Respond with Faith, Not Fear
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by Adonai into a town in the Galilee named Natzeret [Nazareth] and to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Miriam [Mary]. And coming to her, the angel said, "Shalom [Peace], favored one! Adonai is with you." But at the message, she was perplexed and kept wondering what kind of greeting this might be. The angel spoke to her, "Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called Ben-Elyon [Son of the Most High]. Adonai Elohim [the Lord God] will give Him the throne of David, His father. He shall reign over the house of Jacob for all eternity, and His Kingdom will be without end." — Luke 1:26–33
Mary, (Miriam, in Hebrew) was living in the small village of Nazareth when her life forever changed. Not because she was engaged to be married at the age of thirteen or fourteen — that was normal for their culture — but because an angel appeared to her and told her that she would conceive supernaturally and bear a Son.
Can you imagine her shock? Besides being troubled and very afraid by the angel's appearance, Mary knew she was a virgin. How could there be a baby? She also knew the law of the land that meant she would live in disgrace the rest of her days. Yet the angel had called her favored.
Genealogy and the Number Fourteen
Many people use ancestry apps to discover their genealogy and heritage. These online services offer many details and documents of past generations, such as ethnicity, geographic history, and of course the family tree. In much the same way, we can look at the Bible to discover the heritage as well as the historical and spiritual significance of the genealogy of Jesus, and of His parents, Joseph and Mary, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
But first, we must recognize that the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 is different from the one in Luke 3:23–38. Why is this? What's the difference between them? Though it's not obvious, I believe that Matthew's gospel tells us Joseph's ancestry (Jesus' legal father), while Luke's genealogy points to Mary's line (His blood relative).
One of the exciting things about Matthew's account — of Joseph, I believe — is that it centers around three sets of fourteen generations with every set pointing to, and finding fulfillment in, Jesus. Why fourteen? Numbers are significant in the Scriptures, and Hebrew is alphanumeric. In Hebrew, we write numbers using letters. In addition, every word has a numerical value. So it's significant that these three sets of fourteen generations are recorded:
- From Abraham to David (Matt. 1:1–6)
- From David until the Babylonian exile (Matt. 1:6–11)
- From the Babylonian exile until the Messiah (Matt. 1:12–17)
Do you wonder why the Holy Spirit, through Matthew in 1:17, chose to emphasize the number fourteen?
The numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the name David is fourteen. It's broken down this way: ד (dalet, 4) + ו (vav, 6) + ד (dalet, 4) = 14. The three sets of fourteen generations in Matthew's genealogy of the Messiah point to and reinforce a detail that is integral to the gospel itself: Yeshua is the Son of "David" (14), the promised Messiah — the Mashiach — that God Himself spoke of in 2 Samuel 7:16.
The number fourteen is also directly connected to the gospel message of salvation. The Hebrew word for "hand," yad, also has a numerical value of fourteen. Scripture repeatedly states that God brought Israel out of Egypt with a yad hazakah, "a mighty hand." (For example, see Deuteronomy 5:15.) Yeshua is the Son of David, the promised Messiah who is the Hand that redeems God's people from slavery to sin.
Of course, there's more, but we need to shift from basic addition onto multiplication. Hidden in Matthew's three sets of fourteen generations we discover God's plan not only to rescue us from bondage but to bring us into the fullness of His promises. How?
42 = 3 × 14
The number forty-two isn't commonly mentioned when Bible teachers discuss numerology. But take a look at the story in Numbers about when God rescued Israel from Egypt and led them on a journey toward the promised land. There were forty-two stages to their exodus that point to and find their culmination in the birth of the Messiah Yeshua, the One who leads all who place their faith in Him. Scripture says, "Moses recorded the stages of their journeys at Adonai's command" (Numbers 33:2). What follows is a detailed listing of each one of those "stages," or stops (encampments).
This is the sort of reading we might be tempted to skim, but if you listed all of them, you'd see all forty-two stops. There are no accidents with God! Then the forty-two names in the Matthean genealogy symbolize the stages of humanity's journey from slavery to sin to true freedom by the gracious work of Yeshua, the Son of David.1 He is the final stop on our redemptive journey.
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