Thoughts for the Day

Matthew 1: 2-16 (sort of) 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 set the scene 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 strictly speaking God didn’t choose a nation, he chose one man, Abraham.  By God’s miraculous intervention, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah 90, they had a 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, and the list, as Matthew lays it out, is a family tree to which all other Jews are connected.  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, at this point in the narrative, awaiting a further renewal promised through the prophets.  It covers times of blessing and greatness, but also 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.  But then the Old Testament record ends.  It seems God falls silent for the next 11 generations.   Try to imagine that.   We can imagine keeping records, but holding fast to family values and beliefs through 400 years of silence?  Yet somehow, however imperfectly, Israel remained faithful, hoping and waiting.  And Matthew tells these descendants that in Jesus the waiting is over.