Matthew 1:1-7 Family Tree (Part 1)
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: January 2, 2019, Matthew 1:1-7
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 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, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,
(Understanding the Text) This part used to bore me, but it has significance to me now in two ways. First, I learned from sermons that in Jewish thinking, it was important to know where you come from. Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, so it was important to show that Jesus’ lineage came from David. Pastor David Asscherick also points out the importance of arranging the fourteens–two sevens in three groups–had significance to the Jews. This lineage is different from Luke’s list and there are some missing people. I don’t quite understand the idea that some have expressed that Matthew left some out to get his perfect numbers. I think there is a better way to explain the missing people. One possibility that I considered when I was studying Luke 3 was that one of them gave Joseph’s lineage while the other gave Mary’s. This is what Guzik says, “a. This genealogy establishes Jesus’ claim to the throne of David through his adoptive father Joseph. This is not His blood lineage through Mary, but His legal lineage through Joseph. The Gospel of Luke provides Jesus’ blood lineage through Mary.” I don’t have a completely satisfactory answer to the discrepancies and missing progenitors; however, I’m sure that there is one. The SDA commentary points out that there is no evidence that any of Matthew’s contemporaries challenged his genealogy, which the Jewish authorities would have if they could since the first criteria for being Messiah is to be a descendent of David.
The second interesting feature of this lineage is that my knowledge of the Old Testament gives me a story behind many of the people listed now. In a way, the Bible narrative is a story of the people who would become Jesus’ ancestors. One new thought that I have about this is that the Bible is showing us that something wonderful and perfect can come out of sinful, prideful, sleazy human beings. Each name is like a symbol that opens up a whole thought process about the road that led to Messiah and the need for Him.
(Revelation of God) The first point that Matthew wants to make is that Jesus was the son of David and thus, also the son of Abraham. Those few words had a lot of meaning to Matthew’s Jewish audience and should have a lot of meaning to Christians today. Names in scripture have symbolism, and each of the names listed here were symbolic of the journey that led to Messiah. Matthew is saying that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises and predictions made in the scriptures to and about Abraham and David. Those words say that Jesus was the Messiah who would bless the world. They are the first piece of evidence to show that Jesus was the promised one that all of Israel had been looking forward to. Evidence 1: Jesus fulfilled the requirements of lineage necessary for the Messiah. He was the son of David. He was the son of Abraham in a unique sense, in that He was the promised outcome.
(Understanding the Text) Who were these people?
Abraham Genesis 12:1-25:8
Isaac Genesis 21:1-35:29
Jacob Genesis 25:19-50:14
(Until this point Jesus’ lineage just shows that He was of Jewish descent the same as every other Jew living in the Roman Empire at that time, but now the evidence starts to narrow down the possibilities for Messiah.)
Judah Genesis 29:35-50:26 Judah was the fourth son born to Leah. He was the youngest of her sons, the last one born to her. His name meant celebrated. I think it is interesting how Leah progresses in her desires for approval. Her first son was called Reuben which means “see ye a son” because she wanted her husband to see that she had given him a coveted son, and she reasoned that even if Jacob didn’t like her for herself, he would appreciate her because she had given him his first son while Rachel had given Jacob nothing but herself. The second son was called Simeon/Shimon which means hearing. Her reasoning was that God had heard about her husband’s contempt for her and given her a blessing to make up for it. The third son was called Levi which means attached. Her reasoning was that even if Jacob did not like her, he was permanently attached to her because she had given him his only three sons, in fact, his only children to that point. I think she must have feared being put away and felt that her three sons would give her some kind of security. With three sons, Jacob could not get rid of her even if he held her in disdain. The first three sons all dealt with Leah’s insecurities with her relationship with her husband, but when the fourth son was born, she did not even consider her husband, only God. She had stopped focusing on a man and started focusing only on God. The first three sons were her hope of earthly love. With her final son, she celebrated the child himself as a gift of God for her.
Perez & Zerah (by Tamar) Genesis 38:1-30, 46:12 Here is one of the places where Matthew includes a woman in the genealogy, which was never done. Some people make a big deal about Matthew including the outcasts, and it is a valid point, but I think this inclusion has more to do with Matthew showing that the scriptures were all about the road to Jesus. This woman’s story is included in the Pentateuch, so she was important in bringing to the Jewish mind one of the stories behind the Messiah. The SDA commentary says that Tamar was probably a Canaanitess.
Hezron (Genesis 46:12, Numbers 26:21, Ruth 4:18, 1 Chronicles 2:5 & 9, 4:1) Hezron still seems to be a major well-known ancestor, but after him, Jesus’ ancestor’s are less well known in the genealogies. I had to be careful not to include Reubon’s descendent by the same name in my research.)
Ram (Ruth 4:19, 1 Chronicles 2:9) not much here about Ram
Amminadab (Ruth 4:19, 1 Chronicles 2:10) Amminadab is also not enlarged upon
Nahshon (1 Chronicles 2:10) “Ram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, prince of the sons of Judah.” I wonder what it means that Nahshon was prince of the sons of Judah.
