God With Us, Born of a Virgin (Pt 2)
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What is Matthew’s purpose in writing the birth narrative accounts in his gospel?
Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus and Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus are very different? Why?
They do not contradict each other. Rather they both emphasize different parts of Jesus’s birth. Why?
We can learn a lot of the purpose of the gospel writers by noting what they omit as well as what they include.
Matthew’s purpose in writing his gospel is much different from Luke’s purpose.
What is Matthew’s purpose?
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The Gospel of Matthew B. A Demonstration that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah: Five Scriptural Proofs (1:18–2:23)
These 31 verses are therefore essentially an exercise in apologetics. Their aim is to enable Matthew’s readers to recognize in the unlikely person of Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah, son of David. 1:18–25 (together with the “book of origin” which is its basis) deals with the issue of parentage, and chapter 2 with that of place of origin
“The legal and biological connection to Abraham and David was necessary for Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises God had made to Abraham and David concerning their seed, but by itself, descent from Abraham and David was not enough. Abraham had many descendants, as did David. What made Jesus the descendent, who would bless and rule the nations forever? Why not some other descendent of Abraham or David? What made Jesus special and unique as the seed of Abraham and the Son of David?”
That is what Matthew aims to do in vv. 18-25. Matthew wants us to see that Jesus was not just a son of David; he was THE long-awaited descents of David who would fulfill all of God’s promises.
In Matthew 1:16 we saw that Joseph was indeed the “son of David,” the heir to the royal dynasty of Judah.
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
But, Matthew also takes great pains to show us that Jesus has no biological connection to Joseph.
Because Jesus has no biological connection to Joseph, Matthew is keen to show us how Jesus came to be formally adopted and named by Joseph, so that Jesus could become officially “son of David.”
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew’s narrative of the birth of Jesus is told from the perspective of Joseph, Jesus’s legal adoptive father.
Luke’s account of Jesus’s birth is told from Mary’s perspective.
Matthew tells Joseph’s perspective because his purpose is to show the Jesus’ legal adoptive right to Joseph’s lineage.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20 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.
Notice, that the angel addresses Joseph as, Son of David. This reminds us what is at stake in the decision Joseph must soon make. If Joseph divorces Mary and refuses to adopt Jesus as his legal son, Jesus would loose the royal pedigree of Joseph’s line.
Then the angel calls upon Joseph to take two decisive actions.
1). Do not fear to take Mary as your wife. Why? Because the child that Mary carries is not the result of immorality, but rather the activity of the Holy Spirit.
This would never have happened without divine intervention. Yet God confirms that the child is of divine origin.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
2). The second action that Joseph must take is to give Mary’s son a name. Now why is it important for Joseph to give Mary’s son a name?
God specifically told Joseph to name Jesus. Why? This ensured the official status of the son as heir.
1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
So, not only is the name “Jesus” full of theological significance, but the fact that Joseph is commanded under divine direction to name Jesus is also very important. It was through this act of Joseph that Jesus also becomes “son of David.”
When Joseph gave Jesus a name he formally and legally adopted Jesus and thus gave Jesus the official rights to his family line as “Son of David.”
Why is Jesus being Joseph’s legally adoptive son such an important detail?
Genealogy Tree
Both Joseph’s and Mary’s genealogy connect back to David and to Abraham.
Mary’s tree connects back to David through the line of Nathan.
23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Heli- faith-n-law of Joseph, thus genealogy of Mary.
31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
What’s the problem with Mary being from the line of Nathan? Nathan did not have the legal right to rule.
Why give Mary’s genealogy then? Why does Mary’s genealogy matter? Because Jesus needed to be a physical descendant of David in order to be the lawful king of Israel!
Mary’s genealogy provides Jesus with a biological connection to David.
Now, Jesus needs the legal right to rule. And in order to have the legal right to rule he must have a connection to the line of Solomon.
9 Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.’
This text is a clear statement of the lawful right to rule Israel.
Then we get to a problem! Coniah.
24 “As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.” 28 Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? 29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! 30 Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”
Coniah, also known as Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, was a king of Judah who succeeded his father Jehoiakim. He ruled for only three months before being deported to Babylon in 597 B.C., where he was held as a royal hostage. God pronounced judgment on Coniah through the prophet Jeremiah, declaring that even if Coniah were as precious as a signet ring on God's right hand, He would still remove him from his position.
And most significantly, what curse does God pronounce on Coniah’s line?
30 Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”
This means the legal right to rule is canceled for Coniah and ALL HIS SEED!
This means the legal right to rule through the line of Solomon is humanly speaking terminated. How will God solve this problem? The right to rule can only come through the virgin birth.
Joseph’s line:
6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
Joseph’s line does go back through Coniah or Jechoniah, and thus through Solomon. But you have the issue of the cruse.
Jesus’ virgin birth solves this curse. Jesus was named by Joseph.
20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
When Joseph named Jesus he officially adopted Jesus. That means Jesus received the legal right to rules through the line of Joseph. But because of the virgin birth there is no biological connection to Coniah because Joseph is not the biological father. Thus Jesus receives the right to rule through adoption, and avoids the curse of Coniah through the virgin birth.
In order for Jesus to be the lawful King of Israel he need two things:
1). Jesus had to be a physical descent of David (Mary’s line)
2). Jesus had to have a connection to Solomon, but not a physical connection because of the curse on Coniah (Joseph)
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
In these verses we find the first of Matthew’s numerous fulfillment quotations.
