travelled further eastward from their already eastern position. That would have taken them in the exact opposite direction to which they actually travelled.

No, the star was in the west! Again, the wise men were situated in the east. The star was in the west, and they followed it. They came west, not east. The text in the verse basically says that, while these chaps were in the east, they saw a star. It wasn’t a star hovering over the east as we tend to think.

 

Now, how did they associate a star with a King, and how did they identify it with Israel?

Well, we’ve only got speculation to go on here but these men probably new the Mazzaroth as well if not better than most people of the day and they knew full well the prophecies about the coming King.

Also, in that section of Israel in the East, the people had a prophecy given by Balaam, which is recorded in Numbers 24:17,

“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.”

The prophet Balaam specifically gave this prophecy concerning the nation Israel.

And a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. The star and the sceptre go together. The wise men in the East had that prophecy, along with a knowledge of the coming Messiah, The King that would rule Israel.

There’s been all sorts of speculation throughout the ages as to which star within our planetary system this was and some weird and wonderful concepts have been put forward, however, this was no ordinary star from the night sky.

In verse 9 of this chapter we read that the star went before them (that’s the wise men), till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

Has any star from our planetary system ever done that? No!

This was a supernatural phenomenon that God used to guide these men and it’s almost certain that these men would have been fully aware of that.

 

Verse 3,

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 

 

So then, when this very impressive delegation of wise men converged on the city of Jerusalem asking a question like this, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews” the whole city was disturbed.

Herod wanted to know about this. This man Herod was Herod the Great, and he was a very superstitious man.

A good Bible dictionary will tell you a lot about the Herod family. They were as bad a bunch as there’s ever been, very cruel and power hungry and Herod the Great was the biggest scoundrel of them all. He was an Idumaean, meaning an Edomite, who had bought his position from the Roman government, so he wasn’t of Israel at all, and he was really anxious to locate this One who appeared to be a rival for his throne.

 

Matthew 2:4

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 

 

He was basically saying to the chief priests and scribes, “I know that you have the Scriptures and in them you have a record of a Messiah that’s coming. I want to know where He’s to be born.” One of the amazing things is that they were able to tell him.

 

Verses 5 and 6,

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 

‘BUT YOU, BETHLEHEM, IN THE LAND OF JUDAH, ARE NOT THE LEAST AMONG THE RULERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’ ” 

 

When Herod asked the scribes this question, they didn’t have to search the Scriptures for it; they knew exactly where it was, Micah 5:2.

They didn’t need to even turn to the scriptures and scroll through them, or do a phrase search on the computer, because they knew it off by heart.

They could quote it. They knew all about the coming of the Messiah. The problem was that their knowledge was academic rather than personally meaningful to them. If this knowledge had been within their hearts and not just their heads they would have already been on their way to Bethlehem themselves.

Since the scribes knew the Old Testament Scriptures so well, you’d have thought that they’d have gone to the wise men and said, “How about letting us ride down with you guys? We are looking for the Messiah too!”

They’re examples of folk who know the history contained in the Bible and they know certain factual truths, but these things carry no personal meaning for them.

How many of us are really looking for the coming of the Lord?

We talk about it, and we study a great deal about prophecy. We know about the antichrist, and we can speculate for hours about the one world government, a cashless society, and the horrors of the great tribulation but how many of us really want to see Him right now, today?

Would He be an interruption to what we’re currently doing? Would we say to Him, “Could you postpone your visit till some other time, maybe after I’m finished what I’m into at the moment”?

 

Herod got the information he was after from the scribes we see in verse 7,

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 

 

We see here that the star had appeared sometime before the wise men arrived in Jerusalem. Remember that they made the trip by camel and it would’ve been a long, hard trip!

Most likely, they didn’t arrive in Jerusalem until at least a year after the appearance of the star. This wasn’t just a little Christmas celebration for them. As they travelled the long, weary miles, they had been hanging on to the hope of seeing Him, the new King that was born, and presenting their gifts to Him.

In the King James and most other translations, Herod “inquired diligently” or “determined exactly” the time of the star’s appearance. This’ll be an important fact later in the story.

So, Herod sends the wise men on to Bethlehem in verse 8 and we read,

And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” 

 

Herod’s being as subtle as the old serpent that he was.

He well knew that he couldn’t say what was on his mind, which was to find this new King and get rid of him for good by murdering Him.

He knew that they never would have allowed him to get his hands on the Child because He would have been hidden.

