The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: Matthew 1:1-6

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Don Merritt

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: (1:1)

Matthew begins with this verse full of content and contextual implications. It would seem that Matthew is intent on linking the story of Jesus to the larger context of Israel’s history. Notice his reference to “the genealogy of” in language which in the original Greek parallels that of the Septuagint in Gen. 2:4 and 5:1, alongside the names of David and Abraham, two of Israel’s most illustrious heroes. That Matthew uses the terms “Jesus the Messiah” (or Jesus Christ) makes it quite clear that this son of David is special (cf. 2:4; 16:16, 20; 22:42; 24:5, 23; 26:63, 68). In putting the personal name together with the messianic concept, Matthew is referring back to the hopes of an entire Nation.

With the reference “son of David” our author is hearkening back to the glory days of his people and God’s covenant promises concerning the Davidic royal house, David may well be considered the pivotal name in the genealogy for it is mentioned 5 times, and is the only name associated with the title of “king” (v. 6), singling him out of all other royal references as the greatest. Many scholars also point out the presence of the numerical value associated with the Hebrew numeric consonants. For the name David the numerics look like this: d (4) w (6) d (4) or 4 + 6 + 4 = 14. The number 14 is the number of David to be sure, but here it appears that, as some suggest, it has more meaning than that, for it is also arrived at by multiplying 2 X 7. Seven, as we saw in the Introduction, is the number of completeness or perfection. Jesus is the second Person of the godhead. Thus, some suggest that 14 is the number of Messiah, and when you compare that to David, and recall that the Messiah would be the son of David, these scholars conclude their case.

As for me personally, I don’t know who is right or wrong about the numbers, but in noticing how often the number 14 appears here, and remembering how the ancient Jews felt about numbers, it appears to me that at the least, Matthew is trying in every way possible to make sure that his readers get “son of David” and “Messiah” out of this discussion.

Matthew goes on to mention that David was a “son of Abraham” which is another interesting component. Recall God’s covenant with Abraham: Isaac was the son of promise through whom all of the nations of the world would be blessed. Here, David is named “son of Abraham”. Jesus is mentioned as “son of David” and “Messiah” with the obvious attempt to reinforce Matthew’s contention that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham.

This isn’t such a boring genealogy, is it?

While Matthew doesn’t mention every man who could be mentioned here, the inclusion of the names of four women is worthy of our note. As scholars like to do, they often differ about why these four names are included. My thought is that these women are all Gentiles; yet here they are in the genealogy of Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the very non-Gentile Abrahamic covenant. It strikes me that this may be important for two reasons: First, because Matthew makes certain to point out when Jesus breaks the ethnic barrier between Jew and Gentile (cf. 8:5-13; 15:21-28; 28:18-20), and second because of the way that social outcasts received His message. Whether or not this was Matthew’s thinking, one thing is perfectly clear: This is no ordinary genealogy, and with the arrival of Jesus the Messiah, nothing would ever be the same again.

We’ll pick up in verse 6 when we get together next time!

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Peace Be with You

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Don Merritt

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

Everybody wants peace in their lives. Peace to think, peace to live and to achieve their dreams. Peace to be happy and secure, to raise a family, to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Yet life has a way of barging in on us, of bringing problems, of pushing and pulling us into all kinds of stress and anxiety− how can we have peace in our lives and live in a world that is so full of problems?

I wish I could take all of your problems away, but sadly, I can’t. I have problems too, and they just keep on coming. I get one solved, and something else always seems to pop up.

There is some good news though; it’s right there in these verses…

whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Yes, there are all kinds of problems, but that doesn’t mean that we must dwell on them, stew on them or be overcome by them; you see, we can still have God’s peace, even in the midst of the problems of this life. Focus on the kinds of things Paul mentions here. Set your eyes on the things that are from above, clothe yourselves with Christ, and… the God of peace will be with you.

See? I told you there was good news!

Take the problems of life to God, leave them with Him. Yes, that’s right, leave the problems with God. I’m not saying that everything will just be fine and dandy all the time, but you can have His peace with you through problems, and God’s peace is a lot more helpful in solving problems, that anxiety is. When did stress ever make difficulties or challenges easier to deal with?

Yet the peace of God will enable you to see solutions much quicker when you need them, and if nothing else, will help us to put things into a much better perspective.

So, think about such things…

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The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: Introduction

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Don Merritt

I’ll confess to you right here and now that when I sit down to read the Bible, I skip the genealogies, but when I sit down to study the Bible, I look for genealogies. For many who casually read the Bible, genealogies are cumbersome, boring and wearysome, but for more than casual readers, we come to realize that they are not included in the inspired text just to fill space or aid in curing insomnia; they tell a story.

