Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit
-Matthew 1:18

So we first meet Mary.

Of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke both give these stories about the birth of Jesus. Luke’s gives a lot more information on Mary, Matthew’s has more of a focus on Joseph. 

Betrothal

The passage says that Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Betrothal is a formal engagement. It’s still practiced today in some circles of Christendom and Judaism. 

I’m going to talk for a moment about what betrothal looked like in the first century.

In his commentary on Matthew, Grant Osborne gives some helpful notes on betrothal. Betrothals were arranged by families. The engagement period lasted a year. Something that’s very different from our society is that the bride was usually around 12 at the time so it’s likely that Mary was very young.

During the betrothal period, the bride would still live with her parents. 

Joseph was probably around 18. The groom was older in order to be a little bit more established. 

Certainly very young people by our standards. But it’s important to remember that it was a different time and culture. They had a different concept of adulthood and coming of age. And life expectancies were shorter. 

As I said, betrothal was more formal than engagement. 

In our society, if two people are engaged, someone can basically break it off at any time for any reason. Not so in first century Judea. To break off a betrothal, you had to have a formal writ of divorce. You couldn’t just decide you didn’t like someone or had found someone else better. 

It was a binding commitment to marriage.

The text says that before Joseph and Mary came together, she was found to be with child. 

That is clearly a reference to before they had consummated their relationship, Mary became pregnant.

Matthew says: she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit

Now it’s pretty amazing. 

Up until the resurrection, the virgin conception is the most significant event in human history and Matthew mentions it almost in passing. 

Nothing fanciful in Matthew’s language. He let’s the event speak for itself. There’s no need to oversell it. 

Luke’s account

Before we move to Joseph, I wanted to talk for a moment about Luke’s account because it does give some additional details. 

I don’t have a slide for this, but Luke 1:26-35 also describes Mary’s pregnancy and her response to it: 

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 

In Luke’s gospel, Mary is told about this child that she will carry. 

She asks the obvious question. “How is this all going to happen since I’m a virgin?” 

Both Matthew and Luke say how it’s possible that Mary could be with child. The child has been conceived of the Holy Spirit. 

God is at work in this. Humanity could not have made its own savior. It needed the intervention of God. 

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In this passage, we see a young couple who have been given the most amazing piece of news anyone had ever been given. Despite being a virgin, Mary is going to carry the Christ child. In this passage, we see Joseph and Mary while Matthew points to a prophecy for the virgin birth of Jesus given hundreds of years before. We also see in this section who Jesus is and what Jesus does.

Message preached at Christian Bible Church in Cissna Park, Illinois by Pastor Josh Benner.

Sermon transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M8qxaEJXUvNGy6ZNHDNoknh3YOGm9ayhOLNgCrZfE8A/edit?usp=sharing

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴ and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵ and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ¹⁷ So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. 
-Matthew 1:12-17

The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy that is in three sections. It leads from Abraham to David, then from David to the Babylonian exile, and finally from the Babylonian exile to Jesus. 

The third group is the most cryptic. The first two sections are full of familiar Biblical names, but in the third section, most of the named people are mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. 

The Babylonian exile

After generations of sin in Israel and numerous prophets who had warned Israel and her kings, the two kingdoms fell. First the Northern kingdom. But Matthew’s genealogy focuses on the southern kingdom which was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. 

It was a divine judgment from God upon an unfaithful Israel. 

The Israelites lose the kingdom, they lose Jerusalem, the temple is destroyed. The people are deported to a foreign land. 

The darkest days in the history of Israel. 

But what this genealogy reminds us of is that even though the monarchy did not reign and the land was lost, that the line was not forgotten. When Jerusalem fell, that might have looked like it was the end. But God was still at work. 

That’s what all of this shows us. That God has been at work throughout time and history. 

When Jesus went to the cross. When the disciples saw their beloved teacher brutally crucified, they thought that it was all over. 

But it was only just the beginning. 

Throughout church history, people have tried to persecute the church, ban the Bible, kill Christians. Yet God’s word has been preached. His church has persevered. 

God continued to work through this line because the Lord is faithful to his promises. 

He was faithful to his promise to Abraham of providing offspring. He was faithful to to his promise to David by providing a future king whose kingdom would never end. 

And that’s what this third group reminds us of. 

In Matthew 1:12, the genealogy mentions Jeconiah, the last king before the exile. Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. 

Zerubbabel is significant because he would be appointed as a governor over the Israelites at the end of their exile and when they returned to the Holy Land. He’s found in five different Old Testament books. 

He’s also significant because he’s the last of the names in the genealogy that we know anything about until you get to Joseph. 

None of these people after Zerubbabel are named in the Old Testament. 

New testament sources

So where’d Matthew get the final names in the list from? 

There were genealogical records for at least some Israelites. We know this because such records are mentioned by ancient historians such as Josephus. 

Given the prominence of this line, it’s certainly plausible that they had records. 

Matthew ends this third genealogy by finally arriving at Joseph and Mary and then to Jesus. 

Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 

42 generations to get from Abraham to the Lord Jesus. 

