Thoughts for the Day

Matthew 1: 2-16 (summarised) Abraham – Isaac – Jacob – Judah – Perez – Hezron – Ram – Amminadab – Nahshon – Salmon – Boaz – Obed – Jesse – King David – Solomon – Rehoboam – Abijah – Asa – Jehoshaphat – Jehoram – Uzziah – Jotham – Ahaz – Hezekiah – Manesseh – Amon – Josiah – Jeconiah (taken into exile) – Shealtiel – Zerubbabel – Abihud – Eliakim – Azor – Zadok – Akim – Elihud – Eleazar – Matthan – Jacob – Joseph – Mary – Jesus.

Matthew took 17 verses to establish the background for Jesus’ birth, most of it in the form of this string of names, which, to his Jewish audience of the day, was a rich reminder of well over 1000 years of shared history.  How can we even get close to appreciating what it meant to them?  We are probably used to the idea of Israel as God’s chosen nation.  But it has occurred to me recently that that isn’t strictly correct.  God chose Abraham, Abraham was faithful, and God promised that he would make nations out of him.  By God’s miraculous intervention, Abraham and Sarah had one son together, Isaac from whom the whole nation of Israel was descended.  Israel wasn’t so much chosen by God as initiated by God and set apart so that another of God’s promises to Abraham could be fulfilled, namely so that all the world would be blessed through him.  The story of this nation, then, is the story of this family, as Matthew lays it out.  It is a family with a few notable success stories, with sons who started well but went adrift, at least one who started abominably but repented, and some who were downright evil.  Running alongside all of this, is a covenant relationship with God begun with Abraham, re-committed with Moses, refreshed with David and with further renewal promised through the prophets.  It covers times of blessing and greatness, but, at its lowest, a time of judgement, destruction and exile.  After the exile, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, returned from Babylon as governor of Judah and was involved in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem.  He appears in the Old Testament books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah.  But soon afterwards the Old Testament record ends.  It seems God falls silent for the next 10 generations.   Try to imagine that.   Would your family or mine keep faith for that long?  Yet somehow, however imperfectly, Israel remained faithful, hoping and waiting.  And Matthew tells these descendants that in Jesus the waiting is over