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Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:1-2, 6, 11, 16-18, 20-21, 23; 2:1-13, 16, 19-20, 22, 23
As we have seen, the kingdom is Christ Himself as the seed of life sown into us, growing in us, spreading in us, and maturing in us until there is a full harvest. The full harvest is the manifestation of the kingdom.
In the first chapter of the New Testament we have the record of a wonderful One, Christ, who is recommended to us as the seed of the kingdom. We need a deeper understanding concerning this seed of the kingdom. You may say that the seed of the kingdom is the Lord Jesus, yet your understanding of who He really is may be quite superficial.
It is easy to read the black and white letters of the Bible. It is also easy to gather some meaning or impression from reading in this way. However, to read the words of the Bible is one thing, but to see the spiritual significance is another. For example, when the Pharisees argued with the Lord Jesus about divorce, even using the Scriptures, He replied in a very unusual way. He said, “From the beginning it has not been so” (Matt. 19:8). On another occasion, the Sadducees argued with the Lord Jesus about the resurrection. They were the modernists of that day who did not believe in the resurrection. They quoted some verses from the Bible, and the Lord Jesus also quoted a verse (22:23-33). He spoke of the title of God from Exodus 3:6: “I am...the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” If we read only the black and white letters, we will understand that God is the God of these three: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even elementary students can read and understand that. But the Lord Jesus unveiled something of life and resurrection from this title of God! Since God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all three are dead, and since God is a God of the living and not of the dead, God must surely be the God of resurrection! By this the Lord Jesus also proved that all these dead saints will be resurrected. Such a spiritual revelation is contained in the black and white letters, but we cannot see it simply by the letters; we need something more. We need a spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17).
In one sense, it is easy to read chapter 1 of Matthew. This is the genealogy of “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” It is not difficult to understand that these were the forefathers of the Lord Jesus and that Mary was His mother. But what we need concerning this chapter is revelation! In order to know the kingdom we must know the seed of the kingdom. What is this seed? You may say that the seed is the Lord Jesus, but what is He? I do not ask who the Lord Jesus is but what He is. We need something far beyond a mere doctrinal answer. We need revelation to see that the Lord Jesus is the issue of so many human generations mingled with divinity. The One who came out of the mingling of so many human generations with the Triune God is called Jesus and Emmanuel (vv. 21, 23).
Forty-two generations are included in this genealogy. These are divided into three sections of fourteen each. The first section begins with Abraham and proceeds to David the man. The second section begins with David the king. So David is counted as two generations — one as a man to conclude the first section, and the second as a king to begin the second section. The third section includes the time of captivity to the birth of Jesus Christ. These forty-two generations are very meaningful.
The first section is the section of ordinary human beings. Abraham was an ordinary person, as was Jacob, and even the man David. The second section is the section of the kings, the royal generations. King David begat King Solomon, and King Solomon begat another king, and on in succession, one king begetting another. The third section includes all the generations of captivity and the returned ones. Had there been no return from captivity, it would have been impossible for the Lord Jesus to have been born of the holy race in the city of Bethlehem, for almost the entire holy race had been dispersed throughout the Gentile world. This return from captivity afforded the Lord Jesus the opportunity to come to earth the first time. The coming of the Lord Jesus was the issue of all these human generations: the generations of the ordinary human beings, the generations of the kings, and the generations of the captured and returned ones.
The Lord Jesus is wonderful! He was the issue of Abraham, the real Isaac. Isaac was, in figure, put to death and resurrected, and he married Rebekah, who was a type of the church as the bride. The Lord Jesus was also the issue of David, that is, Solomon, who had such wisdom and who built the temple of God.
To understand the first seventeen verses of the New Testament, we need a full revelation of the entire Old Testament, for they actually give us an abstract of the entire Old Testament in capsule form. If we would cover these seventeen verses, we would have to cover the things from Genesis to Malachi.
The Lord Jesus was such an issue — the issue of Abraham, the issue of David, and also the issue of a woman, a virgin. There was a promise given to Abraham regarding his issue (Gen. 22:18) and a promise given to David about his issue (2 Sam. 7:12-13). There was also a promise concerning the issue of the woman (Gen. 3:15). This seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Out of forty-two generations these are only three: the issue of Abraham — Isaac — who was put to death and resurrected and whose coming back was to receive the bride; the issue of David — Solomon — who had wisdom and who built the temple of God; and the issue of the woman — Christ — who bruised the head of Satan. The Lord Jesus was such an issue.
