WWUTT 093 Light In the Genealogy (Matthew 1:1-6)

If you grew up in Sunday school, then surely you've heard Psalm 119, 105 quoted a few times.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. The light of God shines through the scriptures.

All of it. Yes, even the parts that we might otherwise dismiss as being uninteresting, like the genealogies, for example.

It's even in the genealogies that God's word is a light, shining through the lives of those who are mentioned there, when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And don't forget our website, www .utt .com. Here's our host,

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. And thank you, once again, for joining me as we study through the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1.

I've thought about the title of these episodes, if somebody's looking at it going, Genealogy? Oh my goodness,

I don't want to sit through that for 20 minutes. But I thank you for being a part of this study. We have had some messages from folks saying they've enjoyed it thus far.

We'd love to hear from you as well. If you want to email us, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

A reminder that my book, 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses and What They Really Mean, is on sale now for 20 % off.

That means it's just under 10 bucks. A deal that will only be available for the month of December. You can go to www .utt

.com to order. Before jumping into our reading, let's come to the Lord in prayer.

Our great and gracious God, we thank you once again for an opportunity to come to your

Word and study it. And I pray that this light from your Word shines upon our hearts and our minds and continues to illuminate to us the truth of your

Word even as we go. Continuing to train us and to guide us. Even in something like the genealogies, we might see the light of God that has come to all men through Jesus Christ our

Savior. And it is in his name that we pray. Amen. Matthew 1, verses 1 -6.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.

And Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Aminadab.

And Aminadab the father of Nishan, Nishan the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab.

And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

Yesterday we ended with Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Tamar, of course, being the first woman mentioned in the genealogy.

And I'm going to go a little bit faster through the rest of these parts. I think we've gotten like a verse or two a day, but we'll get all the way through verse 6 today.

The reason why we get to go a little faster is because the genealogy goes a little faster. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and Perez are all direct descendants.

And then from Perez to Aminadab, there are four names total, but those names span 400 years.

And then from Nishan to David, there are six names all together, but those six names span 450 years.

Yes, there are gaps in Matthew's genealogy. And there's a reason for that, which we'll talk about in another lesson, either tomorrow or the day after.

What we read halfway through verse 3 to verse 6 is also the genealogy as we see it at the very end of the book of Ruth.

If you want to turn there, 8th book of the Bible, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and a very short book.

We're looking at chapter 4, the last few verses starting in verse 18. Now, these are the generations of Perez.

Perez fathered Hezrin. Hezrin fathered Ram. Ram fathered Aminadab.

Aminadab fathered Nishan. Nishan fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. And Boaz fathered

Obed. Obed fathered Jesse. And Jesse fathered David. Now, the only way

Matthew changes that genealogy is by adding Ruth's name. In the book of Ruth, that wouldn't have been necessary since she is the title character of the story.

So, now back to Matthew 1. Perez was the father of Hezrin, and Hezrin the father of Ram.

No big story there. We actually don't know much about Hezrin and Ram. In Luke's genealogy,

Ram's name is given as Arni, or Arnai. It might be pronounced that way.

Another spelling of Ram's name is Aram. All three are correct. Same guy. Now, Luke's genealogy also gives another son between Ram and Aminadab, which is a common thing in Hebrew lineage to skip a generation.

I don't know why. Not an expert in that. I can tell you that there's no Hebrew word for grandfather.

So, a father can be a father as we understand the word, or it can also apply to a grandfather or a great -grandfather.

I mentioned John 8 yesterday, and there Jesus refers to Abraham as a father. If Abraham was your father, you'd be doing the things that Abraham did.

So, that's just kind of an example of that. Aminadab was the father of Neshon, but he was also the father of Elishevah, Aaron's wife.

Aaron, if you remember, is the brother of Moses and the father of the Levitical priesthood. So, that makes Aminadab Aaron's father -in -law.

Neshon was a pretty prominent name in Israel during their first 40 years of wandering in the desert.

He, like Aaron, wouldn't get to see the Promised Land, but you see his name come up a few times, particularly in the

Book of Numbers. Neshon was the father of Salmon, a name that I refuse to pronounce as salmon.

That's probably the correct pronunciation, but it just makes me think of a fish. So, Salmon is what

I'm going to say. Neshon was the father of Salmon, who was the father of Boaz, who was the fellow that married

Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite who married one of the sons of Elimelech, a man from Bethlehem.

