Thursday, December 22, 2005

Jesus the Exodus

Summing up the genealogy in the first chapter of his gospel, Matthew writes: “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations” (Matthew 1:17).

We know that Matthew intentionally left out some generations from this genealogy so that we would be left with three groups of fourteen generations; and the question I want to answer here is “Why?”

Israel’s was a story of promise from the very beginning. In fact, the birth of God’s chosen nation came out of His promise to Abraham: “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation” (Gen 12:1-2).

But as this genealogy points out, somehow it had all gone wrong. This promised nation which was to be a blessing to all the families of the earth found itself in exile. There were times when it looked like things were getting better (out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, into Babylon and back out again), but by the end of the inter-testamental period Israel was all but obliterated, and those who remained were suffering under the iron fist of Rome. Many must have wondered, “How is God going to fulfill His promises to Israel and to the world?”

The answer comes in and through Matthew’s three groups of fourteen generations. From Abraham to David we see the covenant with Abraham and his people declared, and the everlasting throne of David established. From David to the Babylonian exile we see the temple built and destroyed, and the enslavement of Israel. But then comes the last group of 14 generations, where the promise is declared afresh through the prophets: God has not gone back on His word, the final exodus is at hand! And then, at the end of this final group, we recieve The Answer: the long awaited Messiah.

But why is this revealed to us in three groups of fourteen? First of all, fourteen is a royal number: in Hebrew, the name David is represented by the number fourteen, thus pointing to Jesus’ kingship. Second, fourteen is a priestly number: it is the number of high priests from Aaron to the building of Solomon’s temple, and it is the number of high priests from the temple to Jaddua (the last high priest mentioned in the Old Testament), thus pointing to Jesus’ position as our High Priest. And finally, the Jews who read this would most likely see that the number fourteen is important when it is halved into two sets of seven. The number seven represents perfection, completion, Sabbath. So we see that within this set of three fourteens, we have a subset of six sevens; and the last person mentioned in this subset is Jesus, and He turns out to be the seventh seven.

Now the nation of Israel was commanded by God to sow and reap their land for six years, and then the seventh year they would give their land rest, and would live off the previous year’s bounty. But on the seventh set of seven years (49th year), they would celebrate the year of Jubilee: the year of forgiveness of debts. And so, just as Israelites could look to the year of Jubilee for the setting free of land in some cases, and of bondservants in other cases, so we see that Christ ushers in the final year of Jubilee: the forgiveness of sins!

And so we step back and look at the big picture which Matthew has so beautifully painted for us, and we see Jesus: The Everlasting King, The High Priest, The Jubilee; The Exodus.

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