WWUTT 1902 From Babylon to the Christ (Matthew 1:12-17)

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R .C. Sproul once said of the genealogy of Jesus, what is lacking in literary punch is made up for in theological significance.

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There are indeed some incredible things in this genealogy, when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. That we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're finishing up the genealogy of Jesus Christ today, picking up where I left off yesterday at the deportation to Babylon.

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So I'm going to start reading in verse 11 and then go through to the birth of Christ in verse 16, and we've got that conclusion to the genealogy in verse 17.

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Hear the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 1. And Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

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And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shelteel, and Shelteel was the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, and Abiud was the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim was the father of Azar.

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And Azar was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the father of Achim, and Achim was the father of Eliud, and Eliud was the father of Eleazar.

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And Eleazar was the father of Methan, and Methan was the father of Jacob. And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom

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Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Therefore, all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the

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Christ, fourteen generations. So, at the close of this genealogy,

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Matthew says there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, another fourteen from David to the exile, and then fourteen from the exile to the birth of Christ.

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But if you compare this genealogy in Matthew 1 with the genealogy that Luke gives in Luke chapter 3, there are way more names in Luke's genealogy than there are in Matthew's.

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Now, of course, that's going to be the case because Luke goes all the way back to Adam, whereas Matthew starts with Abraham.

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So, yes, Luke's genealogy is going to have more names in it. But even when you consider from Zerubbabel to the birth of Christ, in Luke's genealogy, there's nineteen names there.

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In Matthew's, there's ten. When you go from David to the birth of Christ, in Luke's genealogy, it's like forty names, whereas in Matthew's genealogy, it's twenty -eight.

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So, why are there so many differences between these two genealogies? Luke even has a different father mentioned for Joseph than what

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Matthew has put down. I'll come back to that point here in just a little bit. This is the most complicated section of the genealogy for a couple of reasons.

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Number one, because of the discrepancies between Matthew's genealogy and Luke's. But number two, because this was a period of silence in which

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God was not speaking to his people through a prophet. So we don't know any of the backstories of many of these particular figures.

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Genealogies were still important to the Jews. So even during a time of exile, they were still keeping track of everybody's name and whose father belonged to who and that sort of a thing.

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And then even when they come back into the land, there's still record keepers that are showing who belongs to what tribe and this land belongs to this family and that sort of a thing.

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This was still very important to the Jews. But nonetheless, when it comes to God speaking to his people, no new revelations are being spoken.

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When it comes down to it, the whole Old Testament was written in a period of about a thousand years, from 1400

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BC to 400 BC. I'm rounding some numbers there, but that's about the period of time. So Moses writes the first five books of the

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Bible, the Pentateuch, the books of the law. Now, some will argue that Job is even older than the

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Pentateuch. That may very well be, but still puts it around the time. You know, even if that puts

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Job around the writing of the patriarchs, you're still talking about a period of a thousand to twelve hundred years or something like that in which the whole

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Old Testament was written. And then there are various prophets that come along in which other things are given.

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And then you have the conclusion of new revelation. That's about 400 years before the birth of Christ.

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So we call that the silent age, because by the time Jesus shows up, God has not been speaking to his people for centuries.

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And then he comes speaking to them through the Son, through Christ himself, who had put on flesh,

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God who put on flesh and dwelt among them. But because we don't have any new revelation, then we don't have this section of the genealogy written about in the

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Old Testament. The most prominent name in this closing section of the genealogy, this last third, the most prominent name here is going to be

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Zerubbabel. He's the one that we read the most about in the Old Testament. So you have the exile that takes place in verse 11.

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Josiah, who I said yesterday, was the last righteous king before Judah was turned over to the hands of their enemies.

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Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. You had a lot of trading off of the throne really quick right there before Babylon came in and took over everything and exiled the

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Jews to the Chaldeans. So in verse 12, after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shelteel and Shelteel was the father of Zerubbabel.

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Now we enter into a complication here because it was said that Jeconiah would be childless.

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This was a curse that was issued in Jeremiah chapter 22, starting in verse 28. Is this man,

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Keniah, that's Jeconiah, a despised, shattered jar, or is he an undesirable vessel?

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Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known?

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O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days, for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.

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Now this is one of those passages that a skeptic will use to say, see the

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Bible contradicts itself because the prophecy that's made in Jeremiah 22 is that Jeconiah would die childless.

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And yet he's mentioned in the genealogy of Christ. Well, reading the context of the curse there in Jeremiah 22 actually answers the problem.

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Because what is meant by childless is that Jeconiah will not have a descendant sitting on the throne of David.

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And that was definitely true. So yes, the man did have children. In fact, we read in 1

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Chronicles 3 that the sons of Jeconiah, the prisoner were Shealtiel, his son, and Malkiram, and Padiah, and Shenezar, and Jecomiah.

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I mean, there's a list of names there that are the sons of Jeconiah. So he clearly wasn't childless.

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But what's meant by the curse in Jeremiah 22 is that he would not have a descendant on the throne.

