Have you ever wondered about the baby Jesus’s family history? The book of Matthew starts by stating, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.” I remember hearing of a Jewish person who read that verse for the first time and was amazed at the fact that Jesus was one of them. Matthew 1:2-6 outlines the generations from Abraham through King David, with many recognizable names such as Isaac, Jacob, Judah and Ruth. We spend a lot of time in Sunday School teaching about these generations.
This past year, our men’s breakfast group has been studying the history of Israel from King Solomon through the exile into Babylon. These names in Matthew 1:7-11 are less familiar, mainly because many of them were kings who didn’t follow after the Lord and brought about the discipline of the Lord upon Israel. The northern tribes were exiled to Assyria. Later, the southern kingdom fell to Babylon and the people were exiled for seventy years.
Matthew 1:12-16 recalls a list of Jesus’ ancestors from the exile to his birth. Although most of the names are unfamiliar to us, we know that they represented a remnant of believers in God that passed on their faith despite being ruled by foreign empires from the Greeks to the Romans. Verse 16 says: “and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.” Notice that it doesn’t say that Jesus was the physical son of Joseph, but he was a legal son and therefore a descendant of David. Even though Jesus was born into a family of humble means, he was from the royal line of David. This fulfilled the covenant the Lord made with David in 2 Samuel 2:16: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.”
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (v. 20) which would be incomprehensible to the family and neighbors of Mary and Joseph. His birth would have been surrounded by whispers of wondering who his father was. But Mary and Joseph had each been visited by an angel of the Lord, revealing God’s plan to them that she would bear the one who would “save his people from their sins.” (v. 21) Of all the people in the genealogy, only Jesus lived a perfect life and would become the perfect sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. Praise God for sending his Son Jesus to give us the hope of salvation!
