Why was God silent for 400 years?

In this opening study of Matthew 1:1-17, Dr. Toby Holt explains the roughly 400 silent years between the Old and New Testaments — and why Matthew begins with a long family tree.

After Malachi, God sent no new word for about four centuries — the calm before the storm. Empires rose and fell, from the Greeks under Alexander to the Romans. Then Matthew, a former tax collector, opens his Gospel by tracing Jesus' line back through David and Abraham, proving He is the promised King. He even includes four Gentile women, a hint that this Savior is for all nations.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why was God silent for over 400 years? After Malachi, God had said all that was needed until Christ. Holt calls the silence the hush before God's greatest act.

2. What makes Matthew's Gospel different? Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience and opens with Jesus' royal family tree, showing He is the promised son of David and Abraham.

3. Why do Matthew and Luke give different genealogies? They likely trace different lines — one royal and legal, the other more personal — and both affirm Jesus' place in David's family.

"...from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations." — Matthew 1:17 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In between the writing of the Old and New Testaments, roughly 400 years went by.

2

What happened during this intertestamental age?

3

In today's study, we'll answer that question and we'll introduce the first part of our new series in the book of Matthew.

4

Alright, as I said just a moment ago, we are beginning a new study in the book of Matthew,

5

which is the very first book in the New Testament.

6

Now, I asked you a trivia question a few moments ago. Let me ask you a slightly different one.

7

Does anyone remember what the very last book in the Old Testament is? Malachi. The last book in

8

the Old Testament is Malachi. Now, when do you think Malachi was written? You don't have to

9

shout it out, but think about it. When was Malachi written? Well, we believe Malachi was written about

10

400 to 450 years before this, before the time of Jesus Christ. Now, for those doing the math,

11

this means that for about 400 to about 450 years or so, God was silent. God was silent for about

12

400, 450 years, presuming that your Bible only has 66 books in it. That's a different story for a

13

different day. Now, did that mean that God was doing nothing during that time? Did that mean

14

God said, you know, I've been a busy God. I think I'm going to go and take a break for a little

15

while. Didn't mean he went on, you know, hiatus or went on vacation or something like that. Well,

16

of course not. Of course not. In fact, if you were to study just the secular history of this area,

17

you'd see it was an incredibly busy time, very eventful. This time, and we're going to call it

18

the intertestamental time because that's what theologians call it, the intertestamental time

19

between the Old Testament and the New Testament ran about 400, 450 years, and it was chock full

20

of all sorts of political intrigue and battles and rulers and emperors that would rise and

21

empires that would fall. You had the Persians, which fell. You had the Greeks, which would rise.

22

And then you had the Romans, who took care of everything that was left. During the intertestamental

23

time, there were many heroes and many villains. Alexander the Great lived during this time. Judas

24

Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes, who if this was a silent movie, we would all hiss and boo because

25

he was one of the great villains of this age. From Jerusalem to Rome and all points in between and

26

beyond, the intertestamental age, this block of time, 400 to 450 years or so, was incredibly filled,

27

filled to the brim with significant people and events. And yet, and yet, even as all this stuff

28

happened on the world stage, even as all these people's lives and events unfolded, the God who

29

would decree how they unfolded was uncharacteristically silent. Silent. For 400 years, God had not

30

sent the nations a prophet or a word. Now, was that unusual? Yes. Look through the major prophets

31

and the minor prophets, and as you can see, he regularly, consistently spoke, but now, now,

32

he was silent. Why? Why was he silent at this time? Well, there have been a lot of attempts

33

to answer that question over the years. I think the simplest answer is this. God,

34

up until that point in time, had said all that he needed to say. That's the simplest answer. I know

35

it's the right answer because if God needed to say anything else, you can rest assured he would

36

have. God had said everything that he needed to say at this time. With that said, I think that

37

the silence had the effect, like the calm before a storm. I think the silence had the effect of

38

casting a bright spotlight on whoever would come next. In other words, much like if you dim the

39

lights in a theater before someone takes the stage, something was about to happen in redemptive

40

history that everything else had been leading up to. And every single prophet had been pointing

41

towards the arrival of this someone that God had cleared the stage to prepare for. Specifically,

42

we're going to see later in our study of Matthew 1 that a child was about to be born in the most

