Unshaken: Chapter a Day
Pastor Chris Plekenpol and his guests explore the Bible together one chapter at a time. They offer practical insights, theological depth, and real-life applications. Dive in for engaging discussions that bring God’s Word to life, one chapter at a time!
Unshaken: Chapter a Day
Matthew 1 Discussion
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, welcome to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Plek along with Pastor Holland and we are talking Matthew chapter 1. Pastor Holland, let's talk about some of the great observations that you
SPEAKER_00:made in this text. Alright, observations. There's a lot of names here in this genealogy. Lots. Genealogies tend to be something that get just passed over, skipped. And so I wanted to make a little observation here about the genealogy. Okay. If you notice, starting in verse 17, it says all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. 14, count them up. From David to deportation to Babylon, 14. And from deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.
SPEAKER_01:What is significant about 14?
SPEAKER_00:Great question. I'm so glad you asked because in the Hebrew language, the letters have numerical value. And if you take the name David and add up the numerical value of each of those letters in his name, you get the number 14. Oh, what? And so, some biblical scholars and theologians would say that there's obviously a pretty important emphasis on 14 here. You get it explicitly in the demarcation of 14 generations, and then also implicitly in the numerical value of David's name. All of that to say there's a theological theme here being set up here in this genealogy that's not just telling you, here's the people that Jesus came from, but it's setting up the theological significance that it says in verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of who? David. Boom. Son of David. Son of Abraham. I love it. And so there's this big theme in Matthew that you see right from verse 1, and then in this more a little bit cryptic and implicit way in the genealogy that Jesus is the son of David, the true... descendant of David that was promised to sit on the throne forever and rule as God's king over God's people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. All right. How
SPEAKER_01:about this? Here's one thing I noticed about the genealogy, uh, is women are included, right? You've got Tamar, you've got Rahab, uh, you've got Ruth and you've got Bathsheba, who is known as the wife of Uriah and Mary and Mary. Good point. But is her name, her name's not listed, is it? You know,
SPEAKER_00:um, Joseph, the husband of Mary. Oh,
SPEAKER_01:it does say, yeah, it does say the husband of Mary. Okay, yeah. So, you got five women listed. And when I look at that, first off... Tamar, what a wreck. When you go back to Genesis 38, her story is wild. Her first husband dies because he was a wicked guy and God killed him. Then Onan marries her because he has to, which is romantic. And he has sex with her, but will not... place his seed inside her. There you go. And he spills it on the ground and God kills him for it. Yep. And then Judah, the father-in-law of Tamar, says, I'm not going to give my other son, I think Shealtiel, or one of his sons, to Tamar. So Tamar dresses up like... It's not Shealtiel. Tamar dresses up like a prostitute after Judah's wife dies and he's like, he wants... a woman, but he doesn't want a lifelong commitment. And so he pays- Sheila. Sheila. That's what I do with someone. Got you. Yeah. So he pays for sex, which I don't recommend. And then Tamar gets pregnant and he wants to have her burned to death because of her unfaithfulness and Because she was veiled. He didn't know who she was. So he wanted to have her killed off because she got pregnant outside of marriage. And so when he finds out, he sends word she's going to die and says, oh, hey, absolutely. But see if you recognize the one whose staff and seal this is, and it was his. He's like, ah, this woman was more righteous than I because I wouldn't give my son to her. What a wild story. And whatever you make of that, God uses broken people for his story and for his glory. So no matter how messed up your relationship is with your father-in-law, you too can have a story
SPEAKER_00:that glorifies God. I thought that was sort of wild. Amen. And not only, you know, are these women included, which is not normal, you know, so there's stories that Matthew is saying, you got to know these stories and you got to know, you know, how God has used these broken people and has turned, you know, sin into, that's what God that's so awesome about God. He takes sin and failure and all of our problems and he turns them for good. And so that's just, even in the genealogy, you get a powerful reminder of God's providence and his grace to turn bad things for good. And
SPEAKER_01:I think, and not to jump on every single one of these stories, but Rahab, she was another prostitute that I think, like of all the people that God would save in the city of Jericho back in... Joshua chapter 6. He decides to
SPEAKER_00:save... How about the prostitute?
