Fridays are spent reading the gospels in the Bible in a year reading plan I’m using. Nothing like reading the accounts of the life of Jesus!
Anyway, today’s notes follow…
Matthew 1:1
1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
I won’t post the entire genealogy found at the beginning of the book of Matthew… you can read it yourself online or in your own Bible if you’d like. I just want to note that I find it amazing that the author of the book of Matthew was able to determine the geneaology of Christ running all the way back to Abraham… 42 generations! (Further research with a couple study guides indicates there may have actually been more which were simply omitted, as was common practice at the time.)
Establishing the geneaology of Jesus was obviously important… I wonder what the application is here for you and me?
Matthew 1: 18-25
18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” — which means, “God with us.”
24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Joseph’s faithfulness in staying with Mary throughout this amazes me. The shame and ridicule he must have endured (Mary too, for that matter) must have been almost unbearable. What a demonstration of faith and conviction!
Matthew 2:1-2
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:12
12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Matthew 2:13
13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
Matthew 2:19-20
19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
Matthew 2:22-23
Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Isn’t it amazing how many times, just in Matthew 2, God used signs and dreams to communicate to people? I wonder if we’re just not paying attention anymore, or if God now chooses other ways to communicate his will to us?
What do you think?
Any thoughts from today’s readings?
I want to share something with you. Before I do I want to respond to your comment regarding how God speakes to us today, whether he still speakes to us in dreams or if God now chooses other ways. It is both. I am a very conservative christian, I have learned to be very skeptical about alleged “visions” and “Thus saith the Lord” stuff. Scripture is the final authority over any experiance. What happened to me is this. It was over a year before the Iraq war started and at the time we were not even talking about confronting Sadam. I was suddenly woken up in the middle of the night and I saw as though looking into a great distance fire coming out from a distant horizon. Immediately I could hear the voice of what had to be the Lord inside of me. First thought was Iraq, them the message “There is going to be a day when fathers will be greatly worried that there sons will not make it home safely. There will be a fire that comes out of the east that will consume everything in it’s path.” I wrote it down and carry it with me in my wallet. I did not ask for this and would not seek it. If God wants to speak he will, he has no problem communicating. I have not experianced anything remotely like that since. I do not expect I ever will again. But God is the same yesterday today and forever. I would not advise anyone to say God said anything unless either scripture confirms it or he spoke in such a way as to remove all doubt. Even then test every “voice” or thought against God’s word. What I saw happened, so this word was proven true. I am no prophet I am just telling you what I saw and heard.
You know every time I read the story of the birth of Jesus and specifically the way that it was done, it blows me away…
I mean a manger?(actually more of a cave) and then to be a Nazarene, which is not exactly pristine. A simple carpenter…? Why not a golden temple or on top of a high mountain somewhere where everyone can see and God’s glory would be envisioned by all?
Obviously, as we know, He certainly had a plan.
Makes you wonder…if God, Lord of Lord, King of Kings came to earth to save us from our sins in this matter of introduction. What do you think He intended “us” to learn from his simplicity?
Ben,
Thanks for sharing. I fully believe God still speaks in many of the ways found in the Bible, as you have experienced. But you’re right… we must test every voice, lest we be deceived.
Wise words, indeed.
Tom,
I’m often baffled by how, well… simple… Jesus made Himself when He put on flesh and bone. Obviously, the Jews (yes, even those who devoted their entire lives to seeking God through the Law) did not recognize Him for who He was.
I wonder if we would recognize Him today were He to enter our world once again? Obviously, I think we’d recognize the second coming (the Bible makes pretty clear that’s an event NO ONE will miss), but I mean if He entered the world today to come and save us instead of some 2,000 years back… would we recognize Him?