43

unlikely of places, this tiny Jewish hamlet, and this child who would be born, this one who would

44

take the stage, this one who would come, this one that all of history had this pregnant pause,

45

holding its breath until its arrival, this one would become the catalyst for every major world

46

event that's happened since. This one would come, and when he did, the entirety of the globe would

47

change to such a point that even the way we number the years turns on the hinge of his birth. This

48

one has had more of an effect than anyone across the face of humanity, and so I don't think it's

49

any surprise that God was silent for a season, as if the entire universe was holding his breath

50

until his arrival. And when he arrived, he would open his mouth, and he would teach. And as he

51

taught, centuries of silence were shattered by the greatest proclamations, truth, and wisdom that the

52

globe has ever seen. So this intertestamental age, this pregnant pause, it came to an end with

53

the advent and ministry of Jesus Christ. And it's that ministry that Matthew's gospel is devoted

54

towards. All right, let's consider this further as we return to verses one through six of the text.

55

You're going to bear with me. I'm going to trip over some of these names today as we go through

56

the genealogy, but we'll start verses one through six and then we'll work our way through the

57

balance. Verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. As a side note, that's not his first

58

and last name. It's not Jesus Christ like Gardner Fisher, Toby Holt, or Mike Barr, what have you.

59

Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Messiah. So the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David,

60

the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers,

61

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot

62

Abinadab, and Abinadab begot Nashon. Nashon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed

63

by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who

64

had been the wife of Uriah. All right, take a breath here. You know, as a side note, one of the

65

most embarrassing times I ever had in ministry. Very early on, I went to do pulpit supply at a

66

church, and I preached there a few times. It was in Sydney, Nebraska, and that particular day,

67

they were reading through the Bible as part of the worship service, just doing Old Testament

68

readings, and that particular day, I had to read the genealogy of Esau. That was the thing I had

69

to read, and I butchered, I think, every third name. Anyway, when we encounter genealogies,

70

wherever we find them in Scripture, for you and I, they don't tend to impress us quite as much,

71

which is ironic given all the tools we have, Ancestry.com and all these things. But this

72

stuff usually doesn't impress us as much as it does other cultures and especially Israel.

73

Genealogies often bore modern readers of Scripture. However, let me suggest this to you.

74

If Matthew's objective in the very first verse of his gospel was to get the attention

75

of his fellow Jews, there was no better way to accomplish that than what he did here,

76

than what he did in verse 1. Verse 1 would have stopped a first century reader in their tracks,

77

would have melted the brains of some, and I'll explain why in just a moment. But before I do,

78

let me back up just for a second and talk about Matthew. We don't want to skip past him. If it's

79

called the Gospel of Matthew, before we move on, let's remember a little bit about Matthew. Who

80

was Matthew? Well, we know Matthew was a tax collector. We usually remember his vocation.

81

He was a tax collector who was called by Jesus. Now, elsewhere in the Gospels, he's sometimes

82

referred to as Levi. You might encounter that name, and that's also a reference to Matthew.

83

Now, Matthew would have been just the most deeply unpopular man of his age. And the reason why is

84

because he was an IRS agent, but an IRS agent for a foreign government. He was a tax collector

85

that was empowered by Rome to collect taxes from his fellow Jews to send to Rome, who was, guess

86

what? Oppressing Israel, putting them beneath their foot. So if you're an Israelite, who is the least

87

popular guy? Who is the least likely guy you wanted to invite over to dinner parties or come over to

88

your house? You know, perchance he might tax you just by walking in the door. Well, it was this guy.

89

It was Matthew. He was an unlikely, unlikely disciple for sure, and a terribly unlikely gospel

90

author, and yet this is the man that God called upon to write this book, write this passage.

91

With that said, we also know that by virtue of his vocation, Matthew was a smart guy. He was

92

well-educated. We know that because he had to be able to read and write in multiple languages as

93

part of his work, taxing people on the trade routes. He also had to be good at math. He had

94

to be good at arithmetic because he was an IRS agent and he was collecting these taxes. We know

95

he was well-educated, and if he was well-educated, then he knew his Jewish history. He knew of

96

genealogies, and he knew of their importance to his own people. And he knew that there was no

97

better way, if you were to write a gospel to a Jewish audience, which Matthew was written to,

98

there's no better way to start than this, by giving them the bona fides for Jesus, by giving

99

them the LinkedIn profile, so to speak, by explaining this is who he is, and this is where

100

he came from. This is his credentials. This is his birthright to the very office and role that he has

101

occupied. So Matthew starts with the genealogy because he's writing to Jews to whom that would

102

have impressed them. They wanted to know that if anyone was to be the Messiah, that he came from

103

Abraham. They wanted to know that if anyone was going to presume to be a king, he came from who?

104

From David. And so he tells them that right out of the gate. He tells them that that's the case.

105

Now, if you go one book past, if you go to the book of Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,

106

you go to Mark, does Mark begin with a genealogy?

107

No.

108

And the reason he doesn't begin with a genealogy is why?

109

Because he's not writing to Jews.

110

He was writing largely to Gentiles and Romans.

111

And guess what?

112

The Romans couldn't care less about the Jewish ancestry and his bona fides coming from David

113

and Abraham.

114

That didn't matter in Rome, but it did matter in Jerusalem, which is why the guy who was

115

the author of the gospel to the Jews starts here, starts with this genealogy. It was essential if

116

he was going to make the case to the very people that he wanted to turn to this one, to turn to

117

Christ. So he says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, or Jesus the Messiah, the son of

118

David, the son of Abraham, all of that would have immediately got the attention of the Jews because

119

they knew those names. They even knew the name Jesus Christ, what that implied. They certainly

120

knew Abraham. They certainly knew David, but they also knew what Jesus Christ implied. Jesus

121

in Hebrew means the Lord is salvation. Okay, the Lord is salvation. That's what Jesus means.

122

Well, what does Christ mean? Well, it means the Messiah, the chosen one, the Savior.

123

So his first name means the Lord is salvation, and the next one effectively says this guy is

124

the Savior. That's all that's encompassed in the words Jesus Christ, and that's why I said it would

125

have melted their brains. He says this is the one, the genealogy of the one we've been waiting for,

126

for centuries and centuries and centuries. This is the one that all of our forefathers pointed

127

forward to, this guy. And yes, he's a son of Abraham. And yes, he's a son of David. He's

128

everything we expected and desired and more. Jesus Christ. We take that for granted like it's our

129

first and last name. Again, it was not. It was loaded with implication. It reeked of salvation

130

from one syllable, one letter to last. It's like if you encounter a musician named Johnny Guitar,

131

fits like a glove. You can encounter a baseball player named Home Run McAwesome. You're going to

132

go, that guy is set up to be an all-star. This name would have stopped them in their presses.

133

They would have known exactly what the reference is to. Now, he's just getting started once he

134

names Jesus Christ. He goes on to talk about David. In fact, David, he names even before he

135

names Abraham, which is interesting because Abraham was the first Israelite, the first Jew.

136

He starts with David because he's a son of David, and that was critically important because God had

137

made a covenant to David that a king would rise, that a Messiah would rise, that the seed would

138

ultimately come from his lineage. And so Matthew, writing to Jews, says, guess what? You remember

139

that covenant God made with David that ultimately the Messiah would come from his lineage? Guess

140

where this guy came from? He's the son of David. Then he goes on again to express that he's the

141

child of Abraham, which made you a legitimate Jew, which was very important in this time and age and

142

culture. And then in verses 2-6, he goes on to mention the other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob

143

in particular, and he does so in a block of 14 names. There's three blocks of 14 names that he's

144

going to go through. They do not represent every last generation between Abraham and Jesus, but

145

they are representative of different eras of time, and I'll get to that in a few moments. And in verse

146

6, they culminate with King Solomon. Let's look ahead now, verses 7-16. Again, bear with me as we

147

do. Verse 7. Solomon begot Rehoboam. Rehoboam begot Abijah. Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat.

148

Jehoshaphat begot Joram. Joram begot Uzziah. Uzziah begot Jotham. Jotham begot Ahaz. Ahaz begot

149

Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh. Manasseh begot Amon. There's a lot of villains in this too, just

150

so you're aware. And Amon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time

151

they are carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel,

152

Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, Eliakim begot Azor,

153

Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, Achim begot Eliud, Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot

154

Mathon, and Mathon begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born

155

Jesus, who is called Christ. He ends with the same word, Christ, Christ, Christ, from the start

156

to the end. That's who this one is. This is the Messiah, was what he was saying. This is the

157

genealogy of the Messiah. You know, I once encountered a guy who was just convinced that

158

the Bible was wrong. And I'm open to people having questions or doubts or even critiques. I'm open to

159

those sorts of conversations because I know people have them. However, I don't like it when it's

160

sloppy. This was a sloppy critique that this individual offered to scripture. He says, you know,

161

I can't believe a word that book says because there's two different genealogies for Jesus.