Yes, the Bethlehem you're familiar with. That is why in the days of the census, decreed by Caesar Augustus, Mary and Joseph had to return to the place of their lineage, because they were both descendants of Boaz and Ruth, also descendants in the line of David.

So they had royal blood in them since they were descended from David. And David, of course, also comes from Bethlehem.

But Elimelech, in the story of Ruth, as well as his two sons, one of whom that Ruth was married to, they all died.

Elimelech's wife, Naomi, was a widow, and so were Ruth and Orpah, the wives of his sons. Naomi told them both to go back to their people, and Orpah did, but Ruth clung to Naomi.

She said, Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live.

Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God. And I have always loved

Ruth's response to Naomi. Oh, that professing Christians could understand that kind of commitment.

Ruth's words were like the words that God spoke to his people. I will be your

God, and you shall be my people. We see those words spoken to Abraham in Genesis 17. He repeats them again in Exodus and in Deuteronomy.

Also Revelation 21 .7, the one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his

God, and he will be my son. But we also need to understand that we're to have the same commitment to the

Lord. We reflect that kind of faithfulness because God was first faithful to us.

Ruth was saying here the true commitment of a Christian. I am in this for better or for worse.

As I've heard Mark Dever say about becoming a Christian, the decision is costly, so it must be carefully considered.

The decision is urgent, so make it soon. The decision is worth it, so make it.

Jesus is all over his genealogy. It's not something that eventually gets to Christ.

It is pointing to Christ from the opening line. From the mention of the first ancestor, we are meant to see the sovereign plan of God, his plan of redemption through his son, assembling a line of ragtags and misfits from different walks of life and different parts of the world as Ruth was from, and this was something that only

God could have done. Now, Ruth came from a pagan land.

Boaz, whom she later married, was born of a former pagan woman.

Boaz was the son of Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho who hid the Israelite spies, and the

Lord showed mercy to her and her household, and she, boy, what a story of redemption there, she was forgiven her sins and married into the chosen people of God and became one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ.

Yes. So to shorten this story a little bit, after Ruth's first husband died and she returned to Bethlehem with Naomi, and it was there that she met

Boaz, son of Salmon, who had children with Rahab, and we really don't see anything in the

Old Testament about Salmon and Rahab's union. We know that Salmon was one of the princes in the line of Judah, and Rahab, once a heathen prostitute, her name

Rahab is taken from the Egyptian sun god Ra, by the way, God showed mercy upon her, and Salmon took her as a wife, spotless and pure, and it's from a line of sinners that God would bring about the

Messiah who would save his people from their sins, past, present, and future.

Boaz and Ruth had Obed, another character that we don't see any stories about in the Bible, we don't see anything happen with Obed, we just know his name from the lineage of Christ and the genealogies that are mentioned in the

Old Testament. Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David the king. Isaiah 11 -1 prophesied that a shoot shall come from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Later in verse 10, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for all peoples, of him shall the nations inquire and his resting place shall be glorious.

That is a prophecy about Jesus Christ, who would be born in the lineage of Jesse from Bethlehem.

And then we arrive at David, the greatest king that Israel ever had.

David was Israel's second king, succeeding Saul who fell out of favor with God, and everything about the life of David is meant to point us to Christ.

When he took a stand before the giant Goliath, he was the mighty warrior, a conquering king, who fought for the people.

The people made fun of him. Saul had no faith in him either. David's own brothers didn't believe in him, just as Jesus' own brothers didn't believe him.

But David acted on behalf of the people of God anyway, and he slew that dragon because he was the only person who could.

It was ordained that David would do that, that a king who would be in the line of Jesus Christ would be the one that would strike down the warrior

Goliath and save the Israelites. It was ordained by God that David would take down Goliath, and Christ is our advocate who slew the devil when we were completely incapable of doing so.

In the story of David and Goliath, this is something that I've mentioned many times before. You can even find a

What? video about it. But in the story of David and Goliath, we're not David, and Goliath is not our problems.

We're the Israelites, cowering off to the side on the ridge, clamoring in our pseudo armor, going, Okay, that's who we are.

And Christ is the greater David. He is the one who stepped in, even when we didn't believe, while we were yet sinners, and destroyed the devil.

