5×5×5 Bible Plan
Read: Matthew 1
Meditation: Matthew 1:22-23
“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.’”
Shift Your Focus… As you read through Matthew 1, you are immediately hit with a list of names, which, for the most part, are probably meaningless to you. You may be tempted just to skip past these names, but I want to challenge you not to do that.
You see, each name in this genealogical list, 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 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.”
He is the God who will fulfill all of his purposes. He is the God who will fulfill each of his promises. He is the God who will reveal his grace to unlikely, undeserving people. He is the God who will be with us. He is Immanuel!
“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
Prayer… Lord, because you are with me, this is going to be a great day. Come what may, today your purposes will not be thwarted, your promises will not be broken, and your grace will not be withheld from my life. So I want to thank you in advance for what you will do for me, in me, and through me today.
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