Matthew begins his telling of the story of Jesus Christ by giving us some vital insight into just exactly who this Jesus guy is, and He is no ordinary man. It is no coincidence then, that this is no ordinary genealogy. When most people look at a Biblical genealogy, we assume that this is an exact record of biological ancestry; a pedigree one might say, but this isn’t always the case, in fact, it seldom is just that. Sometimes, genealogies in the Bible don’t match up exactly, and skeptics and scoffers have no end of fun criticizing the Scriptures for what they assume to be historical inaccuracies, because they overlook the fact that the Scriptures are not like other books, for they are God’s revelation of Himself to Man, not the mere musings of the human mind.

In order for us to get the value of Biblical genealogies, we must realize that they are not so much concerned with a person’s biological ancestry as they are with demonstrating a person’s corporate and tribal status within the larger community. We can see this by noticing that in most cases, the great names are first, and the last name is the person who is being magnified by the presence of the greater names. By doing this, a storyteller can set up the basis for telling the descendant’s story by putting the descendant (last name) into the context of his great ancestors.

Matthew does not follow that pattern here, for he does not build Jesus up by associating His name with His great ancestors, rather he builds up the ancestors by associating their names with that of Jesus, which is the first and last name that is mentioned. I think a quick look at the structure will show you what I mean:

First off, we are looking here at Matthew 1:1-17 which is broken into three main sections. Verses 2-6 cover the time in the history of the Jewish people from Abraham to David, a period that culminates in the high point of Israelite history in the beginning of the Davidic monarchy.  In verses 7-11, Matthew reminds his readers both of the glory of the Davidic reign and the steady slide that resulted in Israel’s darkest period of captivity. The third period, in verses 12-16, extends from the captivity to Jesus, a period in which there is no king, a period in which the Jews are at the mercy of foreign powers and in which their hopes of redemption grow and are finally met when Jesus comes onto the scene as the culmination of Jewish history. Notice verse 16 where Jesus is born and is named by Matthew as “Jesus who is called Christ”. In doing this, Matthew is making all who have gone before subservient to Jesus, the Redeemer of Israel.

Note verse 17:

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

In this summation, Matthew has done two interesting things: First, he has tied Jesus to the history of Israel so as to place Him at its very center, and second, he set up His arrival as the beginning of a whole new era, an era that is not like any that has come before. In doing this, Matthew has also forced us to notice the number 14, since he mentioned it three times in his summary verse. We’ll consider this and other exciting things as we continue our look at this amazing passage next time; see you then!

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Walking in the Light

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Don Merritt

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Romans 13:11-14

It is time to wake up, for the day is coming when the Lord Jesus will return. Notice the urgency in what Paul is talking about here; time’s a wasting! It may seem funny to us all these centuries later to read this urgency, but it is important for us to always bear in mind the fact that Jesus is coming. His literal return could be at any time, or it could be in 10,000 years, and no one knows for sure either way. Yet He came for every single recipient of this letter a long time ago. He came for all of those who have ever read this letter in the centuries that have followed, and He will come for us soon enough, thus Paul’s urgency applies to each of us: Wake up!

Paul’s metaphor of living in the light of day is clear enough; we are to behave in a respectable manner, not as people do in the wee hours when nobody is looking. In verse 13, he mentions several behaviors, and I think they are obvious enough, so I will only comment on two of them; dissention and jealousy.

I try not to miss opportunities to make a plea for Christian unity, and this is certainly such an opportunity. Must we continue fighting among ourselves, arguing over every little doctrinal difference of opinion? Must we be jealous about the name on the sign in front of the building? Is all of that really so essential?

I don’t believe that it is, do you?

Maybe I’m just a fool, but I think that the times we are living in today are much too serious to indulge ourselves in this sort of thing. Our calling is to build the Body of Christ, so let’s get to building instead of tearing it apart. Let’s clothe ourselves in Christ and answer our calling instead of glorifying ourselves in endless arguments.

Now, did you notice that in clothing ourselves with Christ, all of those sins are no longer even the topic of discussion? No, the subject changed so naturally to building up His Body instead. Thus, however we might express it; thinking about things that are above, focusing on Christ or clothing ourselves with Christ, the pettiness of this earthly life seems to fade away in the light of His love.

