Matthew -- Day 1

This week we are popping up to the New Testament to give us a balance between the old and new covenants. Matthew has 28 chapters, so that would give us 5-6 chapters per day if we try to finish it all by Friday. Matthew's chapters are quite long, so I'll try to pull out some key chapters for us.

Today, read chapters 1-4. This covers the time from the birth of Jesus until he's called the first disciples.

Today's devotion: Mt 1:1-17

1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
7Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud,
15Eliud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (NIV)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

Ok, I know, you think I must be crazy to have you read a genealogy! Hey, at least it's in the NIV, so you don't have to worry about all the 'begets'!

While genealogies can be rather boring (and hard to pronounce), it is fascinating to see the characters who were part of Christ's lineage. How many names do you recognize from our Old Testament study so far? A few of the key ones:

Abraham -- father of the Jewish race

Isaac -- the promised one that Sarai couldn't wait for

Jacob -- the one who stole his brother's birthright

Judah -- who sold his brother Joseph to a band of gypsies

Tamar -- who tricked her father-in-law, Judah, into making her pregnant

Rahab -- the prostitute in Jericho, mother of Boaz

Ruth -- the Moabite who followed her mother-in-law back to Israel

David -- the king who sinned with Bathsheba

Solomon -- the wisest, yet he kept many wives and concubines despite God's warnings


In addition, many of the most evil kings in Judean history are included on that list!

Yet from this line of losers came the King of all Kings, our Lord and our salvation.

It is so encouraging to me that God uses real, flawed human beings to do his will. He doesn't want us to be perfect, but he will use our imperfection to achieve great and wonderful things. Even today, he calls on those of us who are weak, selfish, and stained by sin to show his amazing love to others. And he loves us more than we can comprehend... regardless of how we act. Isn't that amazing?