Paul admonishes us in II Timothy 3:16 with these words, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” That portion of scripture which appears at times to be the driest, when opened to our mind by the Holy Ghost may be turned into sweet moisture and become a drink from the deep well of God’s grace. Example; the first chapter of Matthew where we find a long list of names, how often have you come to one of those genealogies and hastily read right through it without giving it a single thought. You received nothing because you sought nothing. That genealogy in Matthew begins with the most unique sentence of all the genealogies, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” We must stop when we read that. As we read that first sentence and observe the unique beginning of it we also begin looking for other peculiarities. In Genesis Chapter 5 we read the genealogy of the first Adam and at the end of each generation (Enoch excluded) the head of that generation died. Death is written throughout that list of names. The peculiar thing about the genealogy of Jesus Christ is that there is no death written in those names. That is very fitting because Paul, when writing to the Church at Corinth said, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” It is also fitting that the words of the first sentence in Matthew begin the New Covenant, which is the Book of Life. The words in Genesis 5 begin the Old covenant (the first four chapters being an introduction to it), which is the Book of Death. Another peculiarity about the genealogy in Matthew is that it is the only genealogy that lists certain women. Even yet another is that the women listed are five in number. Five is the Bible numeric for grace, and every one of those women mentioned is a story of grace. Tamar, a heinous Canaanite presents nothing to us but a story of sin. Rahab is always remembered as “Rahab the harlot.” Ruth the accursed Moabite; the Moabites were perpetually banded from the congregation of the people of the Lord, yet God sovereignly works every detail of providence to bring her into His congregation. Bathsheba is the unnamed woman in the genealogy, her name being a reminder of the shameful sin of David. That those four women were let into the generations of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world is a marvelous manifestation of sovereign grace. Then there is Mary the Mother of the Savior. Isn’t it fitting that she be listed as the fifth in this line of women? “For the grace of God hath appeared unto all men” (Titus 2:11). And when did this grace begin to appear but at the first advent when God was manifest in the flesh, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the curse of the law? Oh truly the Word of God is profitable in all things.
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