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Matthew 1:1-17

In passages such as Acts 1:8; Matthew 28-18-20; Mark 16:15-16 and Luke 24:46-47 Jesus taught his disciples of their duty to go and preach the Gospel to every creature. Their first destinations were Jerusalem and the towns of Judea. The Jews needed to be convinced that Jesus was qualified to be the Messiah. They would have known about the prophesies to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-2), Isaac (Genesis 26:2-4), and Jacob (Genesis 28:13-14), as well as to Judah (Genesis 49:10) and David (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 132:11; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5). Because of these prophecies the disciples had to be prepared to prove the genealogy of Jesus. He had to be the son of David and Abraham to be the Messiah and so the genealogy of the Christ is given in a form intended to be memorized and preached. This is the reason for the 14 generation divisions mentioned in v. 17. Most of the genealogy was verifiable in any synagogue in the world (simply by reading the Old Testament text). Even though there were gaps in the genealogy they were recognizable for what they were because they could be easily filled in from the Bible text. The rest could be verified from the rolls at the Temple until AD 70 when it was destroyed.

JESUS IS THE MESSIAH
The genealogy is not all that is needed to prove that Jesus is Messiah but He must have the right genealogy to be Messiah. Step by step Matthew shows by the old scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. His argument peaks in Matthew 16:16 with the confession of Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

This is a great lesson that is loudly proclaimed from this text. God made a promise to Abraham (ca. 2000 BC) and to David (ca. 1000 BC) and kept it. Therefore there is nothing to fear that God will keep his promises to us. At stake is provision, salvation, resurrection and reward. There were times through the centuries that the promises appeared to be doomed to failure such as when Pharaoh commanded that all the newborn Hebrew male children were to be thrown in the Nile (Exodus 1:16), such as when the usurper queen Athaliah killed all the seed royal (2 Kings 11:1-2), or when 2 men praying to God (Isaiah and Hezekiah) stood between mighty Senacherib and certain destruction for Jerusalem and the royal house. But God’s promises were kept.