Joy to the World

In previous blog posts, I began telling the story of my brain tumor and the depression which followed it. The second article in the series described my faith in God which sustained me through both trials.

Having recently started a word-by-word translation of Martin Luther’s Bible from German to English, I introduced the project and Matthew Chapter 1. Here is my commentary on the verses 1-17; my church background and theological training is added to my Patch bio.

This article was also a gift to a Catholic friend who was traveling on business for several months in a Middle Eastern country where there is no freedom of religion. Maybe he found an expatriate community worship service, but there is nothing like the open forum we enjoy in America where people are free to choose or ignore religions of many flavors.

Unlike North Korea, which recently staged internet access for Google executives (in 2012 they finally learned of John Lennon’s death), my friend could at least visit the internet. I hope he enjoyed this with the links to the worship music.

Music Prepares Hearts for Worship of the Living God

Knowing a lot of good hymns helped sustain me during my illnesses. Solid theology in the words resonates with the mind and the music connects with the soul. Click on the links to listen to the music as you read the article.

Old hymns of Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Fanny Crosby and others, plus new songs like those linked here. The one I’d pick for opening worship for Matthew Chapter 1 is “By Faith” by the Gettys since it describes the faith of Old and New Covenant believers in God.

The first verse opens with Creation: “By faith we see the hand of God, in the light of Creation’s grand design, in the lives of those who prove His faithfulness, who walk by faith and not by sight.”

Origin Stories - Where we Came From

Stories of origins are popular nowadays. People want to know where Batman and Superman came from. The Hobbits, Sleeping Beauty are other stories that grab us. They are fictional, however (as some consider parts of the Bible to be). Christians believe it is firmly grounded in history, with real people who lived in real places, backed up by historical records. Here are the Kingly origins of Joseph (the scepter will not depart from Judah), the adoptive father of Jesus of Nazareth, born of a virgin who had never been with a man before:

Jesus’ Family Tree - Martin Luther’s text

“This is the book of the history of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah and his brothers.

“Judah procreated Perez and Zerah with Tamar. Perez procreated Hezron. Hezron procreated Ram. Ram generated Amminadab. Amminadab generated Nahshon. Nahshon generated Salmon.

“Salmon produced Boaz with Rahab. Boaz produced Obed with Ruth. Obed produced Jesse.

“Jesse created the King David. David created Solomon with the wife of Uriah.

“Solomon begat Rehoboam. Rehoboam begat Abijah. Abijah begat Asa. Asa procreated Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat procreated Joram. Joram procreated Uzziah.

“Uzziah generated Jotham. Jotham generated Ahaz. Ahaz generated Hezekiah.

“Hezekiah produced Manasseh. Manasseh produced Amon. Amon produced Josiah.

“Josiah created Jeconiah and his brothers around the time of the Babylonian captivity. After the Babylonian imprisonment, Jeconiah begat Shealtiel. Shealtiel begat Zerubbabel.

“Zerubbabel procreated Abiud. Abiud procreated Eliakim. Eliakim procreated Azor. Azor generated Zadok. Zadok generated Akim. Akim generated Eliud. Eliud produced Eleazar. Eleazar produced Matthan. Matthan produced Jacob.

“Jacob created Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who then was called Christ.

“All the limbs from Abraham up to David are fourteen members. From David up to the Babylonian internment are fourteen limbs. From the Babylonian confinement up to Christ are fourteen members.”

Commentary

Many people skip over Matthew 1:1-17 as boring and irrelevant. With limited parchment, Matthew packs it with meaning for his mainly Jewish readers and us. It’s his summary of the entire Old Testament and the Kingly rights of Jesus the Messiah according to the lineage of His earthly adoptive father Joseph.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and that through him all families of the earth would be blessed. This covenant has been fulfilled partially and will be completed eventually, like all of God’s promises.

Around twenty years later this old man did become the father of many nations (the descendents of Ishmael and Isaac – the promised child from a barren wife past childbearing years) and through his seed the earth has certainly been blessed with scientific discoveries and humanitarian advances. All people, believers in God or not, are created in His image and reflect partially His glory.

