God Intervenes in the Birth of Y’shua the Messiah (Matthew 1:18-25)

The Scandal of Redemption

Following on the mention of Mary in the family tree for Jesus, in Matthew 1:18-25, we have Matthew’s record of Jesus’ birth.  But Matthew is not merely giving us a conventional birth announcement.  There is an astounding transparency of inconvenient details that surely must be true.  What publicity minded church would publish this sort of scandalous information about the purported Redeemer of Israel?

The normal procedure at this time and place was such that following the arrangement of the betrothal (engagement), a couple was considered legally married but the bride normally continued to live with her parents for a year while the husband prepared a home.  They did not have intimacy during that time and the lack of pregnancy at the end of this time demonstrated her chastity.  If a scandal did occur, the match would be called off via a legal divorce although there was the potential for deadly legal penalties.

This is just the scandalous situation that Joseph and Mary are caught up in.  But Matthew tells us that God had intervened.  Mary was pregnant “through the Holy Spirit.”  Joseph apparently believed something very wrong ad taken place but notice that he did not want her to be publicly shamed so he planned to “quietly” divorce her.  Now for a second time in Matthew’s record, the Lord intervened and an “angel of the Lord” explained to Joseph in a dream before he could follow through on divorce.

Apparently, no outsider was privy to the situation so it could be kept in the immediate family at that time, yet it did add to the tension in what could have been a very dangerous and scandalous situation concerning the birth of the redeemer of Israel.

The Prophecy of Redemption

Matthew signifies this scandal as a sign given to Israel once before.  The traditional treatment is that this is the ‘fulfillment’ of Isaiah’s prophecy—meaning that Isaiah predicted the virgin birth.  But it is much deeper than that.

In Isaiah 7 and 8, Uzziah’s grandson Ahaz was on the throne of Judah and Pekah the wicked king of Israel had made an alliance with Syria to attack Judah.  And the Lord promised that Assyria would carry both Israel and Syria away into captivity.  It would also nearly prove the undoing of Judah as well.  Isaiah gave a sign from the Lord in Isaiah 7:14 that speaks of a maiden giving birth to a son who would be called “Emmanuel” and would be eating curds and honey before he was old enough to know right and wrong.  (Curds and honey would mean the land had been abandoned and no longer cultivated but only grazed on by cattle.)  This was to be God’s sign to Ahaz that He would be “with” Israel even though disaster lay ahead and their cousins in Israel would be carried off into exile. 

So now Jesus is the same kind of sign.  Disaster is coming for Israel but God is in it and will be with “us.”  The sign in Isaiah’s day was the birth and life of Emmanuel.  And now in Matthew’s day it is the virgin birth that proves that God is with us even in the coming disaster.

It is interesting that the Greek translation of Isaiah specifies that the maiden was not just a young maiden of marriageable age (almah) as the Hebrew text affirms but was specifically a virgin (parthenos).  This seems to be the translation that Matthew refers to here.  A detail that may have been obscure to Isaiah is clarified by the Greek translation – the Bible that everyone used at that time.

While Emmanuel of Isaiah’s day was apparently only a sign, this Emmanuel would also save His people from their sins.  They cannot save themselves as was also true of the people of Isaiah’s day and now the new Emmanuel Himself would not only be with them as God, He would also be the means of their salvation from sins.  This will not take place without tremendous opposition.

© 2018 Eric Thimell

Introduction to Our Study of Matthew

Note:  This should have been posted at the start of our Matthew Studies Series. 

This study was conducted over the course of two years and these notes are a compilation of the handouts prepared for the Friday Night Bible Study of the En Gedi Hospitality House in Mountain Home, Idaho.  It is an ongoing ministry of Cadence International to the military community at Mountain Home Air Force Base so it is to these young men and women who patiently shared in the fruits of this study week after week that they are gratefully dedicated.

In preparation for this study, I used only a Bible – mainly the English Standard Version—but I compared the text to many other translations as well as to the Greek text and when I was finished with a passage, I sometimes consulted a few commentaries or reference books to compare certain points of interpretation.  But the finished product was my own. 

My method of study involved reading and re-reading the text according to the Bible study method I learned from Dr. Howard Hendricks being careful to “bombard the text” with questions as Prof would say and then consider answers that came to mind or I had heard before in my seminary classes and books I had read.  But I also began to utilize a method proposed by Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla as a basis for sound homiletics.  In this method, we try to discern “what the author is doing with what he is saying.”  In other words, seeking clues in the text itself that speak to the lesson that the author considered to be of primary importance in his recording the sacred words imparted to Him by the Holy Spirit.

There have been those scholars over the years who have scorned the idea that we moderns can “psychoanalyze” or in any way truly discern the “intention of the author.”  But eventually this idea of intentionality became an important piece in what became known as the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy.  And more recently, Dr. Kuruvilla has refined this idea as a crucial part of his method of preaching the Word of God.  I have taken his ideas and methods and applied them to teaching as well as preaching.

I recognize that there are truly wonderful intertextual studies that go beyond the purposes of a single biblical author but for teaching through the Bible book by book, this new method has been the most satisfying tool I have found.  I still ask questions that consider the observations made by other Biblical authors that may affect my understanding of a passage but in the end, I seek to understand why Matthew presents his material in the way that he does it albeit somewhat differently from the other gospel authors.  This will not offer a complete picture of everything we wish to know or even everything that is revealed in the Bible.  I have attempted to address some theological (as well as gospel harmonization) issues as they surface in a more intertextual manner but for the most part I have confined myself to Matthew’s pedagogical outline.

