December is my favourite month of the year, it is Christmas season and I ponder a lot on the four Gospels; Jesus our Lord ; His birth and His crucifixion. It always brings new revelation of who I am in Christ. It also is the best way to end the year and start the new year. It always leads to fresh hope and vision for the future.
Starting in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus I can already see God's grace in action right in the first verse starting with David and Abraham. God made both of them a big promise and Jesus was the fulfillment of both that promises. God always keeps His promises! He always fulfill His Word. Read about these promises here: Psalm 89: 36; 2 Samuel 7:13; Romans 4: 13; Genesis 12:3.
Further down the line there is four women mentioned in this genealogy, which is rare or almost unheard of. Women were almost never mentioned in those days. But right from the start, Jesus genealogy brings women into consideration. These four women: Tamar, Ruth, Rahab and Bathsheba, they were all brought into Jesus history by faith through grace. They were all in a desparate situation and they believed in what was to them, an unknown God and He saved each one of them. By God's amazing grace they were not only saved, they became part of the biggest event in history- the birth of our Lord and Savior. Through their stories comes a consistant message of God's grace to all of us. None of these women were Jews, but God is telling us even through this genealogy that His grace is for all people who will believe. You can read about each one of them here: Tamar- Genesis 38:11-30. Rahab- Joshua 2:1, Joshua 6:22-25, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25. Ruth - Ruth 1:4,1:16-17,22, Genesis 12:3, Luke 3:32, Romans 4:13. Bathsheba - 2 Samuel 11:3, 2 Samuel 11: 26-26.
After these four women there were a bunch of realy bad and some good kings in Israel. It is good to once more think about it: None of them stopped God from fulfilling His plan of salvation. Nothing surprises God. God know people better than we think. He is much bigger than most people think He is!
From Abraham to David there are 14 generations. From David to the captivity in Babylon there are again 14 generations and from the captivity in Babylon until Christ there are again exactly 14 generations. Precise detail is very important to God. We see this through the whole Bible and it always has a meaning and is usualy an arrow pointing to something important. According to the Companion Bible commentary:
The first 14 begins with the call of Abraham and end with the call of David to be future king. The second 14 begins with the building of the temple and ends with the destruction of it. The third 14 begins with the nation of Israel under Babylon and end with it under the power of Rome - the first and fourth of the world powers of Daniel 2:31-45.
This is a few interesting things to think about concerning the genealogy of Jesus. I think we tend to skip this chapter, thinking it is not important or very relevant, but even this tells us so many wonderful things about out Lord.