“Each individual narrative concerning Jesus’s infancy in Matthew’s Gospel explicitly centers on the fulfillment of Scripture. Whereas the genealogy broadly presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the entire history of God’s people contained in the Old Testament, these individual quotations focus on specific elements of Jesus’s birth that fulfilled Old Testament prophecies.”
Matthew’s first fulfillment is centered on Isaiah 7:14.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Theologically, this is significant because Matthew draws our attention to the importance of the virgin birth.
Why is the virgin birth so important to our theology?
John Frame lists these reasons:
1). The doctrine of Scripture
1). The doctrine of Scripture
If Scripture errs here, then why should we trust its claims about other supernatural events, such as the resurrection?
2). The deity of Christ
2). The deity of Christ
While we cannot say dogmatically that God could enter the world only through a virgin birth, surely the incarnation is a supernatural event if it is anything. To eliminate the supernatural from this event is inevitably to compromise the divine dimension of it.
3). The humanity of Christ
3). The humanity of Christ
This was the important thing to Ignatius and the second century fathers. Jesus was really born; he really became one of us.
4). The sinlessness of Christ
4). The sinlessness of Christ
If he were born of two human parents, it is very difficult to conceive how he could have been exempted from the guilt of Adam’s sin and become a new head to the human race. And it would seem only an arbitrary act of God that Jesus could be born without a sinful nature. Yet Jesus’ sinlessness as the new head of the human race and as the atoning lamb of God is absolutely vital to our salvation (Rom. 5: 18– 19; 2 Cor. 5: 21; Heb. 4: 15; 7: 26; 1 Pet. 2: 22– 24).
5). The nature of grace
5). The nature of grace
The birth of Christ, in which the initiative and power are all of God, is an apt picture of God’s saving grace in general of which it is apart. It teaches us that salvation is by God’s act, not our human effort.
John M. Frame, “Virgin Birth of Christ,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 1249– 50.
So this is the theological significance of Matthew’s use of Isiah 7:14.
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Matthew wants us to understand theologically that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and thus born to a virgin.
There is also a historical issue related to these verses. The historical question is this, “Is Jesus’s birth a legitimate fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14?
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
In order to answer this question we need more historical context of Isaiah 7.
Does anyone know the context of this prophecy?
Between 740 and 732 BC, Syria and Israel tried to force king Ahaz of Judah to join their military coalition against Assyria. When he refused to join their alliance, they invaded with the intention of deposing him and setting up a king in Judah who would join their side. Rather than trusting God, Ahaz appealed to Assyria for help. Assyria did help but at a very high cost: in essence, Judah became a vassal state of Assyria and was forced to pay heavy tribute. This series of events is known as the Syro-Ephraimite War.
In the midst of this crisis, the prophet Isaiah came to King Ahaz with a word of encouragement and an invitation to trust God: “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint. . . . It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. . . . If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” Ahaz, however, doubted God and did not think God would deliver. In Ahaz’s mind, his only hope was Assyria. Ahaz refused to trust God or receive a sign of God’s commitment to rescue, and Isaiah responded:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
The historical question here is what is the connection between Matthew 1:22-23 and Isaiah 7:14? In what sense is Isaiah 7:14 fulfilled with Jesus’ virgin birth?
Three view exist:
1). Isaiah’s prediction only has Jesus in view
2). His prediction had multiple fulfillments or referents in view
3). There is a divine correspondence in view
Read Vlach- 144-145.
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
When Joseph awakes from the dream in follows the instructions of the angel.
He took his wife. What does that mean?
About a year after the engagement (when the wife would be about 13 or 14 years old) would leave her father’s home and go and live with the husband.
By the way, who knows absolutely for certain that Jesus’ conception was not the result of adultery, but rather the involvement of the Holy Spirit. Who knows this for certain?
So what happens to the lives of Joseph and Mary once Joseph takes her as his wife and the community find Mary to be with child and does the math?
If he proceeded with the marriage and pretended that the child was his, he could have exposed himself to public shame, since it was generally viewed as immoral to engage in sexual activity during the betrothal period.
Then Matthew adds the editorial comment in the first part of v. 25- he knew her no until she had given birth. Why state this? Presumably to take away any doubt as to the supernatural origin of Mary’s child.
Then the account confirms that Joseph names Jesus. Joseph called his name Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew 1. Joseph, Son of David, Accepts Jesus as His Son (1:18–25)
The pericope concludes triumphantly with the naming of Jesus. Verse 21 has explained the theological significance of the name, and the whole chapter so far has set up the problem of legal parentage to which this is the essential answer. Jesus of Nazareth is now securely adopted as “son of David.”
So Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth is filled with rich theological truths. Jesus is now the securely adopted Son of David and has legal right to David’s throne as the Messiah.
Jesus is also Immanuel, God with us! Conceived of the Holy Spirit. Born of a Virgin.
Jesus is the one who came to save us from our sins. And this is a wonderful thought to reflect on this Christmas season. O the blessing of having our sins forgiven.
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
The celebration of Jesus’s birth is a celebration of the completion of the purpose of his life. He came to save his people from their sins! Have you experienced the joy of knowing that your sins have been forgiven by God?
