MATTHEW #1 – GENEALOGY OF JESUS, JOSEPH AND MARY

Hi, my name is Dario! I am from Croatia and here I am writing about faith, Bible, Christianity and similar topics. I am not an expert and my words and my ideas are not authority. It is possible that accidently without bad intentions I say something which is not true. Forgive me for my mistakes and errors if they do occur. However, I like to write about these topics and I hope that my blog posts will be of value to you. Nice to see you here!!!

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

4 Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

6 and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa,

8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12 After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

14 Azor the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Akim,

Akim the father of Elihud,

15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

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 Messiah.

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Here in Matthew 1, at the very beginning we are reading about Jesus family tree. The point of that text is to explain and show the symbolism behind this whole story. At the beginning of the Bible, we are reading about Abraham. Already there we can see how God gave Abraham a promise that He will make big heritage out of Him. Then later we are reading about King David who was very devoted to God. God promised to King David that from his offspring will come the greatest King.

We can read that from Abraham to David there were fourteen generation, from David to exile to Babylon were also fourteen generations, and from exile to Jesus Christ were also fourteen generations. We can see that Jesus is descendant from David and from Abraham. Although Joseph, Jesus father is descendant of David and Mary is of course but still, Jesus is the son of Joseph, regardless of the fact that he was not his physical father.

So here we are reading that Mary and Joseph were getting married. Before their marriage, Mary was a pregnant. First Joseph didn’t know that she is carrying a baby that is conceived by Holy Ghost. By being a true gentleman and by having a pure heart, he didn’t wanted to divorce her publicaly but he decided to do it quietly. Can you imagine those times? If your woman was pregnant and you know that it is not your child, 99% of people would gave that woman a horrible beating. They would drag that woman to the main square and in front of everybody that woman would be stoned to death. Her own father would reject her. But Joseph was a different. He didn’t wanted to hurt Mary in any way. He was not jealous, he was not screaming, not yelling, not calling her names. Imagine a modern couple if a man finds out that his woman is cheathing him. He is yelling at her, screaming, pulling her hair, slapping her… Joseph was a man of God. He had mercy towards that lady. He decided to divorce her quietly.

But in his dreams, angel appeared to him and angel explained to him that this baby is conceived by Holy Ghost and that this baby is the Messiah, a one who will save the world. Joseph made a decision to take Mary home and to take care of her and that baby.

This should be a great lesson to all of us. By accepting Mary and her child, Joseph was in danger of being mocked by others. Do we today also have this fear of being mocked? How many people are quiet about their religion and their faith? How many people are protecting the faith the way that Joseph protected Mary and Jesus? It was not easy for him.

Imagine a level of faith that Joseph had to have in order to take care of pregnant Mary. When we read Bible, usually we are reading it from sentence to sentence without thinking about it. We read that Joseph decided to take Mary. But we are not thinking about his struggles. It was probably not that easy to take care of pregnant woman and to prepare himself for raising a child and being a father. But we can assume that God chose him for reason. He knew that Joseph had pure and devouted heart. God is not going to choose a criminal to raise a little Jesus. God was looking for a man that is quiet, hard-working, pure in heart and thoughts, a man that has no ego and is not selfish about his own needs and desires.

The same thing is true for today. God is looking for good-hearted people. We need to have pure hearts in order to serve God and in order to do big things for God. We need to watch our actions and we should take care of the fact that we don’t want to hurt people but rather we want to care about other people. Joseph was not screaming at Mary, he wanted to divorce her quietly. He didn’t wanted to hurt her or to gave her public embarrassment. At the end of the day, he cared about her to not hurt her heart. That is Godly man. He didn’t had ego to scream; ‘HOW COULD YOU CHEAT ON ME???’ When you watch mafia movies, you know how these men behave. If you are not loyal to him, he puts bullet in your head. Joseph is not that type. He is not seeking revenge, but rather he is seeking forgiveness and peace.

My point is, God choose him for a reason.

In this chapter we cannot read a lot about Mary, but we can make a one conclusion. She was of pure heart as well. Otherwise God wouldn’t choose her to carry the Messiah, His own Son. Imagine if God decided to choose some drunk prostitute? Drunk prostitute and a criminal? What a great couple to raise a Son of God. Mary must have been extraordinarily pure woman. I hope that all of you are having a warm feelings when you are thinking about your mom. I am sorry if your experience is otherwise. But mom, mother is the greatest source…

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