Matthew: Part 1Sample

You may have looked at this long list of names and thought, “that’s a boring way to start a book”. 

It’s not the most exciting thing to read, I get it.

But, the Bible wasn’t originally written to us. So, we have to ask:  who was Matthew writing to?

Matthew was writing to Jewish people to help them understand that Jesus was the Messiah—the rescuer who had been promised all throughout the Old Testament. 

 When Matthew starts off by saying Jesus was a descendant of David and Abraham, he was reminding people of some promises God made. 

God promised Abraham that, through his descendants, “all the nations of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis 22:17-18).

He promised David that one of his descendants would have a kingdom that never ends (2 Samuel 7:12-16). 

The Jewish people knew these promises and looked forward to the day when God would send this Messiah, this rescuer, to them. What this genealogy, or list of names, does is show that Jesus is the guy they’d all been waiting for. 

God always keeps his promises. 

What is a promise God has made to you in the Bible? Write it down somewhere so you don’t forget it. And remember, God always keeps his promises.