The popular sci-fi movie “Star Wars” featured a planet called Tatooine on which Luke Skywalker lived. This planet orbited around two suns. And earlier this year astronomers discovered a real Tatooine. They located a real planet orbiting around two suns. This video shows a planet named Kepler 16b crusing around a smaller red sun and a larger orange sun. The planet takes 229 days to make the circuit. Scientists were thrilled to find this—a two-sun solar system.
In our text this morning Matthew is going to paint the story of the Old Testament as a two-sun solar system. Matthew is going to provide a way of viewing the Old Testament which has two center-points. There are over 900 chapters in the Old Testament. Someone has suggested that there are over 3,000 peopled named in the Old Testament. And there are over 23,000 verses in the Old Testament. But Matthew’s going to give us a way to cut through all of that. Of the hundreds of chapters, and thousands of verses and individuals in the Old Testament, Matthew’s going to tell us that it comes down to just two. Everything in the Old Testament revolves around these two items.
Matthew’s two-sun solar system portrait of the Old Testament is found in Matt. 1:1-17. This is a text which even the most avid Bible readers skip. Most people believe this text is just too boring to pay attention to. It’s called a genealogy. We might call it a family tree. It tells us about Jesus’ ancestors. These are people whose stories are told in the Old Testament. And in our three-part series called “A Christmas Family Tree” we’re going to explore the family tree found in Matt. 1 and in Luke 3.
There are five things you need to know about genealogies like these.[1]
- First, genealogies were common in ancient biographies. Ancient biographers often began by writing about the birth and ancestors of the one who was the focus of their biography. Matthew begins his biography of Jesus with this genealogy and then he tells the story of Jesus’ birth.
- Second, genealogies were common among priest’s families. Some genealogies of Jewish priests were preserved in the Temple. Those of upper-class priests traced back to the pre-exilic period. That is, they could trace their family tree back beyond the time when Israel was exiled to Babylon.
- Third, genealogies were used to determine rights to royalty and inheritance. A genealogy could qualify or disqualify a son to be the next in line for the throne. In a similar way, genealogies were used to determine if a member of a family had any inheritance rights.
- Fourth, genealogies could be used to prove the racial purity of a family or an individual. This was especially true of Jews. Their genealogies were used to show that their bloodlines were pure and contained no Gentile blood.
- Fifth, genealogies were testimonies to God’s providence. Jewish people believed God was at work bringing these husbands and wives together and blessing them with children. Thus genealogies served as a testimony of God’s providence in a family’s life.
And this is where Matthew’s genealogy fits. Matthew’s list of names is actually a testimony of God’s work in the world. It’s one of the most powerful testimonies of God’s work in the Old Testament.
And Matthew shows this divine work as a kind of two-sun solar system. His genealogy of Jesus and thus is overview of Old Testament history centers on two individuals. The first sun in Matthew’s Old Testament solar system is Abraham. Notice how Matthew begins: 1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matt. 1:1 ESV).
For Matthew, the place to begin thinking about Jesus is Abraham. The place to begin watching God’s work is Abraham. The place to begin understanding the Old Testament is Abraham. Why?
There’s something very fundamental that answers this question. When my children were younger, Kendra and I read an important book to them. The book was authored by John Trent. It was called I’d Choose You. The book described a young elephant named Norbert who had a pretty tough day. He had to sit all by himself on the roller coaster to school while all his friends sat with each other. And the day went downhill from there. But when Norbert got home from school, his mother and father “blessed” him. The book is based on the Old Testament concept of blessing. The author examined Old Testament references to blessing and found that there were five aspects of blessing. First, there was the giving of meaningful and appropriate touch. Thus in the story Norbert is hugged by his parents after his hard day. Second, there was the speaking of words of affirmation. Thus, in the story Norbert elephant is cheered vocally by his parents. Third, there is the expressing of high value. Thus in the story Norbert receives a “You’re Someone Special” medal from his parents. Fourth, there is the picturing of a special future. Thus Norbert’s parents help him see that tomorrow will be better. Finally, there is the commitment to continue to bless. And by the end of the story we realize Norbert’s parents will bless him the rest of their lives. The book is really about how we all long for blessing.
As Harold Shank shared with us a few months ago, many of us have never been blessed in this way. Harold said that as a professor at Oklahoma Christian University he would often devote part of a class to talking about the Old Testament idea of blessing. Then he would bless the students by telling them how valuable they were to God, what a special future God had for them, and how God would stick with them no matter what. And students would cry, because they’d never been blessed like that before.
That blessing is what Matthew has in mind by mentioning Abraham as one of the center points of the Old Testament and of Jesus’ family tree. The story of Abraham is the story of a promise. It’s a promise of blessing: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3 ESV). For Matthew, the entire story of the Old Testament revolves around a promise of blessing. God wants to bless every person in every nation. He wants to demonstrate how valuable we are to him. He wants to affirm the worth of all of us. He wants to express what a special future he has for us. And he promises to do this through Abraham’s descendants.
That’s a sun around which the entire Old Testament revolves. That’s a sun around which the story of Jesus revolves. Its message is this: God wants to bless you. You are valuable to God. You are worth a great deal to God. God has a special future for you.
But for Matthew, there is another person who is central in the genealogy and thus central to the Old Testament. The second sun is David. Matthew traces the lineage from Abraham to David. And he summarizes the genealogy in verse 1 by saying that this is “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” For Matthew, everything you need to know about Jesus’ family tree and thus the Old Testament is in this one phrase: “the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Matthew also draws attention to David at the end of the genealogy: 17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (Matt. 1:17 ESV) Matthew uses the number 14 to point to David.[2] In Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, it was possible to assign numerical values to letters. And the numerical value of the letters in David’s Hebrew name is 14. The number 14 was Matthew’s way of saying that every person in Jesus’ genealogy points to David. Every event in the Old Testament points to David. But why?