SPEAKER_01:A prostitute.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like, you would think, wouldn't there at least the religious person? No, it was the person who feared the Lord and hid the spies that was also a prostitute and her whole life changed and now she is in the lineage of the king.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Wild. And then you've got Ruth, who is a Moabite, a complete Gentile. Like, you want talk about.
SPEAKER_00:And so was, um,
SPEAKER_01:Rahab. Rahab. Yeah. So Rahab and,
SPEAKER_00:and Tamar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Tamar, I think was, oh shit. Well, she was not obviously Jewish, right. Or, or, uh, an Israelite because she was part of, um, it was one that, um, uh, Judah had to find for his sons. Right. This is before they went down to Egypt. So this is clearly not part of the lineage. Yeah, you're right. So you've got Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and then Bathsheba, although she is an Israelite, uh, she was actually Uriah's wife, who was a Hittite, which is sort of wild to think about, right? And Uriah was also one of David's mighty men, his most trusted warriors, and he betrayed him and killed him off for Bathsheba, who then also becomes part of the lineage of Jesus. God uses broken stories.
SPEAKER_00:It's almost like the author of this book, Matthew, wants us to know that God saves sinners, and you Yeah, it's wild. What other observations did you see here? I'm just going to get revenge. I'm not going to make this person pay. You see someone who is a just and merciful person, which is really awesome. Yeah, I
SPEAKER_01:love that. How about God spoke through dreams? Is that something that we should get too much into? But I think God can communicate however he knows you can receive it. So God is the ultimate communicator. And if he's the ultimate communicator, he's going to communicate in a way that you will hear from him. Yeah. Which I think that is kind of a gift that I think sometimes you're like, I just... need is done well I think if you are seeking the Lord and you are a person that is following God he will communicate in a way that you will hear
SPEAKER_00:yeah and you get all these you know the New Testament just opens up with like boom the promises of God fulfilled angels dreams you know like reminders of all these stories like it really is such a cool way to go from the Old Testament and then just be like and and now get ready it's all about to be fulfilled in Jesus
SPEAKER_01:I love that how about a Jesus' name. I think, so Jesus, if you're not familiar with the Hebrew, it's Joshua in Hebrew, or Yeshua, which is how you do Joshua. So Joshua was the great leader of Israel that went and conquered all of Cana. And then you've got Joshua, who was a high priest in Zechariah. And you see him in that picture filled with dung and excrement which is sort of wild and then in a moment all the sins are taken away all of it's clean because he has taken on the sins of the world so it's like a wild vision that you see of the high priest Joshua taking on all of the darkness and sin before God and he isn't killed so you got Joshua as a great military leader and commander you got Joshua as a great high priest and then Jesus Joshua is both those things he is king and priest and the great leader of all and he will his name means God saves and specifically we learn saves his people from their sins
SPEAKER_00:yeah which for me going to application is like that's a promise to claim right there Jesus will save his people from their sins and it puts the you know the responsibility of salvation on Jesus which I love it's not on me it's not it's not you know Jesus will bless those who save themselves or something
SPEAKER_01:you know God saves those who save themselves. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:he'll save his people. That's a promise that God will, his salvation, you know, is from, you know, Jonah, salvation belongs to the Lord, right? He takes responsibility to save us. And that's just gives me a great hope and encouragement.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think another one for me is Jesus will be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. And I think there's another, this gets us to a promise to claim that God is with us. And I think we need to lean into that. And that's a promise that what's wild, I think, in culture, there are many Buddhists would say that God is transcendent. And we are trying to achieve transcendence, but God is so different. He is transcendent, yes, meaning outside space and time, but he's also imminent. He comes in to your moment. He entered into space and time as a human being. And then he interacts with us each individually imminently. And he's only able to do that through the Holy Spirit. which came through Jesus and God the Father sending His Spirit to us. But ultimately, that's how God with us in human flesh, which is how God tabernacled amongst His people in the Old Testament, God tabernacled in human skin in Jesus, and now we are the mobile tabernacles of God. If we are a follower of Christ, God is with us, and we can enjoy fellowship with Him wherever we go.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. That's good.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So, Yeah, real quick, I think the promise to claim, you went with-
SPEAKER_00:Jesus will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and my promise to claim is that God is with you. If you are a follower of Jesus, you can trust that God is with you. So enjoy God's word, and we'll see you tomorrow on a chapter a day.
