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The Bible is God’s speaking. It has two sections. In the first section, the Old Testament, God spoke by the prophets, and in the second section, the New Testament, He spoke in the Son (in the Person of the Son, Heb. 1:1-2). This section is composed of the four Gospels, the book of Acts, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation. While He was in the flesh, the Son began to speak in the four Gospels. After His resurrection, He continued to speak as the Spirit through the Apostles (see John 16:12-14). Thus, the New Testament is just the Son’s speaking to us, His ministering Himself as life and everything that we may become His Body, His expression, the church.
The Bible is a book of life. This life is nothing less than the living Person of Christ. In the Old Testament Christ is portrayed as the coming One. In the New Testament, the One whose coming was predicted has come. Thus, the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old. St. Augustine once said that the New Testament is contained in the Old, and the Old Testament is expressed in the New. These two testaments are actually one, revealing one Person who is our life.
Nearly all Christians are bothered by the first page of the New Testament. It has many names that are difficult to pronounce. But this page is the first part of the New Testament. In any kind of writing, both the opening word and the closing word are important. When many Christians come to the New Testament, they skip over the first part of chapter one of Matthew and start reading at verse 18. It seems that in their New Testament there is no such paragraph as Matthew 1:1-17. But thank God for this rich portion of the Word! This genealogy of Christ is an abstract of the whole Old Testament. It includes everything except the first ten and a half chapters of Genesis. If we would know the meaning of this genealogy, we need to know the entire Old Testament.
We need to say a word concerning the New Testament. The New Testament is simply a living picture of a Person. This Person is too wonderful. He is both God and man. He is the mingling of God with man, for in Him the divine nature and the human nature are mingled together. He is the King, and He is a bondslave. He is wonderful!
No human being has ever spoken words like He spoke, words so profound, yet so clear. For example, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), and, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Plato and Confucius were two great philosophers, and people appreciated the things they said, but neither of them could say, “I am the light of the world.” No one else could say, “I am the life,” or, “I am the way,” or, “I am the reality” (John 14:6). These are simple words and short sentences — “I am,” “I am what I am,” and “I am that I am” — but they are great and profound. Can any of us say that we are the light of the world or that we are the life? If we did, we would surely be sent to a mental hospital. But Jesus could say these things. How great He is!
Jesus is all-inclusive. With Him there are many aspects. No one can exhaust in language who and what He is. Who else in history has four unique biographies written of him? Although the New Testament is a short book, it begins with four biographies of one Person, four books telling us of the life of Christ.
Each of us has four sides: the front and the back, the right and the left. If you look at me from the front, you can see seven holes on my face. But if I turn my back to you, all the holes disappear. On my right side you can see a little hole, and on my left side, another little hole. If you would make an accurate copy of my image, you need to take a picture of every side. This is exactly what has been done in the New Testament.
Why do we have four Gospels? Because Christ has at least four main aspects. Christ is great! Because He is all-inclusive and unsearchably rich, He needs several biographies. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present different aspects of Christ because each writer was a different kind of person. Matthew, for instance, was a tax collector. Among the Jewish people in ancient times, a tax collector was a despised person. Nevertheless, Matthew wrote the first biography of Christ. Mark was an ordinary man, and Luke was a physician and a Gentile. At first, John was a common fisherman, but eventually he became the very aged, experienced apostle. Each wrote a different biography about the same Christ. This living Person needs many biographies.
The book of Acts is the expansion of this wonderful Person. It is the branching out of the all-inclusive Christ. This Christ has expanded from one Person to thousands and thousands of persons. He was once the individual Christ, but in Acts He has become a corporate Christ. Following the Acts, we have all the Epistles, which give a full definition of this wonderful, universal, great Man. Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body: this is the universal Man, Christ and the church. Finally, we have the book of Revelation as the consummation of the New Testament. This book gives us a full picture of the Body-Christ, the individual Christ incorporated with all His members to become the New Jerusalem.
Let us return to the four Gospels. If I were to arrange the four Gospels, I would put the Gospel of John first. When reading the Bible, many Christians start with John and then proceed to read Luke, Mark, and Matthew. The human concept is the exact opposite of the divine. The divine concept starts with Matthew and proceeds through John; the human thought starts with John and goes back to Matthew. Many of us would begin reading the New Testament with John because John is so wonderful. It is a book of life. After John, we would read Luke because Luke is a book of the Savior, telling us of many cases of salvation. Then, of course, we would come to Mark because Mark is short and simple. People read Matthew last because Matthew is too difficult, too mysterious. Not only is chapter one difficult to understand; the parables in chapter thirteen and the prophecies in chapters twenty-four and twenty-five are also difficult. Chapters five, six, and seven, the Sermon on the Mount, are especially difficult. No one can practice it! You strike me on the right cheek, and I turn to you the left. You force me to walk one mile, and I walk two miles. You take my outer garment, and I give you my inner garment. This is too much! Only Jesus can do it! Thus, many place Matthew last. John is dear and precious. In John, Jesus is everything, and we do not need to do anything. Hence, we like John, but not Matthew. We may not say this in plain words, but we have such a feeling in our heart. Nevertheless, the divine order is best. God put Matthew first.
