This post is Day 23 in a series of studies about “Babies and Children”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Babies and Children – Day 23

As the day approaches when we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, it seems appropriate to look at the family tree of Jesus. In the gospel of Matthew, we have the line of Joseph. Although he was not the father, he was the husband of the mother of The Saviour.

Matthew 1:16

Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

The Thought

As we approach the day in our calendar when we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, it seems appropriate to look at the family tree of Jesus. Here in Matthew’s gospel, we have the line of Joseph. Although he was not Jesus’ father, he was the husband of The Saviour’s mother, and trusted with the responsibility of that very special baby.

Mary’s family line is not given in the Bible, but in Luke 3 we have the family line given in the opposite direction and ending with Adam. Jesus and Adam had one thing in common, they were both direct Sons of God (Genesis 1:27).

There are some interesting facts in Matthew 1. There are only four women mentioned by name. Tamar (v3) acted as a prostitute in order to seduce her father in law who had not kept his promise. She had twins, one of whom was Perez in the family line of Jesus!

Rahab (v5), worked as a prostitute, and helped the spies to escape after their visit to Jericho (Joshua 2:1, 6:17&23).

Ruth (v5) was a childless widow until she married Boaz (Ruth 4:13). She was the one who provoked him into marrying her (Ruth 3:7).

Mary was different! She was a righteous young women highly favoured by God (Luke 1:28-30).

Action

Read Matthew 1 today and note some of the unusual things mentioned about those in the family line of Jesus’ half-brothers. Think about how God used the people who were born out of wedlock. He still does that today.

God can change hearts, circumstances, and careers. Once we are adopted as His children, we can wipe out the bad things in our family tree that have badly affected us, and begin again with a clean inheritance.

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