Names of Jesus | Advent DevotionalSample

Saturday, December 7
Matthew 1 | Jesus
Author: Dr. Sam Lamerson

If you could choose your ancestors, whom would you choose? We all have a few bad branches in the family tree that we are ashamed of. By the same token, there are those to whom we might wish we could trace our lineage. Jesus had that chance, yet look at the people he chose.

For the sake of space, we will only look at the females in this genealogy, noting that having females in such a list was pretty unusual. Most genealogies from this time are concerned with the “fathers.” In this list, however, we find five different women.

Each of these women has something different about them. Some acted as prostitutes, were foreigners, at least one was an embarrassment to Jewish history (note that Bathsheba is not named but called “wife of Uriah”), and one was a girl who was pregnant outside of marriage. There is something “wrong” with each of them, yet Jesus included them in his genealogy.

One reason for including the women in the list is to illustrate the name of Jesus that we learn in this chapter. In verse 21, Matthew tells us we will call him “Jesus” because he will “save his people from their sins.” From the first time we meet Jesus in the New Testament, he is helping those who need forgiveness. All of society had convinced these women that they were wrong, useless, or expendable. Jesus offers them a new life, a changed future, and a clean slate.

A second reason for including these females is to illustrate another name of Jesus. In v. 23, Matthew quotes from the famous passage in Isaiah 7:14. Here, we learn that he will be called “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” God is on the side of his people, even when those people fall, sin, or make horrible mistakes.

There are those of you who do not feel like God is with you. You feel alone and dispirited, as if you are making decisions with no one to help you. Our passage today should remind you that God is with you. My professor, Dr. Robert Reymond, said this: “God with us, I will never understand that. I could understand ‘God against us’; I could understand ‘God is angry with us’; I could even understand ‘God wants nothing to do with us’; but ‘God with us’—that I will never understand.

Have a wonderful Advent, and remember, “God is with us.”