Matthew 1:1–6

THE WORDING OF the first verse of the New Testament directs our thoughts back to the first book of the Old, inasmuch as "generation" is the translation of the Greek word, genesis. Matthew in particular, and the whole New Testament in general, is "The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ." When we refer back to Genesis, we find that book divides into eleven sections, and all of them save the first begin with a statement about "generations." The third section commences, "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Matt. 5:1); and the whole Old Testament unrolls for us the sad story of Adam and his race, ending with terrible appropriateness in the word, "curse." With what great relief we can turn from the generations of Adam to "the generation of Jesus Christ," for here we shall find the introduction of grace; and upon that note the New Testament ends.

In the midst of very many names and generations in the Bible there are but two "books of generations" — "the book of the generation of Adam," and "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ." In the former (Genesis 5) we read over and over again, "and he died" (Enoch the exception). We need not elaborate — "death has passed upon all men." But in "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1) the sovereign mercy of God would include the names of four women who otherwise would have no claim to be there; three openly wrongdoers and one a stranger to God's people — a universal testimony to God's abounding grace.

The New Testament commences — "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ" and in it the blessed God has been pleased to reveal the eternal secrets of His heart of love.

As Son of David He shall maintain in the fullest degree the rights of God's throne and government; as Son of Abraham He shall be manifestly seen as the Yea and Amen of every promise of God.

Jesus is at once presented in a two-fold way. He is Son of David, and hence the royal crown that God originally bestowed on David belongs to Him. He is also Son of Abraham, hence He has the title to the land and all the promised blessing is vested in Him.

In this "book of generations" the Lord Jesus is presented first as "Son of David" and then "Son of Abraham," a different order from that line of succession which follows — the rights of God's throne must first be upheld before His promises in grace and mercy can be dispensed.

"The book," he says, "of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." These are the two principal landmarks to which a Jew turns:— royalty given by the grace of God in the one, and the original depository of the promise in the other.

If Christ be confessedly David's Son, how does David in spirit call Him Lord? It is the grand capital truth of all this gospel of Matthew, that He who was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, was really Emmanuel, and Jehovah.

The object of the Spirit of God, in this Gospel, being to present Jehovah as fulfilling the promises made to Israel, and the prophecies that relate to the Messiah (and no one can fail to be struck with the number of references to their fulfilment), He commences with the genealogy of the Lord, starting from David and Abraham, the two stocks from which the Messianic genealogy sprang, and to which the promises had been made. The genealogy is divided into three periods, conformably to three great divisions of the history of the people: from Abraham to the establishment of royalty, in the person of David; from the establishment of royalty to the captivity; and from the captivity to Jesus.

We may observe that the Holy Ghost mentions, in this genealogy, the grievous sins committed by the persons whose names are given, magnifying the sovereign grace of God who could bestow a Saviour in connection with such sins as those of Judah, with a poor Moabitess brought in amidst His people, and with crimes like those of David.

The Gospel of Matthew presents our Lord evidently in connection with the Hebrew nation, and more particularly as King of the Jews. Thus we find His genealogy is given from Abraham on through David to Joseph, the lineal, legal heir to the throne of David. Our Lord is here presented as the Son of Abraham and Son of David. As the Son of Abraham, He is linked with Israel as a whole — we might add, with the whole house of faith as well — and as Son of David, He is more particularly connected with those promises of kingship which God made to David: "Once have I sworn by My holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me" (Ps. 89:35-36).

"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). Then further down that same chapter "Behold, a virgin shall be with child," (v. 23). Here in the first chapter of the New Testament we see the promises of God fulfilled. Taking those promises in the order in which they were historically given, we read that Jesus was the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham and the seed of David. The birth of Jesus Christ was the fulfilment of all three. Thus we see that Matthew, chapter 1, is an outstanding witness to the faithfulness of God.

"The book," he says, "of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." These are the two principal landmarks to which a Jew turns: — royalty given by the grace of God in the one, and the original depository of the promise in the other.