This study does not primarily make an appeal to the scholarship of great teachers of the past or even more current notions although at times I interact with these ideas (often without naming the scholar) because it is the teaching and interpretation we wish to apprehend—not personalities and human authorities to which we too often cling to more tenaciously than the Word itself.  For the purposes of this study, it is usually enough to simply discuss an idea that is “out there” and attempt to see if this is a good fit for what Matthew is talking about.  This will limit the use of this book by students who are trying to glean bibliographic information.  Hopefully, it will more than make up for that shortcoming by shining a light on the “message of the book” according to Matthew.

© 2018 Eric Thimell

Matthew: A History of Y’shua the Messiah (Matthew 1:1-17)

Although our ministry is centered around hospitality, much of the spiritual growth has come through teaching the Word on a regular basis.  Since many of our readers have shared in this ministry through  giving and prayer, we have decided to share some of the benefits here.

We have completed a two year journey through Matthew and have decided to publish, on a weekly basis, the teaching handouts that Eric prepared.  (You may freely share them with others but they are not to be used in any form for sale without contacting us first.)

Matthew: A History of Y’shua the Messiah (Matthew 1:1-17)

 One way to look at the Old Testament is to see that, beginning in Genesis, mankind is in a serious predicament because of sin.  We need redemption.  Then beginning in Genesis 12 we follow God’s program of providing a channel of redemption.  Through the means of a specially chosen people, God would interact with them in their long history to be the people out of whom would arise a Redeemer.

In Matthew 1:1-17, the writer recounts the genealogy of this Redeemer through which he goes on to explain His birth, His teaching, His death, and His resurrection.  This Redeemer was Jesus.

Matthew refers to Him as “Jesus Christ” meaning literally “anointed savior.”  To get background on this anointed one (Messiah in Hebrew), we must study the Old Testament—a library of sacred books written in Hebrew and Aramaic over a period of 1500 years by Hebrew prophets.  200 years before Matthew’s day, this collection of writings was translated into everyday Greek—the language used throughout the Roman Empire from England to India and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.  Thus, these sacred books became accessible to those who could read or could understand the reading of this common language.  (Not long after Jesus’ death, an ex-Jewish general turned historian named Josephus wrote a popularization of the history contained in these books for the enlightenment of the empire.)  While the theme of the Old Testament mostly concerns God’s working and teaching in and through Israel, there is a larger purpose that repeats itself over and over.  God desires Israel to be a light to the entire world.  But Israel fails in this task most miserably.  She even fails to live up to the light in her own national boundaries.  Lest we read with smugness we must understand that the history of the rest of the world—even the so-called “Christian” nations—have not fared much better.  A quick read through of the Cambridge Shorter History of the Western World sounds every bit as sordid as that of Israel and Judah.  Have God’s purposes been thwarted?

Matthew will show us that this Messiah, Jesus, would be the One who will successfully fulfill God’s mandate to call out and energize a people that share the light of the glorious gospel to the whole world.  This book is the story of what that means and how it came about.  As various technical terms are mentioned in the text we will discuss them with special application to the way Matthew is using the term.  He doesn’t always give us a complete understanding of the term when it is first mentioned but saves the full explanation as the opportunity arises to illustrate the meaning in Jesus’ actions and teaching.  We will attempt to follow Matthew’s cues in this although we recognize that we are now armchair explorers who have some idea how this story goes.

As we open Matthew and read through his genealogy of Jesus, there are several peculiar features that should stand out.  It is as if Matthew deliberately provided little surveyor flags with their brightly colored streamers to point out to the reader, “Hey, what do you think this is about?”  (This method is also used in helping us to understand Jesus’ words and works throughout the book.)  In this case, note that most ancient genealogies contained only the names of men!  Who, then, are the five women named here?  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) and even Mary are all surprise interjections of suspicious character.  The first four are not even Israelites – they are Gentiles!  And Mary has gotten pregnant before the wedding—and not by the husband!  All but Ruth and Mary had a history of immorality and Mary was suspected of it!  Jesus is not just born into a family of mortals but of sinners!

Speaking of men, four of the men named here are listed in the great “faith chapter” in Hebrews 11: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.  Were these four always faithful men?  Eight of the men named here are called “evil” in Scripture: Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Joram (also called Jehoram in Scripture), Ahaz, Manasseh, Amos (also called Amon and not to be confused with a prophet Amos), and Jeconiah.  There are seven men named here who are called “good” in Scripture: David, Asaph (also called Asa), Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah.

With all these kings and the royal line, the question that naturally arises is, why isn’t the redeemer born in a palace?  The story of the Babylonian exile and the resulting loss of the control of their own nation is the subject of much of the Old Testament.  The royal line still lives – but as obscure peasants.

So, Matthew begins with a seemingly hopeless situation to present the Author of hope—Jesus Christ—who comes exactly as prophesied through this unlikely channel.

An honest look at the human legacy of our own family will have its own stains amidst the glories of the past.  But the Redeemer is coming into the world in no better circumstances.

-- © 2017 Eric H Thimell