Genealogies are hardly spellbinding. Perhaps, like me, you are tempted to skip them in your Bible reading. Yet genealogies are a significant part of the Bible. The book of Matthew’s genealogy is a family tree of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God incarnated as the Son of Man. Matthew wrote his gospel primarily to the Jews. Strictly speaking, the purpose of this genealogy is to prove to Jewish readers that Jesus of Nazareth as the seed of Abraham and the son of David was the long-awaited Messiah.
The genealogy further teaches us that Christ entered the stream of humanity for all people — Jews and Gentiles alike. The mystery is that He took on human flesh and human nature and yet did not sin.
As a covenant document, Matthew’s genealogy reveals the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises from generation to generation to Abraham and his seed, to Judah and his tribe, to David and his house, to the Hebrews bowed down under the yoke of bondage in Egypt, to the children of Israel dwelling in the land of promise, to the Jews languishing in captivity, and even to sinners of the Gentiles by nature. Likewise, it reveals God’s mercy “unto all, and upon all them that believe,” no matter how weak their faith may have been, or how greatly they have sinned against God, or how late in time they came to repentance and faith. A study of all the names in this genealogy confirms the Gospel promise that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).
Thanks be to God, Jesus broke the repeating cycle of human sin by identifying with and saving wretched sinners like us. Jesus is not ashamed to have Rahab or Manasseh or any other sinners in His family tree. Likewise, He is not ashamed to receive us into His family. Out of love He rescues us, makes us holy and acceptable in God’s sight, renews and transforms us, and will never let us fall away again and be lost to Him. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).
This year we have decided to have daily devotions to follow the Jesus’ Family Tree, which is a way of journeying through Advent that traces the lineage of Jesus. This “tree” refers to an image in Isaiah 11, in which Jesus is compared to a shoot sprouting from the stump of the tree of his ancestor Jesse. It reminds us that the coming of Jesus was long prophesied, and that in the stories of his ancestors, we can hear echoes of his own life, death, and resurrection.
We will begin the study Daily devotionals December 1st. We still recommend reading the devotion for December 1 first, and after that, you can skip ahead to the devotion for the current date.