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Winter Quarter 2023-2024: Faith That Pleases God
Unit 1: Profiles In Faith
Sunday School Lesson for the week of December 17, 2023
By Jay Harris
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17
Key Verse: “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1)
Lesson Aims
- To introduce the fact that this profile in faith involves Jesus’ genealogy beginning with Abraham
- To reflect on the titles of Jesus mentioned in our key verse
- To learn about the structure of the genealogy, the way it is reinforced, and its meaning
- To recall God’s promise made to Abraham and his connection to God’s people and to Jesus
- To learn the stories about the women mentioned in the genealogy: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth
- To recall God’s promise made to David and his connection to the reign of God and to Jesus
- To understand the problems that plagued David’s dynasty that led to the deportation to Babylon
- To learn about the generations from deportation to Jesus and the hope for a Messiah that grew
- To ponder how fitting it is that the New Testament begins with this genealogy
Introduction to this Very Unique Profile in Faith
In this first of three units, we have been looking at various profiles in faith in order to gain insight into our Winter Quarter’s focus: Faith that Pleases God. We first looked at a profile that featured the faith of Ruth, and then we looked at one that featured the faith of David.
This week’s lesson is supposed to continue this focus, but you will notice right away a departure in this particular profile in faith. We are not looking at a
story of faith, but a
genealogy. A genealogy is very different from the narratives we have explored. Across the years, I have heard more than one critic of the Bible disparage all the “begats” in the Bible. Their tendency is to gloss over the genealogies. Some even use the genealogies in the Bible as one of their excuses for not reading the Bible, which is of course a lame excuse.
Yet, the Gospel of Matthew, and all of the New Testament, begins with a genealogy. We all know, however, that the number of people doing genealogical research is increasing with new internet-based programs making this kind of research much more accessible to the masses. Even before these tools were available, people have found meaning and deep significance in learning about their family tree.
Still, how are we supposed to connect Jesus’ genealogy with our study of profiles in faith? Presented with the names of over 40 men and five women, we might rightly wonder, “Whose faith are we exploring?” Are we bound to study each of the persons listed in this genealogy and learn each one’s profile in faith?
Perhaps the best way to approach this lesson is to look at this genealogy as a profile in Matthew’s faith and that of his Church. The Early Church then placed Matthew’s gospel first among the four gospels in the New Testament canon. Not only Matthew’s gospel, but also the whole New Testament, begins with the genealogy of Jesus. You could say, then, that the profile in faith we are exploring is the faith of the Early Church. The center of that faith is, obviously, Jesus Christ. We will explore some of the possible meanings that are conveyed in this genealogy and what it says about faith that pleases God.
It should also be noted that the date of this lesson is the Third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Church. Advent is the season in which we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Christ on Christmas Day. Matthew’s genealogy precedes the Nativity story and could even be thought of as part of the Nativity story.
How have you viewed the genealogies in the Bible up until now? What do you hope to gain in this lesson about Jesus’ genealogy?
The Structure of this Genealogy and its Meaning
The scripture passage we are studying has two bookends: a statement at the beginning and another statement at the end that connects with the first statement and brings the passage full circle.
1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
There is a lot in this first statement. First, we encounter three titles of Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah, or the Christ. Jesus is the Son of David. And Jesus is the Son of Abraham. Both “Messiah” and “Christ” mean the same thing. “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew, and “Christ” comes from the Greek, but they both mean “anointed.” This title is a statement of belief that Jesus is God’s anointed One. Anointing is associated with the application of oil over the head of a priest who is being ordained or a king who is being coronated. To be God’s anointed One is to be the Priest and King promised by God to bring God’s reign into reality in the world.
“Son of David” and “Son of Abraham” are also important titles. David and Abraham both present important profiles in faith in their own right, but perhaps their greatest connection to Jesus is that both David and Abraham were recipients of a divine promise. Those promises were fulfilled in part during the lifetimes of both Abraham and David, and beyond their lifetimes in the ongoing life of God’s people, Israel. The New Testament Church believed that the greatest fulfillment of both promises occurred in the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus.
Matthew wants to say in this first statement that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus did not happen in Bethlehem. It began a thousand years earlier in God’s promise to David, and centuries before that in God’s promise to Abraham.
We will see in the next verse that the genealogy presented by Matthew appropriately begins with Abraham. So, this first “bookend” statement in Matthew 1:1 (which is also our key verse) gives us a preview of what is about to follow. The titles “Son of David” and “Son of Abraham” reveal the inspiration for the structure of the genealogy that is to follow.
The “bookend” statement at the other end of our passage, found in verse 17, confirms this. It says, “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.” The New Testament saw great significance in this three-part recitation of Jesus’ genealogy.