With every book of the Bible we need a general sketch. The general sketch of Matthew is:
Christ is Jehovah God incarnated to be the King-Savior who came to establish the kingdom of the heavens (the heavenly rule) by saving His people from sin (of rebellion) through His death and resurrection.
With every book of the Bible we also need to find the central thought. The central thought of Matthew is:
Christ, as Jesus (Jehovah the Savior) and Emmanuel (God with us), is the King, the Baptizer, the light, the Teacher, the Healer, the Forgiver, the Bridegroom, the Shepherd, the Friend, the wisdom, the rest, the greater temple, the real David, the Lord of the Sabbath, the greater Jonah, the greater Solomon, the Sower, the seed, the Feeder, the bread, the crumbs under the table, the Christ, the Son of the living God, the rock for the church, the Builder of the church, the Founder of the kingdom, the present Moses, the present Elijah, the Head of the corner, the Lord, the resurrected One, the One with authority, and the One ever-present to His people in resurrection.
How rich Christ is in the book of Matthew, even richer than in John. As Jesus and Emmanuel He is another thirty-three items to us. We must enjoy Him and partake of Him. We need to experience Him in all these aspects in resurrection, not in the natural state. He is the ever-present One. Matthew begins with “God with us” and ends with “Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the completion of the age.” How wonderful this is!
Among the four Gospels only two, Matthew and Luke, have genealogies. Matthew tells us that Jesus is the proper descendant of the royal family, that He is the legal heir of the royal throne. Such a person surely needs a genealogy telling of His origin and descent. Luke presents Jesus as a proper, normal man. To show Jesus as a proper man also requires a genealogy. In Mark, Jesus is pictured as a bondslave, as one sold into slavery. A bondslave has no need of a genealogy; hence, Mark does not include one. John tells us that Jesus is God. “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God.” With Him there was no beginning, no descent. He is eternal, with no beginning of life nor end of life (Heb. 7:3). In the beginning was God! For John to talk about His genealogy would be ridiculous.
With anybody else, no matter who he is or how many biographies people write about him, the genealogy will be exactly the same. But Jesus has two genealogies. Later on we shall see how these genealogies eventually become one. Once again we see that He is wonderful. In every aspect, He is too wonderful.
Now we come to the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. We need to realize who Jesus is. Who is Jesus? We may answer by saying that He is the Son of God, but this genealogy does not have such a term. Rather, it calls Him the son of David and the son of Abraham. Because Jesus is so wonderful, it is difficult to say who He is.
Jesus is the mingling of God with man, the mingling of divinity with humanity. This is the generation of Jesus. The generation of Jesus means that He is the mingling, the wonderful mingling. In this generation we have the mingling of the divine Being with so many human beings, with all kinds of people. We should no longer think that Matthew 1:1-17 is just a list of names.
The generation of Christ is composed of:
These are the forefathers, the great persons. All together they make up fourteen generations (1:2-6a).
These are the kings, the royalty, who also make up fourteen generations (1:6b-10).
The generation of Christ not only includes the highranking people, but also the civilians, the insignificant ones, like Mary and Joseph. The poor people, the little people, are also included in the generation of Christ. Christ was ranked not only with the patriarchs and with the kings, but also with a group of civilians. He was not only of the great ones, of the royal ones, but also of the little ones. From this picture of the generation of Christ, we can see that it includes all kinds of people.
This generation includes both the called ones, like Abraham, and the ones carried away to captivity. In this brief record we have the words “carrying away” (v. 17). Abraham was called out of Babel, the origin of Babylon. The generation of Christ includes not only the called ones, but also the backsliders. Perhaps five years ago you were a called one, but today you are a backslider. Do not be disappointed. The generation of Christ includes you. This generation includes Jeconiah, a king who was dethroned and carried away to Babylon as a captive. Have you ever been dethroned? Do not think you have not. In your Christian life you sometimes have been dethroned. Once you were a king, but you lost your kingship and became a backslider. Our forefather Abraham came from Babylon; yet you went back, not willingly, but were carried back. Praise the Lord that the generation of Christ includes even the fallen ones!
After captivity there was the recovery. Hence, we have another name, Zerubbabel, the name of recovery. Many captives returned with Zerubbabel. The generation of Christ includes all kinds of people: good ones, bad ones, called ones, fallen ones, and recovered ones. If I were to ask you which kind you are, you may say that firstly you were a called one, then a fallen one, and finally a recovered one. You were an Abraham, you became a Jeconiah, but today you are a Zerubbabel. We are all Zerubbabels. We are the called ones, the fallen ones, and the recovered ones.