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A Brief introduction to the Gospel of Matthew

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Don Merritt

It has been a long time since I blogged through a book of the Bible here on this site. If you are new here, you may not realize that this was the main activity of this blog for a number of years, and I’m looking forward to getting back to it. This Introduction to Matthew is our starting point- here we go!

From the second century AD onward, Matthew the tax collector has been identified as the author of this, the first Gospel in our New Testament. As is true with the other three Gospels, it first began to be circulated without an author’s name and so it remains debatable whether or not he was the actual author; that is if you want to debate. Most likely written sometime after 70 AD, there has never been much in the way of debate concerning its veracity or worthiness of being considered divinely inspired, and it usually appeared at the top of any list of writings to be included in Scripture.

This Gospel is uniquely Jewish in its orientation, which is why it was thought to have been written for a primarily Jewish audience. More than any other of the Gospels, Matthew points out all of the things Jesus did to fulfill Old Testament Scripture, yet the records indicate that it was probably the most popular of all New Testament writings as early as the second century. It was most often referred to and most often quoted in the surviving early Christian writings, by both Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Among the writers of the New Testament, Matthew stands out as the best actual writer in literary terms. He writes not as an eye witness, which he most assuredly was to many of the events in his narrative, but as a third party narrator, which gives his readers an advantageous position from which to view the events he describes. Often, he tells us what the characters are thinking, what their motivations and emotions are, insights which clearly increase our understanding. He, as we will see, uses literary devices to illustrate his points, as well as a deliberately devised structure that helps to clearly set out his seven major themes… and there is a fascinating unity in the fact that there are seven sections of the book, that use seven themes to convey the Person of Jesus Christ to his readers.

There is little doubt in my mind that the use of “seven” was deliberate on his part. Seven of course, is the number of completeness or perfection; some would say it is God’s number as seen in an apocalyptic view of the Scriptures. As we will see in our discussion of chapter 1, the very genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s account is full of the number seven, or more accurately a multiple of that number: 14… the number of Messiah. You just can’t read Matthew without being clear about who Jesus is!

Here is the structure of the book:

1:1 – 4:16        Establishes the identity and role of Jesus Christ.

4:17 – 11:1      Jesus begins His ministry of teaching and healing to establish God’s presence in the land.

11:2 – 16:20    Jesus’ disciples, through divine inspiration receive special insight into His person and mission.

16:21 – 20:34  Jesus engages the disciples in explicit discussions about His priorities and intentions and the ultimate purpose of His mission.

21:11 – 25:46  In Jerusalem Jesus’ teaching and actions lead to rising conflict with the Jewish leaders.

26:1 – 27:50    As the situation intensifies, Jesus strives to willingly complete His mission.

27:51 – 28:50  God vindicates His Son through cosmic signs and resurrection from the dead and gives Him the authority to commission His Church.

I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait to get started; see you next time!

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As a new week begins…

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Don Merritt

…each of us will face its challenges. There will be circumstances that develop, circumstances over which we may not have any control, circumstances that we simply cannot fix or that are bigger and stronger than we are. Some will surmount those situations and circumstances; others will be swept up by them− which will it be for you?

There were two boats sailing in the bay. A stiff wind swept into the area blowing in the direction of the rocks and away from the harbor. The pilot of one of the boats was taken closer and closer to the rocks, its pilot having great difficulty controlling his course as the wind blew him closer and closer to disaster. Yet the pilot of the other boat adjusted his sails and set his course against the wind toward the safe harbor, for he knew that a good sailor can use the wind and sail against it. The minutes went by as one boat approached its end on the rocks and the other approached the safe harbor…

When all was said and done, the first sailor was lucky to have survived, and the other wrapped up an enjoyable, if challenging, day of sailing.

As we begin this new week, we can either be wrecked on the rocks of our circumstances or we can let God direct our course into the safe harbor of His loving arms, for just as two boats can sail in opposite directions in the same wind, we can move in opposite directions in response to our circumstances. In the case of sailing, the difference is training and skill. In the case of our life’s circumstances, it is seeking God’s presence that makes the difference.

Which way will we sail this week?

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Sunday Sermon Notes: July 28, 2024

Posted on July 28, 2024 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Solomon (a..k.a. Koheleth) sets out his great quest for wisdom in these verses, but all of the wisdom that the wisest man of all time managed to collect, wasn’t worth very much. Here’s an example:

Suppose you went to the movies, and when you got to the front of the ticket line you said, “One please,” and then handed the cashier your American Express card.

“I’m sorry,” the cashier says, “But we don’t take American Express. We accept cash, VISA, MasterCard and Discover.”

