Matthew 1

Matthew 1 is "a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham" (verse 1) - A family tree, of sorts... This is an example of a Toledoth which is Hebrew for Generations - which is something I learned in my Old Testament class...

Even though it seems redundant and questionable to have a timeline, I see it as informative in regards to what was happening at the time. By this I mean that they mention in verse 11 "...at the time of the exile to Babylon" - which shows historically what was happening at the time; in this case it is telling about the time in which the Israelites were in captive...

Matthew 1: 18 to 25 - "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about" (verse 18) - These are the verses that share of Mary, Joseph and the prophecies fulfilled...

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" — which means, "God with us." (verse 23)

"God with us" - God in the flesh, God as fully man and fully God... This is an awesome show of God's love for us... He did not send a representive that was solely God, but he sent his Son to earth (to die) as fully God and Man. If we were to question if God knows what it is like to walk in our footsteps as human beings, He has! Jesus came to earth as a child/man/human and yet...he was fully God as well.

Another thing that I have pulled from this is the visitation of the angel of the Lord: Joseph had the intent of divorcing Mary quietly, and with good cause too, but an angel of the Lord came to him and explained the scenario- which was probably a refresher course on the book of Isaiah among other books/prophets that told of Jesus' coming for Joseph... He didn't divorce Mary, nor did he have sex with her until Jesus was born...

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