This can be answered by recent events. During the second week of November many sports fans were stunned when the Board of Regents of Penn State University fired the University President and famed football coach Joe Paterno. The cuts came after the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges. Board members felt that that the University President and football coach did not do enough to stop Sandusky’s misbehavior. Around the same time we heard news of Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou stepping down due to his inability to overcome Greece’s financial turmoil. Days later Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to resign over similar difficulties. We are living through a period of leadership failure. Leaders are falling. People all over the world are longing for leaders who will put the people first, lead with integrity, and usher in better times.
This longing for leadership is central to the story of David. Like the story of Abraham, the story of David in the Old Testament is the story of a promise. It is the promise of leadership. God swears to David in 2 Sam., 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13 ESV). Later Isaiah would say this about David’s heir: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Is. 9:7 ESV). The story of David is the story of a promise of leadership. A promise of a leader who has the ability to create peace and righteousness and justice. A leader who never abuses power and who always thinks of his people. This promise will be fulfilled through David’s descendants.
The story of the Old Testament is that through David, God promises to bring a leader into your life, into the life of every person, who leads in a right way. A leader who will bring you justice and righteousness. A leader who will bring peace to your heart and to our world.
For Matthew, these are the two promises around which the entire Old Testament revolves: a promise of blessing and promise of leadership.
And these two promises, according to Matthew, are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth. That’s one of the points of Matthew’s genealogy. Because his family line goes back to David and to Abraham, infant Jesus is the one who fulfills both the promise to Abraham and the promise to David. Through infant Jesus comes the blessing that every person longs for. Through infant Jesus comes a leader with the justice and righteous and peace we hope for. Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “You are valuable to me. You have worth to me. I have a special future for you.” Through Jesus’ birth, God is saying to you, “My son can lead you. My son can rule with integrity. My son can provide what no other ruler can.”
For Matthew, Jesus is now the true sun of the solar system of our lives. Ultimately Abraham and David merely pointed to their great-great-great-great grandchild Jesus. Jesus is now the sun around which the entire Bible revolves; around which the entire cosmos revolves.
Matthew even uses special language to make this point. In vs. 1 Matthew literally writes “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.” The word “genesis” ought to swing our minds back to the book of Genesis. There, a new world began. Something fresh was started. A new sun rose bringing with it hope and life. Matthew is saying that the birth of Jesus is something similar. It is another genesis. It is a sun rising bringing with it hope and life. Bringing blessing and leadership.
But let me point out one more aspect of this genealogy. The genealogy is made of three blocks of 14 names. The first 14 names move from Abraham to David. There’s a kind of upward movement as they climax with King David. But the next 14 names move downward. They take us from the golden days of King David to the dark days when the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon. It was the lowest moment in Jewish history. The final 14 names then move upward from the exile in Babylon to the birth of Jesus.[3]
Consider this movement. It means that the people of God suffered years of exile when it appeared that the sun had set on God’s promise to Abraham and to David. In exile, their spiritual universe no longer had any sun. When the Babylonians came, they demolished Jerusalem and dragged the people away to a foreign country. Stranded there in exile, the people felt they no longer had value in God’s eyes. They no longer mattered to God. They no longer had a special future with God. They no longer had a leader in whom they could trust. A leader who would make the wrong things right. When the exile began, their hope in the promises to Abraham and David ended. In the darkness of the exile, it seemed the sun had set on the promise of blessing and leadership.
And aren’t there times when it seems that sun has set in our own world? Brishan, Candice and I met with Jon Arnett a few weeks ago. Jon oversees the Sightseer class for those who want to learn more about Highland. As we sat down to discuss the class, Jon shared that another round of cuts had just gone through the corporation he works for. Hundreds were being let go. Hundreds of more cuts were to follow. And we felt for those affected. To lose a job, especially during the holidays, is so hard. I have no doubt that some of them felt a kind of cold blackness, as if the sun had set.
For some of us the holidays are not the most wonderful time of the year. They are the most difficult time of the year. Because of death, sickness, loneliness, or financial loss, it feels as if the sun has set on the promises of God. And we wonder if God is really going to come through.
But notice that in Matthew’s genealogy, while there is downward movement, there is also eventually upward movement. Eventually the exile ends and Jesus is born. Eventually God’s promises of blessing and leadership are fulfilled through Jesus’ birth. And what Matthew wants us to know through that movement is that the sun has not set on God’s promises to us through Jesus. For Matthew, Christmas is about the fact that eventually, hope always wins. Eventually, God’s promises are always kept. Eventually, divine blessing and leadership always arrive. It may not come in the time we anticipated. It may not come in the form we imagine. In fact it may show up as a baby lying in a manger. But eventually, the sun always rises. God’s promises are always kept.
So as you celebrate with trees and presents and meals this Christmas, pay special attention to the lights. Let the lights remind you of the sun. Let the lights remind you that everything in your life revolves around that sun of Jesus Christ and its certainty. And though you may have experiences that gnaw at your soul, making you wonder if God is there, if God does care, if you do have worth in his sight, and if there is any leader out there worth following, remember the sun of Jesus Christ. No matter the darkness, that sun eventually rises. All the promises and hopes pinned to Jesus Christ will come true. God will come through for you in the end.
[1] Craig S. Keener A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Eerdmans, 1999), 73-80.
[2] Frederick Dale Bruner Matthew: A Commentary Volume 1 (Word, 1987), 20.
[3] Bruner, 4.
