Well, here we are, three days away from Christmas: three days away from celebrating the birth of Jesus! For many of us, in three days, we will gather with family and maybe some friends to eat some good food (hopefully), participate in the tradition of giving and receiving gifts, take some good naps (maybe), watch some football or maybe watch some good Christmas movies like “Home Alone” or “Miracle on 34th Street” or “The Christmas Story” or maybe even the best Christmas movies of all, the “Die Hard” movies or “Godfather” movies! Regardless of your movie of choice, there is much to look forward to in the Christmas season.
There also might be some of you who do not really look forward to Christmas at all. Maybe for you, this season is too commercialized for you, you lament that this season is not even when Jesus was actually born, Christmas has pagan origins, you are not into the endless Christmas parties, you do not have much in the way of family or friends to gather with, or for some other reason you are just not that into the Christmas season. Christmas for you is maybe a painful reminder of all that is wrong and off kilter in this world.
My hope this morning, is to speak to both groups of people in the room; I want to speak to both the people who are excited to celebrate Christmas as well as the Christmas grinches (as some of you refer to yourselves) and I hope to remind all of us that this season is not about the commercialized holiday we in the West have turned it into, and it is also not a day to look forward to with dread or sadness.
The Christmas season as we know it is a day where our hearts can be turned away from the idolatry of the culture we live in and can also be turned away from the despair or disdain that can set in as we turn to celebrating the birth and the person and work of Jesus Christ.
I know of no other being in all of history who possesses the power to transform our worldly appetites. Only Jesus can transform our worldly appetites for entertainment and escape or transform our tendencies towards isolation and selfish despair, only Jesus can transform these things into joy-filled celebration!
Jesus really is the one who stands alone at the center of history in his miraculous birth, his sinless life, his atoning death at the cross, his victorious resurrection from the grave, and his glorious hope-filled promise of return. Jesus really is the best reason to celebrate during the Christmas season. The reality is that we need the affections of our hearts to be redirected.
WE NEED THE AFFECTIONS OF OUR HEARTS TO BE REDIRECTED
What better way to redirect the affections of our hearts than to give us an in-depth study of Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus’ family tree? I know it seems crazy to study a list of mostly foreign names during the Christmas season. But when I think of all the people in Jesus’ family tree throughout the generations of Israel’s history, leading up to the birth of Jesus, I am confident that he would welcome anyone who shows up to his Christmas celebration if they came by faith, expecting him to do everything he was promised to do throughout the centuries. Take a look at the text 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.
Think about what it means to be accepted at Jesus’ table regardless of how bad you have been. Think about it, if liars and weak minded men like Abraham, or conniving manipulators like Tamar, or prostitutes like Rahab, or widows like Ruth, or murdering rapists like David are not only welcome at Jesus’ celebration table, but they also make it into his family reunion, then surely, he would welcome, with open arms, those who struggle with forgetting him while enjoying cultural celebrations, as well as those who forget him in their haste to condemn a season or mourn their difficult circumstances instead of being overjoyed by the miracle of Christ’s birth.
THINK ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF MATTHEW’S GENEALOGY
The beauty of Matthew’s genealogy, as we discovered last week, is that he constructs all the names in Jesus’ family tree, according to verse 17 where we catch an image of Israel’s history represented by three major movements that create a capitol letter “N” indicating all of history’s events leading up to Jesus’ birth.2
- From Abraham to David (the first upward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 1 – 6, we see Israel looking forward in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the fulfillment of God’s promises.
- From David/Solomon to the deportation into slavery in Babylon (the second downward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 6 – 11, we see Israel looking forward once again in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the One who redeems us from our sin and our rebellion.
- Finally, from the deportation into slavery in Babylon to the birth of Jesus (the third and final upward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 12 – 16, we see Israel looking forward once again in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the One who will be faithful to rebuild us into the image of God.
In all of this, we see a sinfully impaired nation, a broken and rebellious people, waiting for Jesus, for generation after generation after generation. When Matthew tells us in verse 17 that “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” he is telling us that Israel waited for thousands of years for Jesus to come into this world in fulfillment of the promises of God to redeem, renew and rebuild us into the people that God always intended us to be.