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Again, that's in verse 30. But he does have children through whom his line continues.

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Therefore, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.

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There's another complication in the genealogy. Because it is said that Padiah, who was

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Shealtiel's brother, is actually the biological father of Zerubbabel.

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So how is that possible, then? Well, you don't break the line of succession, of course.

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You would still have that a son of Jeconiah was, therefore, the father of Zerubbabel. The discrepancy would just be with regards to Shealtiel.

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Why is Shealtiel mentioned as Zerubbabel's father instead of Padiah? Well, the likelihood is that there was a

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Leveret marriage situation that had happened there. One of them died, and then the brother married the widow. And then the son that was from the brother became credited to the man who died.

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And so, therefore, Zerubbabel is said to be Shealtiel's son when he was actually

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Padiah's son. I know that's kind of confusing. The whole Leveret marriage thing is. But nonetheless, you do have an acceptable succession there.

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In the eyes of Jews, there's no problem with that. The Hebrew understanding of their genealogy, that totally makes sense.

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So if you ever have a skeptic that says something to you about this, well, Jeconiah died childless.

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Or why is there a different father listed, according to Matthew, than what

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Luke has, or something like that? A very easy question that you can ask this skeptic is, well, what would that have meant to a

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Hebrew? Like, maybe you're expecting to see some direct descendancy. But was that really a problem to a

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Hebrew? Or did this genealogy make sense to a Hebrew? Like, for them, in their genealogy, there's no broken succession here.

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All of this is making sense according to what was written down in the law. So you have

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Zerubbabel, who's the most prominent figure in this last third of the genealogy.

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Zerubbabel was never a king. But there was a hope that he was going to be king. When the

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Jews had the chance to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple and rebuild Jerusalem, Zerubbabel was governor during that time to oversee all of that.

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And he never got to see the completion of it. At least, Scripture doesn't tell us that he did. There's just kind of a part of the narrative where Zerubbabel drops off.

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But he's able to oversee this construction that's going to take place. And it's a much lesser temple than what

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Solomon built. You probably know this about that second temple period. Solomon had built this glorious grand temple, which, of course, was destroyed when the

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Babylonians came in. When the Jews are allowed to go back and rebuild the temple, they lay the foundation.

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And at the laying of the foundation, those older priests and Levites and the heads of the families who saw it, they wept because they knew it was not as big as what

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Solomon's temple was. In Ezra 3 .12, many of the older priests and Levites and family heads who had seen the former temple wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid.

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But even though it was smaller than Solomon's, God said it would receive greater grandeur than Solomon's temple did.

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Listen to what the Lord said through the prophet Haggai in Haggai 2. On the twenty -first month of the seventh month, the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying,

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Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoizadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying,

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Who among you remains who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now?

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Does it seem like nothing in your eyes? But now be strong, Zerubbabel, declares

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Yahweh. Be strong also, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land.

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Be strong, declares Yahweh, and work, for I am with you, declares Yahweh of hosts.

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For as the promise which I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is standing in your midst.

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Do not fear. For thus says Yahweh of hosts, Once more in a little while I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations, and they will come with the desirable things of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says

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Yahweh of hosts. The silver is mine. The gold is mine, declares Yahweh of hosts.

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The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says

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Yahweh of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares

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Yahweh. Now, some will take that as meaning, well, that's the future temple that's going to be built, right?

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That temple that maybe we haven't seen constructed yet, but there's going to be an even grander temple sometime in the near future.

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No, specifically what's being talked about with that prophecy is that Christ will stand in that temple.

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God himself, incarnate in human flesh, is going to be in that very place.

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And so the glory of God in that temple will be greater than it was even during the day of Solomon.

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That's awesome to think about. Remember that God's presence did not come down in that second temple the way that it did in Solomon's temple.

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I mentioned that yesterday. The temple was blessed. It was inaugurated.

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God comes down in fire. He fills the temple. There's a big week -long celebration that was going on in Israel with tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands of animals that were sacrificed during that period of time, all in celebration because God dwelled with his people.

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Well, when the second temple is built, God's presence doesn't come down like that. But there's a particular reason why.

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Because his presence is going to come in through the sun 500 years after it was completed.

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So that's the prominence of Zerubbabel in the genealogy. A lot of names that follow that we don't recognize.

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Of course, we don't have written elsewhere in the Old Testament. But we get down to this strange thing with Joseph here.

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In verse 16, Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom

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Jesus was born, who is called Christ. That's what Matthew has listed. But Luke has something different listed.

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In fact, the genealogy right there seems to separate, and we don't see any commonality until you get all the way back to David.

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So from David down to Joseph, the two genealogies are very, very different from one another.

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So if we look at Matthew's genealogy from Joseph, it goes from Joseph to Jacob to Methan to Eleazar to Elihud, Achim, Zadok, Ezer.

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That's going backwards. In Luke's genealogy, it's Joseph to Heli to Methat to Levi to Melchi, and on and on it goes.

