David Jeremiah Devotional 18 June 2022 | Turning Point

DR DAVID JEREMIAH DEVOTIONAL 18 JUNE 2022, SATURDAY

Today’s Topic: Bookends: Matthew (JUNE 18, 2022)

Scripture: The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. – Matthew 1:1

Recommended Reading: Luke 3:23-38

The Intertestamental Period stretched from the closing of Malachi to the opening of the book of Matthew. During those four hundred years, God did not speak through His prophets to His people. God’s “voice” was not heard until “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight’” (Matthew 3:3). This was the one whom Malachi wrote about in the last verses of his book: John the Baptist, preparing the way of the Messiah.

But who was this Messiah? What were His credentials? Matthew provides a bookend for the New Testament with “the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” The Messiah had to be a Jew (“the Son of Abraham”) and a descendant of King David (“the Son of David”). So Matthew, whose Gospel is the most Jewish of the four Gospels, set out to establish the lineage of Jesus Christ. This was the perfect bookend to begin the New Testament.

As the New Testament begins with Jesus, so must our spiritual life. “There is no other name under heaven…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

A Christian is, in essence, somebody personally related to Jesus Christ.
John R. W. Stott

Read-Thru-the-Bible: Psalms 73 – 80