Heb

Matt. 1:1-18

2/17/2008

“The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus:

An Overview of Redemptive History”

The Bible, as we saw last week, is one book. It is not a reference book, arranged according to different topics. No, the Bible is essentially a historical epic, a redemptive drama: it traces the redemptive work of the triune God in history. That is why the two major sections that make up the Bible are called the Old Testament and the New Testament. These titles themselves indicate a sense of chronological progression from old to new. Insofar as the Bible is one book and one non-fiction, historical epic, knowing the general, historical outline of the Bible would help us understand and appreciate our daily reading and weekly preaching. The hermeneutic circle says that only by understanding individual parts can we arrive at the understanding of the whole and, at the same time, we understand each part rightly only when we understand the whole. My desire today is to give you a very brief summary of redemptive history so that you can get a picture of the whole. And I would like show specifically how Jesus’ genealogy in our passage provides the same in its unique format.

Let us first start with the general structure of the two Testaments. The Old Testament is divided into four major subsections:

· Law is made up of the first five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy. It covers the period from the creation to the time prior to Israel’s entrance into the promised land;

· Historical Books consist of the books from Joshua through Esther. They cover the epoch from Israel’s conquest of the promised land through the Babylonian Captivity (although the 1^st Chronicles has the genealogy extending all the way to Adam);

· Psalms and Wisdom Literature consist of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Though mostly written in the Davidic era, they reach as far back as the time of Abraham (Job) and Moses (Ps. 90) and as late as the return from the Babylonian Captivity (Ps. 126).

· Prophets (from Isaiah to Malachi) covers the latter part of Israel and Judah’s history.

The New Testament consists of four major parts as well:

· Gospels consist of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They cover mainly Jesus’ life, death and resurrection;

· History consists of the Book of Acts, covering the establishment and missionary works of the Apostolic church;

· Epistles consist of all the epistles from Romans to Jude. They cover the same period but their focus is in the inner life of the Apostolic church;

· Apocalypse, consisting of the Book of Revelation, was written at the end of the first century, AD.

And now, I want to give you a very brief and general outline of redemptive history. It begins with the first creation in Gen. 1 & 2. I call it the first creation because it is to be superceded by a new creation. This new creation is not a new invention or an afterthought. The very fact that we read of the new heaven and the new earth in Rev. 21 tells us that God had this new creation in mind even from the beginning. How so? Because God declares the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10). That is what it means to be an omniscient God. To put it in human, temporal terms, God cannot start something without seeing and declaring the end from the beginning. There is no such thing as an afterthought, a surprise, a correction in the omniscient mind and plan of God. That means, there could be no new creation if God did not plan it from the beginning.

What happens between the first creation and the new creation? If Adam and Eve passed the test regarding the forbidden fruit, the first creation would have been translated into the new creation. But Adam and Eve fell in sin, which threw them and the whole creation into a fallen state under God’s curse and in need of redemption. So the fall is followed by God’s judgment on the guilty parties: Satan, Eve and Adam. But in delivering judgment to Satan, God announces His redemptive decree to save some out of the fallen race. Out of the seed of the woman, God would raise a Champion, who would defeat Satan, though He Himself would be wounded in the battle as well.

From then on, the history of mankind becomes a tale of two cities, which are at enmity with each other--the seed of the serpent making up the city of man versus the seed of the woman making up the city of God. This begins immediately in the second generation of human race between Cain and Abel and, after Cain’s murder of Abel, between Cain and Seth.

The next major event in the Bible is the Great Deluge in Noah’s generation. God washes the sinful humanity off the face of the earth. Only Noah and his three sons and their wives survive, eight in total. Though a new beginning was given to humanity, the battle between the two cities continues, the city of man continuing on in the person of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons. And as before the Flood, the city of man prevails quickly, the whole human race rebelling against God at the tower of Babel. Out of the corrupted human race God calls Abraham to continue the city of God, the line of promise.

Now we can begin to match the events with some dates. Working backwards, we can date Abraham’s call at around 2,000 B.C.

