Family Fortunes

Sometimes the story of Abraham and his family reads like a soap opera. Matthew 1 simply gives us ‘Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers’. Genesis gives us all the juicy details. Husbands pretending their wives are their sisters. Parental favoritism and the dysfunction that arises out of that. Sibling rivalry leading to decades-long estrangement. And all of this in a culture that seems quite alien to us with its semi-nomadic herders and arranged marriages. But in all of this God is working to fulfill the promises first made in Genesis 12, starting with one man and his wife to build a nation through whom he will bless all the nations of the world. It’s a reminder that when God works through people, it can be a messy process. Two encouragements come from this: even though it’s messy, God perseveres in working out his purposes through human beings. And if God can work in and through flawed people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then there is hope for us.

This week’s chapters in Matthew give us several links back to the OT. The story of the (Gentile, i.e. non-Jewish) centurion in chapter 8 from yesterday’s reading,  is an example of God’s promises to Abraham being fulfilled. Look especially at verses 11 and 12 and compare with Genesis 12:1-3. The irony here in Matthew is that many of Abraham’s descendants in the time of Jesus are missing out on the promised blessings because they don’t recognise God at work in Jesus. The result is opposition to Jesus’ mission, which makes life difficult for the disciples he sends out. For some other OT links, watch out for the Micah quote in 10:35-36 and John the Baptist as the ‘new’ Elijah in fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy in 11:7-14 (See Malachi 3:1 and 4:1-6). I’ve always found it rather neat that the OT ends with a prophecy that is fulfilled early in the first book of the NT, with Malachi and Matthew sitting next to each other in our Bibles.