We see the sovereignty of God. The faithfulness of God. We see the plan of God. 

And we see that the Messiah has come into the world. 

All throughout history, God has been at work. We see him at work in this genealogy that leads to the Lord Jesus. 

But that also points us to his mission for the world which is God’s redemptive purposes and gospel through Jesus Christ to redeem sinful and fallen. 

It is a major theme in Matthew’s gospel. It’s a major theme in Matthew’s Christmas story. 

But it’s also a major theme of the Bible itself. The Lord God working to restore fallen humanity. 

Christmas is a reminder of that. As God’s only Son, Christ Jesus came into the world. He came for a purpose. To go to the cross and to die for the sins of the world. 

And so it’s important to understand what God has done throughout history but also what God is doing in the world today. The Old Testament points forward to Christ. The Old Testament points forward to the king from the line of David. The gospels are the fulfillment of those promises in Christ.  

The church’s job today is to share that good news with the world. 

And so we look at this genealogy at the beginning of the New Testament. 

It’s not just a bunch of names to skip over so we can get to something more interesting. 

Rather, it’s a bunch of chapters in God’s story leading up to Christ and in his work of bridging redemption to the world.

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And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, ⁷ and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, ⁸ and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹ and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰ and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 

-Matthew 1:6-11

The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy which leads from Abraham to Jesus. The middle section traces the kings from David until the fall of the Israelite empire in 586 B.C. 

Even for people well-versed in the Bible, this is often not a person’s most familiar part of the scriptures. But it’s a colorful and fascinating family history. The Davidic Monarchy could be its own HBO drama. 

King David

David is the great king of Israel. Solomon his son is his successor. You read about them and the rest of the monarchs of the Davidic Dynasty primarily in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. There are also appearances in some of the prophets. 

When Matthew mentions David in the genealogy of Jesus, it says: And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 

David seduced a married woman. Her name was Bathsheeba. But the one thing to highlight is that Matthew doesn’t actually name Bathsheeba. But he actually calls Bathsheeba the wife of Uriah. 

Why? 

I think Tim Keller is onto something when he suggests that it’s less about downplaying Bathsheeba and more about reminding us of Uriah. The husband of Bathsheeba whom David had killed. 

It mentioning Uriah, it confronts us with David’s great sin. David had a son with the wife of another man. 

The genealogy does not hide from the sins of the people in the line of Jesus. The same is true for the first section, but it’s seen on an even grander scale in this current passage. 

But an important lesson for us all is that we aren’t defined by what we come from. For good or for ill. If we come from greatness, that doesn’t transfer to us by birth. We have to live our own lives. And if we come from infamy, that does not doom us. It can feel that way sometimes. It can be an unfortunate result often times. But it doesn’t have to be. 

Jesus is descended from killers, prostitutes, and adulterers. We’re going to elaborate on the kings and quickly go through some of these. It might be easy to assume the Kings of Israel would be pretty good. But it’s often not the case. There are a few good kings amid some truly wicked and evil kings. 

Let’s look at some of these other kings in the Davidic Dynasty. 

Verse 7:  and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,

So Solomon is the son of David. The wise king of Israel. But he spent lavishly on big projects for Israel. 

His son, Rehoboam had similar lavishness and had to continue raising taxes. Things got so bad that during his reign, Israel was no longer a unified nation. Within two generations of David, Israel had split with the Davidic monarchy ruling the smaller portion in the south, and ten of the 12 tribes in an independent Northern Kingdom, never to be reunited. 

Abijah would end up making similar blunders. 

Asaph was a relatively decent Israelite king. 

Verse 8:  and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 

Jehoshaphat was another pretty good king. Grant Osborne describes his reign: “Jehoshaphat was known for godliness like his father and brought further reform and even sent out priests to teach the people the ways of the Lord. Even the surrounding nations began to fear the Lord.” 

Joram was next. He was not as good as his father. 

The Queen of Israel

This story gets very interesting here. As a reminder, Israel was divided in two kingdoms. Joram marries a woman who was a princess from the other kingdom. Her name was Athaliah. 

When Joram dies, he’s replaced by his son Ahaziah. Ahaziah is actually not listed in Matthew’s genealogy, but that’s the next king. 

When Ahaziah is king, both he and the king of the northern kingdom are murdered in a power takeover. The aforementioned Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother seizes the throne of the southern kingdom and becomes the ruling monarch in Jerusalem. 

Ahaziah had been her only son and so she has the immediate family members who have a claim to the throne to be executed. Including her own grandson.  

That’s in the Bible! It’s wild stuff. You thought your family was dysfunctional! 

Athaliah had a grandson who was saved and protected by a family member. The protected grandson was named Jehoash. He’s also not listed in the genealogy. When Jehoash becomes king, his grandmother is deposed and executed. 

The son of Jehoash was Uzziah, who was a pretty good king of Israel. 

Uziah’s son Jotham was a decent king, but then Jotham’s son Ahaz failed to listen to the Prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah, Ahaz does not listen to the prophet, fails to trust in God, tries to exercise his own control and makes diplomatic blunders which will seal the fate of Israel’s final governmental collapse. 

