The Line of Promise

Mt. 1:1-17

[A video is available of this message here.]

Prayer: Father, you’ve recorded these names for our good and your glory. You want us to remember with You, Your faithfulness to all generations. So by Your Holy Spirit, use these words to remind us today so we might be full of courage to obey You in everything. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Introduction

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, it is encouraging to look backwards and see the faithfulness of God over so many generations leading up to the birth of Christ. It is that same covenant faithfulness that is promised to everyone in Christ. God still promises to be our God and the God of our children after us, until the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The coming of Christ as human, born into a human family, is the fulfillment of God’s promise and the guarantee of its fullness.

The Text: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Davd, the son of Abraham…” (Mt. 1:1-17).

Summary of the Text

When Matthew begins with the “book of the generation” (Mt. 1:1), this is a call back to one of the organizing structures of Genesis: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him…” (Gen. 5:1, cf. 2:4, 6:9, 10:1, etc.). The genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 10-11 each record 10 generations: Adam to Noah and Shem to Abram, covering a little over 2000 years, tracing the promise of the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15). 

Matthew picks up his genealogy at Abraham and the patriarchs (Mt. 1:2), but he highlights some of the surprises, beginning with the twins born to Tamar by her father in-law Judah (Mt. 1:3). Five generations later, Salmon begot Boaz by marrying the Canaanite prostitute Rahab from Jericho, and of course Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess, a cursed people (Mt. 1:4-5, Dt. 23:3). Boaz was the great-grandfather of King David, who begot Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of one of David’s mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, murdered by David’s command (Mt. 1:6-7, 2 Sam. 23:39). There were fourteen generations of kings from David to Jeconiah, when Judah was conquered and carried into exile in Babylon (Mt. 1:7-11, 1:17). And there were another fourteen generations from Jeconiah to Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, the wife of Joseph (Mt. 1:12-16, cf. 1:17). 

A Motley Crew

Perhaps the first thing that stands out is how motley the line of promise is: incest, prostitution, intermarriage with a cursed nation, adultery, murder, slavery, homelessness, and pregnancy out of wedlock are all right on the surface. And that in turn implies all the other “normal” sins and failures of these descendants of Adam. Were there angry outbursts, lies, betrayals, spiteful words or acts? Yes, all of it. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and this family tree is no different (Rom. 3:23). 

But this is the line of promise, the line of the King. What a way to begin the gospel of the King. You don’t make up a religion this way. And so what it actually highlights is the mind-blowing grace of God. Athanasius says that when a great King enters a city it honors the whole city, and when God took on human flesh, He honored our pitiful race. 

Notice also that while God works through a family line, there is nothing “pure” about it. As the New Testament labors to demonstrate, the line of promise is by faith not by flesh: “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). It was not through the law, in the sense that it was not by families perfectly keeping the law or achieving greatness by human striving. Ishmael was a picture of human striving, but Isaac was the son of promise (Gal. 4:23, 28). 

Natural sons or not, the power is in the promise of God, not our family name or bloodline or accomplishments. And the motley nature of the line underlines this point. You wouldn’t plan the salvation of the world with this family tree, but God did because of His grace – to underline the firmness of His promises. His purposes are sure. He cannot be stopped. 

And You Are Heirs

But the other point of these genealogies is to underline God’s love for His people. When you read the genealogies, don’t just think “weird names I can’t pronounce.” Think people, families, children, stories that God loves and has promised to never forget. We carve the names of our loved ones on stone to signify that they were and are beloved and worth remembering, but even the greatest men will be forgotten like Ozymandias in the sands of time. But we serve the God who has sworn to never forget His people. He ordered the names of Israel engraved on precious stones on the breastplate of the High Priest (Ex. 28:9-12, 21). And He has written the names of all of His people in the Lamb’s Book of Life (e.g. Phil. 4:3, Rev. 3:5); they are even engraved on the palms of His hands (Is. 49:16). 

He first made that promise in a Garden six thousand years ago to a heartbroken couple who had thrown all of God’s grace away. And that promise was kept to Abraham and his descendants over thousands of years, all the way down to a young virgin named Mary. But the promise was that the curse of sin and death would be completely undone, reversed, and healed. This is why we sing: “He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” 

God promised Abraham that through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). God did not send His own Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved (Jn. 3:17). All those who trust in Christ are sons and heirs of God: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Applications

Honor your people, beginning with your own parents. If God can use this family tree to save the world, He can use your family tree. Abortion? Adultery? Abuse? Apostacy? Welcome to planet earth, and welcome to the family of Adam. 

God created the natural family, and there is something good and glorious about it – even with the curse of sin, there are cathedral ruins that can be remembered and honored. We do not honor sin, but we honor every vestige of the glory of God. And wherever Christ has come, the rebuilding and healing can begin. Faith sees possibilities and opportunities amidst the rubble; unbelief only sees failure and what might have been.

As you celebrate, remember that you are celebrating the birth of the King into your family, which it turns out is more like your family being reborn into the family of the King. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have been grafted into the line of promise. And it flows in both directions: You are Abraham’s children; your children are Abraham’s children. This family tree is now your family tree. This is your inheritance in Christ. Do not say, you have no family, no people. 

Jesus said that whoever does the will of His Father are His mother, and sisters, and brothers.   

Jesus Christ is the tree, and all who believe are fruitful branches in Him because He knows them all by name.

Prayer: Almighty God, our Father, please drive this grace and truth into our hearts and minds. Drive away the doubts and fears of the Evil One. Give us the confidence that belongs to those who belong to You. And may our homes be places of this true nobility. And we ask in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash