I was totally wiped out with the last study. 90 minutes is a long time and entertained a massive amount of information to digest. How exciting it was to delve into God's Word. I love to read and study and what better book for this perpetual student to study, with contemporary Christian music playing in the background. It's a beautiful day to write about what I've learned.
I'd like to add that I've been thinking about the writing styles of the gospels. 3 were educated men, but John's writing seems to be more refined than the others. Maybe Mary saw to it that, as his appointed mother, he got an education or had the opportunity to study under Mark who was a Levite.
The first chapter of Matthew is the genealogy of Jesus, traced thru His earthly father, Joseph. Matthew is the only one who traces the lineage of Jesus thru Joseph. Luke gives us Christ's genealogy thru Mary's side of the family. Mark and John don't mention His lineage but concentrated on His teaching during His time on earth.
Jesus's lineage was traced all the way back to Abraham in the Old Testament. Then came Isaac, Jacob, many generations of names I've never heard of, Jesse, David, Solomon (the son of David and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, whom David had killed because he desired his wife), more generations of names I've never heard mentioned, Jacob and finally Joseph.
Matthew numbers the time from Abraham to David as 14 generations, from David to the enslavement of the Israelites by Babylonia as 14 generations, then 14 generations of enslavement until the birth of Jesus.
The lineage of Jesus begins with the father of the nation of Israel, Father Abraham, and the major stepping stones in the lineage of Jesus are all 14 generations apart. A generation today is usually considered to be 20 years. In Old Testament times, women married and had children at a much younger as well as a much older age than they do in modern times. That makes it hard to give a number of years to a generation. For the purpose of my non-mathematical brain, I have to give a generation 20 years. I think over the years mentioned, it will even out.
To summarize the lineage of Jesus, it began with Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. Approximately 280 years later, we have David, the greatest King of Israel, then his son, Solomon. Approximately 280 years after Solomon's reign, the Israelites were enslaved by Babylonia and remained slaves for another approximation of 280 years. That marked the birth of Jesus. This is an approximate total of 840 years from the creation of the nation of Israel to the birth of the Savior. That doesn't seem to be very long, but it's all I have at this moment. I have to remember that it's also been over 2000 years since the birth of Christ. That gives us over 2,280 years from the creation of a great nation to the birth of the Messiah to present times.
The remaining verses in chapter one, beginning with verse 18, deal with the conception of Jesus. Keep in mind, scholars of the Bible think Mary was only about 14 years old when she became pregnant by the Holy Ghost. She certainly wasn't, at that young age, praying for a child yet. Not much detail is given on her becoming pregnant, only that she was a virgin who became pregnant by the Holy Ghost.
Her pregnancy was discovered while she was engaged to Joseph but not yet married to him. Joseph was a just and kind man, an older man, who did not want to humiliate her publicly. He wanted to send her away privately to have her Baby so no one would know. One can only wonder what he planned to do with the Baby, but he had to make a choice as to whether he wanted to go through with the wedding. I think he was contemplating preserving Mary's reputation as much as he could but really was having second thoughts about marrying an unwed mother. God intervened just in time and sent an angel to him in a dream, telling him to marry this young girl as she was still a virgin and was carrying the Messiah.
This angel gave Joseph some very important information about this Baby, letting him know how important it was to protect Him as He grew into a man. He was also told to name his son Jesus, as He would grow into a man who would save people from their sins.
Jesus being our Savior was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 which says, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Matthew 1:23 says, "Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
Joseph woke up and, on the basis of the dream which he took as a message straight from God, obeyed Him and took Mary to be his bride. Because Jesus was prophesied to be born of a virgin, Joseph did not consummate his marriage until after Jesus was born. I had never thought of this prophecy of a "virgin birth" as being so important and as affecting other important people in the life of Christ. Joseph obeyed God in order to make sure the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, that Jesus was born of a virgin.
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