He knew that the clever way and the best way was to let the wise men go down and find the child and then come back and tell him. He said he wanted to go down and worship Him, but of course what he really wanted to do was to murder Him.

 

Verses 9 and 10,

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 

 

Now the star appears again, and this indicates that they travelled a lot of the way without seeing the star all the time.

That should be enough to put paid to the nonsense we often hear about today about planetary movements that occurred at this time in history that revealed a star that the wise men followed.

Matthew makes it clear that this star was a very unusual star; in fact, it was a supernatural star. It was miraculous, and we simply don’t need to try to find some sort of natural explanation for it. Now, it may be, as many astronomers think, that there was quite a movement in the heavens at that time. When He came, heaven and earth both responded to His coming into this world. It’s entirely possible that many unusual natural phenomena did take place, however, what the wise men saw was a supernatural star.

 

Verse 11,

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

 

 

When these wise men arrived, Jesus wasn’t in the stable behind an inn.

The great movement of people into the city of Bethlehem was now over. Everyone had gone back to their homes because the enrolment for taxes as ordered by Rome was over and that was the reason that town had been packed full of people

Probably such a perilous and rough trip for the family looking after a newborn Little One would have risked His life. So, they’d stayed in Bethlehem and had, by this time, moved into a house.

The wise men found the family in a house. Again, the Christmas cards show the wise men coming into the stable. Well, unless Joseph gave these men a sightseeing tour of where the Baby Jesus was born, they never even knew where it was. They came to the house.

Here we must note that when they saw the young child with Mary His mother, they fell down and worshiped Him, that is the Child.

If there was ever a time when Mary should have been worshiped, this was it. But they didn’t worship her, they were wise men!

They worshiped Him and presented to Him their treasures: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

It was common in the East in that culture that you’d never appear before royalty or a person of importance without bringing gifts. Considering who these wise men believed the young Child to be, it’s not surprising that they gave such lavish gifts.

The idea that there were three wise men comes from the fact that there were three gifts mentioned in the Bible.

The precious gifts were not presented to Mary or Joseph, but to Jesus Himself. Yet undeniably, the infant Jesus did not use or spend any of these precious gifts, but His parents used them, hopefully wisely, on His behalf and to His benefit.

Gold speaks of royalty, the frankincense speaks of divinity, and myrrh speaks of death. Yet it’s more than likely that the Magi weren’t aware of this.

How useful would this gold have been to Joseph in the following months. God knew what their needs would be, and He met them.

Also, we must note that the wise men, the magi, didn’t worship a newborn baby, but a young child.

At this time, He was probably between 6 and 18 months old. Also notice that the Child is mentioned before the mother which was against the custom.

These wise men gave more important gifts than the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They gave Jesus their worship. They fell down and worshipped Him. It must have been a strange sight to see these very impressive and important men bowing before a young child.

 

This chapter shows three different responses to Jesus, and we could categorise how everyone responds to Him from one of these three ways.

1. Herod displayed an open hatred and hostility toward Jesus.
2. The chief priests and the scribes were indifferent toward Jesus, while still clinging to their religious respectability.
3. The wise men sought out Jesus and worshipped Him – even at great cost.

 

It’s very interesting to study the facts concerning Jesus’s second coming as they’re related to us in Isaiah 60:6 which reads,

The multitude of camels shall cover your land, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba shall come; They shall bring gold and incense, And they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD. 

What gift is left out at His second coming? Myrrh! They don’t bring myrrh because that speaks of His death. When He comes the second time, nothing will speak of His death. As we’ve said Gold speaks of His birth. He’s born a King. Frankincense speaks of the fragrance of His life, His divinity. Myrrh speaks of His death. All of this is indicated in the gifts that were brought to Him at His first coming. But at His next coming, myrrh will not be brought to Him. He’s already been through the doorway of death, but death could not hold Him because death is the wages, the payment, for sin and He had not and could not sin. Therefore, He was resurrected, defeating death and the grave. The next time He comes, He won’t come to die on a cross for the sins of the world. He’ll be coming as King of kings and Lord of lords.

When we get to the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 2 verses 15 to 20 we’ll see that a bunch of shepherds visited Jesus after His birth but before the wise men.

In comparing the visit of the wise men to the earlier visit of those shepherds we see:

• Jesus came to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.
• Jesus came to the humble and ignorant first, then the honourable and learned.
• Jesus came to the poor first, then the rich.

 

Also, we can learn something from the wisdom of these wise men.

