"of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations." - Matthew 1:16c-17
Finally! The true King has come! The One upon whom dawns the hope of the ages.
Christ is the true Descendant of Abraham who has brought blessings to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:1-3). He accomplished this through His atoning work on the cross (Rom. 5:8-9). And by His blood, He has ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9).
Christ is the true Son of David who sits upon an eternal throne (2 Sam. 7:12-17). Why? Because He humbled Himself by taking on human flesh and dying on the cross. Therefore, God the Father has exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, so that at His name every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Phil. 2:5-11).
All of the names in Matthew's genealogy are like hyperlinks. When you click on one, a window pops up inviting us into the story of that particular person. We see who they were, when they lived, and how faithful (or not) they were to the Lord. But it's more than that. Each person in the genealogy had a role to play in the grand storyline of redemption. A story which begins with God creating the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1) and ends with God ushering in a new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21:1). And at the blazing center of this story is the Person and work of Jesus Christ. As one children's storybook Bible has put it, every story in the Bible whispers His name (1). As you continue reading God's Word this season and into 2024, here are a few questions you can ask yourself to see how Jesus is at the center of all of the Scriptures:
- How does this person (e.g. Abraham) foreshadow or point forward to Christ? Do they point forward to Christ negatively (evil kings lead us to long for the good King) or positively (David saved God's people from their enemies, just as Christ has saved us from ours)?
- How does this event foreshadow or point forward to the work of Christ? For example: Israel's exodus out of Egyptian slavery points to Christ likewise delivering us from slavery to sin.
- How does this institution foreshadow or point forward to Christ? For example: God's presence mediated by the Temple prepares us for Jesus, the new Temple.
Merry Christmas, Five Points! Our King has come. And... He is coming again! Revelation 22:12-13
(1) Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007).