It is also interesting to note that the three sets of fourteen generations are a way of compounding the number seven to show that Jesus’ family, in all its sinful brokenness, is the perfect bloodline for the Messiah to come from. The number seven represents the mark of perfection in the Bible, therefore, the three sets of fourteen compound that numerical value of perfection twice over.
Interestingly too, the capitol letter “N” that we have identified as the representative of the history that Matthew lays out, is also the fourteenth letter in the English alphabet. How’s that for God speaking, to us, through compounded numbers, about his perfect plan and promise of redemption in the person and work of his only Son, Jesus?!
WE NEED TO REVISIT THE PROMISES OF GOD
How deeply have you thought about the promises of God that are fulfilled in the birth of Christ? How deeply have you pondered the wonder of God’s promises to redeem you, to renew you, and to fully rebuild or restore you into the image of a perfect God who gave everything to make you part of his family despite your sinful rebellion? Where do you need to rely on God to redeem, renew, and rebuild your life right now?
Think about the promises of God that we discussed last week. The main question was: What promises of God do you need to hold onto in this season as you wait for Jesus to complete his work within you? As I said last week, I hold onto the promises of God from Romans 8:1 – 2, 38 – 39 as I wait on Jesus to complete his work within me.
As I think about the Christmas season, and the opportunity I have, to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I need to be reminded that he has promised “no condemnation” and “no separation” for me because of my faith in Christ and because of that promise I can be filled with joy in this season as I look forward to eternity with him.
Think about the significance of God’s promises on your life in light of the major contrast in that first leg of history from Abraham to David. What is the significant contrast in that first leg of Jesus’ family tree as it relates to God’s promises? We talked about this in our men’s group this last week and I was struck with the depths of the contrast between God’s faithful promises in light of our human unfaithfulness. God is faithful despite our unfaithfulness, and he even entrusts the work of building the Kingdom of God in his strength and provision to us even though we are often unfaithful with that privilege.
Think about your struggle with despair, or sin, or doubt, or complacency in light of the faithfulness of God’s promises. Isn’t it true that your struggle in any of these areas is actually attached to, or rooted in, a failure to fully trust in the promises of God? Even though I know that God’s promises are not contingent upon my behavior, or my faithfulness, in my heart I still struggle to fully believe God’s promises. I struggle to believe that God is faithful and that his promises are trustworthy because I have experienced the shame of my own unfaithfulness as well as the pain of the unfaithfulness of those around me. I judge God by the unfaithfulness of man; this is deeply sinful.
My failure to fully believe God’s promises is the reason that I fall into despair, or struggle with lust, or become cynical, or get filled with anger, or do not confess my sin with full disclosure, or get distant from God. The more I hold onto and contemplate and digest the faithful promises of God, the more His Spirit enables me to be content as I wait for Jesus to complete his work inside of me.
Don’t you find this to be true in your own spiritual journey too? Think with me for a few moments about the second leg of the capitol letter “N” in verses 6 – 11. Think with me about what it means to be a people who wait upon Jesus to redeem us from our sin and our rebellion.
Think with me about some of the names Matthew records in verses 6 – 11, specifically King David, and Bathsheba (named as the wife of Uriah in verse 6), and King Solomon (vv. 6-7), and King Josiah (v. 10) as they lived in a time where people were waiting for God to bring about the full redemption of their sin in the person and work of King Jesus, whose birth, we celebrate during the Christmas season.
#1: DAVID & BATHSHEBA
Think with me first about David and Bathsheba in light of what it means to wait upon a Savior to ransom and redeem us from the penalty, the presence, and the power of sin, both for perpetrators of heinous sins as well as for victims of heinous sins. We probably find it easier to be the victim but let me assure you that we are all perpetrators of heinous sins as well. We may not sin like David did, but we do sin.
