Matthew One

In the 24 days leading up to Christmas 2020, I made a video of my thoughts as I read through the book of Luke. This year, I am going to go through the book of Matthew in The Message version - not with video, but by blogging a few things that stand out to me from each chapter. There are 28 chapters in Matthew, so I am going to start today and end on Christmas Day.

This will help me keep my focus on the Reason for this Season. I hope it does the same for you.

Matthew begins with a genealogy. I know those can sometimes be frustrating to read through because it is a bunch of names and "begot"'s. The Message version uses "had" instead of "begot" which does help a bit :)

The reason this genealogy is so important is that it outlines the family tree from Abraham to Jesus. It is absolutely amazing that there is a record that covers 42 generations! I enjoyed reading the genealogy this time because I have been reading through the books of Kings in the Old Testament, and I recognize a lot more names then I used to and I know a little more of the history. I think that is cool.

The second half of Matthew chapter one is about the birth of Jesus. Mary got pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit and Joseph, in the dark about the whole thing, yet engaged to Mary and being the noble man he was, was going to divorce her quietly so she would not be disgraced. Thankfully, an angel of God spoke to Joseph in a dream, clarified things for him, and gave him the responsibility to name the Child, Jesus.

The part of the chapter that amazes me, is that Joseph chose not to consummate the marriage until after Jesus was born. This leaves no room for doubt as to who the Father of Jesus is, and it shows the character of Joseph. I mean, how many young men would choose to not sleep with his wife for several months? This shows the type of man God chose to raise His Son.

God didn't only choose Mary - He chose Joseph, too.

And, He chose you. God chose that your life be created. You are loved by Him, chosen by Him, and oh, so important to Him. So important in fact, that the Son He sent to earth, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, would die in your place so that you can spend eternity with Him. Yep, that was a spoiler. We will get that to later in the book of Matthew.

Stay tuned.