Read Matthew 1
“So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and
bear a Son, and they shall call His name
Immanuel,’ which is translated,
‘God with us.’”
(Matthew 1:22-23)
Thoughts… For me, New Year’s Day is always the day I begin again. I have set new goals for myself, and today I begin anew the march toward that which I believe God has called me.
One of the goals I have set is to have a “quiet time” with God every single day this year. I know of no more powerful and profound, yet simple key to spiritual growth and health than to read, meditate on, and pray over God’s Word. You cannot grow and you will not be “blessable” apart from an intimate relationship with God through his Word.
So I want to invite you to join me on this journey through Scripture. I will be reading one chapter each day from the New Testament using the New King James translation, beginning with Matthew 1. I will journal my response from each day’s reading and post it to this blog, and I want to give you the opportunity to post your response as well to the “comment” section at the bottom of this post (just follow the instructions to register and get your password). I am not only anxious to grow in my own walk with God through reading his Word this year, but I am excited to hear how you are growing, too!
Now as you start off your Bible reading today, you will immediately be hit with a list of names, which, for the most part, will be meaningless to you. If you are reading from the New King James Version, each name is introduced with a “begot”. You may be tempted just to skip past these names, but I want to challenge you not to do that.
You see, each name, just like in your own family history, tells a story. And that story reveals God’s activity in fulfilling his divine purpose to bring about the birth of his Son and our Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not just suddenly appear in history without context—his birth was the result of God’s eternal plan.
Not only do these names show us how God was fulfilling his sovereign purpose, they show us how he was fulfilling his divine promise. Jesus was born as a result of a promise God had made hundreds of years before, first to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3: 15), then to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) and to King David in I Chronicles 17:11-14,
“And it shall be, David, that when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.”
Furthermore, these names not only tell the story of God’s purpose and God’s promise, but they tell us the story of the God’s grace in using fallen human beings as the conduit through whom his Son would be born. In this listing of the Messiah’s progenitors are some unlikely and undeserving people—Tamar, a Gentile woman who slept with her father-in-law; Rahab, a Gentile prostitute; Ruth, a Gentile woman from the hated Moabite nation; Bathsheba, who is listed as the “wife of Uriah the Hittite”, the woman with whom King David had an adulterous affair.
It is nothing less than amazing that God would use people you wouldn’t expect to be the human conduit through which he would fulfill his purposes and his promises. And if God would use people like them, he will use people like you and me. That is the grace of God!
This opening chapter here in Matthew’s Gospel that begins with all these strange and boring names tells us the amazing story of how our purposeful, faithful and gracious God went to extreme lengths to reach us and redeem us with his love. He didn’t send his love through a written message, or a public service announcement, or a sign in the heavens. He sent himself! He sent his love through a baby born in a manger, who was called Immanuel—which means, “God is now with us.”
Here we are on the first day of 2008, and I don’t know what this year holds for you and me, but I know Who holds this year. He is the God will fulfill all of his purposes. He is the God who will fulfill each of his promises. He is the God who will yet again reveal his grace.
He is Immanuel. He is God, and he is with us!
Prayer… Lord, because you are with me, this is going to be a great year. Come what may, 2008 will be the year that your purposes are revealed, your promises are fulfilled, and your grace is supplied in my life. So I want to thank you in advance for what you will do for me, in me, and through me this year.
One More Thing… “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.” —Dag Hammarskjold
Spending time this Holiday with my extended Family makes that list of names have even more personal significance to me…I pray that this year will be the best yet. God Bless.
January 2 at 8:00 pm
Best intentions but a busy schedule get us started with our new year's resolutions already a day late!
As we are maturing we are learning a lesson that Joseph learned much earlier to "consider this". His first reaction must have been disappointment and hurt. His second reaction may have been anger. But he considered. Did he do this through prayer? Did prayer lead him to ask for guidance? Did the humilty of prayer and request for guidance lead him to consider Mary? Did his humility and concern for another open his heart to receive an angel of the Lord?
“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him…” Obedience is not always the easiest option–in fact, it is usually the hardest–but at the end of the day, we will never regret obeying God.