The genealogy shows that the Messiah has the right to reign. Joseph comes from Jeconiah. God said that none from Jeconiah’s line would sit on the throne, so Joseph has the bloodline without the legal right to rule. Mary’s genealogy in Luke 3:31 runs through Heli, her father, back to Nathan, the son of David and Bathsheba recorded in 1 Chronicles 3:5. Nathan’s line carries the right to the throne. If the Messiah had come only through Solomon and Joseph to Jeconiah, He would have stood under Jeconiah’s curse. The two lines meet in Jesus, and He alone can claim the throne.
Matthew 1:17 counts fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the captivity in Babylon, and fourteen from the captivity to Christ. Scripture uses numbers with significance, yet meanings must not be imposed on the text. Fourteen expresses a double portion: the land promise to Abraham and the promise that the Seed would come through him. Assigning numbers to Hebrew letters and allegorizing names, including claims that leaders’ names equal 666, is an inappropriate method. David’s name can be counted to fourteen, but that is not to be added to the passage. Ten relates to completion in a process. God uses numbers, and there is significance in them at times, yet there is no hidden meaning. Scripture says what it says. Numerology does not change what is written.
Matthew 1:18 begins the birth of Jesus Christ. After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and before they came together, she was found with child out from the Holy Spirit. Betrothal under the Law was a contract and a promise to marry, not a modern engagement that could be ended by disagreement. Release required the contract to be broken, and penalties followed.
Joseph was a just man. The word marks one obedient to the Mosaic Law, not one producing his own righteousness by the Law. He obeyed because he believed that God brought them out of Egypt and was the One in the temple. His desirous will was not to make a public example of Mary. Pregnancy, as he then understood it, meant she had broken the covenant with another man. Even with the inner burning over what he believed she had done, he determined to put her away secretly. “Minded” is boulē, determinate will. “Thought” comes from a root for an inner burning, not a passing idea. While he was burning within over these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is out from the Holy Spirit. She will bring forth a son, and he will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. The name is rooted in the Lord who delivers and saves.
All this was done so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, God with us. The prophecy was first addressed to King Ahaz. In Isaiah 7:10 the Lord told Ahaz to ask a sign in the depths or in the heights. Ahaz refused, saying he would not ask or test the Lord. The word then turned to the house of David: it is a small thing to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give a sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Because Ahaz refused, the sign was given to the house of David, and the prophecy carries two meanings that God Himself sets. A passage is not to be reinterpreted so that an Old Testament prophecy is made to describe events of the present day. There is no prophecy and no prophet being fulfilled now. The next event on the prophetic calendar is the Church meeting the Lord in the air. Nothing else comes before that. Israel’s presence in the land is preparation, not the calling of Israel back. When God brings Israel back, He brings Israel back. Reports of wars, the man of lawlessness, and ten nations rising are not present fulfillments. Where God uses one prophecy with two meanings, He explains that use in Scripture.
In the near context, before the child can speak, the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria are taken before the king of Assyria. Ahaz, fearing the coalition, was ready to submit to Assyria. Isaiah 8:3–4 records that Isaiah went to the prophetess, she conceived and bore a son, and the Lord named him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz: before the child knows to cry “my father” and “my mother,” those riches and spoils are taken away. Isaiah 7:1–6 sets the threat: Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to Jerusalem against Ahaz son of Jotham. The Lord said it would not stand. The head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin; within sixty-five years Ephraim would be broken so that it would not be a people. Before the child knows to refuse evil and choose good, the land Ahaz dreaded would be forsaken by both kings. Curds and honey belong to that near sign. The Hebrew almah in Isaiah 7:14 is a young woman and can be used of a virgin; it is not restricted to a virgin. The near fulfillment is Isaiah’s son and the sign in Ahaz’s time. God indicated a second use by directing the sign to the house of David after Ahaz was told to ask. Matthew 1:23 uses parthenos, the Greek word specific for a virgin, for the birth of Christ. Only God applies an Old Testament prophecy to what is coming. No prophecy is of anyone’s personal interpretation.
Christ had to come from a virgin because He could not come through the bloodline of a man, which was corrupt. The sin nature came through Adam, not through Eve. Genesis 3:15, after Satan manipulated Eve and Adam chose to eat, places enmity between the serpent and the woman and between his seed and her seed. He shall crush the serpent’s head, and the serpent shall crush His heel. The promise is to Satan, who stood behind the serpent: the seed of the woman will crush his head. As the seed of the woman, Christ did not possess Adam’s corrupt nature. Genesis 5:3 says Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his own image—his, not theirs.
Joseph, aroused from sleep, did as the angel commanded and took Mary as his wife. They were no longer only betrothed. He did not know her until she brought forth her firstborn son, and he named Him Jesus. The name Emmanuel is not fulfilled in that naming. Emmanuel is God with us when He is visibly present, reigning from the New Jerusalem, seen year by year.
Matthew 2:1 places the next scene after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Magi from the east came. The account is not the night of the birth; it is about two years later. Magi comes from the Old Persian magu. They were priests among the Medes and Persians, noted for the study of the stars, the interpretation of dreams, and natural philosophy. Daniel was set as chief over such men. One line of thought is that their star cycles led them to expect a king for Israel. The stronger connection is what they received through Daniel, together with a physical star that did not belong in the sky they watched. Isaiah 60:1–3 is the prophecy of Gentiles coming to the light: arise, shine, for your light has come; darkness covers the earth, yet the Lord rises and His glory is seen; Gentiles come to the light and kings to the brightness of the rising. In Matthew 2:2 they ask where the one born King of the Jews is, for they saw His star in the east and came to worship Him. Numbers 24:17 is the star prophecy tied to Israel: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. Travel from the east took years; they could not arrive the same night.
Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. He gathered the chief priests and scribes and inquired where the Christ would be born. They answered from the prophets: Bethlehem of Judea, not least among the rulers of Judah, for out of her comes a ruler who will shepherd Israel. Herod secretly called the Magi and determined the time the star appeared, so he could fix when the king was born. He sent them to search diligently for the young child and to report back so that he also might worship. The word for the child is paidion, used of a child around two years of age, not brephos, the word for a newborn. English translations that shift from “child” to “young child” reflect that distinction. The star went before them and stood over where the young child was. They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. They entered the house, not the inn and not the manger. He had been in the manger only on the night of the birth, when the crowding of the registration left no room; a manger could even afford a private place when rooms were already filled. They saw the young child with Mary His mother, fell down, and worshiped Him, and opened treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those gifts supplied the family for the flight that followed. Herod’s request to worship covered a purpose to destroy the child.
Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi departed to their own country another way. After they left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream: arise, take the young child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay until word comes, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. Joseph rose that night, took the child and His mother, and departed into Egypt. This fulfills Hosea 11:1: when Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod saw that the Magi had deceived him, he burned with anger and put to death all the male children in Bethlehem and its districts from two years old and under, according to the time determined from the Magi. They had seen the star about two years earlier. Matthew 2:17–18 says then was fulfilled what Jeremiah spoke: a voice in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more. Herod acted to remove the one born King of Israel and to prevent a rising he feared.
