Levi’s Genes (Matthew 1:1-17)

• everyone knows that genealogies are the biggest yawn in the Bible
• “Rehoboam begat Abijah, and Abijah begat Ralph” – and so on
• it warms the heart about as much as reading the phone book
• it’s not often said right out, but it’s understood – it’s okay to skip over the genealogies
• in fact, if we applied our speed-reading techniques to these passages, and the Bible was one big genealogy, we would probably read the Bible in about a week, rather than a year
• but do you believe 2 Timothy 3:16?
• (2 Timothy 3:16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
• if this is true, it includes the begats
• and so, I want you to join me this morning for the first message I’ve ever preached on something we’ve probably skipped over dozens of times – the genealogy of Jesus
• what’s obvious from the prominence given to these names at the beginning of Matthew is that what we consider to be boring and uninteresting was of great importance to the original audience
• you and I would never dream of starting a book this way:
• (Matthew 1:1) The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
• (Matthew 1:2) Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers…
• regardless of what you think, genealogies were important in Jesus’ day – and they’re sometimes important to us today
• at the Metro Reference Library, there’s an entire room devoted to genealogies
• wouldn’t it be interesting to find out that you have blue blood, or are descended from pirates, or criminals, or famous explorers?
• in Jesus’ day, in order to own land in Israel, you had to be able to show public documents that proved your genealogy that gave you a right to a piece of the Holy Land
• your pedigree could determine military service, to connect you to royalty – the house of David, maybe?
• as a Jew, it would trace your ancestry back to Abraham
• privileges were reserved for certain tribes
• for example, to be a priest you had to be of the tribe of Levi and have – get ready for it – Levi’s genes
• but something else was important
• God’s chosen people knew that the Messiah would come from a certain family of the house and lineage of David
• what’s interesting is that in the Gospels, even Jesus’ bitterest critics never once quarreled with him about his descent from David
• it must have been a matter of public record that Jesus was heir to David and Abraham, and the inheritor of the promises of Israel
• the genealogy in Matthew 1 is a carefully constructed one
• verse 17 gives us an interpretive clue:
• (Matthew 1:17) Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
• this is a stylized, theological genealogy
• there have been names included and other names excluded for a purpose
• God is, in essence, preaching a three-point sermon to us
• let’s dig a little and try to find what’s here
• verses 2 to 6 lists a great period in Israel’s history
• it begins with Abraham, the father of Israel, and rises up to David
• it covers the period of the Exodus, the conquest of the promised land, and the glorious reign of King David, the greatest king to rule over Israel
• IF YOU DIG A LITTLE IN THIS SECTION, YOU’LL FIND GOD’S MERCY
• what is surprising in this section is the mention of four women
• today, the inclusion of women in a genealogy doesn’t surprise us
• we would almost ask, “Why aren’t there more?”
• it was very unusual to mention women in a genealogy at that time, and if one did mention women, it would do so for the purpose of enhancing the purity and nobility of a heritage
• you would expect Matthew to mention some of the grand women of the Old Testament, heroines of the faith
• maybe Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel, the wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
• but look at the women who are listed: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba
• two of these women aren’t Jewish at all
• Rahab was a Gentile prostitute, and Ruth was a Moabite woman
• these were women who did not bring credibility to Jesus’ Jewishness; rather, they contaminated his bloodline
• but Matthew is teaching us about God’s mercy
• there’s a wideness in God’s mercy, reaching beyond the Jewish people
• Matthew is teaching us that God’s love is bigger than the Jewish race, that Jesus is the Savior of all people, and that what God promised to Abraham was true: “Through you shall all the nations of the world be blessed”
• you see, God is not sexist
• God is not racist
• red and yellow, black and white – all are precious in his sight
• Matthew lets us know that the blood of two Gentile mothers coursed through the blood of the Savior of the world
• but look a bit closer
• Tamar tricked her father-in-law into having a child by her by disguising herself as a prostitute
• Rahab didn’t disguise herself as a prostitute – she was a prostitute!
• and a cloud still remains over Bathsheba – was she a willing participant or a victim?
• Matthew doesn’t even mention her name
• all we read in verse 6 is simply “And David, the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah”
• a thousand years later and she still isn’t David’s wife!
• she is the wife of Uriah
• and yet she is a distant grandmother of our Lord
• we do not exactly hold up Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba as role models in our Sunday School
• it’s as though Matthew had scoured the lineage of Jesus in order to find the seediest women he could find
• why?