A comparison with the genealogy in Luke’s gospel (yes, there’s one there too) reveals that a few generations seemed to have been skipped in Matthew’s gospel, and we also see that David is counted twice. The symmetry to which Matthew is pointing has less to do with the math, and everything to do with symbolism and significance. The symbolism is meant to affirm the divine continuity between Israel’s story and the Christian story. Matthew’s gospel is perhaps the gospel that goes to the greatest effort to show that the Christian story represents the fulfillment of Israel’s story.
What have you thought about the meanings of Jesus’ titles as the Messiah, as the Son of Abraham, and as the Son of David? What are you most curious about in these titles?
Father Abraham and the Connection to Jesus
Occasionally, we will make comparisons between the genealogy in Luke’s gospel (Luke 3:23-38) and the genealogy in our passage in Matthew’s gospel in order to get at the unique meaning found in Matthew’s genealogy. One of the most obvious differences is that Luke’s genealogy starts with Jesus and works back in time, generation by generation, each ancestor being the son of the next ancestor mentioned. Matthew’s genealogy, in contrast, starts with Abraham and goes forward in time, generation by generation, each generation being the father of the next one mentioned.
Luke’s gospel goes back in time much earlier than Abraham, earlier than even Noah, to “Adam, son of God.” Luke’s genealogy emphasizes that Jesus is the Second Adam, the one to reverse the curse brought to humankind by the First Adam. As we mentioned earlier, Matthew’s gospel emphasizes that Jesus is the Son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
The part of the genealogy contained in this verse alone takes us through the Book of Genesis. One of the reasons for the numerous genealogies that are found in the Bible is because genealogies help recall and summarize Israel’s journey with God. God’s engagement with His people is never just about one generation. The arc of the story between God and his people must be traced through generation after generation. The story of God’s people is a grand epic, the source of which is found in the heart of God.
When we recall Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and “Judah and his brothers” in the genealogy, we are recalling the events we read about from Genesis 12 to the end of Genesis. We see each generation come to an understanding of their place in the covenant story that began when God spoke to Abraham, which outlined the covenant that God was making with Abraham and all the generations to follow:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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 the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
The willingness of Abraham and Sarah to launch into a strange land and an unknown future while trusting in God to guide them says so much about their faith. The covenant says that if Abraham and Sarah and their descendants trust, obey, and follow God, then they will model a life of faith for all the families with whom they come into contact. This is God’s plan to take a people and form them and use them to reach and bless all the families of the earth.
Knowing that Isaac was a “miracle baby” because of Sarah’s age and previous inability to conceive is a big part of the story. The stories involving Jacob show us all the twists and turns that the story can take in just one person. We see Jacob’s journey from scoundrel to one who wrestled with God and is transformed by all his experiences. Through God’s grace and persistence, Jacob is renamed Israel and takes his place in the story of the covenant.
The mention of Judah and his brothers speaks volumes. These are the twelve sons of Jacob who are forever remembered as the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Genesis focuses on Joseph more than any other son because of his role in the migration of God’s people to Egypt and saving them from famine. Judah, however, is the son whose tribe eventually emerges as the most prominent tribe in the story of God’s people—the land in which Jerusalem will be located. Also, it is Judah’s line from which Jesus will come after many generations.
How does the mention of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob help you recall the foundational stories of God’s people? What do you remember the most from this part of the story of the Covenant People?
The Women Mentioned in the Genealogy
Like many genealogies in the Bible, the focus is on the fathers, the “patriarchs.” So, when mothers are mentioned, as they are in several places in the genealogy, it is particularly noteworthy. The first of these women is Tamar. The story of how Perez was born to Judah by Tamar is found in Genesis 38.
3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Before Perez came, Judah and Shua gave birth to three sons: Er, then Onan, then Shelah. Tamar first enters the story as Judah’s daughter-in-law after being married to the eldest son of Judah, Er. Er did what was wicked in God’s sight, and died. Judah told the next eldest son, Onan, to marry his brother’s widow, Tamar, and when Onan refused, Onan died. Judah intended for the third son in line, Shelah, to be married to Tamar, but Shelah was not old enough yet to become a father.
Judah worried that history might repeat itself and put Tamar in a kind of exile until Shelah was old enough to marry, as if Tamar had something to do with the death of his first two sons. When Shelah got old enough, Judah seemed to have forgotten about Tamar, which left Tamar unmarried and vulnerable in terms of her welfare. Tamar felt forced to take matters into her own hands and took off her widow’s garments and stood at a certain street corner with her face veiled.
Judah, thinking her to be a prostitute, propositioned Tamar, not knowing who she was. Before Tamar consented, she required payment. He promised to give her a goat from his flock. Tamar required a pledge until the goat could be delivered. She asked specifically for Judah’s signet, cord, and staff. He consented, and after they had relations, they parted ways with Judah never knowing the woman was Tamar. Tamar went back to wearing her widow’s garments. When Judah sent the promised goat by his servant, the servant could not determine where it was to be delivered because no one knew who this prostitute would have been.