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You can tell it almost looks like two completely different genealogies. So what's the explanation for this?

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Well, a third -century writer named Africanus said that he understood the answer as given to him from the kinsmen of our

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Lord. This means that he spoke with those who were descended from Jesus' half -siblings, the children of Mary, Jesus' brother.

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That would have included James, Jude, and some of those others that are listed there in the

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New Testament as being the half -siblings of Jesus. Africanus said that he got this answer straight from the kinsmen of Christ.

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That's quite a resource. The words of Africanus were recorded by the Christian historian

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Eusebius in his fourth -century work, Ecclesiastical History. Here is what Eusebius wrote according to Africanus.

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Quote, as Joseph is our proposed end, we are to show how it happened that each of these two,

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Jacob and Heli, is recorded as Joseph's father. Also, how it happened that these two,

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Jacob and Heli, were brothers, and moreover, how the fathers of these Methan and Methat, being of different families, are proved to be the grandfathers of Joseph.

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Methan and Methat, having married in succession the same woman, had children who were brothers by the same mother, as the law did not prohibit a widow, whether she became such by divorce or the death of her husband, to marry again.

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Methan, therefore, who traces his lineage from Solomon, first had Jacob by Esther, for this is her name as known by tradition,

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Methan dying, and Methat, who traces his descent from Nathan, though he was of the same tribe, but of another family, having, as before said, married her, had a son,

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Heli. Thus, then, we shall find the two of different families, Jacob and Heli, brothers by the same mother.

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Of these, the one Jacob, on the death of his brother, marrying his widow, became the father of a third,

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Joseph, his son both by nature and calculation. Wherefore it is written,

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Jacob begot Joseph. But, according to the law, he was the son of Heli, for Jacob, being his brother, raised up seed to him.

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Are you following all that? Probably not. But, basically, what's being said here is that Joseph had two fathers, according to the law of leverate marriage that's given in the book of Deuteronomy.

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One is Joseph's biological father, and the other is Joseph's adopted father, by leverate marriage.

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Now, that was a perfectly acceptable genealogy, according to the

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Hebrews. So, there's really no discrepancy here. Matthew reads it one way, Luke reads it another.

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Luke seems to be going according to law. So, Luke would be considering the leverate marriage line, whereas Matthew is looking at direct descendancy, with some gaps in there, but he's still looking at a direct descendancy to establish that Jesus is the

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Christ, a son of David, and, therefore, the inheritor of the throne of David.

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He is king. That's what Matthew is desiring to establish and show. Matthew wants the reader to know that Christ is king, the rightful heir to the throne of David.

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Luke has a different intention with his genealogy, because he goes all the way back to Adam.

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So, Luke's intention is to show that Christ is the second Adam and the last

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Adam, which is why it goes from Adam to Christ. So, that's Luke's intention with his genealogy, whereas Matthew is to establish that Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne of David.

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Now, again, with the conclusion to Matthew's genealogy, you have this statement of there being 14 generations, 1414.

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That's significant, too, because numbers were very, very important to a Hebrew. That's almost as important to the

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Hebrews as it would have been if Matthew had gone through every individual name of direct descendancy and made sure all of those names were listed out as they needed to be, which seems more the case with what

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Luke did. Luke is more exact than what Matthew was doing. But Matthew's genealogy is not incomplete.

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The genealogy is perfectly and well -established, but he groups them in 14, 14, 14 to communicate something that this is a perfect and complete genealogy.

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Even by those numbers, that's what Matthew is communicating. How do we know that? Because seven to a

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Hebrew is the number of completion. It's the perfect number. It's also referred to as the number of God, the number seven.

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How many sevens do we have here? We have six. Six is the number of man.

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So through six and seven, Matthew is, in a sense, establishing and communicating, though, you know, not directly.

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This is very subtle, but he's communicating that Jesus is the God -man.

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And it's also a communication of a complete and perfect genealogy because you have six sevens that are then grouped in threes.

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Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, or 14, 14, 14. How many witnesses were needed to establish every good testimony?

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The evidence of two or three witnesses. That's why Matthew groups it this way. 14, 14, 14, as though three witnesses stand to verify, yes,

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Jesus is the Christ, the rightful heir to the throne of David, successor in the line of Abraham, successor in the line of David.

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He is the expected king who would reign over Judah. That's what's established in Matthew's genealogy.

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And we have come to the conclusion of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. When we resume our study of Matthew tomorrow, we will read about the birth of Christ here at the close of Matthew chapter one.

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Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, what a wonder you are and how amazingly you have orchestrated all things to work out for our good and for your glory.

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So even here in a genealogy, we might find something a little bit daunting.

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Why would we read this list of names? Why would it be even interesting to us at all?

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But what lacks in literary punch is made up for in theological significance. How incredible to see you working even in this list of names to bring about the savior of mankind so that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish, but we will have everlasting life.

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Thank you for your goodness and grace. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.