Matthew 1

This chapter features two main parts: the genealogy of Jesus and then the abridged story of Jesus' birth. I'll tackle that first. Matthew doesn't go into nearly as much detail here as some of the other Gospels, from what I remember; in particular I think Luke has more in the lead-up to Jesus' birth.

There will likely be more about the events around His birth in the next chapter of Matthew, but the big takeaway here is that Jesus was born to a virgin. His mother, Mary, was impregnated by God - not God physically coming down and sleeping with her, as some claim, but supernaturally without any physical contact from a man. This is the only such event in history, and I've always thought it made perfect sense since Jesus was sinless. It is clearly stated elsewhere in the Bible that all humans have an innate sinful nature, and that it is passed down from father to son (and daughter) - but Jesus had no human father, and so did not inherit that nature! This was the only way that God could be born into our world, really, and it had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier by Isaiah (7:14). This is the first of many prophecies about the coming Messiah which Jesus fulfilled, and I will try to highlight as many of them as I can over the course of reading through the Gospels.

As for the genealogy, it traces Jesus' royal lineage through his adopted human father, Joseph. He was a direct descendant of King David, which was important because that was another prophecy about the Messiah: he would reign on the throne of David forever (Jeremiah 33:14-17). It also interesting to note so many names from the Old Testament which feature in this list - Rahab, Ruth & Boaz, David & Solomon, and of course the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). It really goes to show that the Bible is His Story - the story of Jesus, from His hand in creation through to the end of time. May His name be praised forever and ever, amen!