Sunday, October 9, 2016

Sunday, October 9th, 2016: Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38, Luke 2:1-28 ~ Jay

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is: Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38, Luke 2:1-28

Reading about the Christmas story on Thanksgiving weekend gave me a chance to pause..and consider again the gift of salvation that God has provided through His Son.  We have much to be thankful for!

I thought it interesting that the Bible reading started with the Birth of Christ and then jumped back to the genealogy from Joseph (the father of Jesus) tracing his heritage all the way back to Abraham.  The order helped me consider the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham, and reminded me that God is faithful to His word.

In the Luke genealogy, two things stood out to me when comparing to the genealogy in Matthew;

1) Right off the start- Luke refers to Jesus father (Joseph) as Heli yet Matthew refers to Joseph's father as Jacob.  I looked a little further to see where in the genealogy the two diverged and it appears right after King David. Luke's account names Nathan as the son of David and traces to Jesus from that point while Matthew names Solomon as David's son and traces to Christ from that vantage point.  All of this to say..after some research it looks like Heli was Mary's father and Jacob was Joseph's father.  This in no way diminishes the fulfillment of the promises, but as one commentary states simply highlights the importance Luke places on women in his gospel.

2) Luke's genealogy goes back to Adam yet Matthew stopped at Abraham.  This highlights that the gift of Christ Jesus, was not just for the Jewish people (traceable through Abraham) but rather the gift of salvation is for the entire world (Adam).

Again, much to be thankful for this weekend....the greatest of which is God's gift to all men.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage:

2 comments:

Nathan said...

The beginning of this reading, in Matthew 1:20, reminds me again how the storey of Jesus is a miracle, planned by God using the right people doing the right things,

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.

God used plain everyday people to perform this miracle birth, and He can use us to do many things as well, I pray that I'm always willing.

Tammy said...

I love gleaning interesting things from genealogies. It was important to show that Jesus was a deecendant of David on both Mary and Joseph's sides because He had to be Messiah through blood (Mary) and birthright (Joseph).

How exciting it must have been for Simeon to see the long awaited baby Jesus!