162

There's one in Matthew, there's one in Luke, and they're different. Therefore, it can't be an

163

inspired and errant book. And back in my head, you know, then an implosion was taking place

164

because, of course, you know, in seminary I learned the 10 different ways to explain this particular

165

issue. It's not the conflict or contradiction that he thought it was. And so I gathered myself

166

and explained, look, this is why these genealogies work the way that they do.

167

Now, most scholars or many scholars believe that the genealogies that you see here in Matthew

168

and the one in Luke, that they differ on the basis that one is paternal and one is maternal.

169

One is the father, one is the mother.

170

And there's some argument to be made that that's true.

171

There's also a case to be made that the genealogy that's given here in Matthew focuses on a royal line,

172

and it is selective.

173

Not every generation, again, is mentioned here.

174

And I think there's some possibility that that's the case as well.

175

This is a focus on a royal line.

176

It's a different data set than what Luke was working with.

177

Also, there's some thought that Luke's focus may have included a concept we call a levirate marriage.

178

You may recall that if a man died and he didn't have any children,

179

that his brother could marry his wife, his widow, and raise up children in his name.

180

And if this was the case, then the family tree, the family line, would look a little bit different.

181

So depending on the data sets you choose,

182

in terms of doing any genealogy,

183

you'll come up with a different data path,

184

and that's the reason why there are differences

185

between Matthew and Luke,

186

a different data set or presupposition

187

or objective from the jump street.

188

Whatever the case is,

189

the Jews were fastidious in genealogy,

190

so it's no surprise they would have had multiple genealogies.

191

They were far more careful about this

192

than we ever tend to be.

193

The records are far more precise.

194

Just look what I just read.

195

They are far more precise,

196

And it would not be a surprise for there to be multiple paths

197

to be able to trace an individual, including being paternal or maternal.

198

Whatever the case, Jesus is writing to people

199

who are just absolutely fastidious and diligent about genealogy.

200

You and I might not be. They were.

201

And so he gives it to them.

202

He says, you want the proof? Well, here's the proof.

203

Here's the credentials of this individual.

204

And what it had the net effect of doing for them and for us

205

is it anchored the person and work of Jesus Christ to real history. Do you understand that?

206

Even in our own day and age, there are some who discount Jesus as if, yeah, there probably wasn't

207

a Jesus. Dear heavens, dear heavens, there's more eyewitness to this guy, more documentary

208

evidence for this guy than any other guy who's ever walked the face of the globe.

209

Matthew wanted his audience to understand exactly where Jesus came from, and it has the benefit for

210

us of realizing this is a real person, a real time and space who had a real family line. He was born

211

just as prophecy said he would in the very circumstance that God had told people that he

212

would be. Now, you would think that would be somewhat compelling to many of the Jews. The

213

reality is, maybe, maybe not. You know, if you were to stop Matthew's contemporaries and say,

214

hey, hey, you know, you got on the street corner and say, hey, come on, come on, come on. And you

215

talk to Jews in the first century and you say, hey, are we waiting for, I don't know, a Messiah

216

to come and deliver us? People would have said, absolutely. In fact, when is he going to get here?

217

We want that Messiah. We want that Deliverer. However, what they had done is they'd redefined

218

deliverance. They wanted to be saved, right? But what was it they wanted to be saved from?

219

One word starts with an R, Rome. Rome. The main problem, if you're a Jew, was not your sins.

220

You weren't like sitting there just at night going, oh my, my sins. That's not what you're

221

doing. You were complaining and moaning and praying about Rome. That was your issue. So the

222

great irony is that Jesus Christ was born just as God anticipated and prophesied that he would. He

223

was the singular focus of all of redemptive history up to that point. Every prophet was like a neon

224

arrow looking ahead to him, including Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. It all pointed

225

forward to him. But when he showed up, they didn't recognize him. Why? Because he didn't do what they

226

expected or wanted him to do. They wanted him to come on in, to enter into Jerusalem,

227

riding a chariot, a giant steed, marching in to deal with Rome, to stomp on Rome. That's what

228

they wanted a deliverer to do. You know, Jews, Maccabees, that's the sort of thing he did. They

229

were looking for something like that. But instead, what they got was a deliverer who came in on a

230

donkey. And he came in humble. And not one who went to aspire with the great religious elite

231

or sit in the fine places, but rather one who sought out broken, hurting, lost individuals.

232

They didn't expect it, and because they didn't expect it, they rejected him when he came.

233

Jesus, a very great cruel irony is that Jesus, when he entered into Jerusalem for the last time

234

at the start of his Passion Week, remember everyone's crying, Hosanna, Hosanna. They're

235

laying down palm branches and all that. They didn't know what they were doing. They had religious

236

fervor but no understanding, and we know they had no understanding because of Jesus' reaction when

237

he came to the city and he looked upon it. What did Jesus do when he looked at the city

238

for the last time from the hillside as he was about to go into his passion week? What did he do?

239

He wept. He wept. Why? Well, he tells us. Scripture flat out says, Jesus flat out says,

240

he said that the reason he wept when looking at the city was this,

241

because they did not know the hour of my visitation. They were expecting someone else.

242

they wanted some other deliverer.

243

They had reinvented what the word Messiah meant

244

to be something entirely other

245

than what this book said that he would be.

246

As they showed up, they wanted nothing to do with him,

247

irrespective of the fact that he fulfilled his prophecies

248

and irrespective of the fact that his lineage

249

and everything else about him

250

pointed to his person and his divinity.

251

With that said, Matthew, as he's writing this,

252

he can't change all that.

253

Remember, when he's writing this, it's all done.

254

that's done. Jesus has been crucified, he's been resurrected, and he's ascended. So he can't change

255

the fact that his contemporaries contributed to the death of Jesus in collaboration with Rome.

256

He couldn't change that. However, he could teach them, which he's attempting to do in the book of

257

Matthew, he could teach them, in retrospect, looking back at Jesus, something that they had

258

ignored when he was right in front of their faces. He could teach them that this one that we killed,

259

This one that was nailed to a cross, this one who hung, he was later resurrected, and he was the

260

fulfillment of everything we've been looking forward to all those centuries, even if we knew

261

it not when he was here. Before I look at the last verse in our genealogy, let me offer one other

262

observation. As these names come up, as I butchered every third one of them, but as these names come

263

up, you'll notice there's something interesting, or at least unusual, in this list. Matthew did

264

something that Luke didn't do at all. Matthew highlighted four women, four Gentile women. He

265

actually talked about five women altogether, but four of them were Gentiles. This included Ruth,

266

Bathsheba, Tamar, Rahab, along with Mary. Now why? This was not the norm when giving genealogies.

267

Why did he do it? More to the point, why did God do it through him? Why did God do this? Why did

268

God give us this? Why did God highlight these particular individuals? Well, there's a lot of

269

theories more than we have time to do, but among the things that I'm sure we can learn from their

270

inclusion in this list are these four things. Number one, women have played an integral role,

271

integral role in God's history of redemption over the ages. Number two, women are esteemed by God

272

in his word as co-heirs, co-laborers, and co-contributors to God's work. Number three,

273

Women are actively enfolded into God's plans and purposes since eternity past.

274

And number four, if all of that was true back then, it has not changed in the present.

275

If it was true in Israel, it's true in the early church, it's true in our church as well.

276

Let's look at our last verse, verse 17.

277

Verse 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations.

278

From David until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations.

279

and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ, the Christ, the Messiah, are 14 generations.

280

All right, what can we observe as we wrap up the genealogy? Next week we'll get into the birth

281

story, but as we're wrapping up the genealogy, what can we learn from this last verse? Well,

282

first off, notice that Matthew is categorizing three blocks of time. It's not an accident. He

283

did this on purpose. He has broken down that laundry list of names into three categories,

284

three blocks of 14 names apiece. And again, he didn't include every generation in between. That

285

was not his objective. Rather, his goal was to recite key names from the three primary Jewish

286

ages. And he identifies those ages, just to be clear, as from Abraham to David, that's number

287

one, if you're a Jew looking back at your own Jewish history from Abraham to David, that was

288

the first iteration of time. Number two, from David until the Babylonian captivity. So from

289

David's reign all the way until things got really bad and the Babylonian captivity in about 586.

