Matthew 1:7-11

David to Jechoniah

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Comments

In Matthew’s second grouping of fourteen generations, we find the successors to King David. From King Solomon, arguably greater and wiser than his father David, to the final king, Jechoniah, who is forced into exile, the series of kings goes back and forth between godly and ungodly men.

Each king listed was human and had some besetting sin that led to his downfall and death. Aside from Solomon, no king led the Jews into a time of sustained health. Instead, the nation was always one king away from egregious sin and total annihilation, which ultimately led to the Babylonian conquest.

With the deportation to Babylon, the Jewish nation returned to a time of captivity such as its predicament in Egypt. The people wait for God to rescue them again.

Application/Reflection

God’s grace is greater than our sins. Instead of punishing us, God overcomes generations of flaws and failures through Jesus. Where has God shown grace in your life?

Prayer

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(BCP, p. 211)