Jacob and his family go down to Egypt around 1,870 B.C. (Genesis)

The Exodus takes place around 1,450 B.C. That means, they enter the promised land around 1,420 BC. (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy)

Then the conquest. (Joshua)

Then begins the reign of the Judges (Judges).

Then comes the reign of Saul, the first king of Israel. (1 Samuel)

Then David’s reign begins around 1,010 B.C. And since his reign was for forty years, Solomon came on the throne around 970 B.C.

Then the united kingdom of Israel is divided around 930 B.C. under Rehoboam, who succeeded his father, Solomon. Ten tribes except Judah and Benjamin side with Jeroboam and form Israel, the northern kingdom. Israel is also called Ephraim because it was the biggest tribe. The southern kingdom is called Judah.

Israel, the renegade northern kingdom, continues their idolatry and rebellion against God until they fall at the hands of the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. The southern kingdom, Judah, too follows the example of Israel in their unfaithfulness to God. It is first captured in 605 B.C. by the Babylonians and the first deportation takes place. It continues to rebel against Babylon and in 586 B.C. Jerusalem its is finally destroyed, along with its temple. (2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles; most of the Prophetic books)

The Babylonian Captivity lasts approximately seventy years from 605-538 B.C. until Cyrus issues the decree, which allows the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild Jerusalem. (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel). And with Zechariah as the last prophet (Matt. 23:35), there is a period of around 400 years, in which there is no prophetic activity. We refer to this period as the Intertestamental period.

Then, with the appearance of John the Baptist, the 400-plus-years of silence is broken and the revelation of God floods into the plain of redemptive history again. John the Baptist is the forerunner designated to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. All through redemptive history up to this point, the Seed of the woman, who would vanquish Satan; the Seed of Abraham, who would be the blessing for all nations; the Seed of David, who would establish God’s eternal kingdom and build the house of God has remained just a promise. Israel has had many prophets, kings and prophets, who prefigured the promised Messiah but not the Messiah Himself! But now, the promise is finally coming to its fulfillment! With this fulfillment, God’s divine revelation reaches its fullness, in the coming of the Son of God Himself into history. He took upon Himself our body of weakness, locking Himself in time and space. He breathed the same air we breathe. He walked the same ground as we walk. He experienced what it felt like to be hungry and thirsty, what it felt like to grow weary and be sick, just like us. He was tempted in every aspect like us, to the degree that He could fully sympathize with us and more, yet without sin.

But He was at the same time the full revelation of God. Though He lived and moved in our environment as one of us, feeling every pressure and pull of this fallen world as we do, He was not of this world. When He taught, He did not teach like others. Even the greatest prophets were but mouthpieces of God. But Jesus was the eternal Word; it was from Him that the prophets of old received the words to proclaim. Now the eternal Word stepped into history and spoke to His people Himself. And Jesus did things that no man could do. The prophets of old performed similar miracles but those prophets were mere instruments of God. They were but cables and Jesus was the power plant, as it were.

But it was not just in His extraordinary teaching and miracles that Jesus revealed God. Even in the mundane things of life, He revealed God. He did nothing on His own but sought the will of Him, who sent Him into the world, in everything He did, said and thought. Often He did away with food and He did it for the glory of God (e.g., His 40-day fasting in the wilderness and His refusal to make bread out of the stones). But He also ate and drank just like us. And when He ate and drank, He did it completely and fully for the glory of God. When He stayed up late into the night, praying, He did it for the glory of God. When He slept, He slept for the glory of God. When He woke up in the morning, He got up for the glory of God. Wherever He went, He went for the glory of God and in a manner that reflected God’s glory. He was never in a hurry but He was never late, thus demonstrating the perfect peace and tranquility of God and His sovereign control. Even when He seemed late (John 11), He tarried for the glory of God. And as He lived for the glory of God, He died for the glory of God, though it would cause Him literally an infinite pain. As He did all things--eating and not eating, drinking and not drinking, living and dying--for the glory of God, He fulfilled the law of God, the law being the (legal) revelation of God’s will. He was the perfect embodiment of the law in His perfect obedience to it.