Having given us this general view, we come to particulars. We begin with Abraham, tracing Jesus not up to him, but down from him. Every Israelite would begin with Abraham, and would be interested to follow the stages of the line from him on whom they all hung.

"Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren" (ver. 2). This comprehensive notice, "Judas and his brethren," seems to be of importance, and in more ways than one. It does not consist with the notion that our Evangelist in this part of the chapter simply copies the records kept by the Jews. We may be sure that men never register in this fashion. Yet it is evidently in the strictest harmony with this Gospel, for it gives prominence to the royal tribe of whom was the Messiah (Gen. 49:10), while it reminds the most favoured that others, too long out of sight, were not forgotten of God now that He is giving the genealogy of His Messiah.

The object of the Spirit of God, in this Gospel, being to present Jehovah as fulfilling the promises made to Israel, and the prophecies that relate to the Messiah … He commences with the genealogy of the Lord, starting from David and Abraham, the two stocks from which the Messianic genealogy sprang, and to which the promises had been made. The genealogy is divided into three periods, conformably to three great divisions of the history of the people: from Abraham to the establishment of royalty, in the person of David; from the establishment of royalty to the captivity; and from the captivity to Jesus.

We may observe that the Holy Ghost mentions, in this genealogy, the grievous sins committed by the persons whose names are given, magnifying the sovereign grace of God who could bestow a Saviour in connection with such sins as those of Judah, with a poor Moabitess brought in amidst His people, and with crimes like those of David.

The introduction of four women's names, and of four only, into the genealogy of our Lord as given by Matthew, has furnished material for enquiry to many students of the inspired word. … They are precisely such names as a chronicler left to mere human wisdom in the matter, and especially a Jew, however right-thinking, would have kept out of sight; and especially so as there was no apparent necessity for bringing them forward. They were not needed at all as establishing the connection of our Lord with David or with Abraham.

Matthew presents the Lord as King, and so the genealogy is traced to David, proving Jesus the Christ to be the rightful Heir to the throne further, going up to Abraham, as showing His right of title to the land.

People may think a genealogy dry bones. This is a great mistake. It will always pay to go into it carefully — it is God-given, Spirit-breathed. No man would have written it thus. There is a blessed design throughout.

In the midst of very many names and generations in the Bible there are but two "books of generations" — "the book of the generation of Adam," and "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ." In the former (Genesis 5) we read over and over again, "and he died" (Enoch the exception). … But in "the book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1) the sovereign mercy of God would include the names of four women who otherwise would have no claim to be there; three openly wrongdoers and one a stranger to God's people — a universal testimony to God's abounding grace.

The presence of the names of four women in this genealogy has been commented upon as manifesting the grace of our Lord in associating Himself with the special needs of man. The first, Thamar, brings out the sin of man; the second, Rahab, the faith that lays hold upon the grace of God; the third, Ruth, that grace manifested in setting aside the claims of the law; and the fourth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) the grace which, through chastisement, can even bring blessing out of failure in God's people.

"Phares begat Ezrom and Salmon begat Booz of Rachab" (vers. 3-5). And who and what was she? A Gentile, and once a harlot! But Rahab is taken out of all her belongings — separated from everything that was her portion by nature. And here she is, in this gospel of Jesus written for the Jew — for the very people who despised and hated Him because He would look upon a Gentile. Rahab was named for heaven already, and no Jew could deny it. She was visited of God; she was delivered outwardly and inwardly by His mighty grace, brought into and made a part of Israel on earth — yea, by sovereign grace part of the royal line out of which the Messiah must come.

And who can doubt that it was Rahab's faith brought her into the genealogy, as sin had brought Tamar? Without faith she had died with those shut up in Jericho, a cursed woman of a cursed race. Faith removed that curse from her; faith brought her in among the people of God, if it did not attract to her the heart of Salmon, so as in the most direct way to account for those words being in the genealogy, "Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab."

