“Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.” (vv. 15-16)

Just in case you skimmed past it…

…don’t miss Matthew’s gift to you.

If we were to come proclaiming a gospel with no verifiable history, could it really comfort you? Could you build your life on words without historical ground? Would a vague assurance—“it happened back then sometime somehow”—be at all trustworthy?

Of course not.

Which is why Matthew’s genealogical record of Jesus the Christ is a gift!

Jesus didn’t come from nowhere. He was given, as promised, through a people of Promise. We see Him fulfilling expectation and prophecy—but only as they are rooted through a people and a place, in history. And, when you turn your eyes and your analysis back to the Ancient Near East, you find them all there in an infinitude of evidences.

Matthew’s inspired gift to us is the grounding of the Gospel. The point on which all of history turns is still an historical claim!

Let that give you confidence, as you claim Him.

— Tyler