Two of the three synoptic gospels start with geneologies of Jesus Christ, the gospel according to Matthew and the gospel according to Luke. Matthew's geneology goes back to Abraham while Luke's geneology goes back to Adam. We understand that Matthew started his geneology from Abraham, because Abraham was looked back at as the first father of the Jewish people and the New Testament points to him as a first father of our faith, having been accounted as righteous by God for his faith.
Matthew's gospel appears to have been written first to the Jewish people as a proclamation of Jesus' fulfillment of God's promises to Israel, through the promises made to Abraham first, and then to his descendants, through the lineage of Isaac and Jacob. On the other hand, Luke's gospel appears to be written to gentiles, revealing Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to redeem all mankind from sin, not just as the Messiah of the Jews. Matthew's geneology looks back from Jesus to Abraham through the lineage of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, to establish Jesus' legal claim to the throne of David and legitimacy as the Messiah, or Son of David: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1
As a son of Abraham Jesus could be the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham at the place that Abraham named "The Lord Will Provide": "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Genesis 22:18 This passage in Genesis describes how Abraham in his old age was commanded to take his son Isaac to a mountain of God's choosing, and to offer him up as a sacrifice and burnt offering. The passage also tells us that Abraham was prepared to do this and was stopped by the Angel of the Lord, even as he'd raised his hand with the knife meant to take his son's life, and that he was provided with a ram, caught in a thicket by it's horns, to offer in place of his son.
Abraham recognized this gift of the life of his son, paid for with the substitute of the ram in the naming of the place as "The Lord Will Provide." In this passage the Angel of the Lord refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son, but if we've read the whole story of Abraham, we know tha Abraham had another son, named Ishmael. Isaac was called the only son of Abraham, because he was the only son that God promised to Abraham and his wife, Sarah.
Ishmael was born the child of Sarah's handmaiden and was the result of Sarah's desire to provide Abraham with an heir, and a lack of faith that God would keep His promise to Abraham through her, his legitimate wife. Ishmael was Abraham's first son, but not the son promised by God to be his legitimate heir. Isaac was the son of promise, and through Isaac would come the rightful heir of God's promises to Abraham, even our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Matthew also uses the title son of David in reference to Jesus in His geneology as a specific fulfillment to the promise given to King David: When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever." 2 Samuel 7:12-16
Whenever Jesus is referred to as Son of David in the gospels, we can understand that the title refers to Him as the fulfillment of this promise to the shepard king of Israel, King david.
Luke's geneology looks back from Jesus to Adam through the lineage of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to emphasize the actual blood line of Jesus back to Eve. It was Eve who was deceived by the serpent and it was to Eve that the promise was given of a Son that would bring retribution against God's adversary and vengeance against the one who tempted man to sin: The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. Genesis 3:14-15.
As Eve is the mother of all mankind, it was appropriate for Luke to draw attention to the blood line from her to Jesus Christ to demonstrate His role as the avenger of mankind upon the adversary of God and as the Savior of all men.
It's worth noting here that Luke's geneology of Jesus isn't given until the end of the third chapter of Lule's gospel, while Matthew started his gospel with a geneology.
Matthew began with a proof of the legitimacy of Jesus' claim to the throne of David, and the rest of his account is given in support of the Lord's role as the promised King. Luke presents his geneology of Jesus immediately after describing the baptism of Jesus Christ and the declaration from the heavenly voice: "And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; In You I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
Luke's geneology names Adam also as the son of God, not because he was begotten of God (he wasn't), but because Adam wasn't born, but created, formed from the ground and given life by the breath of God. Adam was created as a perfect man without sin and in the image of God, but also without knowledge of good and evil.
Adam, did not please God, but disobeyed the commandment and sinned. In this, Luke contrasts Adam, with Jesus, also born without the sin nature, but pleasing to God, because He was obedient and remained obedient until death. Adam brought the curse upon his descendants, Jesus brings redemption to His, all those born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Him and obedience to the gospel.
We also find in the account of Adam's sin, that he and Eve, having realized that they were naked, made clothing (coverings) for themselves out of fig leafs, to hide their nakedness. The passage tells us that immediately after God pronounced the curses against Adam, Eve, and the serpent, that He provided clothing for Adam and Eve made out of skins. This tells us that Adam and Eve's own efforts were insufficient to cover themselves (their shame), but the Lord Himself provided skins (a blood sacrifice and a sufficient covering) for their nakedness.
Until their sin, Adam and Eve had never seen death, but the Lord showed them that death was a penalty for sin, bloodshed a requirement for the covering of their shame, and that He alone was the one to provide that covering, their own effort being insufficient.
This first lesson is fulfilled completely in the person of Jesus Christ, provided by God as the sacrifice for the propitiation of our sin. Our own efforts at righteousness can never provide a covering for the shame of our sin and we remain naked before God until we receive the sacrifice that He gave on our behalf, through faith in His Son, who alone is our righteousness. Amen.
