Week 3, January 11–17: Genesis 32–50; Matthew 1–4
- Sun Jan 11 Gen. 32–34
- Mon Jan 12 Gen. 35–37
- Tue Jan 13 Gen. 38–40
- Wed Jan 14 Gen. 41–44
- Thu Jan 15 Gen. 45–47
- Fri Jan 16 Gen. 48–50
- Sat Jan 17 Matt. 1–4
This week we finish reading through Genesis. Well done making it through the first book of the Bible—or the first part of the five-part book of Moses! We are just a couple weeks into the new year and we have seen the beginning of the story of God and his work in the world. It began with his creation of all things and moved to his covenant relationship with the family through whom he will bring about his great plan of redemption.
At the end of Genesis, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob is an old man. He and his family of twelve sons are in Egypt, where God is preserving them during the famine in the Promise Land. As he nears his last days, Jacob, who God has renamed Israel, blesses his sons. Genesis 49 is a large poetic section in the midst of the narrative context. It records the blessing Jacob pronounced on each of his sons as he gathered them together to tell them what would happen “in the days to come” (Gen. 49:1). He clearly loved Joseph the most, as we can see from the portion of the blessing directed towards his second youngest son. (Gen. 49:22–26)
However, the section of this poetic blessing that is most striking is the blessing of Judah. There we see the language of royalty and a prophetic expectation of a king who will come from Judah’s line.
Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
Keep this in mind as we continue reading through the OT, and look for echoes of this blessing to Judah along the way. Similar language comes up in several places, including another of the large poetic sections in the Pentateuch, Balaam’s oracles in Numbers 23 and 24. Even in the earliest book of the Bible there is a trajectory of messianic expectation. The hope for a coming king from Judah’s tribe ultimately culminates in Christ. He is the one who will fulfill the promise of Genesis 49, and he is the promised seed from Genesis 3:15.
The Gospel of Matthew comes next in our reading. Matthew is the first book of the NT, and Matthew opens with a genealogy. This is an interesting literary genre to begin the NT, listing the generations from Abraham through David to Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. The genealogy is just one of several ways Matthew’s Gospel links back to Genesis and to the Pentateuch. We see clearly from the very first verses of Matthew that the whole Bible—what we call the canon of Scripture—fits together as a unified work; and the focal point of the canon is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. The pivotal turning point of the story of all Scripture is Christ coming in the flesh to dwell with his people as Immanuel, God with us (Matt 1:23). As we read along in Matthew and the other Gospels, we will see how Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection fulfill all the hopes and expectations we are covering in the OT portion of the read thru.
In chapter 4 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy and says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4, citing Deut. 8:3) We can trust that he will feed and sustain us by his word. Like the manna in the wilderness, we can trust he will provide what we need from his word each day. We don’t need to worry that we are not getting totally stuffed as full as we could get all at once. He is faithful to instruct and guide us, each day giving what we need for that day through the nourishment of the Bible. We pray as Jesus instructed his disciples to pray, asking that he would give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:11). And we can trust that he will provide the spiritual sustenance we need through the bread of his word.
Matthew’s Gospel gives one of four biblical versions of Jesus’ life and ministry. The Gospels all recount the most wonderful story there is, of the God of the universe coming in the flesh to be with the people he created and to save them. They tell the Good News of the long-expected Messiah, of his life and ministry, and his death, resurrection, and ascension. The rest of the New Testament unpacks the significance of this story and builds on what we read in the four Gospel accounts.
Each of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—paints a distinct picture, with its own emphasis and message. They are four equally true accounts of Jesus’ life, but when we read them we are not only trying to figure out “what really happened” as much as we are trying to understand and listen to the message each of these four biblical books is trying to convey about what really happened. That may seem like a meaningless distinction, but it really matters. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all had something to say. When we read the Gospels, we are hearing what God has to say through his inspired word. We do well to notice the particular things each of the Gospel writers, carried along by the Holy Spirit, want us to see about Jesus.
Matthew, more than the other Gospels, presents Jesus as the fulfillment of OT promises. He is the promised descendant of Abraham, the King in the line of David, and the new and better Moses who came to usher in a new and better covenant. In Matthew 4, Jesus succeeds where Adam failed and sinned. Jesus resists the devil’s tempting lies. Also in Matthew, in chapters 5–7, Jesus goes up on a mountain, like Moses on Mt. Sinai, and delivers a new set of laws to live by. As you read through Matthew, notice all the ways Matthew points back to the OT to show how Jesus fulfills was the Scriptures anticipated.