Joseph accepts Jesus as his Son Matthew 1:25 | 1505
She al ti el the fa ther of Ze rub ba bel, l 13 Ze rub ba bel the fa ther of Abi hud, Abi hud the fa ther of Eli a kim, Eli a kim the fa ther of Azor,
14 Azor the fa ther of Za dok, Za dok the fa ther of Akim, Akim the fa ther of Eli hud,
15 Eli hud the fa ther of El e a zar, El e a zar the fa ther of Mat than, Mat than the fa ther of Ja cob,
16 and Ja cob the fa ther of Jo seph, the hus band of Mary, m and Mary was the moth er of Jesus who is called the Mes si ah. n
17 Thus there were four teen gen er a tions in all from Abra ham to Da vid, four teen from Da vid to the ex ile to Bab ylon, and four teen from the ex ile to the Mes si ah.
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Mes si ah came about a: His moth er Mary was pledged to be mar ried to Jo seph, but be fore they came to geth er, she was found to be preg nant through the Holy Spir it. o 19 Be cause Jo seph her hus band
1:12 l 1Ch 3:19; Ezr 3:2
1:16 m Lk 1:27 n Mt 27:17
1:18 o Lk 1:35
1:19 p Dt 24:1
1:21 q Lk 1:31 r Lk 2:11; Ac 5:31;
13:23, 28
1:23 s Isa 7:14; 8:8, 10
1:25 t ver 21 was faith ful to the law, and yet b did not want to ex pose her to pub lic dis grace, he had in mind to di vorce p her qui et ly.
20 But af ter he had con sid ered this, an an gel of the Lord ap peared to him in a dream and said,“ Jo seph son of Da vid, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, be cause what is con ceived in her is from the Holy Spir it. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, c q be cause he will save his peo ple from their sins.” r
22 All this took place to ful fill what the Lord had said through the proph et: 23“ The vir gin will con ceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Im man u el” d s( which means“ God with us”).
24 When Jo seph woke up, he did what the an gel of the Lord had com mand ed him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not con sum mate their marriage un til she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. t
a
18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this b
19 Or was a righteous man and c
21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves. d
23 Isaiah 7:14
1:16 – 17 The original Greek emphasizes that Mary is the biological parent, preparing the reader for the virgin birth.
APPLICATION 1:1 – 17 The covenantal promise includes all humanity. Matthew shows us that we have another set of roots— roots of faith. Once a person becomes a Christian, he or she is immediately adopted into a family of faith that has a long and well- documented genealogy.
1:18 – 19 The marriage customs of Jewish culture at that time usually included two basic stages of the relationship, the betrothal and the wedding. The betrothal stage involved a legally binding contract and could only be broken by a formal process of divorce. In a formal ceremony about a year after the betrothal, the wedding took place. 1:20 – 21 The angel dramatically announces to Joseph in a dream that the conception of the child is from the Holy Spirit. Here at the beginning of the NT age, the Holy Spirit plays a crucial role. Jesus Messiah is God incarnate, whose miraculous conception and origin are only explained through the work of God the Holy Spirit.
The name Jesus was popular in Judaism of the first century, given to sons as a symbolic hope for Yahweh’ s anticipated sending of salvation. Many expected a messiah who would save Israel from Roman oppression. The angel draws on a less popular theme: salvation from sin. 1:22 – 23 At the time of Ahaz( 734 BC) Isaiah prophesied that a woman who was a virgin would bear a son named Immanuel. Since Isaiah’ s prophecy was first fulfilled in his time( Isa 7:16), this prophecy
UNCORRECTED PROOF
is fulfilled in a more incredible way with Jesus. In Isaiah the reference is to a woman who had yet to bear a child, but Matthew clarifies that not only had Mary not yet born a child, she had also never had a sexual experience. So Matthew declares that Jesus ultimately fulfills the prophecy of Isa 7:14. 1:24 – 25 When Joseph awakes from his sleep, he is obedient to the angel’ s directive and carries out the second phase of the marital process by engaging in the formal wedding ceremony. Matthew emphasizes Joseph’ s remarkable character. Not only is Mary seen as a godly woman, but Joseph takes the lead in carrying out the angel’ s instructions.
1:18 – 25 The explicit nature of the role of the Holy Spirit in this passage enables us to begin to see the unfolding revelation of God throughout Scripture. This activity of the Spirit is more plain in the expansion of the church in the book of Acts and in the teaching of later NT authors, but we begin to see it come into play with the conception and birth of Jesus Messiah.
What a privilege and responsibility we now have to live at this stage of history. In their obedience to the work of the Spirit, young Joseph and Mary give us a precursor of how godly relationships can be pure and characterized by serving one another. Today, that is the real basis on which we can pursue a godly marriage and family and, indeed, see the transformation of any of our relationships, both within and outside the church, through the transforming work of God’ s Spirit.