Chapter 2 is where the story gets exciting, with lots of God-interventions. Lots of dreams and drama. I wonder how often our lives have this kind of drama in the spiritual realm, and we may not even recognize it. God may be trying to intervene daily, but are we aware of it? We think of our day to day existence as rather mundane, but could it be an epic adventure if we were tuned into God?
Friday, June 5, 2009
Not a kingly heritage
Reading the first chapter of Matthew, with the genealogy, may seem boring but it highlights where Jesus came from. His ancestors were not all the most perfect, or most noble people. He had the same weird, or crooked family members that we all have lurking somewhere in our family tree. Jacob was a schemer, Judah helped sell his brother into slavery and conceived Perez by his daugter-in-law, and Solomon's dad was a murderer and adulterer. Obed and several others had mothers who weren't even Israelites. I think that part of the reason the genealogy was put in Matthew 1 was to show that Jesus was a human just like us, with relatives who had lots of flaws, just like ours do. Sure he was from a royal lineage, with lots of kings in his heritage, but there were lots of kooks and sinners too.
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Thanks so much this is really helpful because I knew since it was in the bible it had to be important but i couldn't explain how.
ReplyDeleteI just read Chapter 2 it was so good it just shows how much God was protecting his son, Jesus!
ReplyDeleteI think Chapter 2 is neat because it states several times that "this fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet". I always find that interesting because even though it was thousands of years later, prophecies were still fulfilled. It just shows how God had and still has a wonderful plan and how skillfully laid out that plan really was/is.
ReplyDeleteI read today that it was an intent of Matthew to tie the old testament together with the life of Jesus. Great observation Aubrey!!
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed at how the old and new testaments are so tied together.
Wow!! Those prophecies are the things that jump out at me the most when I read the first 2 chapters as well! Sometimes I just can't understand why some people don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, when the propehts state pretty clearly in the old testament(the part of the Bible they do believe) that He was!! There is so much evidence!
ReplyDeleteOne thing about the genealogy that I thought was interesting was how it says there were "14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the exile of Babylon and 14 generations from the exile to Christ." I wonder if 14 is a significant number, or if this pattern is just a coincidence.