The Lord Jesus was not born in a simple way but in a very meaningful way — as the issue of all kinds of human generations, from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through the kings, and then through the captured and returned ones. However, this is only one aspect of the Lord Jesus. Another aspect is the mingling with the Triune God. He was not only the issue of many generations of the human race, but He was also mingled with the Triune God. He was the issue of forty-one generations of humanity mingled with the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. According to the revelation of the Bible, the Father is in the Son (John 14:11), the Son is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and the Spirit is the application of the Triune God to the mingled humanity (13:14). When we have the Lord Jesus, we have everything. In this One we have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, and Mary. We also have the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. He was the issue of forty-one human generations mingled with the Triune God. It will take eternity for us to fully apprehend this matter. Only in eternity will we fully understand what the Lord Jesus is.
The Lord Jesus is not so low and so simple. He is much more than a Savior who had pity on poor sinners and saved them from hell. He is wonderful! We need to pray over chapter 1 of Matthew again in the light of all the history of the Old Testament. Then we will see what He is.
Jesus means “Jehovah-plus.” Jesus is not only Jehovah; He is Jehovah-plus. In Hebrew the name of Jehovah is included in the name of Jesus. Jesus means Jehovah plus “the Savior,” or plus “the salvation, the deliverance.” Jesus is Jehovah plus the all-inclusive salvation. Emmanuel means God “with us,” another plus. The Lord Jesus is not only God; He is God “with us.” We would tell our Jewish friends that we are richer than they. We have what they have, but they do not have what we have. They have Jehovah, and they have God; but we have Jehovah plus “salvation” and God plus “with us.” We would invite them to come and join us. They would have everything to gain and nothing to lose. We would never join them, because we have something richer, higher, better, and greater; this is the Lord Jesus. He, as the issue of all the human generations mingled with the Triune God, is Jehovah-plus and God-plus. From now on, surely you will have another taste when you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. His name is so rich, so sweet, and He is rich to all who call upon His name (Rom. 10:12). Hallelujah for Jesus! Hallelujah for Jehovah-plus! Hallelujah for Emmanuel! Hallelujah for God-plus! Jehovah-plus and God-plus is the seed which has been sown into us.
Now we come to the meaning of the number forty-two. In the Bible we have the number forty and also the number forty-two. By the revelation of the Scriptures, we understand that the number forty means trials, sufferings, testings, and temptations. There are many forties in the Bible. For forty years the people of Israel were in the wilderness being tested and tried by God, with a great deal of suffering. When Moses was on the mount for forty days, that was a testing for the people of Israel (Exo. 24:18). There was a period of forty days and nights related to Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), and the Lord Jesus Himself was tempted for forty days (Matt. 4:1-2). Following His resurrection, the Lord tested His disciples for forty days by doing nothing to vindicate Himself and nothing to prove to them that all authority in heaven and on the earth had been given to Him. If I had been Peter, I would not have had the patience to wait day after day, week after week, with nothing happening for thirty-nine days. Those forty days were a time of real testing. Clearly the number forty means testing, trials, temptations, and sufferings.
Forty-two, of course, is composed of forty plus two. Two is the number of witness, of testimony. Forty-two means that after the period of testing and trial something will be accomplished to fulfill God’s purpose. Hallelujah! From the time of Abraham to the birth of Joseph’s father was a period of forty generations, a period of testing. The promise of Abraham had not been fulfilled, nor the promise to David. Neither had the promises of so many good things to the children of Israel been fulfilled. These were generations of real testing.
However, after two more generations, the fulfillment was realized. The Lord Jesus came! He is God incarnated! He was not incarnated in the second generation of the human race, or the twentieth, or the fortieth. God did not count from Adam, the created race, but from the children of Abraham, the people of promise. There had been many promises, but God was not incarnated until the forty-second generation, the second generation after a long period of testing, trials, and even failures.
The record from Abraham to Malachi on the one hand is a record of all God’s promises. On the other hand it is a record of testings, defeats, disappointments, and failures. Surely we would have given up. We would have said that God made promises to our forefather Abraham forty generations ago, but nothing has happened. But now, at the forty-second generation God Himself was incarnated. The forty-second generation is the Lord Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s promises and God’s purpose, even the fulfillment of everything that God intended to do. Forty plus two means the sufferings and testings plus the fulfillment of God’s purpose. After forty-two generations everything pertaining to God’s purpose is fulfilled.
In Revelation 12:6 there are forty-two months, or three and a half years. The end of those forty-two months will be the completion of the great tribulation. At that completion the Lord Jesus will come again, and that will be the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
The forty-two generations in Matthew 1 are divided into three sections. Matthew 1:17 says that from Abraham to David is fourteen generations, from David the king to the captivity another fourteen generations, and from the captivity to the birth of Jesus Christ a third group of fourteen generations. The first fourteen generations are related mainly to God the Father; the second group, the kingly generations, are undoubtedly related to God the Son, who is the King; and the third group, which includes so many sufferings and experiences, is related to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Trinity is indicated in these forty-two generations, and the outcome, the issue, of all these generations is the Lord Jesus, the forty-second generation. He is the all-inclusive issue of these generations mingled with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So His name is Jehovah-plus and God-plus. To see this we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation. How wonderful our Lord Jesus is! Our human vocabulary is not adequate to describe Him. He is the issue of all the generations of the promised people mingled with the Triune God to be Jehovah-plus and God-plus.