But Jesus also revealed God in His tender love for the humble and needy as well as His wrath against self-righteous, unrepentant sinners. When He touched the sick and leprous, He touched them with the gentleness and power of God’s love. When He gazed at His loved ones, He did so with the tenderness of God’s affection. When He wept, He wept with the infinite depth of divine pathos. How profound were His feelings and affections! How impressive and magnificent were His words! How powerful and marvelous, His deeds! But He in His dealings with unrepentant sinners revealed God’s wrath as well. How fearful it would be to hear from Him, “You brood of vipers!” Though the divine revelation was veiled by the frailty of His human body, His divine nature could not be wholly hidden. And His body, though weak and wholly exposed to the miseries of the fallen world, was not tainted by sin so as to mar the revelation of God.

Jesus in His ministry chose the Apostles and appointed them as the eyewitnesses of His ministry, death and resurrection. After His death and resurrection and ascension, He poured out the Holy Spirit upon His Apostles and disciples. Particularly through the Apostles’ Spirit-inspired and -empowered testimony, Jesus established His church and continues to make it grow, sending His people to the ends of the earth to proclaim His good news! Thus far, a very brief outlines of redemptive history.

Now, let us conclude by turning to our passage. Here, through the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we get a survey of that redemptive history. This, of course, is not a comprehensive survey. It is there to serve a very specific purpose: to show Jesus Christ to be the promised Son of David and Abraham--thus the title, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”. What an appropriate way to transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament! With this title Matthew masterfully summarizes the Old Testament. How so? The Old Testament is summarized as a great longing and a long waiting for the promised Messiah, the Christ. When read against that background, the title comes to us as a powerful, monumental declaration: “The time of fulfillment has finally dawned upon us! All of God’s promises concerning the Messiah have been fulfilled! For Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, is the Christ, the Messiah!” It is not difficult to see how this motif of promise and fulfillment is an important factor to consider in our survey of redemptive history.

Jesus’ genealogy is divided into three eras: the time from Abraham to David, from David to the deportation to Babylon and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ. Matthew goes on to say that each of these three eras consists of fourteen generations. Many have pointed out (and rightly so) that Matthew’s version of Jesus’ genealogy is missing some names. Matthew did this, no doubt, to fit the genealogy neatly into the three phases of fourteen generations. Let us consider first why he might have done this. Let us then consider whether he was being disingenuous and even devious to do so.

Some argue that Matthew did so to make it easier for people to remember. Calvin, for instance, refers to this, although he himself does not think this reason to be adequate. His reason mainly revolves around the status of the tribe of Judah, the tribe through which the Messiah was to come. But there may yet be another reason, more theological. The three eras of fourteen generations make up six phases of seven generations. The number seven, as we know, plays a significant role in the Bible. Its significance originates from the first seven days, in which God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day.

Jesus’ genealogy does not have the seventh seven, of course. But the genealogy ends in a very significant way: “and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (v. 16). Compare this to the pattern, which persisted throughout the genealogy: “X the father of Y”. We don’t have “Joseph the father of Jesus”. We see why two verses later in v. 18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Matthew speaks of Jesus’ extraordinary generation / conception. Jesus’ genealogy had a supernatural beginning, if you recall: Abraham begot Isaac through God’s supernatural intervention. But Jesus’ extraordinary conception supercedes that of Isaac. Isaac at least had his parents Abraham and Sarah taking part in his birth, though Sarah was beyond the age of conception. Isaac was a miracle child, for sure. But Jesus’ conception did not involve any man: it was a virgin conception through the Holy Spirit! Jesus’ miraculous conception belonged to a higher plain of the miraculous.