Regarding David and Bathsheba, we know that David had left the battlefield and was sitting around the castle, presumably getting bored with too much time on his hands when he spotted Bathsheba a few houses away on her rooftop performing a ritual cleansing after her monthly cycle (2 Sam. 11). She was the wife of one of his trusted mercenaries and she was also the granddaughter of a man named Ahithophel who betrayed David later in his kingly reign (2 Sam. 15 – 17, 23:34). As one commentator notes, all of this should have “put an end to any fantasy David may [have been] feeding” but sadly it did not; David followed his sin-filled fantasies and he paid dearly for it over the course of the rest of his life.3
Likewise, most commentators note that though “we cannot be sure if Bathsheba came willingly or protesting vigorously” to David’s advances for an extramarital affair, we do know that “David’s sin is certainly adultery and murder [as he carried out a hit on Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah] … it is more than these, as reprehensible as they are. [Because] It is a sin committed by a person with power over the lives of others, against a person(s) with little or no power. And to sin against the weak and most vulnerable is among the most heinous sins. It is a sin committed by a man against a woman. It is a sin committed by a commander-in-chief against one of his soldiers. It is a sin committed by a king against two of his subjects.”4
In summary, God permits both the perpetrator of a heinous sin and the victim of that heinous sin to be in the family tree of Jesus. What should this teach us about how God is going to deal with the problem of redeeming even the worst sinners among us even as he simultaneously comforts and gives shelter to the victims of those most heinous of sins? Where have you been the victim of someone else’s sin and where have you been the perpetrator of heinous sins against others? We need to wrestle with what it means to look forward to Jesus and his work of redeeming perpetrators and victims into his kingdom.
We need to contemplate the power of God’s redeeming grace in the person and work of King Jesus who is able to save the most wretched of sinners even as he shelters the victims of those wretched people as we celebrate Christmas. If you think this is thought provoking, think with me for a few moments about King Solomon.
#2: KING SOLOMON
The story of King Solomon is depicted in 1 Kings 1 – 11 and 2 Chronicles 1 – 9. Solomon is a king whose life reflects a dual personality that is capable of both good and evil.5 As one biblical scholar points out, Solomon is a king, who appears to be an incredibly wise and also an incredibly stupid man (3:16 – 28) who loves God wholeheartedly at some points in the story, but also loves “many foreign women who do not love his God” at other points in the story (1 Kings 3:3; 11:1).6
Although 2 Chronicles 1 – 9 presents a much different picture of King Solomon than 1 Kings does, it does not present a “whitewashed version” of Solomon, as one commentator notes, because it contains a reference to Solomon’s marriage to a foreign Egyptian woman (known as Pharaoh’s daughter) in 2 Chronicles 8:11.7
The fact that King Solomon loved many foreign women and had an “impressive number of wives and concubines” can not be overlooked when assessing whether or not Solomon was a good king or a bad king.8 Although King Solomon was a very wise man who accomplished some very good things such as building the temple in 1 Kings 6 – 8, we cannot forget what God outlined in Deuteronomy regarding the role, and the expectations, and the qualifications for a king.
Regarding this, one commentator states that “In clear defiance of Deuteronomy 17:17 ‘[the king] must not acquire many wives for himself’, [therefore] Solomon violates the biblical principle for all peoples (not just the king) of one man for one woman, and one woman for one man”.9 Suffice it to say, King Solomon definitely had a weakness for women.
You could easily say that Solomon built his own pornographic industry to feed his weakened and out of control desires. This weakness, this atrocious sin, led him to openly defy the Lord (without repentance) in what one biblical scholar calls a “harem expansion project” where the king assembled some “seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines” from various foreign groups.10
It is also important to note that when King Solomon assembled his one thousand wives and concubines, he assembled them from foreign groups such as the Egyptians, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonians, and the Hittites according to 1 Kings 11:1. Those nations were nations that the Lord had instructed Israel not to intermarry with according to Deuteronomy 23:3 – 8 because if they did, their hearts would be turned away from the Lord to other foreign and false gods, and this is precisely what happens with King Solomon in 1 Kings 11:2 – 8.