This wonderful One is the seed. In this seed are death and resurrection. In this seed are the receiving of the bride, the wisdom, the building of the house of God, and the bruising of the serpent’s head. In this seed are the passing through of all the tests, temptations, sufferings, and eventually the reaching of the goal. In this seed are the human element and the divine element, humanity and divinity. Abraham and Isaac are included, and so are David and Solomon. The Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit are all included in the seed. This little seed is the all-inclusive wonderful One! What a Jesus is this very One in whom we believe. This Jesus, this wonderful One, is the seed of the kingdom. The New Testament is a book concerning the kingdom, and the first book presents the Lord Jesus as the seed. This seed is called Jehovah-plus and God-plus.
Chapter 2 shows us that this seed of the kingdom is the King. The Lord Jesus was accepted by Gentiles who had no religion, no Bible knowledge, no religious forms, no doctrines, and no teachings (vv. 1-2). Such a simple people accepted Him as a King. They did not know the Bible. It was to such a people — simple ones without any Bible knowledge or religious concepts and who did not even know how to worship and serve God — that Jesus, the wonderful person, was revealed. He was revealed to them and accepted by them.
The Lord Jesus, on the contrary, was neglected by the religious people. The chief priests and scribes were in the highest position among the religious people. They had knowledge; they knew the Scriptures and even knew where Christ was to be born. Yet none of them cared for Him. When they heard the news of His birth, no one went to Bethlehem to see Him. They just discussed Micah 5:2. Because of their indifference, they neglected the Lord Jesus.
Many religious people today are the same. In many cases, after the religious ones talk about Jesus in their services, they go their own way — some go fishing; others gamble or pursue their worldly pleasures. When one of my college classmates became a Christian, he and others began to have communion in his home on Sunday evenings. After their so-called communion, they turned the table cover over and used the same table for a gambling game. Among today’s Christians, many talk about the Lord Jesus, but very few care for Him. Their Jesus only belongs to the cathedral or the pulpit or the altar. When the religious service is over, the people do as they please. If you went into their wonderful cathedral to tell them what the Lord Jesus really is, they would be offended. They would say that you teach falsely because they never heard such teaching from their priests or pastors. Thus, Matthew 2 shows us the proper persons to accept the seed of the kingdom: not the religious ones with Bible knowledge but simple people who can receive the heavenly vision and to whom the heavenly star can appear.
Not only was this wonderful seed rejected by the religion, but He was also persecuted by politics. When King Herod learned of His birth, he was very troubled. He persecuted the Lord Jesus, destroying many young lives by his persecution (v. 16).
We must have revelation to understand the Bible. On the first page of the New Testament, we see what a wonderful One the Lord Jesus is as the seed of life for the kingdom. In the second chapter we are shown the proper persons to accept the Lord Jesus — not the religious people or the political people — but the ordinary, simple ones who have no Bible knowledge and no political ambition. If you have a dream of being influential in political circles, you are through as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned. Sooner or later you will persecute Him.
We must be simple people with a heavenly star. We may know nothing about the prophecy in Micah 5:2, but we do have the “heavenly star,” the living guidance of the living One in us. This is wonderful! What shall we do? We simply offer our all to Him, and we take another way (Matt. 2:12). This means that we can never be the same. Anyone who will be simple and follow the heavenly star to accept the Lord Jesus will certainly take another way. After reading these pages, many of you will take another way. No longer will you be politicians or religious people. You will be simple people with a heavenly star, people who take another way. These are the kingdom people. These are the people who accept Christ. Christ is accepted only by such ones. In chapter 2 of Matthew we have three kinds of people: the simple heathen, the religious people, and the political leaders. Let us be those simple ones who can receive Christ!
Matthew 2 reveals that this wonderful One can only be accepted and received by the simple ones who have nothing to do with religion or politics. The religionists neglect Him; the politicians reject and persecute Him. However, the simple ones receive Him. Eventually, this wonderful person became a lowly Nazarene (v. 23). At the end of chapter 1, He is called Emmanuel; at the end of chapter 2, He is called a Nazarene, meaning He is little, despised, and without fame. Our Emmanuel is a Nazarene. To the world, to the politicians, and to the religious people, the Lord Jesus is a Nazarene. But to us, He is Jehovah-plus and God-plus.
