(Matthew Chapter 1)
It seemed like a good idea to capture the things I am learning as I read the Bible, and that is the purpose of this blog.
Anyone who has read the New Testament knows that the first chapter of Matthew is a lot of long and sometimes difficult to pronounce names. But it is an important piece of scripture as it shows the genealogy of Jesus. The Old Testament said that one of the descendants of Abraham, Judah and David the King would come as the Messiah. Matthew 1:1-16 shows that lineage and is evidence of who Christ is from a prphetic perspective.
Verses 18-19 show some interesting things too. It occurred to me that after the initial mentioning of Joseph, he hardly gets mentioned again in the Bible. And yet it stands to reason that he was around for he was a carpenter & Jesus too must have learned that trade from his supposed father. Also we see that Joseph was a good and just man for the scripture says that he was unwilling to put Mary to shame and was going to divorce her quietly. When you consider that he had discovered she was pregnant the first thought any rational person would make is that she had been unfaithful. Yet in spite of that Joseph was prepared to keep a lid on the matter and not make a big fuss, not for his own sake, but for hers. This is a sign of a just and reasonable man.
Of course what we see then is angel of the Lord coming to Joseph to explain what the situation is and that he should continue to take Mary as his wife.
Now what is also interesting in what the angel said to Joseph is the reason why Jesus was coming to the world. In verse 21 we see that Jesus was being born, “…to save his people from their sins.” This is the primary reason why Jesus came and we see this same purpose repeated in many places throughout the gospels. The very reason that Jesus was born, lived and died was to save us from our sins. This is a significant part of Jesus’ ministry and one that will unfold in future posts.
Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.
