As I prayed and studied the text we just read over the last week, I was struck with the theme of waiting on Jesus. When you think about the history of Israel, and our own history for that matter, it is easy to get the sense that we are all waiting for Jesus in some way or another. Here is a question for you: In. what ways are you waiting on Jesus right now? More specifically, what promises of God do you need to rely on right now as you wait for Jesus to fulfill them?
When I survey all that is broken in the world around me and all that is broken deep within me, I find myself uttering this short simple prayer: “Come Lord Jesus, Come!” I am sure you can relate with the sense of longing for Jesus to come and to set everything straight once and for all; to fix all that is broken within us and within the world around us.
The reality is that all of Israel’s history was spent waiting for the Messiah, Jesus, to come into this world to deal with the problem of sin once and for all. From the earliest days in the Garden of Eden where God promised to crush the serpent’s head with the offspring of Eve (Gen. 3:15), to Job crying out in faith – “I know my Redeemer lives” amidst his afflictions (Job 19:25), to Abraham who looked forward in faith to the fulfillment of God’s promise in the coming Messiah (Gal. 3:9), to Moses who refused to send Israel into the Promised Land without God’s presence (Exod. 33), to David who looked forward to the resurrection of Christ (Ps. 16:8 – 11), to the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, and Daniel who all proclaimed the coming of the Savior; all of Israel’s history leading up to the birth of Christ is a story of a people waiting for Jesus to come and to make everything right again.
In fact, this is exactly what Matthew’s genealogy is meant to make us think about. Matthew’s organization of Jesus’ family tree, with all the difficult to pronounce names that we just read, is meant to make us think about all the generations of people throughout Israel’s history who were waiting on Jesus. From Abraham to David, from Solomon to the deportation into slavery in Babylon, from the release of that deportation into slavery to the birth of Christ, all of Israel’s history was looking forward to and waiting upon Jesus to come. Look at the passage with me…
1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17So 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.
Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year. I love the lights, the food, the celebratory feeling, and everything else that comes with the Christmas season. But most of all, I love the focus on Christ’s arrival to this sin-soaked earth, to be born in humility, to live the perfect life we could never live, and then to die at the cross of Calvary on our behalf, leave the tomb empty on the third day, and then to leave us with the promise of the hope of our eternal inheritance. I love the Christmas season because of its intense focus on the person and work of Jesus.
As you think about this theme of waiting on Jesus, I think it is helpful to note that Matthew’s genealogy reveals a capitol letter “N” pattern for organizing Israel’s history as they waited for the arrival of the Messiah.2 Verse 17, especially, reveals this three-pronged way of seeing Israel’s history leading to Jesus where Matthew says, “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”. Again, if you organize the entire passage, we just read, around verse 17 as a summary of the history of Jesus’ family tree, you get what looks like a capitol letter “N”. Let me break it down for us real quick.
- Verses 1 – 6 represent the first upward line of the letter “N”, and the point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. Throughout this portion of Israel’s history, we see 14 generations from Abraham to David with significant stories from the lives of Abraham, David, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth (to name a few) and it is all focused around the theme of waiting on God’s promises.
- Verses 6 – 11 represent the downward line of the letter “N”, and the point here is that Jesus is the one who redeems us from our sin and rebellion. Throughout this portion of Israel’s history, we see another 14 generations from Solomon to the deportation into slavery in Babylon with significant stories from the lives of Bathsheba, Solomon, and Josiah (to name a few more) and it is all focused around the theme of waiting on God to redeem us from our sin and rebellion.
- Verses 12 – 17 represent the final upward line in the letter “N”, and the point here is that Jesus is the one who rebuilds us into his own image. Throughout this portion of Israel’s history, we see this final 14 generations from Israel’s deportation into slavery in Babylon to Jesus’ birth with significant stories from the lives of Zerubbabel, and Joseph and Mary, and it is all focused on the theme of waiting on God to rebuild his people into the people they were meant to be.
So what we have here in Matthew’s genealogy, is thousands of years describing the history of waiting, captured in a list of names, organized like the capitol letter “N”, designed to help us in our waiting as we trust in the promises of God, and wait upon Jesus to deal with our sinful rebellion once and for all, and to finish the rebuilding process in us for all of eternity. Isn’t it fascinating to think about all of this?
Think about the waiting with me for a minute. What promises of God do you need to rely on the most right now? Think with me for the next few minutes about how the stories of Abraham, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and David can help us as we wait for Jesus while trusting in the promises of God.