“But I only have American Express,” you reply…

Guess who isn’t going to the movies today?

Like an American Express card, human wisdom is nice to have; certainly, wisdom beats stupidity any day, but it doesn’t get you into heaven, nor will it bring you into God’s presence: That simply is not something human wisdom can do for you.

Solomon notes that after seeing all of the things that go on under the sun, none of them are much good for anything. Again the NIV uses the word “meaningless.”

I can’t help but think “meaningless” isn’t quite strong enough, “futility” seems more on the mark here to me… or just plain “worthless.”

Take particular note of verse 15:

What is crooked cannot be straightened;
    what is lacking cannot be counted.

Do you see the construction here? Notice the two poetic clauses separated by a semicolon? This is called a Hebrew parallelism, and it is very important in interpretation. Those two clauses are parallel which means that they mean the same thing, and this is quite handy to keep in mind if one or the other isn’t quite clear. The first of these is simple enough at first glance: “What is crooked cannot be straightened” except for the fact that “crooked” is rather ambiguous, don’t you think? Crooked in what sense? Does he mean that it’s curved somehow, or maybe he means corrupt… or maybe its curve signifies corruption… or who knows what he means?

Since these clauses are parallel, we can look at the second one: “what is lacking cannot be counted” and here we find a little riddle we can solve easily. If something is lacking, then it isn’t there, so you can’t count what is lacking, since it isn’t there. If you have $20.00 in your hand, then you can’t count $30.00 since the other $10.00 isn’t in your hand. Thus, we can see that he means that “you can’t straighten what is crooked” means that it just isn’t straight, say a stick of wood, and you can’t make it straight with all of the wisdom in the world, because it is what it is: crooked. Now that we have the parallelism figured out, go back to verse 14:

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

To explain the totality of the meaning of this verse, the author used the parallelism in verse 15, and when you put these together here’s what you have:

After examining everything that is done in this world apart from God, all of them are meaningless, futile, vain, of no account… and nothing is going to change that.

(Pretty cool, don’t you think? These Hebrew parallelisms are found throughout the poetic books; Psalms, Proverbs, Job and the prophets)

In the remaining verses of our text, the author uses this same technique again to tell us that not only is all of the activity he found “under the sun” meaningless, but so is the pursuit of wisdom itself.

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
    the more knowledge, the more grief. (1:18)

The wiser he became, the more he realized that none of this mattered, and that made him even more miserable than ever.

As the next chapter begins, our Teacher examines the pleasures of life; what will we discover there? Much pleasure, or maybe much folly?

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Do you know anyone who doesn’t like pleasure? To be sure, that is a loaded question because it is not possible to say “No” to that one. Everyone likes pleasure… by definition, although not everyone has the opportunity to experience it. Pleasure is fun, it is… pleasurable. We can do all sorts of things for pleasure; we can enjoy fine foods, drink good wines, read good books, watch good movies and listen to good music. Solomon, using the great wisdom he has gained, seems to have conducted an investigation into pleasure, to determine whether or not it would add meaning to life.

In verses 1-9 he tells us of his investigation, and then he sums up his conclusions in verses 10-11. In the first two verses, he goes after amusement, in 3 it is wine. In 4-6 he pursues pleasure in great accomplishments, then he goes for wealth in 7-8a, and then in 8b he pursues the pleasures of sex; the number of his wives and concubines (sex slaves) was in the thousands! (1 Kings 11:3). In verse 9 he sums this all up by pointing out that in all of this, he became far greater than anyone who had come before “in Jerusalem”. Then he gives us his conclusions:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

Verse 10 begins with another parallelism that clearly tells us that there was absolutely nothing that he didn’t try, and that he utterly indulged his every fancy. He had a great time; his “heart took delight” in what he was doing, and that delight was his entire reward: Fun.

Yet when it was all said and done, what had he really accomplished? With the great wisdom he had received, he came to realize that all of his fun and frivolity was “meaningless” (vanity), chasing after the wind. He sums this up in a parallel construct this way: “nothing was gained under the sun.”

Have you ever looked forward to some big event in your life, say a party or a trip or a concert or… whatever, and then felt let down afterwards? Maybe that big day was great, but now that it’s over…blah. I do most of the cooking in my house, and there have been many times when I work 3 or 4 hours (or more) preparing a meal. I pull out my entire bag of culinary tricks and really try to create something special. Then comes the moment of truth as everyone sits down at the table and lo and behold a culinary triumph! Yippee!