1 John 3, 8, Christ did that for us, for the glory of his name.

David was a king priest. He had all the rights of the king, and all the rights of a priest.

We also see Melchizedek, in Genesis, described as a king priest. And in Hebrews, it says that Christ was born in the line of Melchizedek.

So David was also that king priest figure. And Jesus, as the greater David, also has all the rights of a king, king of kings and lord of lords, right?

And he is our high priest, as stated in Hebrews 3, 1 and in 4, 14. He is the high priest of our confession, is what it says there.

He atones for our sin, as the high priest did for the people, bringing sacrifices before the

Lord. Except that Jesus himself is the sacrifice. David was also referred to as a prophet.

Peter calls him a prophet in Acts 2 .30, just as Jesus is also called a prophet. All throughout

David's Psalms, do we read prophecy about Christ. David wrote about Jesus being betrayed.

He wrote about his hands and feet being pierced. He wrote about his body going into the grave, but not seeing decay.

So many of the things about David and the Psalms point to Christ. Now, David was not a sinless man.

He was not perfect. The only sinless, perfect man is Christ. But the Old Testament still spoke very highly of David's character.

In 1 King 15 .5, we read, David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything that God commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the

Hittite. So, if you'll remember, David saw a woman bathing, her name was Bathsheba, and he took her into his home and committed adultery with her.

To cover up the affair, he had Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, killed on the front lines of battle.

This was a man that David knew and is even described as his friend. The prophet

Nathan confronted David regarding his wickedness, and David was filled with great sorrow and repented.

And Psalm 51 tells us all about that. Even though David sinned, he still remained faithful to God.

A man after God's own heart is the way that David is described, and God's attitude toward David did not change, even though David sinned.

We read in 1 John 1 .9, that if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And we can learn that from the life of David, a man who was faithful to ask forgiveness for his sins.

And God cleansed him. Now, there were still ramifications for David's sin. David's kingdom started falling apart.

His house was in shambles. God denied him the chance to build the temple. That was a privilege that would get passed on to his son

Solomon. But God upheld the covenant that he made to David, that on his throne, he would establish his kingdom forever.

We read the Lord's covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7. And of course, this was a prophecy itself concerning the coming of Christ through the line of David.

And it was with Christ that God would establish that eternal kingdom. Isaiah 9, 6 -7, a popular passage that we read around Christmas time.

Unto us a child is born. To us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the

Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness.

From this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Alright, back to Matthew 1. Here is the rest of verse 6. David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.

Which is an interesting kind of jab that Matthew takes there. According to the law Bathsheba belonged to Uriah, not

David. But even through that union, even though it was not holy.

God still took something that was evil and turned it into something for his glory.

God purposes even evil for his good work. That is not permission for us to sin now.

Because as we read in Romans 6. Are we to go on sinning so that grace may abound?

By no means. Those who are dead to sin must no longer walk in it. We must live as those who are set free in Christ.

Not enslaved to our sin. But the reason God allows evil to continue.

Is because he will do something great. Even through evil.

Even though evil persists. God is doing a great work. Habakkuk 1.

How long will I cry out violence and you will not save? And God's response.

Look among the nations and see. Wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days.

That you would not believe even if I told you what it was. In the

Christmas story. There is a dark few verses in there. Matthew 2 .16 -18. Herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the

Magi became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem. And in all that region who were two years old and under.

According to the time that he has ascertained. That he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet

Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah. Weeping and loud lamentation.

Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted. Because they are no more.

Even through this. This heinous act by Herod. An evil king.

At the loss of the sons of Bethlehem and in the surrounding region. God was working to bring about salvation for all mankind.

Salvation from sin and from death. Just like this. See Matthew quoted

Jeremiah 31 .15. To point out how the death of these children was a fulfillment of prophecy. If you go to Jeremiah 31 and read the context.

What you read is how God is going to rescue his people. From a terrible situation.

And indeed God is doing a work even now. Though we live in a crooked and depraved generation.

As the apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 2 .15. In which we are to shine as lights in the world.

Let us confirm our calling and election. By being the light of Christ to all men. For He has saved us from our sins.

God let your light shine into our hearts. Through your scriptures. And it is in the name of Jesus that we pray.

Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes.

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