According to Jewish custom, a writer of a genealogy would never include a female name; he would include only the names of males. But in this brief genealogy five women are mentioned. These five women are like the fingers of my hand: four form one group and the other one stands alone. Four of these five women were remarried, and one of the four was a harlot. It seems that the divine record here would not mention the good ones, such as Sarah or Rebekah, but the bad ones. Listen to the divine record: “David begot Solomon of the wife of Uriah” (1:6). The record does not even give her name; it gives only her history in order to remind us of what kind of person she was.
Do you know the history of Tamar? She was the daughter-in-law of Judah. Judah begot twins of his daughter-in-law (Gen. 38:24-30). How terrible! The second woman named is Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, and the third, Ruth, a Moabitess. The Moabites were not allowed to enter the congregation of the Lord even to their tenth generation (Deut. 23:3). The Moabites are descendants of Moab, who was born of Lot with his daughter. The fourth woman was Bathsheba, the wife of a Canaanite named Uriah whom David murdered. David took her to be his wife, and with her he begot Solomon.
Why does this brief record mention all these women? It is because they are our representatives. Do not think you are so pure, that you are more pure than these women. Trace your own origin. If you do, you will find out by what way and of whom your grandfather was born, by what way and of whom your father was born, and by what way and of whom you were born. We are worse. But the worst ones are included in the generation of Christ! Praise the Lord! He is truly the Savior of sinners.
The number four signifies all the creatures, including the entire human race. Humanity is dirty; no one is clean. But, thank the Lord, we are all associated with Christ. We are part of the generation of Christ.
If we were to write a biography of Christ and there were no biographies of Him in the Bible, we would not dare to write it this way. We would hide all these impure grandmothers and give the names of the good grandmothers, such as Sarah and Rebekah. But the Holy Spirit did not mention Sarah, Rebekah, and all the good ones; however, He purposely included these impure ones. If this divine record had listed the names of the good women without the names of the impure ones, I would be in doubt about the present situation of the church. I would say, “Look at today’s situation in the church. Not many are very pure.” Do not think that you are so pure, so clean. We are not pure. Nevertheless, the generation of Christ includes both good ones and bad ones. In fact, it includes more bad ones than good ones.
Besides the four remarried women, a virgin stands out: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary was good, pure, and clean. This indicates that everyone mentioned in this book of generation is a sinner except Jesus. With the exception of Jesus, all are unclean.
Christ is the son of David (Matt. 22:42, 45; Rev. 22:16). Solomon, the son of David, was a type of Christ in three main aspects. First, he was a type of Christ inheriting the kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12b, 13; Jer. 23:5; Luke 1:32-33). Second, Solomon had wisdom and spoke the word of wisdom. In Matthew 12 we see that Christ also had wisdom and spoke the word of wisdom. In this chapter Christ referred to Himself as the greater Solomon (v. 42). A greater than Solomon was there, and He spoke words of wisdom. No human words are as wise as the words of Christ. Third, Solomon built the temple of God (2 Sam. 7:13). As the son of David, Christ builds up God’s temple, the church.
Christ is also the son of Abraham. This book of generation says only that Christ is the son of David and the son of Abraham, not the son of any one else. In the Old Testament there was a clear prophecy that Christ would be the son of Abraham. Isaac was a type of Christ. With Isaac as a type of Christ there were also three main aspects. First, Isaac brought the blessing to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles (Gen. 22:18a; 14, Gal. 3:16). Second, he was offered to God unto death and was resurrected (Gen. 22:1-12; Heb. 11:17, 19). Third, he received the bride (Gen. 24:67). This is a type of Christ as the promised One who brought the blessing to all nations, who was also offered to death, who was resurrected, and who, after His resurrection, will receive His Bride (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7). One day the Holy Spirit, typified by Abraham’s servant, will bring the spiritual, divine, heavenly Rebekah to her heavenly Isaac.
The son of Abraham received the bride, and the son of David built up the temple. With Christ, the Bride is the temple, and the temple is the Bride. This is why it says that Christ is the son of Abraham and the son of David. He offered Himself unto death and was resurrected, now He is building God’s temple, and in the future He will receive the Bride. Christ also spoke wisdom and brought God’s blessing to all nations. He is the One to fulfill all of these things. In the four Gospels we can find each of these six aspects. The Gospels reveal that Christ came to inherit the kingdom, that He offered Himself unto death and He was resurrected, that He spoke the word of wisdom, that He brought blessing to all people, that He is building up God’s house, and that He will come to receive the Bride. Christ is surely the real Isaac and the real Solomon.
As the son of David, Jesus was a great blessing to the Jews. But as the son of Abraham, He brings blessing to all the Gentiles. As the son of David, He is for the Jews; as the son of Abraham, He is for us all. If Jesus were only the son of David, He would have nothing to do with me. Praise the Lord that He is also the son of Abraham! All nations are blessed in Abraham’s seed, which is Christ. This blessing is the participation in the Triune God. The blessing which God promised to Abraham was the Spirit (Gal. 3:14), and the Spirit is the ultimate realization of the Triune God. By Christ as the son of Abraham, we have the Spirit, and we share in the Triune God. Hallelujah!