Because of King Solomon’s open defiance of the Lord with no evidence of repentance, despite the Lord’s repeated warnings, Solomon turned away from the Lord in worship of the foreign gods of his wives, which wound up bringing the anger of the Lord against him in 1 Kings 11:9 – 10. The words of the Lord to Solomon and his subsequent judgment against Solomon until the end of his life in 1 Kings 11:1 – 43 are a sobering reminder that we must listen to the warnings of the Lord and obey his instructions if we are to live in ways that ultimately bring honor to God by taking full advantage of his promise of redemption.
In stark contrast to his father, David, who repented of his heinous sins in Psalm 51, King Solomon appears to have never repented of his crimes against God. May this never be said about you and me. The story of King Solomon in Jesus’ family tree is meant to be a warning for all who refuse to repent and rely on God’s redeeming work through his one and only Son, Jesus at the cross of calvary. The baby that was born in a manger, whom we celebrate at Christmas, is the one who holds the keys to redeeming us from the presence, the power, and the penalty of our sin. The question is: Will we be repentant like David or unrepentant like his son, Solomon?
In summary, even though Solomon was a very wise king, he was also a very stupid king who defied the Lord through the expansion of his one-thousand-woman, pornographic, harem full of foreign women who worshipped false gods. Solomon was a very bad king because he failed to follow God wholeheartedly, he failed to turn to God in repentance, and according to one commentator his kingdom would “be torn from him and only a portion of it [would be] left for his descendants.”11
It is important for us to think deeply about the consequences of repeatedly defying the Lord and ignoring his warnings rather than falling upon his promise of redemption and seeking forgiveness through continual repentance. How much time should we spend in seeking God’s forgiveness and redemption at the foot of a bloody cross in light of King Solomon’s stupidity?
I think this is an often-overlooked aspect of what it means to wait for Jesus as our redeemer. We must come often to the foot of the bloody cross seeking forgiveness and strength the repent otherwise the outcome will be devastating not only for us but for future generations. With that thought in mind, we turn to another king, the eight-year-old child king, named Josiah.
#2: KING JOSIAH
King Josiah has long been one of my favorite and often overlooked stories in the Old Testament. The fact that Matthew lists Josiah in Jesus’ family tree (Matt. 1:10 – 11) is significant on many levels. The story of King Josiah can be found in 2 Kings 22 – 23 and 2 Chronicles 34 – 35 and according to one author “Josiah is one of the truly unique and most pious [or holy] kings of all Judah. It is his attempts to bring religious reform to his nation by ridding it of pagan practices [such as temple prostitution and child sacrifices] that so qualifies him for that honor.”12
I want to remind you that we have described this period of Israel’s history, according to Matthew, as the downward spiral of the capitol letter “N” into utter sinfulness and rebellion against God. This period of history, from King Solomon to the deportation into slavery in Babylon, which comes less than twenty years after King Josiah’s reign, was marked by a whole slew of evil kings who led God’s people into deeper and deeper sin and rebellion.
Against the backdrop of such evil and twisted leadership stands King Josiah as a breath of fresh air and a picture of the One True King who will come to set God’s people free from slavery – none other than King Jesus who is the Better King! But what is so significant about this King named Josiah?
Well, it is important to note that Josiah’s grandfather Manasseh and his father Amos or Amon, were both responsible for allowing temple prostitutes to do their sinful business inside the temple as a fundraiser of sorts for the despicable behaviors of both kings. We also have to remember that these two evil kings allowed the practice of children being sacrificed brutally to foreign gods within the boundaries of temple worship; worship that should have been reserved for the One True God alone.
Josiah became the King of Judah at the tender young age of eight years old after his father was murdered for his wickedness by his own servants in his own home (2 Kings 21:23 – 24). It is readily apparent that God allowed this to happen to Josiah’s father, because as the author of 2 Kings 21:20 – 22 states, “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.” Bottom line, Josiah’s grandpa and his dad were very wicked kings. These are the men from whom Josiah inherits his throne at the age of eight years old.
In stark contrast to the depiction of his grandfather and his father, the author of 2 Kings 22:1 – 2 states that, “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem… And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.” It is interesting that the author names David as Josiah’s father rather than Amon; this points to the kind of King that Josiah was in contrast to his evil biological father. The bottom line is that Josiah is the godly king that his father and grandfather never were.