• They weren’t satisfied with just looking at the star and admiring it; they did something about the star and set out and followed it.
• They persevered in their search by following after the star.
• They weren’t discouraged in the search by clergy and doubtful religious leaders.
• They rejoiced at the star.
• When they arrived at the destination the star led them to, they entered in.
• When they entered in, they worshipped.
• They sensed an urgency to worship Him now and not wait till later.
• When they worshipped, it was to give something – not empty-handed adoration.

There’s a wonderful pattern in this account. Those who look for Jesus will find him: those who truly find him will worship him: those who worship him will dedicate all they have and all they are to Him. They’ll give Him the glory for all they’ve been provided with in this life and for the hope and the joy and the rest and peace that they know they have throughout eternity because of His sacrifice.

 

Until we take up the rest of this most incredible of all stories my friends may God bless you and keep you and may you trust in Him and in His goodness in your life.

When I think about Matthew the man, I see a despised tax collector who would have probably lived his life scoffing at the criticisms from his fellow man. He would have needed to walk down the street with no fear at all of the people around him. He probably had as much contempt for them as they had for him. He did have a lot of associates in his field of tax collecting because he holds a great banquet for them as we’ll see when we get to Luke 5:27 to 29.

Maybe the population around him were even downright scared of him because he would have needed to be quite a ruthless man to hold down this especially hated job and continue to survive. It would be easy for me to imagine little kids running for cover when he walked nearby. I see this man as one tough cookie as well as a very well educated, highly intelligent man who had very little, if any, respect for the religious leadership of the day.

Then something happened deep down inside him that gave him the incredible insight and the complete change of heart to be one of the most dedicated disciples of our Lord. He met Jesus, he heard Jesus, he put together the words Jesus spoke with what he already very well knew about his Jewish heritage, then he believed Jesus. Then, when Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him then he just got up and followed Jesus.

He became one of the unbreakable links in a long chain of souls who knew that their encounter with Jesus was greater than anything this world could possibly offer.

We’ve said that Matthew originally wrote his gospel in Hebrew, and it was then translated into Greek. There are some scholars who say there’s no concrete evidence for this because there’s never been a discovery of an early Hebrew manuscript of Matthew.

Whether he wrote in Hebrew or not The Jewishness of Matthew’s gospel is evident and its remarkable. It’s intensely concerned with issues related to the Jewish nation. This is plainly seen even in the opening genealogy, which Matthew traces back as far as Abraham as opposed to Luke’s Gospel which shows Christ as the Redeemer of humanity and goes all the way back to Adam. Matthew’s purpose is to demonstrate that Christ is the King and Messiah of Israel. This gospel quotes more than 60 times from Old Testament prophecies, showing how Christ is the fulfillment of all those promises. Matthew tells the story about Jesus’s miraculous conception and birth; the importance of liturgy, which is church service, law, discipleship, and teaching; and shows us Jesus’s life and death.

The Gospel of Matthew has long been considered the most important of the four Gospels.

The genealogy which opens the Gospel of Matthew, and the New Testament is in many respects the most important document in the Scriptures.

We should always remember one of the key verses in our Why God study which is 2 Timothy 3:16,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

The genealogy in Matthew fits into this description of “All Scripture” therefore, even though we might see it as boring list of hard to pronounce names, it’s there to instruct us.

The entire Word of God and His truthfulness and greatness rest on the accuracy of this genealogy because if God couldn’t get this right what else couldn’t He get right. God displays His supernatural might and power in the incredible accuracy of this genealogy that gives us the bloodline of the Lord Jesus Christ, The One Who the entire collection of the 66 books of the Bible is about.

You and I may find the genealogy and the “begats” boring but if we see through the meticulous giving of the names to the purpose it was given we get a much greater appreciation of why God took such great pains to bring it to us. That purpose is purely and simply to show us, you and me, the incredible power of God that made all of these people traceable and to make it crystal clear that every link was perfectly placed to bring Jesus, Who is the Jewish Messiah, The Christ, The Saviour into our world.

Notice that this genealogy has three divisions:

1. The genealogy from Abraham to David in verses 1 to 6.
2. The genealogy from Solomon to the Babylonian captivity in verses 7 to 11.
3. The genealogy from the Babylonian captivity to Joseph, the carpenter in verses 12 to 17.

We saw in our journey through Genesis that it was a book about families and the genealogies there are very important, because it’s here, in Matthew at the start of the New Testament, that we see the purpose for them unfold.

Now, it’s true that at a first glance this genealogy looks a bit boring.

If you just threw someone a copy of the New Testament without any explanation to go with it, they’d begin here in the Gospel of Matthew with this genealogy consisting of a long list of names who begat so and so who then begat another so and so.

Truly, they’re not going to get very far into it, and we can’t blame them.

We need to use a bit of wisdom in what literature we give out to people. The average person should start first in any one of the other three Gospels, preferably Mark, rather than the Gospel of Matthew. But that in no way lessens the importance of this genealogy.

As we’ve said, the entire New Testament rests upon the accuracy of this genealogy because it establishes the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is of the line of Abraham and of the line of David. Both are very important. The line of Abraham places Him in the nation, and the line of David puts Him on the throne. He’s in that royal line. Of course, the genealogies also show us how God’s promises to Abraham, Issac and Jacob and to King David were fulfilled to the letter.

The genealogies were very important to the nation Israel, and through them it could be established whether a person had a legitimate claim to a particular line and to a particular tribe. For example, when Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity, we find in the Book of Ezra in Ezra 2 verse 26,

These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled. 

You see, it was possible in Ezra’s day to check the register of the tribe of Levi and remove those who made a false claim.

Evidently these genealogies were kept by the government and were accessible to the public.

They were more than likely kept in the temple because Israel was a theocracy which means a state where God and the government are one. The ultimate marriage of church and state if you like to put it that way.

This genealogy was obviously on display and could have been copied from the public records until the temple was destroyed with the rest of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

The enemies of Jesus could have checked these records at any time, and they definitely would have.

Now, this is interesting and important because the religious rulers challenged every move of the Lord Jesus, and they even offered excuses and explanations for the Resurrection, which incidentally were quite silly, but they never questioned His genealogy.

They never accused Him of not being of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then from the line of King David. Why? Because they checked it out against the written records that were freely available, and they found that it was accurate.

This is incredibly important because it puts Jesus in a very unique position. You remember that He said the Shepherd of the sheep enters in by the door, but the thief and the robber climb up some other way to get into the sheepfold? We see that in the Gospel of John chapter 10 and verses 1-2. Well, that “fold” He’s talking about is the nation Israel.

He didn’t climb into the fold over a fence in the back, and He didn’t come in through the alley way. He came in through the front door. He was born in the line of David and in the line of Abraham. This is exactly what this genealogy in Matthew’s showing us. He’s the fulfillment of everything that had been mentioned in the Old Testament, right down to the tiniest detail. In fact, I’ve got a list of just 351 of these fulfilled prophesies with the verse of the prophecy in the Old Testament, the prophecy itself and the verses that show its fulfilment. You can see this list below the Notes and Outlines tab below this list of broadcasts.

So, the enemies of Christ never could challenge Him in regard to His genealogy. They had to find other ways to challenge Him, and, of course, they did.

Some people deny that Jesus claimed to be God. But anyone who says this simply hasn’t read the Bible. His claim to be God was the very reason they crucified Him. The Jewish religious leaders knew full well of His claims that He was God and accused Him of blasphemy and put Him to death. The issue is not whether Jesus claimed to be God, he certainly did, the issue is were His claims valid? The eternal destiny of each one of us hinges on our answer to that question.

We’ve often said during our Bible studies so far that God ‘s gone to great lengths to include only those things that are relevant to Jesus and His redemption. If that’s true then why do so many of us disregard the genealogy of Matthew or treat it very lightly or as if it’s just not necessary for it to be there?

Well, if God gave this much valuable space to it then it must to be vitally important don’t you think?

Let’s at least agree that the simple fact that this genealogy exists in the Bible at all makes it very important indeed.

So then, this is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus on Joseph’s side. We’ll have another one when we get over to Luke, and that’ll be from Mary’s side.

So, let’s start at the beginning, Matthew Chapter 1 verse 1,

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: 

 

“The book of the genealogy ” or as the King James version has it “The book of the generation ” is a phrase which is a unique expression found in the New Testament only here in Matthew.

We don’t find it anywhere else in the New Testament. But, if we start going back through the Old Testament, in fact all the way back to Genesis chapter 5 verse 5, we find that expression again,

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam…

There’re two books: the book of the generations of Adam and the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

All of us without exception got into the family of Adam by birth. We personally had nothing to do with it, but that’s the way you and I got into the family of Adam, by birth.

