On the last Thursday of June, I joined three friends for wine and charcuterie to celebrate one of their birthdays. Sans wine, for me, because at the time of writing this I challenged myself to 30 days without alcohol. Calling it my social sobriety experiment. So while not drinking wine–on day seven–we sat across a glass window and began to write down our goals for the next three months of 2023 with a dry erase marker.
Right away, I knew what my first goal had to be. I wanted to spend more time in God’s word. Because while I’m in the word daily, it felt like another item on my habit list. Knowing that God is always listening, I was not surprised when my friend Audree reached out to join her on 28 days of prayer and fasting. The study: one chapter a day in the book of Matthew.
This aligned with my second goal, which was to post weekly on my blog. Now, this post has more of a Dear Diary feel, but I like it. What I am calling, In the Book of Matthew, will be a five-week series through my takeaways. In this way I can keep myself accountable to more intentional reading of the word. This post I will begin with the blueprint of Matthew. Also, why Matthew? Well, as my friend reasoned, there are 28 chapters in Matthew, and that will take us through the end of July. Works for me.
Matthew is the first book in the New Testament and the first of the four gospels. Before he became one of Jesus’ disciples, he was a Jewish tax collector. Details matter in the bible, and this one is important because tax collectors most likely weren’t the heroes of the story. Yet, he was offered forgiveness and redemption by Jesus. He was loved.
Not surprising (again) how Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. We can safely say that Matthew was a well-studied man who saw the importance of thorough documentation. So, right here in chapter 1 there are ties back to the Old Testament and the prophecies of a coming savior. Verse 17 concludes there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, another fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah (Jesus).
Wait right there. Did you catch that? Matthew breaks up the genealogy so as to repeat 14 generations in three parts. I am not bible literate enough to figure out why, but I did find a great explanation here. Basically, the name David has a numerical value of 14.
I love that just as much as I love how the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph (as told in verse 20). The angel changed his mind about taking Mary as his wife… in a dream. Looking back at Isaiah 7:14 we can read about the prophecy of the virgin who would conceive and give birth to a son, who will be called Immanuel. So in this dream, Joseph was being asked to do something we know was in God’s word. Out of this world? Yes. Thankfully, Joseph chose to obey.
That brings us to the end of chapter 1. This coming week will take me through the next seven chapters. Catch you then.
Living Thirty Three 