Manasseh was one of the most wicked Israelite kings. He builds pagan alters in the temple courts, practices sorcery and divination. He also sacrifices one of his own sons. 

Josiah mentioned in verse 10 was a good king. He did a lot to restore order and stability to Israel and also reinstated the Passover celebration which had fallen out of favor. 

Jeconiah is the last king listed in this second section. Jeconiah is the king when Jerusalem falls, which is why he’s noteworthy. He’s the final king of Israel’s southern kingdom to rule in the Promised Land. 

Again, that was a very brief cross-section of some of these kings. Quite the rag tag group. Matthew ends verse 11 by talking about the deportation to Babylon. Now everything in this genealogy has been centered around people. But the beginning of this third group of names focuses around an event. 

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The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ² Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³ and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, ⁴ and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵ and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse the father of David the king. 
-Matthew 1:1-6

It’s so easy to skip over. 

Matthew’s gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. 

To most people, it’s just a list of names, but it’s so much more than that. They’re chapters in God’s work of redemption through time in fulfilling his promises to Abraham, David, and all of Israel. 

If you understand the genealogy, it’s actually not boring at all. 

It’s fitting that Matthew’s genealogy begins with Abraham. 

He’s the progenitor of God’s people, the Israelties. He’s the one through whom the Lord makes his covenant promises. 

Abraham was the father of Isaac. 

Isaac is the son who is promised to Abraham and Sarah. He was supernaturally brought about in this couple who were well advanced in years and had never before been able to have children. 

The line goes from Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. 

This is the line that we see in Genesis. 

The text mentions Judah and his brothers. This seems to be done to give special attention to the brothers of Judah who are the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. But Biblically, Judah is the most significant because it is he who carries on the royal blood line which leads to Jesus. 

Now in Genesis, we see a lot of attention given to Abraham, and God’s call upon his life. We see stories of Isaac, and him finding a wife. We stories of Jacob and his brother Esau and the rivalry they had between each other. 

And there are also stories about Judah, but he’s far overshadowed in Genesis by his brother Joseph. 

Why is that? 

Why does Joseph get more attention than Judah when it’s Judah who’s in the line that leads to Jesus? 

The story of Joseph

In the Book of Genesis, Joseph is the favored son of Jacob and his brothers hate him for this. This leads into an epic story where his brothers plot against the life of Joseph and he’s sold into Egyptain slavery. But though divine intervention, Joseph will work his way up and gain favor in Pharaoh’s eyes. Joseph has a God given ability to interpret dreams and prophecies a terrible famine which will come. He’s put in charge of preparing Egypt for the famine. When it happens, the Israelites are hard hit. They come to Egypt seeking help and Joseph is able to intervene and to save his family, save the Israelites, and save Judah. 

Joseph’s story is given so much attention because it saves Judah which continues the family line. 

I also highlight that because these people in the line start getting a little less attention in the Old Testament. They’re there, they’re mentioned, but they’re somewhat in the background of bigger events. 

We don’t see the line as prominently throughout the Exodus saga. But they’re there. 

And God is still working. 

God is working in the quiet times

Sometimes the Lord is quietly at work. But he’s no less at work in those times. God is faithful to this line throughout centuries. Working through time and space to bring forth his promised son from this line, the Lord Jesus. 

God is working today. At some times in our lives, we might see it more clearly than others. At some times in church history, it might seem more apparent. But God is no less at work. 

God is as intimately connected and at work in our world today as he was these many centuries ago. 

He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He’s the God of David. And he’s the God of today. 

We continue. Verse 3 mentions Judah as the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. 

Now Tamar is noteworthy because she’s a woman. She’s the first of four women mentioned in this genealogy. 

The four mothers of Jesus

So let’s talk about these women in the genealogy. The four mothers of Jesus. 

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheeba. 

You have Ruth, who might be the most morally spotless and unimpeachable woman in the Old Testament. Her first husband died and then she married a distant relative of his and had a son. 

But then you have Tamar who tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her and conceived a child by him after her husband died. She disguised herself as a prostitute and sold herself to Judah. A link in the line of Jesus conceived through deception and trickery. 

Rahab had been a prostitute. 

Bathsheeba had an affair with King David and David later had her husband, Uriah, sent to the front lines and killed in battle so that he could marry her. The first child they conceived died, but Solomon was another son. But the relationship was forged in adultery and murder. 

And these are the people in the line that leads to Jesus. 

Something else that’s noteworthy. One of the commonalities between the four women is that none of them are Israelites. 

Tamar and Rahab are Canaanites. 

Ruth is a Moabite. 

Bathsheeba is a Hittite. 

And so part of what these four women are doing from the opening of this gospel is showing us that Jesus is for the whole world. 

Borrowing an idea from Tim Keller. 

This line gives us kings and prostitutes. Men and women. Jews and gentiles. Saints and sinners. 

But God works through all of them to bring Jesus into the world. 

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