After a few minutes I survey the scene. I put heart and soul into my creation, and now all I have left is a mess to clean up. Usually, what passes through my brain is something like: It would have been a lot easier to have zapped a few hot dogs!

Vanity of vanities.

Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

Our Teacher now examines wisdom and folly, and in so doing he comes to the conclusion that wisdom is better, but it only goes so far. A wise person walks in light, while a fool stumbles around in the dark: Fine. Yet they both end up in the grave, so what’s the real difference? Oh yes, this is quite an optimistic message!

In verse 12 he points out that his successor will have nothing left to do that he (Solomon) hasn’t already done, implying that we can re-examine his conclusions, but we’ll still get the same results. Yes, wisdom is better than folly, but then we already knew that.

Here’s my own illustration:

If you are old enough to recall the 1970’s, then you will no doubt recall that all of the new things that went on in that period were cutting edge, really great, and of course in all cases cool in the extreme. Now, ask yourself: How are the cool things of the 1970’s looking now? Do you still go to the store and hope to buy an avocado green refrigerator? Hey guys, do you miss wearing bell bottoms? Been to a disco lately?

Yuk.

Now look at things as they are now; you do realize that all of the latest and greatest cool things of today are going to look just as stupid as the latest and greatest of the 70’s 35 years from now, right?

A wise person sees right through all of the latest and greatest styles and fads; a fool jumps into them with both feet thinking they have found the “ultimate”.

Wisdom enables a person to think several steps ahead and avoid many problems in the process, while a fool jumps into everything that comes along and gets burned over and over. This, I think, is the heart of what Solomon is teaching us. It is good to be wise, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter all that much, since the day is rapidly approaching when the wise and the foolish will be dead and gone… and forgotten.

Before I wrap up on this uplifting note, please notice that he is still speaking of life “under the sun”; can it be, that there is more to our lives than just that which goes on “under the sun”? I sure hope so!

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Light of the World

Posted on July 27, 2024 by Don Merritt

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

John used light and darkness in his Gospel to refer to God’s presence or absence in the world. Throughout Jesus’ ministry He said that His disciples were in the light and warned that darkness would soon arrive. Here once again Jesus equates His presence with light only now He is speaking in much broader terms for both the people who heard His voice literally, and those who would follow Him later on.

As His followers, we are always in His light, for we are in His presence.

Yes, that statement can be slightly intimidating, for He is with us always; we have no secrets. Yet if you think about it, that statement is not only reassuring, it is awesome to behold, for even when we misbehave, He is with us to guide us back to the pathway of life.

Oh, what a glorious God we have!

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The Bread of Life

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Don Merritt

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 6:35

The day before He said these words, Jesus had fed the five thousand, and now they wanted Him to do it again. But Jesus had not come to earth to be a meal ticket; He had a much more important mission than that.

In the ancient Near East, bread was a symbol of life, for if you had a loaf of bread, you would not starve that day; Jesus was intent on giving Himself so that Mankind could live not for a single day, or even a week, but for all eternity.

Yet, there is a catch!

We must go to Him in belief; we must accept the gift of grace He offers.

Most of the people who had gathered on that day long ago did not accept His gift, yet it is still available to us today… will we receive it? Each person must decide that for him or herself in this life. For those of us who have accepted His gift of eternal life already, there is a second question to be answered: Will we share the gift, or will we keep it for ourselves only?

Of course, all who read this already know their answer: Who will we share Jesus with today?

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Another Day

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Don Merritt
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Here we are in just another day, nothing special, same old same old…

The alarm goes off, the sun comes up and off to work we go… If someone asks how it’s going, we’ll say it’s too early to know.

What a rut!

Today is an amazing day; look around!  There is absolutely nothing wrong with the day.  Maybe you have some things planned for today that you don’t like, but that isn’t the day’s fault.  Oh, I know how it is, I’ve said the same things myself often enough; what a load of garbage.  Have you ever seen the sun come up?  What a sight!  The morning dawns with opportunity, with promise and with God’s grace; why not seize the moment instead of moping around?

Today is another day in God’s presence, if we will turn to Him.  It can be a day when we share His love with others, if we will get around to it.  It might even be a great day at work, if we approach it the right way.

Come on, people!

Let’s start today in God’s presence in prayer.  Let’s take that opportunity to thank and praise Him for all of the ways He has blessed us, and ask Him to lead us to opportunities to share Him with someone else, to meet them with God right there and help them see His light.

We might even ask Him  to use us in some way so that today might just be the day that somebody else receives hope, love and life through us.

Wow!  That would make today pretty awesome, don’t you think?

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