November 26th, 2022

ccording to the typical calendar, this Sunday is not the beginning of something new. But in terms of the church year, it most certainly is. The three-year series begins this Sunday, with a focus that looks to the first of the three very similar gospel accounts, the Gospel according to Matthew. The church year essentially begins looking at the first time Jesus came, what is usually known as Christmas, and it will end with looking at the second time Jesus will come.

For the first Sunday in the church year, the First Sunday in Advent, it is noteworthy to mention that the usual gospel text that is read is the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, the last time before his death (Matthew 21:1-11). This is a good reminder how each gospel account is not necessarily a chronological account, as if a study of the order of the events were more important than the ramification of those events for eternity. Each gospel account has been carefully shaped in a unique and salvation-related way.

How the Gospel according to Matthew points to Jesus in a salvation-related way is a topic worthy of some focus. Your thoughts and ideas as to the best topics to study will continue to be appreciated, but at this point in time, this gospel account will be the focus and a more literary and salvation-related progression will be identified within this gospel account.

It has been mentioned before how the beginning of a writing can be very helpful in denoting some of the structural factors that are found within the account. And the only time that the first chapter of this gospel account appears in the three-year series is the text at the very end, and it is the text for the very last Sunday in Advent. Adding some more details to this obscure first chapter may be helpful. And here is the first verse:

A book of generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.

The above verse of the book may be a bit frightening to some. It looks like a genealogy lies before us, and one most certainly is.

Prepare for boredom, right?

Not at all!

Knowing the descendants of Cain may not be all that important, but they have been attributed with some significant discoveries and inventions (see Genesis 4). The descendants of Seth are certainly important, since their line continues past the Flood, but to have a person who is born as both fully man and fully God is obviously totally unique. This deserves a significant amount of attention, even if one does not like genealogies.

A significant amount of effort was given to the writing of this first chapter of this first account. What may be said about the above first sentence?

It may remind a person of the book of Genesis. There are a significant number of genealogies within that book. And the word ‘generation’ is important there. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is the translation of the Hebrew word ‘toledoth’. This is a word that comes up five times in the first ‘half’ of the book (1:1-11:26), the beginning of the nations, and five times in the second ‘half’ (11:27-50:26), the beginning of the Lord’s people.

The importance of numbers should be mentioned at this point in time as well. I am not referring to the book of the bible, although that is an important book, but the Hebrew language is also the set of Hebrew numbers. They did not have separate symbols for numbers. (Basically, the letter ‘a’ is 1, ‘b’ is 2, etc.)

From what appears in the introduction, King David is an important person. And the name David, in the Hebrew language, is equal to the number fourteen. And that number will come up later in the chapter. And it will have a very interesting purpose.
Hopefully you will not be bored. This genealogy is unlike any other. And Jesus (having the Old Testament name ‘Joshua’) is unlike any other.