Day 1 – Matthew 1:1-17

The first seventeen verses of Matthew are probably the easiest to skip over – especially if you haven’t studied the Old Testament much – but they are also some of the most important verses in all of the gospels. Matthew takes us on a journey from Genesis to Malachi (and even through the 400 years of ‘silence’ between the Old and New Testaments) with one purpose in mind: to connect Jesus all the way back to Abraham (which would set up the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 12:3 that his descendants would bless all nations) and to establish Jesus in the royal bloodline of David (which would make Jesus a legitimate heir to David’s throne and so fulfill the promise in 2 Samuel 7:16 that David’s throne would last forever). Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of thousands of years of promises that God would redeem his people. Today, meditate on the fact that Jesus fulfilled the longings of 42 generations of men and women, and on Jesus’ ability to fulfill your deepest longings as well.