#1: ABRAHAM
When I think about Abraham, I am reminded that he was a severely broken man who walked by faith in God’s promises to the best of his broken and sinful ability. You might remember how God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12:1 – 3 when he said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And of course, we know that Abraham got up immediately and walked by faith as he obeyed God while trusting in his promises. This promise is a direct indication that God will bring an eternal nation out of Abraham that will include the Messiah.
I am also reminded of another time God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 13:14 – 17where he said, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” And of course, Abraham gets up and walks into the Promised Land for the very first time, long before his descendants in the nation of Israel take possession of it in the book of Joshua. This episode is meant to make us think about the promise of God regarding our eternal promised land in heaven.
Finally, who can forget God’s promise of producing a son to Abraham and Sarah (Isaac) even though they were beyond the age of being able to make babies (they are roughly 100 years old) and they had already taken matters into their own hands and tried to bring about the promises of God when Abraham produced Ishmael with Sarah’s servant, Hagar.
Even with Abraham’s sinful sidesteps (Ishmael being born in Genesis 16 as well as Abraham lying about the identity of his wife when he referred to her as his sister in Genesis 12:10 – 20 & 20:2) God still chose to make Abraham “the father of a multitude of nations”from whose bloodline the Messiah would eventually come (Gen. 16 – 22). Suffice it to say, Abraham followed God faithfully, and imperfectly while waiting upon and trusting in God’s promises. How about some of the ladies mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy, like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth?
#2: TAMAR, RAHAB, & RUTH
When I think about Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, I am reminded that God promises to use us despite our sinful backgrounds and despite our dismal circumstances in this life. The story of Tamar comes right out of the storyline of a sultry soap opera in Genesis 38 where we meet Tamar who is married to one of Judah’s sons who dies tragically leaving Tamar to be remarried to her late husband’s brother, who refuses to do the right thing. Judah, Tamar’s father-in-law, is unable to produce a child that will keep the bloodline pure for the coming Christ, because he married a foreigner.3
Tamar takes matters into her own hands when she pretends to be a prostitute and seduces her father in law and becomes pregnant with twins which results in a pure bloodline for Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.4 The point here is that God’s promises cannot be upended by the sinfulness of humanity; God’s promises can be taken to the bank!
Next, we have Rahab! Unlike Tamar who pretended to be a prostitute, Rahab was a prostitute who helped Joshua and the nation of Israel conquer Jericho and inhabit the Promised Land (Joshua 2, 6). After the Israelites defeat Jericho and inhabit the Promised Land, Joshua spares Rahab because she helped the spies escape, and she goes on to marry an Israelite named Salmon (according Matthew 1:5) and they produce a little boy named Boaz who eventually marries Ruth (Ruth 4:13 – 17).
The story of Ruth is a story of redemption and faithfulness and purity. In the story, Ruth’s husband dies, her mother-in-law Naomi is also widowed, so Naomi heads back to her hometown of Moab accompanied by Ruth who refuses to leave her mother-in-law alone (Ruth 1). Boaz, the son of Rahab, enters the story and through a series of events – after Ruth maintains her purity by letting him know that she is interested in him in a very modest way by sleeping on the floor at the end of his bed (Ruth 3) – Boaz redeems Ruth from her widowed state, marries her, and produces a son named Obed who is the grandfather of none other than King David!
Before we get to the final character in this first leg of the capitol letter “N” as we survey the first third of Israel’s history leading to the birth of Jesus, we need to pause for a moment and think about the significance of Matthew listing Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth in Jesus’ family tree. Not only are these women not Jewish – they are foreigners as was Abraham – they are also women! In Matthew’s day, Jewish people were very opposed to mixing with people from other races and ethnicities.
Matthew himself was a Jewish tax collector turned disciple and he knew that people would have a difficult time believing that Jesus was born to a young virgin named Mary, so he highlights the fact that God had muddied the bloodline of Jesus with not only sinful men like Abraham and David and the kings that are listed in Matthew’s genealogy, but that God had also used some sinful women like Tamar and Rahab as well as a modest woman like Ruth who was living amidst some extremely difficult circumstances.
Furthermore, the testimony of women was not usually considered solid evidence in the Jewish culture, but Matthew turns that notion on its head by listing women of ill repute as part of Jesus’ family tree. What is the point here? The point is that the Messiah came as promised, not from a perfect bloodline, but from a bloodline where there was “no pattern of righteousness” because “Jesus comes from a bunch of sinners” to fulfill the promise of saving sinners and creating a righteous nation full of Jews and Gentiles who had been washed clean and redeemed by his shed blood and broken body at the cross of calvary.5With that in mind, we turn to the final character in our study today in the person of King David.
