Reflection Notes on Matthew 1

I am trying to build my relationship with God. So I have started to read the Bible regularly. I also decided that when I read the Bible, I would like to take notes. This writing entry is my first on this. I will be writing my notes and reflections on the first chapter of the book of Matthew.

Verses 1 - 17 give an outline of Jesus' generations before Him. It starts with Abraham and ends with Jesus Christ. Just from my reading of this section of the chapter, I have two questions. My first question is why did the list of generations start with Abraham? From my recollection, Abraham was called by God to be a father to many nations. Abraham was the one that showed great obedience to God, after God told him to sacrifice his only child, at the time, from Sarah his wife. Abraham had Ishmael before but Ishmael was born of Hagar. Due to reasons I would not like to assume, Isaac was seen as the heir of Abraham. I digress. This special calling in the life of Abraham may be the reason why the lineage starts with Abraham. God called him to be the father of many nations.

The second question is what is the significance of the number 14. Verse 17 shows how the lineage of Jesus from Abraham can be separated into 3 distinct blocks, each of the them being the same length, which is 14. I would like to believe that this shows the perfection of God. God's plan is perfect and His ways are perfect.

Jesus' mother was pregnant with Him before she had sex with Joseph. She became engaged to Joseph and we see that she became pregnant afterwards. In verse 19, we see how the relationship changed from betrothed to now a marriage. The Bible verse says Joseph was a just man. In some translations, they say he was an upright man. "Upright" in the Bible means having moral integrity, righteousness and honesty, characterised by a sincere commitment to God's commandments. In other words, a person who lives according to God's will. Joseph knew he had not had sex with Mary and she was pregnant. If the same timeline is to be followed here as it is for typical modern engagements and marriage, then Mary's stomach would have shown. Joseph, knowing he has not had sex with her yet, would have been shocked. The key here is that she was already married by the time she started to show. If she was not married, I cannot even begin to imagine what Mary would have gone through. A non-married woman falling pregnant at that time. But she was married and as such, to the outsiders, nothing was wrong. However, Joseph knew the pregnancy was not his doing. Even in all this, he did not want to put her to shame publicly. He still cared enough to not want her to be embarrassed. He still showed empathy and kindness to her. The other thing I noted was the verse 19 said Joseph wanted to put here away secretly. This means that upon all the stress, confusion, anxiety and everything he was probably going through, he did not say a word to people. This is a lesson that even if a relationship might be going through a tough time, we do not need to tell everybody. Instead, we can speak to God to help us. Josephprobably knew he was not in the wrong here and he would have had every right to expose Mary but he didn't. Another angle, which I do not want to dwell on too much here, is that what if Joseph felt embarrassed of the thought that Mary cheated on him? I know that is not what the Bible says but I was just thinking of how I would feel if I was in that situation.

We can see that Joseph was greatly troubled by these things. An angel visited Joseph in his dream and told him not to be afraid. Not to be afraid to marry Mary or continue his marriage with her. However, Joseph obeyed the angel and did as he was commanded to do. Sometimes, I wonder how Joseph felt seeing the dream he had. I also wonder if that was the first ever time he had gotten a dream of revelation from God. If that was not the first time, it showed that Joseph already had a good relationship with God and could discern when it was God speaking to him. Even if this was not the first time, he showed great obedience to do a very difficult thing, irrespective of how he felt or the circumstances in which he found himself. Now, if this was the first time he had encountered the presence of God in his dream, his reaction and obedience is even more impressive because he showed great faith. He showed full trust in God and His plans. I will aim to be like Joseph.