Matthew 1:18
In our last Bible study we had been looking
at the genealogy of Jesus that is given in Matthew chapter 1. There are a few more
things that are worth pointing out about the genealogy before moving on. Jesus
came in the flesh as a Jew, and we know that He came more than just to save the
Israelites. He came to save everyone in the world. This connection between
Jesus and everyone else in the world is shown even in His genealogy by looking
at all of the individuals that are represented. Women are mentioned as well as
men. Non-Jews are represented as well as Jews. Ruth was a Moabite, and not an
Israeli. We know that the true children of Abraham are those who are his
spiritual descendants, and not those who are his descendants after the flesh.
Kings are very prominent in this genealogy
of Jesus. But just the fact that it is made up of humans, makes this genealogy
of Christ also a reminder that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus
liked to call Himself "Son of Man",
a title that emphasizes His identification with all of us. Many of the kings in
this list had moments of great failure in regards to their responsibilities to
God. One of the most shocking failures of them all was the failure and sins of
King David himself. We are reminded of David’s failure when we read verse 6
that says, "And
Jesse begot David the king; and David the king begot Solomon of her that had
been the wife of Urias."
It is amazing how the Bible as an ancient
history does not cover up or gloss over the failures even of its greatest
heroes. Many of the records left in other ancient lands that have been
discovered by archeologists tell only of the victories and successes of the
rulers of those lands, and often tell nothing of the defeats or failures. But
this is not so with the Bible, and is another of the many evidences that this
is the Word of God, and that it is truthful and reliable in all that it says.
Matthew 1:6 is referring to Bathsheba.
Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon, and Bathsheba was also in the lineage of
Christ. We know that Bathsheba was a beautiful woman who was the wife of Urias.
And we know that Urias was a noble and honorable soldier, faithful to his
country and his king. We also know that David and Bathsheba fell into the sin
of adultery, but the greatest mistake that David made was to try and hide his
sin. If only he had confessed and forsaken his sin immediately. Because he
tried to hide the sin of adultery, it led him to commit a greater sin: the sin
of conspiracy that led to the death of the husband of Bathsheba. Proverbs 28:13
says, "He
that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them
shall have mercy."
There are many good lessons that we can
learn from what happened to King David. We are all very much like him. No
matter how hard we try, and no matter how good we think we have become; we are
all prone to fail. There is no one who does good, and sins not. Be careful of
becoming self-righteous and condemning others for their sins, because you have
also sinned. Remember that Jesus said, "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone."
We can also learn from David’s sins to be
warned of the potential for our own failure. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking
that you will benefit from committing sin of any kind. When we do wrong, there
is a consequence to pay. "Be not deceived God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap."
Many sins would never be committed if we would just remember the horrible
consequences that we might have to pay.
But the most important lesson that we learn
about David’s failure and sin is the lesson that we learn about God’s mercy.
Probably the reason that Bathsheba and Urias are mentioned here in the lineage
of Christ is not to remind us of King David’s failures, but to remind us of the
greatness of God’s mercy. God’s mercy is so great and so vast, that He is able
to make the worst of our failures turn into the best of blessings. It is
through the marriage of David and Bathsheba that King Solomon was born, and
then through him, came the lineage that led to the Christ.
This kind of mercy that turns a curse into
a blessing is what God does so well. Sometimes people become aware of the
greatness of their sins and they think that they have gone too far, and that
they can no longer expect or hope in the mercy or grace of God. But they could
never be farther from the truth. If you had sinned a thousand times more than even
what you have already done, God would have infinitely more mercy than your
sins. The death of Christ was more than sufficient to pay for all sins.
Romans says; "Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
When you know that you have sinned, come quickly to God for forgiveness,
because you can count on a great storehouse of mercy to be available for you.
Because of this, the writer of Hebrews encourages us to "come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy."
Matthew 1:18-20 says, "Now the birth of
Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then
Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public
example, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."
Matthew had just given the lineage of Jesus
Christ, through His stepfather, Joseph. But the record of the Bible is very
clear that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. Mary became pregnant
before their marriage was consummated, and so verse 18 says, "before they came together, she was found with child." In case that is not clear enough for you,
Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah chapter 7 and says, "Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth
a son...".
There is no other possible interpretation
of these scriptures. Joseph was not the father of Jesus, and Mary was a virgin
when Jesus was born. Mary did not get pregnant the way that every other woman
has gotten pregnant in the history of the human race. The Bible is very clear
about the fact that she did not get pregnant by the normal means, and it is
just as clear about the means by which she did get pregnant. The last part of
verse 18 says that "she was found with child of the Holy Spirit," and the last part of verse 20 says, "for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."
In other words, it was a miraculous conception. There was no human father. In
some miraculous way, the Holy Spirit caused Mary to become pregnant.
One of the reasons that Jesus did not have
a human father was that unlike the rest of us, the life of Jesus did not begin
with His life on the earth. He always existed with the Father, from the
beginning of eternity. The birth of Jesus was simply the means by which the Son
of God came into the world, but the Son of God existed before His birth.
The most important things in the Bible are
the things that are clear and obvious. God gave us His written Word in order to
communicate the things to us that He wants us to know. If you are going to be a
Bible believer and a Christian, then one of the things that you must believe is
that Jesus was born of a virgin. The virgin birth of Jesus was prophesied by
Isaiah over 600 years before it happened, and Matthew recorded it here in the
most direct of terms.
