06/03/2024 – We are here! – Day 001 – Matthew 1 -2 – Semikkah7 read through the Bible in one year/. Join us! (this will be our 3rd cycle on this blog website – use the tools! )
If you don’t have an account , please contact me at Semikhah7@protonmail.com to get you set up and I would like to have a brief one on one session to show you the filtering and search tools going forward. We have two previous cycles of commentaries for each reading, so we may not have two posts for each day, but I can assure you we have at least one for every single day
If you are in read only, the first screen you see when accessing the website has a black menu bar up top that includes “Semikkah7 reading plan”. Click on it and you can print via pdf or excel all of the daily reading assignments for the entire year.
Logged on, you can filter on “starter kit” and you will see a post for this cycle, including my recommendation that you contact me to get you kicked off and running.
Speaking of filtering tools, I highly recommend for this day 001 you search on “02/08/2022” and “12/21/2021” to bring up sermons by Alistair Begg and John MacArthur on Matthew 2: “The Magi Seek the King”. This is where our fellowship would take off for this day 001!
Again, from my 04/23/2024 post in “starter kit”, here are standard questions we can use to generate fellowship:
Our prayers and fellowship off our study is open but here are some possible fellowship generator questions:
- That does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.
As far as Chapter One, we haven’t expounded much if at all of the genealogy in Chapter One, so I am going to share the some footnotes in my Apologetics Study Bible:
“1:1. In identifying Jesus as Son of David and Son of Abraham, Matthew linked Jesus to the Davidic messianism of the Old Testament (OT). This connection is suggested in the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7: 12-16; Psalm 89:29) and explicitly expressed in the Prophets (Isaiah 9:6-7; 11: 1-10; Jeremiah 23: 5-6; 30:9; 33: 14-26; Ezekiel 34: 20-24; 37: 24-28; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11; Zechariah 3:8). Matthew also linked Jesus to the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12: 1-3; 22:18)., in which God promised to bless all nations of the earth through Abraham’s seed. The two covenants are brought together in Psalm 72:17 (Matthew 28:19). Jesus’ Davidic descent was not a theological invention of the early church. It was attested as early as Paul (Romans 1:3) and in the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 7:14). Furthermore, Jesus’ immediate family, which was prominent in the early church, would have to accept the claim. The Talmud, a collection of Jewish, rabbinical writings, repeatedly charges Jesus with being born out of wedlock, for example, to Pandera, a Roman soldier, so this a polemic against Jesus’ lineage. But there is no polemic against Mary’s or Joseph’s lineages.”
“1: 2-16: There is evidence that the first-century Jews kept genealogical records (for example, the Jewish historian Josephus referred to the public registers as sources for some of his information). Matthews’s genealogy emphasizes Christ’s royal lineage, while Luke’s focuses on His biological lineage. For more about the the differences between the genealogies, see note on Luke 3: 23-38. (On the schematic nature of the genealogy, see note below on Matthew 1:17.)”
“1:17. Matthew omitted several names in his genealogy in order to maintain a three times 14 generation structure (Greek egennesen, translated “fathered“, indicated ancestry, not actual fatherhood. ‘All the generations’ must then be taken to imply ‘as summarized here.’). Matthew was emphasizing Jesus’ birth as a culminating moment in Israel’s history. The third set of ’14’ has only 13 names, unless one counts Jechoniah a second time (or the second set has 15, if one begins it with David). Perhaps Matthew reflected the common feeling of his time that Jechoniah could be considered both a pre-exilic and a post-exilic figure (see 2 Kings 24: 8-12; 25: 27-30). David is the central figure in the lineage of Jesus. When the consonants in his name are added, the sum is 14,; hence, the importance of the number 14 to Matthew. David is the fourteenth entry in the genealogy.”
“Luke has a different genealogy of Jesus that traces His ancestry all the way back to Adam. See note on Luke 3: 23-38 for an explanation of the differences between the two genealogies.”
“1: 18-25. This passage, unique to Matthew, shows the exemplary character of Joseph. He did not question the angel’s explanation for Mary’s pregnancy. He obeyed without question what the angel told him to do, going ahead with his plans to take Mary as his wife.”
Soli Deo Gloria!