Archive for Matthew 1

Who Is Matthew?

January 12, 2009 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Matthew 1 and tagged:

       One thing I find interesting is who is Matthew? I have done a little research and found something to be very insightful and  thought provoking…

       Matthew was of course the  author of the first Gospel. But what strikes me is the fact he was a “Publican” also known as a tax collector. I may be jumping a little bit ahead here but this all reflects on the who & why of  Matthew. If we look at Matthew 10:2-4 we find two Simon’s: Simon Peter and Simon the Zealot or Cananite or Cananaen. A term for the party Zealots, a group determined to overthrow Roman Domination in Palestine. Simon was most likely a member of this party. The word “Zealot” came from the Aramaic which means to be zealous, and was used for those who were zealous for the law. 

          One thing I uncovered,  about the group called Zealots was they were revolutionaries who hoped to free their country from the Romans even by the means of violence. They were Jews who had a strong dislike or hatred for Romans even more then there fellow country men did. Many Zealots were brutally murdered by the Roman Army, one method of execution was crucifixion. Which must have raised the dislike factor much higher! And not found much favor or harmony with tax collectors working for Caesar!   

           By all means these  guys were enemies! Tax collector’s were Jews collecting money from the Jewish people to give to the Roman Empire! And Zealots were Rebel Jews!  Simon and Matthew were two of the least likely men to be together, working for the same cause! Following a long haired preacher from the desert!

        Wow! I just found this small but huge!  Christ chose both of these men for reason and love. Knowing the strong difference between them!

There is great hope found in the love of Christ!   This reminds me of a old boss I had whom I didn’t get along with until both of us put Christ at the fore front of our selfish lives!

Praise be to God

Blessings DJay

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Was He King?

January 6, 2009 at 2:35 am · Filed under Matthew 1 and tagged: ,

This is the question that the Jews would want to know the answer of anyone claiming to be the Messiah. This is the main question that Matthew tackles in his gospel. He starts out the most basic and first way a Jew would to see if a person had rightful heir to the throne.

The genealogy. We so often look at the genealogy when reading the Word and skip over it so quickly, maybe thinking it’s insinificent. But to the Jewish mind it was very important. It was a family tree or even like a family photo album. So very important indeed. Matthew used it to show how Jesus Christ was not only the rightful heir to the throne, but also the fulfillment of the promise of the coming Messiah, the Seed of Abrahman(Gen. 22:18, Gal. 3:16).

Interesting enough if you claimed to be Messiah you needed the genealogy to prove your throne right! Well in 70 a.d. the Temple where all genealogies were kept was destroyed by the Romans, making it impossible for anyone to prove their right to the throne! Leaving Jesus Christ as the only possible Messiah!! Wow I think the genealogy just got pretty interesting!! Who are some of the interesting characters you see in the genealogy. Take a closer look!! God bless.

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Whats so great about the Genealogy?

January 5, 2009 at 5:17 pm · Filed under Matthew 1 and tagged: ,

I want to take the oppurtinity to show how amazing God’s word is. So I want to open up with this question in mind. What is so great about the Genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1? What are some things you have found that have made that text interesting? So many others (even my kids) pretty much just laugh at me trying to sound out the names. But there had got to be more to it, right? I dont want to over spiritualize this but the genealogies are Holy Spirit inspired so what reasons is it there and why is it so good?

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, [1] 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, [2] 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, [3] and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, [4] and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 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.

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