Sometimes people try to explain miracles
that are recorded in the Bible by saying that some natural phenomenon accounts
for the event. For example, there is archeological evidence to help
substantiate the destruction of the city of
There is no contradiction between science
and faith, or between science and the Bible. Science is a study of the natural
world around us. The Bible is a revelation of the spiritual world around us.
People who spend their lives’ studying particular areas of our natural world,
we call scientists. Science is always changing and is very inexact, because we
know very little of all that there is to know; and for this reason the
scientific discoveries of today often disprove the theories of yesterday; and
this pattern constantly repeats itself from generation to generation. A science
textbook that is written today is soon outdated. What a contrast is the study
of the natural world to the study of the spiritual world. The Bible is an
unchanging and solid rock of reliable information in the midst of a changing
and uncertain world, and that’s because the source of the Bible is God: "holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
If you believe in God, it follows logically
that you can also believe in miracles. God created the natural order of things.
We must live within this natural order because we are of the earth, and
earthly; but God is not bound by the natural order the way that we are. He is
supernatural. And one of the great miracles of the Bible was the supernatural
means by which Mary became with child.
The Bible says that "she was found with child of the
Holy Spirit." It was the Holy Spirit
who caused the miracle to happen, and the same Holy Spirit can give you the
understanding and the ability to believe in the miracle of the virgin birth. As
a matter of fact, anyone who does not believe in the virgin birth does not have
the Holy Spirit.
In addition to being amazed and inspired by
the miraculous circumstances that surrounded the birth of Jesus, there are also
a couple of practical lessons that we can learn from the virgin birth. There is
a lesson to be learned from the uniqueness of this miracle. The miracle of the
virgin birth happened only once. It will never happen again. We have this as an
example of a miracle that happened in New Testament times that will not happen
again. This leads us to the conclusion that perhaps there were other miracles
in the New Testament times that were meant to happen only during those times,
and were not meant for the time in which we live.
There is a miracle that was meant for our
day; the miracle of being born again. We will not see the virgin birth repeated,
but each of us can experience the new birth. Hopefully, you have experienced
for yourself the miracle of the new birth, the spiritual birth that comes by
faith in Jesus Christ. It is a miracle when the Spirit of God touches the heart
of someone that does not have a relationship with God. It is a miracle when the
Spirit of God convicts someone of the guilt of their sins, and convinces them
to turn to the Savior for the forgiveness of their sins. It is a miracle when
the Spirit of Jesus Christ visits the soul of a sinner and makes them a citizen
of His eternal kingdom. It is a miracle when someone who was once alienated
from God, becomes united to God and to Christ by faith.
Another lesson that we can learn from the
miracle of the virgin birth is that it reminds us that the God who can perform
such miracles, is more than able to do whatever needs to be done to take care
of us. As we go through this world, we must not forget that God can do
anything.
In any situation we can have confidence in
the power of God. With God all things are possible. Paul said, "I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me."
The same God who brought Jesus into the world by the miracle of the virgin
birth, will do whatever it takes to see that each of His children are properly
cared for. Let’s think of some areas in each of our lives where we can have
confidence in the power of God.
1.
We can have
confidence in God to provide our needs. The normal method that God has set up
for a human being to have their material needs met is to get a job and work.
The Bible says that they that don’t work; don’t eat. But once you’ve done all
that you can do, God will provide a miracle if He needs to in order to see that
you are properly cared for. That is exactly what happened to the prophet
Elijah, who was fed by the ravens.
2.
We can have
confidence in God to enable us to fulfill our responsibilities. It is easy to
become afraid of the burdens and pressures and responsibilities that we
currently face, or that we may one day face. But we need not have such fears,
if our confidence is in God. Never forget that God often uses people to
accomplish His work in this world. You have a tremendous capacity to accomplish
any great task, no matter what your age or physical condition or anything else
that you may think is a human limitation. This will be true only as you have
confidence in God, and not in yourself.
3.
We can have
confidence in God to take care of the future. Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 "Take therefore no
thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." We don’t know the future, but we know the
one who holds the future. We can only think so many thoughts in a day, and
according to Jesus, it is a waste of our thought processes to worry about
the future. We can make better use of our thoughts by spending more time
figuring out how we can avoid temptation today and become better people today.
4.
We can have
confidence in God to forgive us our sins. There may be no greater torment than
the torment of a guilty conscience, and there may be no greater miracle than
the miracle of the forgiveness of sins. Probably one of the reasons that God
brought Jesus into the world by the miracle of the virgin birth was to prove
who Jesus was: the Messiah, the Savior of the world. The miracle of the virgin
birth points to His ability to also perform the miracle of the forgiveness of
sins.
When God decided to send Jesus to the earth
to be born as a baby and to experience growing up in a human family, the family
into which Jesus was born must have been something special. There must have
been some very important qualities about both Mary and Joseph for them to have
been chosen as the mother and stepfather of the Christ child. Jesus would later
say that John the Baptist was the greatest of all human beings. If John was
number one, perhaps Mary and Joseph were numbers two and three; especially
since God chose their family as the one where the Christ would live for the
first thirty years of his life on earth.
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Copyright; 2007 by Charles F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved