Matthew Chapter 1 begins with a genealogy that leads up to the birth of Jesus. It starts with Abraham, the man that God first made a promise/covenant with stating that Abraham's descendants would be numerous like grains of sand. I am sure that there is an interesting study here, if I decided to look at each name individually and see what there contribution was during the course of their life (which I do not plan on doing at this time). A couple things that did stand out for me was the mention of only three mothers in the genealogy (Tamar a rape victim,Rahab a prostitute with faith in God, and Ruth a foreigner). Obviously our station or circumstance or gender in life does not prevent us from being part of the family of God. This is something to sing praise about because it indicates that we do not need to dispair in life, God has a purpose for us. I occurs to me that we have to be open to God, or at least the idea of God for him to do His work.
King David is mentioned in the geneaology of course, but Bathsheba is not mentioned as Solomon's mother. The bible states that Solomon's mother had been Uriah's wife. This is interesting for several reasons: The union of David and Bathsheba was born out of sin (adultery), God allowed the family to continue after Uriah's murder, and they were blessed with Solomon the wisest of all men. Does this mean that God forgives, but does not necassarily forget? 28 generations after David and Bathsheba God still sticks it in the geneaology evidence of the affair. This also tells me that I cannot judge other peoples relationships even when they start out in a less than Christian like manner. God can and does work through all of us, before and after our sinful acts, and some of this is private, not put on display for the whole world. Is Solomon the result of "fruit" (reconciling back with God)? Hmmm.... Verse 18 begins how the birth of Jesus came about. Joseph must have had a big heart in that He did not want to disgrace Mary publicly when He discovered that she was pregnant (presumably with another man's baby). There is no mention of Joseph's disgrace of having been cheated on. Verse 20 and 21 tell of the dream that Joseph has clearing up the misunderstanding (No Mary did not cheat, the baby is concieved of the Holy Spirit, name the baby Jesus; this is prophecy fulfilled). In this first chapter it looks like Matthew is trying to show us the big picture, that the arrival of Jesus is not an isolated event. Jesus continues the conenant that God had with Abraham and fulfills prophsey through the generations and holds new promises for the future.
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What a good idea. I look forward to more posts.
ReplyDeleteRe: God forgiving but not 'forgetting'. I think God does forget. He does not condemn after repentance and restoration to his grace through forgiveness. It is necessary though to pay the natural consequences of our sins. The natural consequence of David's adultry was the loss of the son that was conceived through the adultry. I think you are right on in saying that Solomon was probably the result of reconciling with God. I think it is interesting that Bathsheba is never condemned for adultry. It was all David's sin. She did not have any choice because she was a subject of the King and did not have the priviledge of saying 'no'. One has to wonder if David had admitted his sin before he had Uriah killed and allowed Uriah to return home as expected. Would the child have lived at that point to be raised by Uriah? Would he have had a special place in history or simply have been considered Uriah's son? Or would he have died anyway just as he did? Obviously, we will never know. God told David that the death of the son would be one result and the violence that occurred throughout his family history would be another result. Even though David did repent and was called 'a man after God's own heart', he still had to pay the natural consequences of his sin. It is encouraging to me that even after greivious sins we can become people after God's own heart if we repent and follow after God's path of grace. You are so right that we need not and should not judge another's sins. God's grace is sufficient to cover and restore everyone who desires to go His way. We have everything we can do to keep our eyes upon Jesus and clean up our own acts.
ReplyDeleteThe birth of Jesus definitely was not an isolated event. From the beginning of creation his life, birth, death and resurrection was planned for and foretold. There are pictures of God's grace throughout the Bible in the lives of many people. I think there are pictures of God's grace in the lives of people today also. I don't think the message of God's love and grace ended with the writing of the scriptures. The Scriptures give us a blueprint of how God works in the lives of mankind. When we are looking for the work of God in our lives it must be consistant with the Scriptural blueprint but I believe God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is still working in the lives of those who believe in and love Him.