• because he wants to show us that not only is God’s love bigger than the Jewish race, my friend, God’s love is bigger than your sin and my sin
• God’s love embraces us even with our sinfulness
• God uses stained and soiled, but repentant, sinners in order to bring us the Messiah
• I bet you didn’t know that the begats of the Bible drip with the grace and love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ
• he’s a friend of sinners; a light to the Gentiles
• we didn’t pick our families, but Jesus picked his
• look what the chose: an ordinary human family with scoundrels and saints mixed in together
• if you’ve never trusted Christ as Savior, you might say, “Pastor, I’ve got some stuff in my background you don’t want in this church”
• I would hope we’d let Tamar, we’d let Rahab, and Bathsheba into our church
• if God loves them, we love them to
• and if God commends his love to you while you’re still a sinner, as he does, then we love you to
• come to Jesus Christ this morning
• but we’re not done
• at the beginning of paragraph two in the middle of verse 6, Israel is riding high, wide, and handsome on the reign of David
• they thought they were on the brink of paradise in 1000 BC, when David was at the height of his reign
• but suddenly it all crumbled, and everything went downhill
• these fourteen generations, from verses 6 to 11, carry us to the dark period of Israel’s history – their exile to Babylon
• Israel had entered into a period of great unfaithfulness to God and his commands
• as we read the stories of the kings who succeeded David, we find that their hearts weren’t fully devoted to the one true God
• they worshiped false gods
• they engaged in immoral acts
• they showed no concern for the poor
• read the prophetic books of the Old Testament, and you’ll find that it wasn’t a great time in Israel’s history
• WE’RE GETTING A LESSON IN THIS SECTION ON GOD’S JUDGMENT
• it is so easy to mistake God’s love and mercy for indulgence
• God does not take sin and unfaithfulness lightly; God always judges sin
• in the messages given to Israel in this period through the prophets, God was yearning for his people to repent
• he was longing for his people to return to him, but they continued in their sins
• this morning we’ve already talked about God’s mercy and grace
• but we dare not forget that God takes sin seriously
• he is waiting for some of you to repent and stop serving other gods and living a life of only partial devotion to him
• you might even be experiencing God’s judgment in your life this morning
• (Hebrews 12:5) And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
• (Hebrews 12:6) because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
• (Hebrews 12:7) Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
• (Hebrews 12:11) No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
• God is longing for you to return to him in repentance this morning
• let’s look at the third lesson Matthew brings to our attention
• the third set of fourteen ancestors is found in verses 12 to 16, covering the period from the exile to the birth of Christ
• MATTHEW REMINDS US OF THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD
• the one thing that all forty-two of these people in these three paragraphs had in common was this: they were all waiting
• the promise had first come to Abram:
• (Genesis 22:18) and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
• then it came to David:
• (Psalms 89:4) ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.'”
• and the people waited, generation after generation
• still no Messiah
• so they waited some more
• you know how hard it is to wait; we wonder why God isn’t acting
• some of us are waiting this morning, waiting for God to act with power in situations of pain and sorrow and heartache
• we’re tired of waiting, and we wonder, “How long, O Lord?”
• but on this page, Matthew teaches us not only about the God’s mercy and God’s judgment, he is teaching us about the faithfulness of God
• when the Holy One came, he was a literal descendent of King David, as God had promised
• God did not forget his promises; he remained faithful
• not only was Jesus the Son of David, he was also the Son of God
• read through the verses, and you read, “So-and-so was the father of so-and-so…”
• but when you come to verse 16, you come across the startling phrase:
• (Matthew 1:16) and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
• he’s not Joseph’s son; he’s Mary’s son
• he’s not Joseph’s boy; he’s God’s Son!
• the incredible part is, we can enter into this genealogy
• whereas before the bloodline to Abraham was all-important, now what matters is our relation to Christ
• whereas before people would say, “Abraham was our father,” now what matters is faith in Jesus Christ
• you don’t receive eternal life based on your bloodline
• God’s genealogy can become your genealogy
• by faith in Jesus Christ, you can become God’s child:
• (John 1:12) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–
• (John 1:13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
• you might be far from God this morning
• but Matthew has an important message for you:
• message number one: God is merciful
• it doesn’t matter how much you have messed up in your life
• God is merciful and loves you
• message number two: God judges sin
• don’t become complacent with God’s mercy
• God will judge sin
• the Bible tells us:
• (Romans 3:23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
• (Romans 6:23) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• message number three: God is faithful
• God has not forgotten you
• God has been faithful generation after generation
• God is faithful today

Adapted from a message by Vic Pentz (c) 1989