The trouble is Romans chapter 5 verse 12 tells us something very frightening, and we’ll read from the NLT version where it’s as plain and pointed as it’s possible to be,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 

Adam’s book is, in effect, a book of death.

Then there is the other book, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. How do we get into that family and into that genealogy?

Well, we also get into that book by birth, the new birth. The Lord Jesus says in John chapter 3 verse 3 tells us that and I quote His Words,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We must be reborn spiritually, in that deep part of us that’s the real us, the spirit.

That puts us in to the genealogy of the Lamb’s Book of Life, The Lamb being none other than Jesus, The Christ, and we get there by trusting Christ, by believing that what we read here in this Bible is truth. When we believe, our birth into the genealogy, the family of Jesus Christ is as sure and certain as our living body that’s walking around today is in the genealogy, the family of our ancestor Adam.  We’re all in the first book, the book of the generations of Adam, and I trust that you, my friend, are also in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

 

Matthew says in this first verse that Jesus is “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Didn’t Matthew know that Abraham came before David? Of course, he did because he makes that clear in the rest of the genealogy. Then why did he put it this way, in this order?

Well, He’s presenting the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, the One who is the King, the One who’s going to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And that comes first. He must be in the line of David in fulfillment of the prophecies that God made to David. He’s the Son of David.

He’s also the Son of Abraham and it’s very important that He be the Son of Abraham because God had made a promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 verse 18 and we read the words of that promise with the knowledge that Our God simply cannot lie,

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…”.

And then, in Galatians 3 verse 16 Paul explains who that “seed” is, and we read,

“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.”

So, Jesus Christ is the Son of Abraham as well as a son of David.

 

Now let’s see verses 2 to 6,

Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 

Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 

Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. 

 

As we’ve just come from the Book of Genesis many of these names should be familiar to our ears.

A careful look at the genealogy that follows is not only interesting; it is actually thrilling when we see it for what it really is, the revealing of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, through the human line.

Four names stand out like neon lights because we wouldn’t expect to find them included in the genealogy of Christ. First, they’re the names of women and second, they’re the names of Gentiles.

 

It wasn’t in the custom of the day for the names of women to appear in Hebrew genealogies. It’s similar today in the sense that we have the same thing in marriage. In a marriage the name that the couple takes is mostly the name of the man. They don’t take the name of the woman because her line ends whereas his goes on. That’s the way we do it today, and that’s the way they did it then.

Our custom is to take the name of the man, and it is the man’s genealogy that’s given.

In Jesus’ day it was very unusual to find a woman’s name in a genealogy, and yet here we have four woman’s names. But, they’re not only four women; they’re four Gentiles.

As you know, God in the Law said that His people were not to intermarry with tribes that were heathen and pagan.

Even Abraham was instructed by God to send back to his people to get a bride for his son Isaac. Also, the same thing was done by Isaac for his son Jacob. It was God’s arrangement that monotheism, in other words One Living and True God and no other, should be the belief of those who were in the line leading down to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet in His genealogy are the names of four gentile women. Two of them were Canaanites, one was a Moabite, and the fourth was a Hittite! You would naturally ask the question, “How did they get into the genealogy of Christ?”

“Thamar” is the first one, and she’s mentioned in verse three. Her story is in Genesis 38, and there she’s called Tamar. That chapter is one of the worst in the Bible. Thamar got into the genealogy because Tamar as she’s called in Genesis was the wife of Judah’s son and that son was wicked, so God put him to death. History kept repeating and Tamar was doubtful she would get a child because Judah wouldn’t give his youngest son to her, which was the custom of the day. So, what did Tamar do? She disguised herself as a prostitute and waited for Judah to come by. Judah falls for the plot, has sex with her and Tamar gets pregnant. She gives birth to Perez and Zerah. Perez is the one through whom Jesus comes.

“Rachab” is the next one mentioned in verse five. She’s not a very pretty character in her story back in Joshua chapter 2 where she’s called Rahab, the harlot. But she did become a wonderful person after she came to a knowledge of the living and true God.

Hebrews 11:31 tells us,

“By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.” 

You see, she got into the genealogy of Christ for the simple reason that she believed. She had faith. Notice the progression here. Come as a sinner, and then reach out the hand of faith to which God in turn extends His mercy and grace.

