Genealogy & Birth Narrative (Matt 1-2)

Three of the five women included in the genealogy of Jesus were infamous. It is even more so among the “fathers.”

• God can and does use failures (Rom 8:28).
• Failure need not doom one’s future (1:2-16).
• Joseph believed what God said, rather than what he saw (1:20, 24).

Matthew emphasizes the fulfillment of prophecy in the record of Jesus’ conception and birth account. Each is a literal fulfillment of the words of the prophet (1:22-23; 2:15; 2:16-18, 23). Even Herod acted on the basis of a literal interpretation of the prophets (2:5-8).

Lessons from Matthew 1-2:

• Repentance affords me a renewed relationship and I am returned to the Potter’s hands.

• Reality is as God says, not as I see it.

• Fulfilled prophecy makes both God’s plan and His power evident.

 

             Michael T. Sanders is the former minister of the Buechel Church of Christ in    

                                             Louisville, Kentucky and now retired UPS DC-8 Captain.