Matthew - Chapter 1 through 4

Chapter 1

The book of Matthew, the opening to the New Testament, starts off with the genealogy from the Old Testament starting with Abraham. It is interesting to see how there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile of Babylon and 14 from the exile to the creation of Jesus Christ. I think in some way 14 stands for something; like there is significance to the number 14. Whether it's been found out why or not, I do not know what it stands for but find it interesting, nonetheless.
The chapter goes onto the details of how Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, soon to be Mary's husband is sketch of this. I don't blame him...how exactly would you tell your soon to be husband that. "I got pregnant through the Holy Spirit." Sounds like a good excuse a teen girl would come home to tell her parents. I know I would be like, "Ya...sure..." And I am sure that is how Joseph felt because he had planned on leaving Mary until the Holy Spirit came to him in his sleep to confirm Mary's statement was true. Can you imagine? I can't. That would be so much to take in at one time. I just love Mary and Joseph's faithfulness to the Holy Spirit though. They did what was asked of them and went on to have the child the Holy Spirit told them to name Jesus.

Chapter 2
All I can imagine when beginning to read the first part of this chapter is how amazing it would be to live during the time of Jesus, our Saviors, birth. The chapter begins by saying how the wise men searched for Jesus to bring Him gifts and worship Him. I am just astounded! Can you imagine living in today’s world and society learning that a baby was born to a virgin and that we should praise and worship Him and call him our king? People would think insanity instantly. (I.e. the movie Evan Almighty)
So far this chapter is really humbling because Joseph is such a faithful man of the Lord and is so obedient to what the Lord tells him to do. On multiple occasions the Lord told Joseph to move his family otherwise Jesus would be found and killed. When defined in the dictionary of “man,” Joseph’s face should appear because he does so much for his family. It is just incredible. Even when the Lord doesn’t direct Him, Joseph is faced with decisions for the safety of his family and leads them. I just love how strong Joseph is.

Chapter 3
This chapter goes onto say how John came to Judea. While this is a much narrowed down story of how John came to Judea it is still cool to see how John is so strong in what he believes. He told people how it was; that they are living in sin and need to repent and be baptized. So, many people did come to John to be baptized. The next part just really humbles and strengthens me. Our Jesus came to John and asked to be baptized. This floored John. He basically told Jesus, “You should be baptizing me.” But Jesus just told him that this is proper. If others are being baptized to accept the Holy Spirit so should He. It just astounds me because Jesus is perfect. Do I think He needed to be baptized? No. But He saw fit for it, not to please society but to bring glory to God. I just find that Him doing this just shows how He was not boastful but humble in His ways.

Chapter 4
WOW! Jesus was tempted by the Devil in so many ways in this chapter. After fasting for forty days and nights the Devil came to Jesus and tried to have Jesus eat, test God and tempted Him with riches. Jesus always said no our declared what is written in the word of God. Finally in the last temptation to Jesus, the Devil says get down and worship me and you will have it all. Jesus declared for Satan to flee from Him and that He will only worship God. I am in awe. We are tempted in our everyday life and fall into temptation at the snap of a finger. While, I am sure, the thing Jesus was tempted with was nice, He said no. Can you imagine saying no to every temptation? I don’t think it would work out in our favor. But it’s nice to know that we are forgiven.
Also in this chapter is the first scripture stating that Jesus can heal the sick. Which I think is so amazing to have the power through God to do such a thing. I can’t imagine all the people being down with it. And it often makes me wonder if I was living back then would I be team Jesus or not? I would like to think that I would be.