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Matt's Story

contributor: John Bradley

Description

Matt’s Story

Matt had a way with words. Some reckoned it began when he used to work for the Occupiers, making all the people pay their taxes. Perhaps it was because he was bright at school. Anyway, he was one who wrote down some of the Master’s sayings. Afterwards, others added stories about what the Master had done and the people he met. Some people added their own notes in the margin to explain to others what it all meant, and the notes became part of the story. So in a way, the same story is being told today. It’s no longer Matt’s words, but it’s still his story. Here it is.

This is the Master’s family tree. It goes back to great King David and all the way to Father Abraham. Abraham’s son, Isaac, had a son called Jacob who had twelve sons, Judah and his brothers. Judah and his wife Tamar had two sons called Perez and Zarah. Then the line goes Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon and Boaz. Boaz married the Moabite widow, Ruth, after she returned to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, Naomi. They had a son called Obed whose son, Jesse, was the father of the great King David.

David’s lowest point was when he had an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his soldiers, and then arranged it so that Uriah was killed in battle. It was their son, Solomon, who became the next king, even more famous than his father for his wealth and wisdom. Now it is a royal line that continues with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah and Jeconiah. Jeconiah and his brothers were deported to the East and that was the end of their reign.
But it wasn’t the end of the family tree. Those who came back home included Jeconiah’s son, Shealtiel, and then the line reads like this: Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Akim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob and Joseph. Joseph was married to Mary and she became the Master’s mother.
Look at the special numbers: 14 generations from Abraham to David, another 14 from David to the deportation, and a third 14 from the deportation to the coming of the Master! What a family tree!

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