290

And then the third block of time, the return from exile during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah

291

up until Christ's day. So he says there's three blocks of time in our own history, and then he

292

gives us 14 names across each of them. This genealogy, if you've ever studied the Westminster

293

Confession of Faith, you know the Westminster Confession is longer, but then we have something

294

shorter, more bite-sized. What's it called? The Shorter Catechism, right? We have the Shorter

295

Catechism. It's more bite-sized. This is the equivalent of the Shorter Catechism for genealogy.

296

He doesn't give every last possible name, but he hits the highlights. He recites things in order

297

to make his overall point, which is that Jesus is the one that has been promised from long ago,

298

and he is the ultimate seed of Abraham's hope. Now, one last point on verse 17.

299

If you were a Jew at that time and you noticed something, you noticed that, okay, so there's

300

three blocks of time of 14 names apiece. There's three seasons in our history categorized by these

301

14 individuals. The last one, the penultimate one being Jesus Christ himself. What is your

302

natural inference if you're a Jew or Gentile based on hearing that? Well, the natural inference is

303

that if these are three seasons, each of this 14 blocks to name, then that meant that with Christ

304

began, inaugurated a new season, which is exactly what happened. Jesus was the penultimate figure

305

here, and by his advent and his ministry, a new season and a far better season for Israel and for

306

us had begun. All right, with our remaining time, let me share something important with you that I

307

think will help in our upcoming study through the book of Matthew. Remember, Matthew is a gospel

308

written to a primarily Jewish audience. It has more references to the Old Testament than any

309

other New Testament book. And because of that, it's a bridge. When you read Matthew, you can pick

310

up and learn a lot of things about how God dealt with the Jews and how their story is our story.

311

How their story is our story. So let me offer this observation as we wrap up today. Over the years,

312

sometimes the church and sometimes Christians have been accused of saying that the church

313

is the replacement plan for Israel. That is emphatically not the case.

314

The church is not a replacement of Israel or Israel's hope. It is the fulfillment

315

of that hope. Christians are sometimes accused of saying the church has kind of bumped Israel

316

out of the picture and relegated Israel to just, you know, a blip in the rearview mirror. Again,

317

not the case not the case if you think that's what happened if you ever heard someone say that's

318

what happened they're wrong that was not the view of matthew that was not the view of paul it was

319

not the view of any of the new testament authors it was not the view of christ himself to a man to

320

an individual each one of them each one of the gospel authors the authors of the epistles saw

321

jesus christ and saw the church not as a replacement for israel but as the fulfillment

322

of Israel's hope and its past and pointed towards a more glorious future. Paul said as much in

323

Romans chapter 11. In Romans chapter 11, Paul talks about the relationship between the church

324

and Israel, and he said this. He said, did God reject his own people? He's talking about the

325

Jews, right? And so he asked a rhetorical question. He says, did God reject them just because they

326

rejected Jesus? Did God reject them? And then he answers his own question, and he says, by no means.

327

by no means. And then he says, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe

328

of Benjamin. See how genealogy was important? God did not reject his people whom he foreknew,

329

so too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. There was a remnant. Look at

330

Anna, look at Simeon in the New Testament story. If some of the branches have been broken off and

331

you, meaning the Gentiles, meaning the church, meaning people like you and I, and you, though a

332

wild olive shoot have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap of the

333

olive tree, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do,

334

then consider this. You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

335

God has only ever had one people. Full stop. God has only ever had one people. In the economy of

336

God. He only has one set of children. Now, they might not all share Abraham's ancestry or ethnicity

337

per se. They might not all share Abraham's ancestry, but they do all share Abraham's hope.

338

They do all share Abraham's faith. In our study, in the weeks coming, the book of Matthew,

339

the author himself, Matthew, is going to attempt to unpack and to explain that to his audience

340

and to us as well.

341

He's going to attempt to explain all of this

342

to his Jewish contemporaries,

343

the ones he was writing to,

344

and to the church

345

that have been engrafted among them.

346

Let's pray.