From that point forward, King Josiah saw the disgusting state of the nation that his grandfather and father had ruined with their wicked ways, so he locked himself in the temple with the book of Deuteronomy at least or the entire collection of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, for the next eight years. After eight years of studying God’s Word, Josiah exited the temple and in the spirit of the Reformers like Martyn Luther and John Calvin, he waged a massive campaign of religious reform where the temple prostitutes were kicked out on their butts and child sacrifices were ended completely.
It is sad to say though, that despite Josiah’s efforts, the damage was too great, and the depth of sin was too strong among the people of Israel. The downward spiral of sin had taken its course among God’s people and God’s impending judgment still came within twenty years as he allowed his people to be taken into slavery in the deportation to Babylon. Think about the kind of spiritual fortitude it must have taken for Josiah to remain committed to spiritual reform even in the face of the impending doom that was headed his was on account of the sins of his father and gradfather.
Let us not overlook the shining glimmer of hope that King Josiah is for us today as we look forward to that final day of redemption in the return of Christ to take us to our final Promised Land. If King Josiah gives us any hope in the power of a righteous human king, how much more can we hope in the arrival of a perfect baby king named Jesus during the Christmas season? How much spiritual fortitude could we gain just by contemplating the work of Jesus on our behalf in the face of such evil that lives within us?
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, when you survey the downward spiral of Israel into sin and slavery as God’s people began to long for redemption, we can see tiny slivers of God’s promises to redeem his people from the consequences of their sin if only they would turn and repent, if only they would cry out for help from our Redeemer. Oftentimes it is the suffering that sin brings along with it that causes us to long for God’s redemption; to long for the promise of the final work of our Good King, Jesus when he returns to set everything right once and for all.
The prophet Jeremiah helps to underscore this truth, that God is our redeemer. Jeremiah was a contemporary of King Josiah and he prophesied many things to the nation of Israel leading up to the deportation into slavery in Babylon. One of God’s promises to Israel through Jeremiah during this period of history may sound familiar to you when he says:
“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place [the Promised Land]. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jer. 29:10 – 14).
The promise of this passage in Jeremiah is set directly in the context of God allowing his people to be taken hostage into slavery as a consequence for their sin. Can you relate with the downward spiral into sin that is so obvious in this portion of Israel’s history and Jesus’ family tree? Can you relate with the stubborn refusal to heed the warnings that God has given you? Can you relate with the tendency to justify, or to minimize, or to ignore the sin in your life and your need for a redeemer?
Sin is utterly despicable and destructive. Once you get caught in the snare of sin, there is no escaping it on your own. Once you give yourself over to slavery to the cruel slave masters of Satan, Sin, and Death, there is no hope for you outside the miraculous intervention of the Savior, our Redeemer.
The point of this second portion of Matthew’s genealogy is that not only do we need a Savior just as badly as David, Bathsheba, Solomon, Josiah and everyone else throughout history did, but that God has graciously provided that Savior in a little baby named Jesus whose birth we celebrate during the Christmas season. You may find yourself caught up with the distractions of Christmas or you may find yourself in despair because of the Christmas season, but I hope you will see that there is something much greater than either side of that coin of existence.
We have a redeemer in the person and work of Jesus who was born to die on our behalf at a bloody cross and was destined to leave the tomb empty three days later and has promised to return to make all things right once and for all. I do not know where you are struggling with the downward spiral of sin today, but I hope your heart has been revived by this reminder that Jesus is our redeemer, all throughout the centuries, God’s people have looked forward to and have waited for the Redeemer, and if you turn to him he will fill you with joy everlasting from the foot of a bloody cross, the doorway of an empty tomb, in light of the promise of Heaven! – 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 Historical Books: Joshua – Esther, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2001), 326 – 327.
4 Ibid., 328, 330.
5 Ibid., 380.
6 Ibid., 379.
7 Ibid., 407.
8 Ibid., 379.
9 Ibid., 403.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
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