Matthew’s Christmas

Matthew’s Christmas

Matthew’s account of the events we frequently associate with Christmas and the incarnation is written as a testimony for and to Jews, and other surviving Israelites.  He recounts a partial genealogy of Jesus to prove that He is the lawful King of Israel.  Jesus is the direct descendent of Abraham, the father of all who believe, the head of nation Israel, before Isaac and Jacob (Israel).  Jesus is the direct descendent of David, the father of all the legitimate kings of Israel/Judah.  Jesus is the rightful heir of both Abraham and David, returning from the disgrace of Babylon.  Jesus is the miraculously conceived and virgin[1] born fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.  His name is Immanuel because He is God with us; He is the bodily visible return of the Sh^əkinah: Yet, the Glory of His appearing is slightly veiled, especially from unbelievers.  He is also named Jesus, a variation of the name of Joshua, because He is the New Joshua, the Savior who will lead His people into the eternal Promised Land, the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion, the City of God.

Matthew skips all the details of taxation, arduous journey, birth in a stable in poverty, and leaps directly to roughly one or two years later.  Joseph has now located his family in a house, and God has marked the place with the Shəkinah Star shining overhead.  Isn’t it amazing that Persian nobles should see the Star; yet, the Star was hid from the priests, who were unbelievers?  So Jesus was known to be in Bethlehem from the words of Micah.[2]  They journeyed to Egypt to fulfill Hosea 11:1 and reveal that Jesus is the New Moses, greater even than Moses.  And so wicked Herod slaughtered the innocent children of Bethlehem, but even Herod’s intended evil was turned to good by God: for the children were surely unharmed in heaven, and the relationship to Rachael’s suffering and death in childbirth was made eternally firm; so that the words of Jeremiah, weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem for its idolatries, would not fall to the ground.[3]

All of this so that blind and stiff necked Israel/Judah might hear the Gospel: so that a few might listen and believe.

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[1] The MT is incorrect and hides the true weight of Isaiah’s words, which are correctly recorded in the Septuagint.

[2] Micah 5:2

[3] Jeremiah 31:1-17, especially verse 15

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