“Ruth” is the next one mentioned in verse five and she’s a truly lovely person, and we won’t find anything wrong with her, in fact the story of Ruth is one of the great love stories of history and when we see the picture it paints of our Lord it is the greatest love story ever written. But at Ruth’s time there was the Law which shut her out of the nation of Israel because the Law in Deuteronomy 23 verse 3 said,

“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, 

Although the Law kept her out, there was a man by the name of Boaz who came into his field one day and saw her. Boaz loved Ruth at first sight, and he extended grace to her by putting his mantle around her and bringing her, a Gentile, into the congregation of Israel. It’s exactly like the Lord. Boaz pictures Jesus Christ and Ruth pictures us, the Church, the gentile Bride of Christ.

In Ruth 2 verse 10 we hear Ruth asking Boaz,

“Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 

You and I can ask that same question of God regarding His grace to us.

 

Again, we see the sequence. We come as sinners and hold out the hand of faith, and He, by His marvellous grace, saves us.

 

“Bathsheba” is not mentioned by name but in verse 6 we see her very clearly as she’s spoken of as quote, “her who had been the wife of Uriah.”

 

Her name isn’t mentioned because it wasn’t her sin. It was David’s sin, and David was the one that really had to pay for that sin. And boy did he did pay for it.

Bathsheba got into the genealogy of Christ because God doesn’t throw one of His children who sins overboard.

A sheep can get out of the fold and become a lost sheep, but we have a Shepherd who goes after those sheep and always brings them back into the fold. He certainly brought David back. So, this is the whole story of salvation right here in this genealogy.

 

Now there are some other interesting things about this genealogy. If we compare this genealogy here in Matthew with the one in 1 Chronicles 3, even though some of the names are spelled differently, we’ll find that in verse eight of Matthew, the names of Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah are left out.

This shows us that genealogies are used to give us a view of a certain line of descendants and that every individual is not necessarily named in every genealogy of the Bible.

We should remember this in the genealogies given to us in Genesis before the Flood. They’re not necessarily complete genealogies, but they’re given to trace a certain line for us to see.

 

Verses 10 to 11,

Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. 

Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. 

 

In verse 11, we find that Matthew skips Jehoiakim but includes Jechonia. Now we should pay special attention to this chap Jechonia because God had said that none of his seed would sit on the throne.

Let’s see that in Jeremiah 22:24,

“As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off.”

Wow, these are the strongest possible words that the Lord Himself could have uttered. This chap was destined to be King, quote, “the signet on God’s right hand”, but God removed him.

It gets worse. The Lord calls this man Coniah. His name is Jeconiah, but God took the Je off his name because it’s the prefix for Jehovah, and this man was extremely wicked so God will not have His name associated with this man. Nor will he have him anywhere in the line to Jesus.

Then the LORD says of this man in Jeremiah 22:30,

‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.‘

Because of the sin of this man Jechonia, neither he nor anyone from his line could ever sit on the throne of David.

 

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father is in this line, but Joseph’s not the natural father of Jesus. This is one of the most remarkable facts in the Scriptures, and Matthew’s trying to make it clear to us.

Joseph gave the title, the legal title, to the throne of David to Jesus because Joseph was the husband of Mary who was the one who bore Jesus.

Jesus Christ is not the seed of Joseph, nor is He the seed of Jeconiah. But both Joseph and Mary had to be from the line of David, and they were, but through two different lines from two different sons of David.

We’ll find when we get to Luke that Mary’s line comes from David through his son Nathan, while Joseph’s line comes through the royal line through Solomon. So, Joseph and Mary both had to go to Bethlehem to be enrolled for taxation because they were both from the line of David.

You see how fascinating, and all important these genealogies are and why they’re worth our study.

Now the genealogy finishes with verse 16,

And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 

You see how this breaks the pattern which began as far back as verse 2 where it says that Abraham begat Isaac. From then on it was just a whole lot of “begetting,” and then verse 16 begins by saying, “And Jacob begat Joseph.” You would expect it to continue by saying that Joseph begat Jesus, but it doesn’t say that. Instead, it says, “Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”

Obviously, Matthew’s making it clear that Joseph’s not the father of Jesus. Although he’s the husband of Mary, he’s not the father of Jesus.

What is the explanation of this? Well, Matthew in the rest of this chapter will give us the explanation and will show us exactly how it fulfills Old Testament prophecy.

 

So, this ends our first steps into the Gospel according to Matthew.

Next time we’ll come to what has to be the greatest miracle and the most momentous event that’s ever taken place, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The day God clothed Himself with flesh and became a man.

Until then my friends may God strengthen and bless you as you learn more about Him.