I'm sure that there is more that can be said about the geneologies, but I'll leave that to those who have received more thorough instruction than I have.
May the Lord bless your understanding and shower you with His grace. Amen.
Matthew's gospel appears to have been written first to the Jewish people as a proclamation of Jesus' fulfillment of God's promises to Israel, through the promises made to Abraham first, and then to his descendants, through the lineage of Isaac and Jacob. On the other hand, Luke's gospel appears to be written to gentiles, revealing Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to redeem all mankind from sin, not just as the Messiah of the Jews. Matthew's geneology looks back from Jesus to Abraham through the lineage of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, to establish Jesus' legal claim to the throne of David and legitimacy as the Messiah, or Son of David: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1
As a son of Abraham Jesus could be the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham at the place that Abraham named "The Lord Will Provide": "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Genesis 22:18 This passage in Genesis describes how Abraham in his old age was commanded to take his son Isaac to a mountain of God's choosing, and to offer him up as a sacrifice and burnt offering. The passage also tells us that Abraham was prepared to do this and was stopped by the Angel of the Lord, even as he'd raised his hand with the knife meant to take his son's life, and that he was provided with a ram, caught in a thicket by it's horns, to offer in place of his son.
Abraham recognized this gift of the life of his son, paid for with the substitute of the ram in the naming of the place as "The Lord Will Provide." In this passage the Angel of the Lord refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son, but if we've read the whole story of Abraham, we know tha Abraham had another son, named Ishmael. Isaac was called the only son of Abraham, because he was the only son that God promised to Abraham and his wife, Sarah.
Ishmael was born the child of Sarah's handmaiden and was the result of Sarah's desire to provide Abraham with an heir, and a lack of faith that God would keep His promise to Abraham through her, his legitimate wife. Ishmael was Abraham's first son, but not the son promised by God to be his legitimate heir. Isaac was the son of promise, and through Isaac would come the rightful heir of God's promises to Abraham, even our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Matthew also uses the title son of David in reference to Jesus in His geneology as a specific fulfillment to the promise given to King David: When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever." 2 Samuel 7:12-16
Whenever Jesus is referred to as Son of David in the gospels, we can understand that the title refers to Him as the fulfillment of this promise to the shepard king of Israel, King david.
Luke's geneology looks back from Jesus to Adam through the lineage of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to emphasize the actual blood line of Jesus back to Eve. It was Eve who was deceived by the serpent and it was to Eve that the promise was given of a Son that would bring retribution against God's adversary and vengeance against the one who tempted man to sin: The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. Genesis 3:14-15.
As Eve is the mother of all mankind, it was appropriate for Luke to draw attention to the blood line from her to Jesus Christ to demonstrate His role as the avenger of mankind upon the adversary of God and as the Savior of all men.
It's worth noting here that Luke's geneology of Jesus isn't given until the end of the third chapter of Lule's gospel, while Matthew started his gospel with a geneology.
Matthew began with a proof of the legitimacy of Jesus' claim to the throne of David, and the rest of his account is given in support of the Lord's role as the promised King. Luke presents his geneology of Jesus immediately after describing the baptism of Jesus Christ and the declaration from the heavenly voice: "And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; In You I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
Luke's geneology names Adam also as the son of God, not because he was begotten of God (he wasn't), but because Adam wasn't born, but created, formed from the ground and given life by the breath of God. Adam was created as a perfect man without sin and in the image of God, but also without knowledge of good and evil.
Adam, did not please God, but disobeyed the commandment and sinned. In this, Luke contrasts Adam, with Jesus, also born without the sin nature, but pleasing to God, because He was obedient and remained obedient until death. Adam brought the curse upon his descendants, Jesus brings redemption to His, all those born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Him and obedience to the gospel.
We also find in the account of Adam's sin, that he and Eve, having realized that they were naked, made clothing (coverings) for themselves out of fig leafs, to hide their nakedness. The passage tells us that immediately after God pronounced the curses against Adam, Eve, and the serpent, that He provided clothing for Adam and Eve made out of skins. This tells us that Adam and Eve's own efforts were insufficient to cover themselves (their shame), but the Lord Himself provided skins (a blood sacrifice and a sufficient covering) for their nakedness.
Until their sin, Adam and Eve had never seen death, but the Lord showed them that death was a penalty for sin, bloodshed a requirement for the covering of their shame, and that He alone was the one to provide that covering, their own effort being insufficient.
This first lesson is fulfilled completely in the person of Jesus Christ, provided by God as the sacrifice for the propitiation of our sin. Our own efforts at righteousness can never provide a covering for the shame of our sin and we remain naked before God until we receive the sacrifice that He gave on our behalf, through faith in His Son, who alone is our righteousness. Amen.
I'm sure that there is more that can be said about the geneologies, but I'll leave that to those who have received more thorough instruction than I have.
May the Lord bless your understanding and shower you with His grace. Amen.
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