But why the virgin conception? Why was it necessary? To break the chain of Adam’s fall! When Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, he brought death and curse not only upon himself but also on all of his posterity: “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit” (Matt. 7:18, NASB). All of his physical descendants are born with the corrupted nature inherited from him. This chain was broken in the case of Jesus because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel, who appeared to Mary, declared, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

Do you see what is going on here? Jesus is the final figure in the genealogy of Abraham and David. After Jesus, there is no one in the genealogy. In fact, there is no more genealogy in the Bible, period, after the genealogy of Jesus (in Matthew and Luke). Why? Because Jesus Christ is the goal and purpose and reason of that genealogy--in fact, of the nation of Israel. In Him God’s promise to Abraham and David was finally fulfilled! Now that Jesus the Christ came, there is no need for the genealogy to continue.

But Jesus is not just the final punctuation in the redemptive genealogy. He is also the transition into another kind of genealogy, which is no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit! This genealogy is not perpetuated through physical, ordinary conception but through spiritual, supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, all those who belong to this new genealogy must be born of the Spirit! Jesus thus begins a new race of a new creation, a new race of Holy-Spirit people!

Do you see the parallel between the creation account in Gen. 1 and Jesus’ genealogy in Matt. 1? In Gen. 1 God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. During the six days the focus is on the created realm--at least, the direction is from God giving His fiat-speech (that is, “Let there be!”) to the created realm. We are even told that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). But on the seventh day, the camera, if you will, shifts back to the heavenly realm, in which God rests from His work of creation. In a similar way, the three sets of fourteen generations, which can be divided into six sets of seven, is dominated by the physical, earthly genealogy. Then, at the very end, with Jesus Christ as the hinge, the genealogy shifts into a spiritual, heavenly genealogy! And we can say that we are in the seventh phase of seven, which represents the eternal, heavenly era! Matthew organizes Jesus’ genealogy to show this dynamic. Devious? No. Because it is really the inner dynamic of redemptive history.

This, then, is the essence of what is new about the New Testament in comparison to the Old Testament. The New is not new simply because it comes after the Old! It is new in the sense that it will never grow old; it will never be replaced by something else that is newer than it. It is new because it is eternal, imperishable and can never be defiled. What is new, therefore, is spiritual and heavenly! The Old Testament revelation was spiritual and heavenly in essence, of course. But that essence was veiled in earthly coverings, like the kernel hidden inside the husk. In the New Testament, the kernel is brought out and given its rightful prominence! And this is what lies at the core of biblical “fulfillment”.

So then, what does this survey of redemptive history tell us? It declares that you and I belong to this new age--the age of fulfillment, the age of heavenly intrusion, the age of the heavenly Spirit, the age of the Spirit-people with heavenly-mindedness! If the Old Testament saints by faith lived with heavenly-mindedness (as we read in Heb. 11), how much truer it should be of us, the New Testament saints, who live on this side of the coming of Jesus Christ, of the fulfillment of God’s promise!

So then, let us trust the Lord! He is the sovereign Lord of history. All the affairs of the world are under His sovereign control. All men and all creatures and all their actions--even those of Satan--are under His sovereign control. As He has fulfilled His promises in the coming of Jesus Christ, He will not fail to bring all of His promises to their intended consummation! This is not just something that makes us feel good to hear it. This is the truth about us and our lives as we are caught up in the march of history to its intended finish line! So we are to trust Him where we are with what we are faced with! What are the challenges you face in your life? What are the trials that weigh you down? No evil scheme of Satan, no mistake of ours, not even our sins, can ruin God’s control! Nothing can separate us from the love of our sovereign God! Let us be careful that this precious assurance does not lead to licentiousness and arrogance! Let us guard ourselves against the unrepentant spirit, the hardening of our hearts against God and His Word! Not that God cannot bring unrepentant people to repentance. But our unrepentant heart can be a sign of our apostasy from the truth of the gospel! Rather, let this assurance strengthen and motivate us to be courageous to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, to obey His will. For we know that the wellbeing of our life does not depend on our clever maneuvering but on the Lord! Let us march toward that day of glory without veering to the left or to the right, when this fallen first creation will be swallowed in the glorious new creation to the praise of our God and to our enjoyment of unending happiness in Him!