God Saves

WELCOME to the study of Matthew!  Regular Bible study is vital, whatever method you choose.  I’m glad you have chosen to study along with me through the Book of Matthew.  We will be studying Monday through Friday together and I would encourage you to take the weekends to review what you learned and recap what God has been teaching you throughout the week or use the time to catch up if needed or even to skim ahead and prepare for the upcoming week.  I’ve tried to divide up the readings to make them more manageable so we could have time to let the verses soak in.  So let’s begin … Holy Spirit I pray you would teach us all things and guide our study of The Word …

 

Theme: God Saves

 

Scripture:  “This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham …”  Matthew 1:1

 

This came from our daily reading in Matthew 1:1-17

 

Observation:  Matthew was writing down what actually happened. The first words of his book seem to tell Jesus’ family history, but Matthew was introducing the whole book. The idea he presents is that, ‘This book gives the history of Jesus Christ.’  The name Christ not only is the name we read in the Bible, but it describes His job.  God chose Christ for a special purpose. The word comes from a Greek word ‘christos’. This is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘meshiah’. To a Jew, this meant the one who would save them.  The Old Testament is full of promises about a Messiah who would come.  Christ’s lineage would be from both Abraham and David.  These are two great forefathers of the Jewish faith or Hebraic faith – these are OUR fathers!

 

Have you ever looked into your genealogy?  Our family has spent some time doing this and it is always interesting to see where you came from or who your ancestors were.  The Jewish people kept a careful record and Matthew records these records as proof of who Christ was. 

 

Matthew began his book with a list of names. He divided it into three sections. Each section has 14 names.

 

Bible Teacher Stephen Dray explains the sections as follows:

 

The first section begins with Abraham. He was the first man to have a promise like this from God. The promise was that God would send someone special. This person would be from Abraham’s family. He would come to save people. (Read Genesis 12:1–3.)

 

The first section ends with David. He was the Jews’ greatest king (1:2–6a). So, Matthew showed the human part of God’s promise. David was the greatest member of Abraham’s family. This was true until the time when Matthew lived. But, after David had died, his kingdom divided. It became two separate parts. Then, it stopped being a great kingdom. But God gave greater promises to David. (Read 2 Samuel 7.) The person who would save them would be greater than David.

 

The second section continues with David’s family. It ends at the time of the exile.

 

Then there is the third section. This deals with the years from the exile to the birth of Jesus Christ. (This is in 1:12–17.) Some people claimed to be the Messiah. This happened even before the time of Matthew. But there was nobody who could convince the people. Then, Jesus came. Matthew shows that Jesus is the Messiah. All of God’s promises in the OT come true in him.

 

For the application section please write down what you learned through the reading today.

Please COMMENT on and answer any questions below.

 

Application:  As women I want us to focus on the four women listed in the genealogy of Christ.  In the comments below write down the names of the four women and who they were.  How does it make you feel that God would use these four women in his lineage?    

 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank you for Yeshua, Jesus, our Messiah who was born just as You said He would be.  Thank you for using these four women in the lineage of Christ and for using each one of us women despite our pasts and our sins.  There are so many times I feel unworthy, but You choose to use us despite who we were or who we are.  Thank You for that refreshing word this morning.  In the Name of Yeshua our Savior I pray.  Amen & Amen

 

 

Bible Study Tip of the Day:

Read the text several times. If it is possible, use more than one translation.

· Think about what you have read.

· Write down your own thoughts about the passage.

· Look at any other notes that are available to you.

· Answer the questions that are at the end of each section. They have a purpose. It is to help you to use the passage in your own situation.

 

· End with prayer. This is a good habit. Pray about the things that you have learned.