#3: DAVID
So much could be said about King David in relationship to waiting on Jesus. David is probably one of the most famous characters in the Old Testament. We know him as the shepherd boy who was chosen at a young age to be the king (1 Sam. 16), he defeats the giant, Goliath, with a slingshot and a rock and then he hacks off the giant’s head in victory over God’s enemy (1 Sam. 17), he runs from King Saul who is jealous of David’s military accomplishments, he eventually assumes the throne as the next King, he fumbles badly when he rapes Bathsheba and has her husband murdered to cover his sin (2 Sam. 11), and he also ignores the rape of one of his own daughters which all results in a family war that puts some of our evening soap operas to shame (2 Sam. 13 – 18). Lastly, with his final breathe before death, David – like the good mob boss he really was – puts a hit out on two of his enemies who would have caused much damage to the kingdom if he left them alive (1 Kings 1:1 – 9).
Despite all of King David’s failures, God still promises to make David’s name famous, to establish his throne for all eternity, and to bring the Messiah out of his family tree (2 Sam. 7). Ultimately, even though David is an utterly sinful King, God still refers to him as “A man after God’s own heart” in Acts 13:22 because he was a repentant man according to Psalm 51.
I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to be King David, to know the depths of the heinous sins he committed but to still hear God refer to him as a man after his own heart and to hear God’s promise of full restoration and redemption coming from his own jacked up family. Imagine what it must have felt like to be King David and to be waiting for Jesus to arrive as promised throughout the ages!
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, the first leg of the “N” in our history of Jesus’ family tree from Matthew’s genealogy, reveals a portion of history where God’s people were waiting with expectation for the coming Messiah. Through thick and thin, through many ups and downs, through many successes and failures, through many broken characters, Jesus is the promised Messiah who will come to crush the head of the serpent with his work at the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of eternity for all who find salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ.
The promise of God echoed throughout all of Israel’s history, and this first third of Jesus family tree, is the promise that God will create a family of his own from some of the most overlooked and often undeserving people you and I could ever imagine. From a lying and conniving and weak Gentile like Abraham to a desperate woman pretending to be a prostitute like Tamar, to an actual prostitute like Rahab, to a widowed woman in need of redemption like Ruth, to a deeply flawed King like David, the promise of God to bring the Redeemer into this world over the Christmas season never lost a beat.
There is no sin great enough, no circumstance too dark, no weakness too strong, and no rebellion too great, and no wickedness too sick for God’s promise in the person and work of Jesus to overcome. When Christ came into this world during the Christmas season, he came as a humble baby in a manger so that he could give his life in humility at the cross so that he could also rise from the dead in victory over all the forces of Satan, Sin, and Death that have attempted to upend God’s promised plan of redemption since the beginning.
I do not know where you need to be trusting in the promises of God during this Christmas season as you wait upon Jesus to accomplish what he has promised to complete within you, but I do know this, the promises of God are absolutely trustworthy and thousands of years of the enemy and sinful humanity trying to undo what God is doing have failed because God’s plans and promises are not dependent nor detoured by any created force.
Maybe you have been waiting on Jesus to free you from some sinful baggage you carry around like a bag of bricks, or you have been waiting on him to restore something in your family, or you have been waiting on him to heal the wounds of the past, or you have been waiting on him to provide you with something your heart longs for like a spouse or a child, or you have been waiting on him to give you a sense of your purpose in life.
Regardless of where you are currently waiting for Jesus to act on your behalf, know this: His promises are trustworthy and true. Those promises are trustworthy and true because his promises are rooted in the perfect and unchanging, faithful, character of the God of the universe who brought the Messiah into this world through a bunch of sinful people who could not seem to get their acts together! Thousands of years of Israel’s history and Jesus’ family tree are proof of this truth: God is faithful to follow through on his promises despite anything we do to upend his work.
My prayer is that we would band together, as a church family, in our waiting upon Jesus. My prayer is that we would be strengthened by the realization that Christ’s promise of salvation by grace through faith in his work at the bloody cross of Calvary is fully trustworthy.
That his promise of full and complete victory in the inheritance of the resurrection power of the empty tomb can be fully trusted. That his promise of complete freedom once and for all from the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death in eternity with him can be taken to the bank. My prayer is that we would fully trust in the promises of God as we wait for Jesus to make things right, once and for all! – Amen!!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Douglas, Sean, O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 32.
3 Victor, P., Hamilton, Handbook on the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 128 – 129.
4 Ibid.
5 Douglas, Sean, O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 37.
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