WEDNESDAY Matthew 1:1-17
• The Hebrew word “Messiah” meant “anointed one.” (“Christ” meant the same in Greek, by the way.) What do you believe made Jesus’ link to Abraham and King David so key for Matthew? In what ways does it matter to you that God kept his ancient promises?
• In an unusual move for his time, Matthew named five women (including Mary) in Jesus’ genealogy. Scholar R. E. Brown suggests that Matthew chose the other four because, like Mary, God used each of them although they faced obstacles, even scandal, in their lives. Does God still work though unlikely people? What is God doing through you?
Today’s reflection by Nic Tunney
When I first read the assigned text, Matthew 1:1-17, I had no idea how to dissect the text to understand how God was using Matthew to speak to us, hundreds of years later in a much different world. What can we possibly learn from a genealogy across almost 40 generations that started with Abraham and ended with Jesus and included a bunch of people I didn’t know sprinkled through the middle?
In researching the passage, it stuck out that Matthew starts with Abraham to define the genealogical line. In Genesis 12:1-3, God makes 3 promises to Abraham. He promises Abraham land, a nation, and that “All the families of the earth shall be blessed”. God fulfilled his promises to Abraham in the form of land and a unified nation, but what stuck out to me was the way the third promise was written: “all the families of the earth”. He doesn’t say just the Jews, or just those residing in Palestine or Israel. God clearly states that He shall bless everyone on earth. That alone is an awesome thought, especially when we turn to the news lately and see the divisions across our our nation, let alone with our neighbors around the world.
How did God bless every single family on earth? By sending his son Jesus! In Acts 3 Peter has just healed a disabled man. When Peter was chastising the Israelites present at this event, he reminded them of God’s promise to Abraham, which was to bless all the families of the earth. Acts 3:25-26 says “He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
Matthew 1:1-17 reminds us of this promise from God to Abraham. God delivered on each of his promises, and Matthew is using this recollection to build up to the story of God fulfilling his third promise to Abraham.
While Jesus was on earth, he put his full faith in God, even knowing why he was sent here: to die on the cross. He knew that God would raise him from the grave as he promised and thereby save mankind, those whom Jesus loved so much, and he knew both of these things as evidenced in God fulfilling his prior promises to the people of Abraham.
So how does this relate to us today? For me, if Jesus could put all of his faith into God to submit himself to the punishment by his oppressors his and eventual crucifixion, I can easily trust in God that he will take care of me and my family, as well keep his promises to us like His grace and eternal life through His son Jesus Christ.
Thanks,
Nic
One Comment
sandy
Nic,
Thank you tying the old and new testaments together today. It really adds context, history, and credibility.
And may God continue to bless all our families.
Sandy
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