Three months later, it became known that Tamar was pregnant, which had been her goal in order to guarantee her welfare, since she had been forgotten. Word got back to Judah, however, that his daughter-in-law, Tamar, had become a prostitute and had gotten pregnant. He ordered that Tamar be burned not thinking for a moment that he had anything to do with it. When Tamar was being brought out, she produced Judah’s signet, cord, and staff and said that their owner was the one who made her pregnant. Producing these items saved her life. Judah realized those items had belonged to him and acknowledged that he was the one who made Tamar pregnant. Judah also acknowledged that he had put Tamar in the position to do what she did. He said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”
We might question why Tamar had to be mentioned at all in this genealogy since the patriarchal lineage of Jesus seems to be its overall focus. Matthew’s genealogy seems quite willing to expose the parts of Jesus’ family tree that appear to be touched by scandal. Tamar used deception, but Judah admitted that she was more in the right because his negligence and abandonment of Tamar forced her to do what she did. The scandal was on Judah. Perhaps the lesson in the mention of Tamar is that God’s mission has unfolded undeterred despite occasional scandals along the way. What could be construed as potential detours along the way were never detours at all because God’s mission is intended to be redemptive in nature from beginning to end. It involves people who are far from perfect. The scandalous parts along the way remind us of this.
5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.
The mention of Rahab and Ruth among Jesus’ ancestors is also notable. Rahab was none other than the Canaanite prostitute in Jericho who saved the lives of Joshua’s two spies by hiding them on her roof. The king of Jericho and his men knew the men had entered her house, but Rahab lied to the king and told him that she did not know who they were and that they had already left. After the king and his men left, she went to the two men she was hiding and told them that the reputation of their Lord had preceded them. She believed that the Lord of the Israelites was the one true God of heaven and earth, and her people knew they did not stand a chance. She promised to help them escape and keep their visit a secret in exchange for sparing the lives of her and her family. They made a promise to her and worked out a plan. When the Israelites came to bring down Jericho, they fulfilled their promise to Rahab and her family.
Matthew’s genealogy provides us with an important postscript to the story of Rahab. The Canaanite woman, Rahab, left her former occupation and eventually married into God’s people. She married Salmon and they became the parents of Boaz. We learned about Boaz a couple of lessons ago in the story of Ruth. We learned how Boaz fell in love with Ruth, the Moabite woman who had so unselfishly devoted herself to her mother-in-law Naomi and Naomi’s God. In this way, Ruth also was incorporated into God’s people. Little did either Rahab or Ruth, both foreigners, know that from their line would come King David just a few generations after them.
What is most notable to you about the stories of Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth and their inclusion in the line that led to David and eventually led to Jesus? What significance does this lend to the story of humankind’s redemption? What do you think the inclusion of these women said to the New Testament Church?
King David and the Promise God Made to Him
We know that the opening verse of Matthew’s gospel proclaims Jesus to be the Son of David. Additionally, the way that the genealogy is structured also gives David a prominent place in the list of the generations. This is partly due to David’s faith. We looked at a profile in faith in the life of David in the last lesson—when his faith in God gave him the courage to take on Goliath and slay him. There are numerous other stories that show us David’s passionate devotion to God.
We should remember, however, that the greatness of David did not come from David himself. After all, David was far from perfect. The greatness of David comes mostly from the great promise that God made to David in 2 Samuel 7.
12 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”
The offspring of David mentioned in God’s promise was David’s son, Solomon. It is the last line in the passage just quoted that should receive our greatest attention. God was making the promise that David’s throne was to be established forever.
Why do you think God would make such a promise? What is the significance of an everlasting reign? What connections do you think God was making to God’s own eternal reign? Why would God make such a connection between God’s own reign and the reign of David and his line?
From David to the Exile
The genealogy takes a turn in this grouping of generations from David to the Exile. This part of the genealogy reveals the royal line among Jesus’ ancestors when God’s people were ruled by kings.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
Notice that Matthew’s genealogy makes the astounding choice to mention that Solomon came from the union of David and “the wife of Uriah.” David had Uriah killed by having him put on the front line in battle, all to cover up David’s affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. As we have already discovered, Matthew’s genealogy is not afraid to air Israel’s “dirty laundry.”
History tells us in 1 Kings 11 that Solomon, for all his wisdom, committed the sin of apostasy by worshiping the gods of the foreign women he married. In the next generation, the foolish grandstanding of Solomon’s son Rehoboam resulted in the division of the kingdom and the loss of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Rehoboam and his descendants served as the kings of the southern kingdom, Judah.
