Matthew is an extended argument that the covenant has come to the pinnacle of all its promises. All of the promises of the old covenant came and walked the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham of seed and a land, the promise through Moses of a new law and law giver, the promise to David of the great King and Messiah, the promise to Malachi of a new prophetic ministry like Elijah and Elisha, the promise through Jeremiah of a great return from exile, the promise to Hosea of a new exodus, the promise through Isaiah of forgiveness of sins and rest and of a new creation, the promise through David and Ezekiel of a new temple sacrifice and priesthood (melkezidichian). Matthew is arguing that all of these things have come in the person of Jesus, Yahweh incarnate, and that by his preaching, life, death, resurrection, and ascension/installation, the exile is ended, the slavery is over, the heavy burdens can be laid aside and (of all things) the time of the gentiles salvation has come. Matthew lays out, among other things, a legal case against the Pharisees/Synagogues, the temple/Sadducees, and (beginning here in the genealogy) the Herods. He also gives an argument for selling your temple front property in Jerusalem and preparing to go to the gentiles (which we see happening in the book of acts). And he spends a great deal of time establishing Jesus a the great “judge” (savior/prophet, as in the book of judges) of the earth.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations (Matt. 1:17).
The melodic line of Matthew is a harmony of two melodies which together form the turning point of history. As the seventeenth verse of the first chapter of Matthew tells us, Jesus is the beginning of the fourth fourteen, or the first generation of the seventh seven since Abraham. He is also the beginning of the fourth fourteen, which means that he is the beginning of the Sabbath of weeks of generations. He is also the becomes the legitimate heir of the throne of David by being the first born of Joseph, the “SON OF DAVID.” Jesus is the summation of all that has come before him and in him the old will be done away with and the new will be established.
Chapter 1
The point of the genealogy is to stress Jesus’ Israelitishness and that Jesus is history’s climax. This is going to become very important when Matthew argues that Jesus is the federal representitive of Israel. This genealogy also stresses Jesus’ right as the first born in the household of Joseph (husband of Mary). Joseph is the firstborn in the Davidic line and is therefore the rightful king of Israel. Jesus inherits the birthright as King legally. It also stresses the many whores redeemed in Jesus’ lineage.
Vs. 1-2 “Jesus Christ the Son of David” is one name with two titles, indicating the same thing. Jesus is King by the appointing of the Holy Spirit by God the Father (baptism, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost) and by lineage- son of David, which is about to proved by this genealogy. It also sets Jesus forward as the hope of the Jews, the promised son of David (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 89:3; 132:11; Isaiah 11:1-5; Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:14-18; Ezekiel 34:23-24).
“The son of Abraham” denotes Jesus’ ethnic descent from Abraham which is important because Jesus is the seed promised to Abraham (Gen 17:1-7). But as Dr. Leithart pointed out in an advent sermon, Matthew is going to be making the point that Jesus is the greater Isaac, the seed in whom all the promises given to Abraham will be fulfilled. All the nations of the earth will be blessed in Jesus (Gen. 22:18; 26:4), and through him, Abrahams’ seed will inherit the land (Gen. 12:7).
This is also important because Jesus is the antitype of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (whom I realize is not mentioned in this text, but he was not a patriarch because he was rejected by his brothers when God informed them of his status as the next patriarch [Gen. 37:1-11]).
As the new Abraham, Jesus is the patriarch, the father of a new nation and the the new federal head of the saved family of God. Abraham lived his life as a pilgrim with the land of Canaan in his possession by the promise of God but only actually owning his tomb, Jesus lived his life as a pilgrim with the entire earth in His possession by the promise of God but only actually owning his tomb which was given Him after his death (he may have owned a home we’re never told explicitly). Isaac, the child of promise, came into the world late in his Father’s life, about forty years after his older brother, and was preferred above Ishmael, who was nevertheless established by God with a heavenly deed of his own, (His post-Jethro descendants gave up the rights by their lack of faith displayed by their wickedness).
Isaac was the son offered on the altar (with a ram being exchanged at the last minute). Abraham, acting with faith in the particular promises of god that the whole earth would be his through this child (who was not an infant and probably had enough faith to sit still while being tied) thought that God would raise Isaac from the dead which was a type of resurrection (Heb. 11:17-20). Jesus was offered up by His Father willingly (Heb. 12:2) and was the anti-type (fulfillment) of this symbolic action. Isaac’s father sent his servant Eleazar (which means comforter in the Hebrew) to a far country to find, beautify and prepare a bride for him. Jesus’ father also sent his servant the Holy Spirit (who is the comforter of the Hebrews) to a far country (Earth) to find, beautify and prepare a bride for Him (Eph. 5:26-27).
Jacob, by faith, did not grasp after the patriarchy promised to him by God (Gen. 25:23-25) but waited for the Lord to give it to him, which he did when Esau sold it to him for a bowl of red soup. Jesus did not grasp after the authority that God the Father had promised to Him, even when it was laid out to Him for exchange for His sin. Instead Jesus waited until the Devil, who did not realize what he was doing, despised his authority and sold it for the blood of the Son of God. The patriarchy was overturned when God gave it into the hands of Joseph and his brothers rebelled against the God given preference of Joseph. When God (through prophetic dreams) and Jacob (by word and clothing him in a king/priest garment) told them to yield all of their authority to Joseph, they threw him down a well and killed a goat in his place, then pulled him out and sent him down to Egypt where he became the ruler of Egypt. Jesus came to Israel and God (through declaration and clothing Him with the Holy Ghost) told the Israelites to yield themselves to Jesus they killed Him as a scapegoat and threw Him into Sheol. God then pulled Him out by the power of the Holy Ghost and exalted Him to the right hand of the Father, where he became the ruler of the whole earth.
vs. 3 “Judes begat Pharez and Zaroh of Tamar.” Zara is set aside by God and eventually his line is wiped out (Gen 38:27, Josh 7:1-24). Pharez is made to be the line of Promise by God, which is established in salmon’s marriage to Rahab and later in Ruth.
Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, (19) And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, (20) And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, (21) And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, (22) And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David (Ruth 4:18-22).
The entire book of Ruth is a historical argument that David is the rightful heir of Judah. God had promised that the line of Judah would be royal and eventually messianic (Gen. 49:8-12). The first born of Judah would carry this promise. He married Tamar and then died, His brother Onan was supposed to raise up a Son for his older brother, but because his brothers unfruitfulness would mean him inheriting that promise, the bible tells us that he went in unto Tamar but he spilled his seed in the dust. Then he died, the next brother was too young, so Judah said, live here until he is old enough, but then Judah defrauded Tamar, so when Judah’s wife had died, and Judah went on a business trip, Tamar pretended to be a Canaanite prostitute and was hired by Judah and Tamar got pregnant with twins. When she went into labor, the first born began to be born, his hand came out and the midwife tied a scarlet cord around his wrist, but then he pulled his hand back in and his younger brother was born first. The older was named Zerah and the younger was named Pharez, so Zerah inherited the Royal and messianic promise (Gen. 38).
But later, a descendant of Zerah named Achan (Achan the Son of Zerah in Josh 22:20) sinned during the conquest and Zerah’s royal line was wiped out). So the royal line of Judah would then fall on the descendants of Pharez. The prince of the line of Pharez in Achan’s day was Salmon the Father of Boaz. Salmon had married Rahab the Canaanite prostitute who had saved her family in Jericho by rescuing the Israelite spies and then hanging a scarlet cord in her window. So then, by bringing the scarlet cord of Rahab, God appears to be confirming the descendants of Salmon son of Pharez (whose older brother had a scarlet cord tied around his wrist at birth to verify that he was the first born) as the true royal descendants of Judah, who now carried the promise. So when Ruth gives David’s genealogy in this way, the author if Ruth is arguing that David is of the Royal line of Judah and that the messianic promises have fallen in his line.
vs. 5 Rahab, the prostitute, bringing the scarlet thread with her, marries into the lineage of Pharez, and proves yet again that the younger was preferred to the older and that the child of Promise is set apart by God’s mercy. Her son Boaz marries the righteous gentile Ruth who does not live above reproach in the eyes of her neighbor, who, never the less, is a righteous woman.
Vs 6 David, by the wife of Uriah, whom he murdered after stealing his wife, who is not exactly a queen of modesty, has Solomon.
Vs 16 Joseph, the rightful King (son of David, v 20), the husband of Mary, (who was pregnant out of wedlock) now has a first son, Jesus.
Vs 17 Here, the four stages of the Abrahamic covenant are separated in the genealogy by 14 generations. In each stage we can see many similarities. The covenant is reestablished in the world, a new covenant word is given, a great historical salvation is accomplished, greater revelation and salvation are promised, and Eden is reestablished (symbolically) as the meeting place of heaven and earth, and a prophet priest and king are established. The previous three stages, which are laid out here hint that the one that Matthew is about to relate is the greatest one of them all; that he is about to tell the story of the fulfillment and climax of Abraham’s promise. That all of this is going to be rolled up into the person of Jesus the messiah. Israel has been renewed, vindicated, and reconstituted as the people of God because the covenant head of Israel died on a Roman cross, spent three days in the ground and then rose from the dead. Abraham was right in believing God, Moses was right in believing God, David was right in believing God, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, Noah, John the baptizer and the eleven were right in believing God. Also, Jesus is beginning the seventh set of seven, which, in terms of creation imagery would be the Sabbath day of generations of the Abrahamic covenant
The anonymous preacher (who is an early church commentator) points out that the three sections of the genealogy correspond to shifts in the socio-religious organization of Israel. From Abraham to David, Israel was under judges; from David to exile, under kings; from exile on, under the high priest. Jesus fulfills all three of these, as the judge, king, and priest.
Vs 18 before they were married, Mary was pregnant by the Holy Ghost. Mary appears to have committed adultery, but we just were reminded of 4 women in the lineage of Jesus with real or perceived whoredoms of whom God made great women of faith, so this sort of thing is not new, but it also should not come as a surprise because Isaiah prophesied it. (see v. 23) Joseph, however, needed the persuading presence of an angel of the Lord appearing to him in a dream.
Vs 19-20 Joseph was opposed to sexual impurity and to vindictive, self-seeking “justice,” so when his misunderstanding was made plain, because putting her away silently was an act of faith without knowledge, marrying her was his faith acting with knowledge, he married her but did not have intercourse until after Jesus was born. Then they did and there were other children born into Jesus earthly family (Mark 3:32).
Vs 23 This all fulfills the prophecy given by Isaiah to Ahaz when Ahaz is invited by God to ask the highest or lowest sign that he can think of. Ahaz elects to not test God so god tells Ahaz what the sign will be, and when it will happen (Is. 7:10-16), and then what will happen because of Yahweh’s action (Is. 7:17-25). The gentiles will come to the land, the hired servant will be shaved (for disgrace) and the land will produce an abundance of butter and honey, and the land will become rich and filled with briars and thorns. So Isaiah is talking about the Israel within an Israel distinction (The true Israel, who has spoiled the old Israel and survives the destruction of the old Israel by coming out from among the wicked).
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