py our thoughts throughout the year, not just at the holiday season. To believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ, and to be born-again through faith in Him, is a marvelous experi ence such ' as the world has never known. As we consider Jesus Christ as the Infant King, it’s highly appropriate that the Gospel of Matthew should be the first book of the New Testa ment. The genealogy with which it opens links it to Old Testament his tory. Nearly 100 Old Testament quo tations are to be found in its 28 chapters. Matthew wrote from the Jewish point of view, as the Holy Spirit moved him. What a natural bridge between the old and the New Testament this book became! This wonderful book is divided by the five major discourses of Christ. In between, the events of Jesus’ life are gathered together in chronologi cal sequence. Notice the very beginning where we read, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” He is carefully described as Abraham’s son. God had promised David that his kingdom would be established forever (II Sam. 7:12-16). Abraham, too, was given word that through his seed all of the promises of God were to be fulfilled (Gen. 12:3). As the son of David, Christ is the Messiah; as the son of Abraham, He is the Sav iour of all who believe. Matthew, who is concerned with Jesus primarily as the Messiah, traces His descent to His royal ancestors. Luke, on the other hand, presents Him as the Son of Man and emphasizes His ideal humanity, tracing His ancestry back to Adam, the father of the human race. Four women are named in Jesus’ genealogy, although the Jews didn’t ordinarily include women in their an cestral tables. Interestingly enough, not one of them was a Jewess in good standing: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth 15
since the day of its utterance, the people of Israel looked forward with anxious, longing hearts to the Re deemer’s coming. Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, be lieved that all the prophecies of the Old Testament were completely ful filled in Jesus Christ. How right he was! The name .Emmanuel to be given to the prophetic child breathed a certainty that God was assuredly with Israel. For only by a Man who was one of us, and in whom God is with us, could we ever be saved from our sins. Christ is Jesus, because He is Emmanuel. How different the world looked to Joseph when he was awakened from that dream! Hesitations and agoniz ing doubts now had vanished. In stead of the dread that her child would be the offspring of shame, there was a divinely-given certainty that that Baby would be the Saviour, the Messiah of Israel. Joseph’s obedi ence now was as swift as it was glad. He believed, and his faith lift ed the burden. The birth itself re corded in Matthew 1 :25 has its bear ing on Joseph’s marital relationship. Could such a perspective in the story be conceived from any other point of view than Joseph’s in the Gospel of Matthew? It doesn’t preclude the fact that after the birth of our Lord, Joseph and Mary were united as husband and wife and had other chil dren (Matt. 13:55). But Jesus was bom alone of God and of His mother. Joseph was really not His father or His human parent. How wonderful to recognize this truth as a corner stone of our faith! For without the Saviour’s virgin birth, and His con ception by the Holy Spirit, you and I would not have a Saviour to whom we could look for eternal life. How thankful we should be for these blessed truths! P art III T he study of the coming to this earth by our Saviour should occu
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