The Old Testament gives us a report on each of these kings and whether they did what was good or evil in the sight of the Lord, and those who did what was evil outnumber the ones who did good. The evil that the kings did was to worship idols. The good kings were those who were remembered for having “walked in the way of their father David.” Despite David’s shortcomings, his steadfast faith and passionate devotion to God was the standard by which other kings were measured.
Two of the good kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, deserve special mention because they were reformers during their reigns. They tore down the worship centers devoted to idol worship and helped bring God’s people back into a faithful relationship with God. Unfortunately, the reigns of the kings who followed them did not walk in their way. In Matthew’s genealogy, it was not necessary to reiterate the record of each king, because everyone would remember that these generations led eventually to the deportation of God’s people into a 70-year exile in Babylon.
The deportation of God’s people marks the end of their existence as an independent, sovereign nation
. Jewish independence ended when they were conquered by the Babylonian army. Although they did not remain under Babylonian rule after the Exile, they remained under the rule of subsequent empires, including the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, in that order. During this time, they were granted very limited self-rule, but they had to uphold their allegiance to the ruling empire. All this means that, after the deportation, David’s royal dynasty came to an end, though his descendants continued.
From the Deportation to Jesus
Although the existence of God’s people as an independent, sovereign nation ended with the deportation, it is important to remember that they will continue to exist as a people after the deportation. So, Israel’s story will continue. The generations will continue. The descendants will continue to be listed, but they no longer represent a royal dynasty. We know that their listing is very important because they provide the links between David and Jesus.
Before we move on, let’s ponder a question. What about God’s promise that David’s kingdom and throne would be established forever? This is no doubt a question God’s people would ponder. When David knew his time on earth was ending, he sat down with his son Solomon and reminded him of the promise. The Lord had said to David,
“If your heirs take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.” (1 Kings 2:4) In other words, there was a conditional nature to this promise. God’s people had clearly not upheld their side of the covenant. They had not remained faithful.
Yet, God’s people knew that God remains faithful even when we are not faithful. They believed that somehow God would raise up God’s anointed One. They were not wrong to think this way. They kept their hope alive in their belief in a coming Messiah or Christ. The prophets, speaking for God, kept this hope alive. Think of this as we recall the generations between the deportation and Jesus.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
This group of Jesus’ ancestors takes us through the years of exile, through the years of the return of God’s people to their homeland from exile, and through the years of rebuilding from the ruins of Judea and Jerusalem. David’s descendant, Zerubbabel, played a significant role in the rebuilding and restoration of God’s people as a provincial governor. The descendants after Zerubabel until Joseph cover the silent period between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament.
One of the features that stands out in this part of the genealogy is the difference between the genealogy in Matthew and the one in Luke. Most notably, the genealogy in Matthew proceeds from David through Solomon, and in Luke, it proceeds through David’s son, Nathan. Perhaps, this can best be explained by the fact that Matthew emphasizes Joseph’s line and Luke seems to emphasize Mary’s line, just as Matthew emphasizes Joseph’s role in the nativity of Jesus, and Luke emphasizes Mary’s role.
Why would Matthew emphasize Joseph’s place in the genealogy, when Joseph was the adoptive father of Jesus and not his biological father? Perhaps this was Matthew’s tribute to Joseph and the fatherly role he could have chosen not to fulfill but lovingly decided to fulfill. Perhaps it was because Joseph’s line traces back to the royal lineage that proceeded from David, unlike the line traced in Luke’s genealogy. Jesus’ connection to David through the kings of Judah is something Matthew would want to emphasize to show us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant made first to Abraham and then to David.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Reflect on the beautiful way that Matthew makes his case in this genealogy: Jesus is the Son of David and the Son Abraham. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus is the Christ. In a very succinct way Matthew begins his gospel showing that Israel’s story culminates in the story of Jesus and the New Testament Church. The Church fathers who put together the New Testament canon put Matthew’s gospel first in the order because Matthew’s genealogy really is the most fitting way to begin the gospel of Jesus.
As you reflect on how far we have come in this genealogy, what themes stand out to you the most? How do you sense Old Testament longings being fulfilled in the coming of Christ in the New Testament? What newfound connections do you make through this genealogy between Christ and Abraham or David or any of the others mentioned in the list? What do you think of Matthew’s choice to begin the gospel of Jesus in this way?
Prayer
God of the ages, who has authored the grand story of our redemption from generation to generation, help us to prepare in this Advent Season to receive the news of the birth of the Christ anew, that we may give more of ourselves to more of Christ that we come to understand, through Christ our Lord, who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever, Amen.
Dr. Jay Harris serves as the Superintendent of Clergy and District Services for the South Georgia Conference. Email him at jharris@sgaumc.com. Find his plot-driven guide to reading the Bible, the “Layered Bible Journey,” at www.layeredbiblejourney.com.
