People in the Third Period of Jesus Christ’s Genealogy

Scripture reading: Matt. 1:15-16

Matthew 1:15–16 ESV

and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

9th Generation: Eliud

The name Eliud conveys God’s glory

Eliud: God is my glory, God is my majesty

Eliud’s name conveys God’s glory

The word hod, which is part of Eliud, describes God’s glory.

Psalm 8:1 (ESV)

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Psalm 148:13 (ESV)

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.

Although Eliud’s parents had to endure the pain of not being able to worship in the temple, they probably hoped and longed for the day when God’s glory would be revealed.

Eliud’s name conveys God’s majesty

The Hebrew word hod is also used to describe God’s majesty.

1 Chronicles 29:11 ESV

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Job 37:22 (ESV)

Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty.

Majesty refers to holy fear, splendor, authority, and honor that only God possesses.

Psalm 21:5 (ESV)

His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

Psalm 145:5 (ESV)

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

10th Generation: Eleazar

Eleazar: God has helped, helped by God

Six people named Eleazar in the OT

Aaron’s third son Eleazar (Ex. 6:23; Num 20:25-28)

Abinadab’s son Eleazar (1 Sam. 7:1)

King David’s mighty man Eleazar (1 Chr. 11:12-14).

Mahli’s son Eleazar (1 Chr. 23:21-22; 24:28)

Phinehas’ son Eleazar (Ezra 8:33-34)

Parosh’s son Eleazar (Ezra 10:25)

These names are a testimony and confession of the parents that God has helped within their lives. Seeing that there’s almost one Eleazar for each period in the OT, we can see that God is constantly at work, helping His people.

The name Eleazar means “God has helped”

Most of the people named Eleazar in the OT were priests, Levites, or mighty men of God.

Aaron’s heir, Eleazar, succeeded Aaron as high priest after Aaron’s death, and became a great leader who led the Israelites into Canaan along with Joshua.

We must ask, seek, and knock for God’s help as we live in this world.

Psalm 33:20 (ESV)

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 46:1 (ESV)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

11th Generation: Mattan

Mattan: Gift, offering

There are two people named Mattan in the Old Testament

Mattan, the high priest of Baal (2 Kgs. 11:18; 2 Chr. 23:17)

Mattan, the father of Shephatiah (Jer. 38:1-6)

The name Mattan means “Gift”

This indicates a longing for God’s gift in the form of total independence for the nation and the emergence of the Messianic kingdom.

Other names other mean “God’s gift” in the Lukan genealogy (Lk. 3:24-31)

Matthat x2

Mattathias x2

Mattatha

God’s biggest gift is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who brings the news of salvation.

John 4:10 ESV

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Romans 5:15 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Furthermore, everything we have is a gift by the grace of God.

12th Generation: Jacob

Jacob: One who takes by the heel, one who supplants

There is one other person named Jacob in the OT.

Before Jacob’s death, he called Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and placed them in the order of his own sons (Gen. 48:5-6).

This ensured that Joseph would receive a double portion of inheritance, and so Jacob was naming Joseph as the firstborn among his sons.

Jacob and Joseph received the greatest blessing of their time by being recorded as the grandfather and the father of Jesus Christ.

The genealogy in the Gospel of Luke lists Heli/Eli instead of Jacob

Matthew 1:16 ESV

and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Luke 3:23 ESV

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,

We’ve studied this before in the book 3 studies.

Matthew records the genealogy of Joseph, while Luke records the genealogy of Mary.

And Joseph’s name appears in Luke 3:23 because he succeeded Heli’s genealogy as his legal or adopted son, the reason being that Heli didn’t have any sons, but he had a daughter.

If you only had a daughter and no sons, your daughter could receive the inheritance. But she had to marry someone else within the same tribe, or else the inheritance belonging to your family and your tribe would be transferred to another tribe.

Numbers 27:7–8 ESV

“The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

Numbers 36:7–9 ESV

The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’ ”

Therefore, Matthew’s genealogy shows the line of Joseph, and Luke’s genealogy shows the line of Mary.

13th Generation: Joseph

Joseph: The Lord increases.

The Bible says that Joseph was a righteous or just man.

Matthew 1:19–20 ESV

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Characteristics of Joseph’s faith.

First, Joseph planned to send Mary away secretly.

What was the penalty for someone in Mary’s situation? It was considered adultery, and so they would be stoned to death.

Deuteronomy 22:23–24 ESV

“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

It says that Joseph considered these things. It’s in the plural. What was he considering? He was probably trying to process the huge shock that his wife was pregnant by someone other than him. He had no way of knowing that it was because of the Holy Spirit.

A regular person might be feeling sad, betrayed, angry, hurt, confused, frustrated, and all kinds of emotions. A regular person might seek revenge on their spouse for the betrayal.

But Joseph resolved in his heart to protect Mary from the consequence of her wrongdoing. From a Biblical perspective, we see a man wanting to protect his bride from the judgement of the law. And that’s the story of Jesus Christ, who protects His bride, the church, from the judgement of the law.

Joseph wanted to protect Mary secretly; Jesus protected us publicly. Joseph wanted to avoid the law; Jesus faced it and fulfilled it.

Joseph’s actions not only protected Mary, but also protected Jesus who was in her womb.

Second, Joseph considered God’s Word and immediately obeyed it

Matthew 1:21–25 (ESV)

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Joseph’s faith was able to overcome the storm that came upon his life all of a sudden. And when the angel brought God’s Word to him, he obeyed it immediately.

Furthermore, Joseph did not have sexual relations with Mary until she had given birth. When the baby was born, Joseph obeyed God’s command and named the boy Jesus.

14th Generation: Jesus

Jesus: The Lord saves

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born through the body of Mary

Matthew 1:16 ESV

and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Notice that all the previous verses say “This person begot this person” and so on, but in the case of Jesus, it’s in a passive voice. Mary, of whom Jesus was born. This revelas that it is only by God’s sovereign work that Jesus was born through Mary.

It also reveals that Jesus was conceived not by man, but by the Holy Spirit.

And this shows us that Jesus is truly the seed of the woman, whom God promised in Gen. 3:15. He is the one who would crush the head of the serpent and win victory for God’s people.

Finally, it reveals that Jesus was born of a virgin, according to the prophecies in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah

Christ in Greek is christus, and it means “anointed”. In Hebrew, the word is Messhiah.

There were three kinds of people who were anointed in the OT.

Priests

Prophets

Kings

Jesus comes as the ultimate fulfillment of those who are anointed, because He is full of the Holy Spirit in a degree that completely unique to all humanity. This means that He is the ultimate priest who mediates our relationship with God. He is the ultimate prophet who brings God’s Word to us. And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Jesus is the Savior who will save God’s people from their sins

If someone has sin, he cannot even save himself, let alone save others. So in order to become a savior, one must be without sin. And only one person is without sin, Jesus Christ.

At the same time, He must be powerful enough and have enough authority to transfer the sins of someone else onto himself. That means that the savior has to be a God-man.

Jesus possesses complete divinity and complete humanity, thus uniquefully fulfilling both requirements.

Romans 1:3–4 ESV

concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Jesus is the Word become flesh, who came to give His life as a ransom for many. And so there is no other name beside the name of Jesus by which we can be saved.

Mark 10:45 ESV

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Acts 4:12 ESV

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Conclusion

So in conclusion, these names in the third period of Jesus’ genealogy shows us a vibrant and lively faith in God’s covenant and the promise of the Messiah.

Eliud – God is my glory

Eleazar – God has helped, helped by God

Matthan – Gift, offering

Jacob – One who supplants

Joseph – The Lord increases/adds on

Jesus – The Lord saves