This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Matthew 1:1
The Gospel I will quote the most in this devotional study is Matthew, as it was written primarily to a Jewish audience. It should be no surprise, then, that this book starts out with a genealogy to prove Jesus was descended from Abraham. Luke also records a genealogy that starts with Jesus and goes all the way back to Adam.
The most common explanation for the two genealogies differing from King David to Jesus is that Luke appears to be tracing through Mary while Matthew goes through Joseph, though both parents belonged to the tribe of Judah. Both books had different target audiences as well. Matthew also spiritualizes the genealogy a bit, while Doctor Luke seeks to be literal in his account.
For the sake of space, I am only going to give a brief summary of this family line to make today’s point. Let’s go all the way back to Abraham when he was still called Abram. God told Abram that He would bless him and make him a blessing (Genesis 12:2–3). This was in spite of his then-barren wife, Sarai, who had Isaac at an old age. Later, Isaac married Rebekah and they had Jacob and Esau. Jacob received Isaac’s blessing despite being the younger son.
Jacob had twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin. The descendants of these sons eventually formed the twelve tribes of Israel.
The tribe of Judah was the leader among the tribes and would see a future king rule the nations (Genesis 49:10). This was initially fulfilled through David and later by Someone far more important. From the genealogies, we realize that Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and descended from King David. Further proof is in John’s apocalyptic vision, Revelation. He sees that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” (5:5).
From these Biblical accounts, we can conclude with confidence that Jesus was a descendant of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the tribe of Judah, and from the royal line of King David. We can rest in God’s sovereign plan, which was made before the foundations of the world, to send His Son through a very specific race, tribe, and family line.