The second name is that of Rahab, drawn out of the obscurity in which in the Old Testament her later history is involved, and brought forward in strange connection with a princely family of the house of Judah. As wife of Salmon and mother of Boaz she takes her place here in the genealogy of the Lord; and we may surely say, in view of the epistle to the Hebrews, and the epistle of James, that salvation by faith is the lesson of her history. Thus we have the second great principle of the gospel proclaimed in her.

She married Salmon (Matt. 1:5), who was the son of Nahshon, prince of the children of Judah, (1 Chron. 2:11): the leader of the tribe that had marched first through the wilderness. (Num. 10:14). And so she was brought directly into the royal line of Israel, into one of the most honoured families of all, and became an ancestor of the promised Messiah, and is one of the four women mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord.

Nahshon's sister, Elisheba, (our Elizabeth), was wife of Aaron the chief priest. What a place for a poor Canaanite harlot to be brought into! Daughter-in-law to the royal prince of Israel, niece by marriage to the chief priest, mentioned by name in the genealogy of the Messiah, where even the names of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel are passed over.

Against this Ruth, with all her loveliness and with all her goodness, there was lying a ban which did not lie in the same way against the others. She was a Moabitess, and against these there had been levelled an express statute of the law. "An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever." (Deut. 23:3.)

It is striking that it was to this devoted, to this lovely woman that the law applied — not to Rahab, nor even to Tamar — God having thus proclaimed in an unmistakable way the law's character: not bringing it in to condemn, where men's minds would have gone with it, the sinner and the harlot, but introducing it as that which would have excluded the piety of a Ruth. Emphatically was it thus taught, that it was man as man that was shut out from God, not in his sins merely, but in his righteousness, and that if we stand on that ground all "our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."

But the law does not keep Ruth out. Moabitess as she is, she does enter into the congregation of the Lord. The law is set aside in her behalf, and instead of her descendants being excluded to the tenth generation, her child of the third generation sits upon Israel's throne.

Ruth, loving as she was, yet to a Jew was from a source peculiarly odious. She was a Moabitess, and thus forbidden by the law to enter the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation. Even the Edomite or the Egyptian was held in less abhorrence, and their children might enter in the third generation (Deut. 23:3-8). Thus was given a still deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles. Whether the Jews like it or not, God has Rahab, the once immoral Gentile, and Ruth, the meek daughter of Moab, brought, not only into the nation, but into the direct line from which the Messiah was to arise.

Obed (servant), the son of wealthy Boaz, by his name, at any rate, and perhaps also by an obedient and dedicated life of piety bore a quiet witness, not only to his coming grandson David who "served his own generation by the will of God" (Acts 13:36), but to David's Son and David's Lord, Whose service to God is unequalled and incomparable. The scripture record shows that in Obed's posterity his name became "famous in Israel"; for besides this brief record in Ruth, his name occurs nowhere else but in 1 Chron. 2:12, as the grandfather of David, and in Matt. 1:5 and Luke 3:32 as the ancestor of the Messiah of Israel. But what illustrious honour for the son of a Moabitess is this association with the Anointed of Jehovah in His pedigree!

The inclusion of four women in the genealogy of Matthew 1 (indicating the subjective work of God in the heart) has often been remarked as magnifying the sovereignty of God's mercy. Is it too much to say that the features of those vessels of mercy are to be seen morally in the generation of "others also" with whom Paul desired Timothy to walk? Righteousness — Tamar (cf. Genesis 38:26). "Love" — Ruth; "Faith" — Rahab; "Peace" — the wife of Solomon the man of peace.

Every woman that is named is one that nature would have studiously excluded from the record; but grace made them most prominent in it. Thus the truth taught thereby ought never to be forgotten, and the Jew who wanted to know the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah might learn here what would prepare his heart and conscience for such a Messiah as Jesus is. He is a Messiah come in quest of sinners, who would despise no needy one — not even a poor publican or a harlot.