Matthew introduces us to Jesus by tying Him quickly to the grand narrative! We need a Messiah from David’s line and this leads us to Abraham. Matthew points out three genealogical lines that total 14 generations each. This a curious number and leaves us wondering why 14 matters so much. Many have written many possibilities: 1) in Hebrew, letters and numbers are connected. If you “add” the name of David, you get 14. This gave 14 a kingly connection. Three “14’s” is maybe saying “king, king, king” in a significant way, like “holy, holy, holy.” 2) it also could be a connection to the number 7, which reflects perfection. 3) Matthew desires to draw connections between these 3 phases of Jewish history. All of the key phases! The father/start of the people, the greatest king and the darkest hour. Jesus fixes it all! He’s the king, the obedient son of the Father and the light in the darkness. Perhaps it’s all three. Matthew starts with a bang!

Compare Luke’s account from Mary’s perspective to Matthew’s view of Joseph. We get the whole story this way! What an amazing thing to get almost the full story. We can trust these accounts!