Women in the Geneaology

Matthew is establishing the right of Jesus to be the Messiah according to the flesh. With limited space, sometimes an entire life was expressed in three words. Some might say it is sexist since only four women are mentioned. Note however, that each of the four women point to a greater issue: either a man’s sin, or a greater truth. No skeletons are hidden in the closet.

Tamar – “More Righteous than Judah”

The story of Judah and Tamar shows the sin of Judah withholding his sons to make an heir for Tamar according to the marriage customs of his day, yet he was also the one who pled for his brother Joseph to be sold into slavery instead of murdered. Later he stayed in Benjamin’s place to spare his father Jacob the pain of losing the other son from his favorite wife.

Jacob’s messed up family (sibling rivalry and jealous wives) points to the wisdom of the original creation mandate for one man and one woman in marriage, and Judah’s self-sacrifice in staying behind points forward to the Good Shepherd Who would come from his line.

Rahab and Ruth – Foreigners Grafted in by Faith

How is it that a Canaanite prostitute is mentioned in the line of Christ? By faith she chose to obey God rather than men, giving shelter to the spies of the living God, allowing them to escape.

Later her son Boaz married another foreigner, Ruth the Moabitess. Ruth gets a whole book, showing that God loves all people regardless of ethnic background, especially those who believe in Him.

Moses was criticized for his foreign wife, a Cushite, the first interracial marriagerecorded in Scripture. By implication Noah and his wife had to have all the genes for the rainbow of skin, eye and hair colors we see, descended from Adam and Eve, probably the first interracial marriage.

King David’s Sin of Adultery – Leads to Murder

Not even the man after God’s own heart was without sin. In the spring when kings go off to war, he drifted and his eye was caught by the wife of another man. Bathsheba is not mentioned by name in the geneology, but David abused his power as king by seducing her and stealing her from one of his faithful soldiers.

Later when she became pregnant, he tried to have Uriah sleep with her to cover his sin. Uriah refused the comfort of his own bed when his fellow soldiers were in harm’s way, so David went from bad to worse and arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle. Later when he took Bathsheba as his wife he was confronted by the prophet Nathan; their love child died as a judgment from God.

Then David confessed his sin against God in Psalm 51 and was forgiven for adultery and murder. He was the greatest king of Israel and wrote many of the Psalms, including the famous Shepherd’s Psalm 23. The Messiah would come from David’s line, and the kingly scepter would not depart from Judah, as Jacob had prophesied when blessing his sons.

God’s Mercy and Glory Revealed in Human Frailty

The knots and scraggly branches in the Messiah’s family tree should help anyone feel accepted, yet point to their need for a Redeemer to meet God’s perfect standard. The wild olive branches grafted in to the cultivated tree should have made the Israelites realize that all people of faith were welcome, yet it’s understandable that they misinterpreted what God had planned.

They were, after all, more righteous than their pagan neighbors, who had some detestable practices like child sacrifices and rampant immorality in their cultures.

Andrew Peterson’s song describes the geneology in an upbeat way suitable for both children and adults.

The rest of the article with commentary on Matthew 1:18-25, the Virgin Birth and Jewish marriage customs can be found here.

Why Joy?

Though we live in an imperfect world which has fallen from the original intent, though there is conflict and war, Jesus Christ has won the victory for those who would place their faith in him for forgiveness of sins, reversing the curse of the Fall (Genesis 3).

Last Sunday our pastor shared a true story about Rev. Professor Murdo Ewen Macdonald, a Scottish theologian, paratrooper and POW who escaped from Stalag Luft III in World War II and was recaptured. You can read more about him and his amazing life here. Like some WWII vets, he began life in heaven this year.

Though the British soliders and Americans were separated in the POW camp, he was allowed to serve as chaplain to the Americans, since they didn’t have a chaplain. Once a day, he was allowed to communicate with the British chaplain over the wall.

The German guards knew English and French, but not Gaelic, so he shared war news from the radio the Americans had secretly built with his Scottish colleague. One day the happy news was that the German High Command had surrendered. Shouts of joy erupted from the British side when their chaplain returned. A new atmosphere pervaded the camp, as the soldiers knew they were free (but the guards didn’t get the news until four days later).

It’s like that for Christians: Jesus has won the victory over sin and death, and believers in Him can have true joy despite their circumstances. As we celebrate Advent (His first coming), we wait for His return with joy and can face death with confidence.