Salman ( and Rahab) (1Chronicles 2:11, Ruth 4:20) Salman is not mentioned much. According to the SDA commentary, he was a relative of Caleb and Ephrath and a resident of Bethlehem. It also says that some commentators have suggested that he might have been one of the spies sent out to Jericho, which is something that I have thought of before. On the other hand, the story of Rahab the prostitute from Jericho is famous (Joshua 2 & 6). Both Paul and James also mention Rahab as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:31 & James 2:25). Thus, she was an important Old Testament example used by New Testament writers. Was she important before the gospel went to the Gentiles, or did the New Testament writers need to pull in an Old Testament example of a Gentile being accepted into the house of Israel? This shows me that the story of Ruth was only one generation after the Israelites took control of land of Canaan.
Boaz (and Ruth) (1 Chronicles 2:11, Ruth) Ruth has her own book of the Bible where Boaz plays a major role. This is a love story that exemplifies God’s love for us. Ruth was an outcast who was redeemed by Boaz, just as we were outcasts redeemed by Jesus. Another parallel is that Boaz was half of the chosen people and half the son of a sinful Gentile just as Jesus was the son of both God and sinful humanity. It was Boaz’s descent from Salman, of the chosen people, that enabled him to redeem Ruth, but I wonder if it was his descent from Rahab, the Gentile prostitute, and all of his interactions with her family, that made Boaz able to sympathize with Ruth.
Obed (1 Chronicles 2:12, Ruth 4) Obed was a child of promise. He was the child who redeemed his grandfather’s lineage and gave Naomi status that she had lost through the deaths of her husband and sons. Obed was 3/4 gentile heritage and only 1/4 Jewish heritage, so I imagine that he did not look much like other Jews, being 1/4 from Jericho and 1/2 Moabite.
Jesse (1 Chronicles 2:12, Ruth 4:17 & 22) Jesse had many sons. His sons served in the military under King Saul. He also had sheep since David was a shepherd. His sons must have all been pretty brave and strong fighters. This tells me that Jesse himself must have had the same characteristics to consistently teach them to his sons. His older sons were also a little full of themselves, not counting the baby of the family, David, as being much of a fighter. It could be that they were right. Maybe, compared to them, David was still wet behind the ears and not very experienced in being a soldier.
David (wife of Uriah) (1 Samuel 16:13-2 Samuel 24, 1 Kings 1:1-2:10, 1 Chronronicles 1-29 ) It is interesting that Bathsheba is not named even though she is named in the Old Testament. Her story is in 2 Samuel 11-12 & 1 Kings 1-2. I’m not sure what to make of the omission of her name by Matthew, except that in God’s eyes, she was not David’s wife?
Solomon (2 Samuel 5:14 & 12:24, 1 Kings 1-11:43, 1 Chronicles 22 & 23 & 28-29, 2 Chronicles 1:1-9:31)
(Luke 3:33 gives a different account: “the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor” (Luke 3:32-34). I wonder if Arni is a variation on Ram? That still puts Admin as an extra in the genealogy. I think that Sala is the same as Salman.
(Application / Understanding the Text) My application to myself is to never underestimate the words written in the scriptures. They have depth and meaning beyond the immediate purpose. Each of these people were included in the verses of Matthew to provide the history of Israel and God’s interactions with His covenant people until the time of Jesus. Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to Adam. He starts in the present and goes back, but Matthew starts in the past with Israel’s first covenant and traces history forward until the present. He is showing that the present did not happen out of a vacuum. There were many events that led the people of Israel to their final choice to accept or reject the Messiah. Jesus did not just appear out of nowhere telling them to choose. They had revelation after revelation and story after story and example after example to show them the ways to follow and the ways not to follow.
(Application / Revelation of God) Through his genealogy, Matthew traces that path for them to follow and shows them that it was always leading to Jesus. The path was there and clearly marked even if they had blinded their eyes so that they could not see it. Today, God has marked my path clearly through the scriptures; I just need to stop being stubborn and wanting my own way and I need to continue to search the scriptures for Jesus. He is everywhere in the scriptures. He is the solution for my problems and the forgiveness for my sins. He knows every sleazy detail of His people, and He still calls them to come to Him. Whether I am a liar like Jacob, an adulterer and murderer like David, a fornicator and idolater like Solomon, a promise breaker like Judah, or someone positive like Ruth, God can still use me if I just cling to Him and turn away from the world’s temporary attractions. He used Solomon and David even though they committed a lot of evil. Why? because they returned to Him and chose to be His in the end. Jesus wants me and has revealed Himself to me in the Bible, so I can want Him also.
(Prayer) Help me to see the paths that You have marked for me. Forgive me for my stubbornness and insistence upon my own way. I know that I am only as useful as my humility and allegiance to You. I want to be useful, so help me to remain humble and not to be arrogant. Thank you that You want me. Teach me to love You back in deeper and deeper ways.