{"id":8953,"date":"2022-06-07T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=8953"},"modified":"2022-06-09T16:48:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T06:48:52","slug":"be-faithful-for-future-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/06\/07\/be-faithful-for-future-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Faithful for Future Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 1:1-6a\u00a01<\/sup>The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:\u00a02<\/sup>Abraham beget \u00a0Isaac, Isaac beget Jacob, and Jacob beget Judah and his brothers. 3<\/sup>Judah beget Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez beget Hezron, and Hezron beget Ram. 4<\/sup>Ram beget Amminadab, Amminadab beget Nahshon, and Nahshon beget Salmon. 5<\/sup>Salmon beget Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begetObed by Ruth, and Obed tbeget Jesse. 6<\/sup>Jesse beget David the king.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Gospel according to Matthew begins with the family history of Jesus. Family histories were important to Jews as they traced their heritage back through important figures and also determined what ancient tribal group of which they were a part. As a Jew, Matthew wanted to show how Jesus fulfilled the longings and needs of Israel. Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. By doing this, Matthew’s Gospel had a special appeal to Jews, although there is still much in the book that speaks to the needs of Gentiles. This Gospel bridges the old covenant with the new covenant. Its place as first in the New Testament was well chosen in church history and the canonization process.<\/p>\n

Verse 1 begins simply with one of the most significant claims for Matthew to highlight. He will tell the story of Jesus’ naming later in this chapter. Jesus,<\/em> in Hebrew Yeshua, means savior. Christ,<\/em> in Hebrew Messiah, means the anointed one. The anointed Savior had come in fulfillment of God’s great plan of salvation. The rest of this Gospel will expand on this crucial and simple statement. Matthew highlights two names that form the divisions in the list of names. Listing David<\/em> first highlights Jesus’ kingly decent and qualification as Messiah. The Jews expected a king from the line of David to ascend the throne of Israel again and restore the power of the nation. Jesus did come as king but not the type of king people were expecting.<\/p>\n

The list of names begins with\u00a0Abraham<\/em>, the father of all Israelites. Many of the Jews of the first century were descendants of the southern kingdom of Judah and of those who were taken into Babylonian exile. Some remnants remained in the land. Those in the northern areas intermarried and became known as Samaritans. As the Judeans returned to Israel, \u00a0they began to re-establish their identity. Knowing their heritage was important. To have Abraham as their father set them apart as the people of promise. By starting off with Abraham, Matthew is claiming Jesus to be the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. The promise of blessing to all people would come through Jesus the Messiah.<\/p>\n

The rest of the names reads like a history book, with many stories assumed with each name. Some names are well known, like Isaac, Jacob, and his twelve sons. Judah is mentioned as Jacob’s son because Jesus fulfilled the prophecy that the coming one would come from the tribe of Judah. The genealogy contains raw humanity, for example, with the story of how Tamar became pregnant through her father-in-law Judah in Genesis 38. Another noteworthy story was of Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho who saved the spies during the conquest of Canaan in Joshua 2. Four women are mentioned in this genealogy, and all four were Gentiles (non-Israelites).<\/p>\n

God worked through average people to bring about his grand plan of salvation. Many of the people in this list simply lived their lives, such as Ruth, the Moabitess. Even David started off humbly as a shepherd boy. We can never know what future generations will do, but we can set the direction with our faithfulness now. Perhaps in three or four generations, no one will remember our names, like in this list, but our heritage of Christian faith can be felt for many generations to come.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 1:1-6a\u00a01The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:\u00a02Abraham beget \u00a0Isaac, Isaac beget Jacob, and Jacob beget Judah and his brothers. 3Judah beget Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez beget Hezron, and Hezron beget Ram. 4Ram beget Amminadab, Amminadab beget Nahshon, and Nahshon beget Salmon. 5Salmon beget […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8953"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8992,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8953\/revisions\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}