A record of the geneology of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  (NIV)

Jesus was a real human being who was rooted in our real history.  He was born to a real human being, who had ancestors who lived and died.  That much is very clear by this introduction.  Just like any other major player in Jewish history, Jesus’ geneology was considered important to establish “his credentials” right off the bat:  who He was, and where He came from.

Another motivation of Matthew to include the geneology right at the beginning was to establish his claim that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Messiah must be Jewish, that is a descendant of Abraham, and He must be a descendant of David so that He would have a legitimate claim to the throne.  Through this genealogy, Matthew establishes both of these qualifications very clearly.

But as I was pondering these few words, I wondered if there were any other reason for Matthew to mention specifically David and Abraham.  I came to the conclusion that Jesus was the fulfillment of key promises that were made to both David and Abraham – promises that really couldn’t be understood at the time that they were given, because the people to whom they were given, David and Abraham, were just men with human understanding.  But looking back at these promises through the lens of Jesus, we see that (a) God really did have a plan right from the beginning, and (b) Jesus was that plan.

The promise to David that was amazingly fulfilled by Jesus is in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.  2 Samuel 12 starts off with David in a very good place:  he has settled into his palace, and he isn’t having any wars at the moment.  So he calls in the prophet Nathan and tells him about his wonderful plan to build a temple for the Lord, which Nathan heartily encourages.  But a little later, God pulls Nathan up short with a message for David:  He is not the one that God has chosen to build the temple.  Disappointing news, but there is an amazing promise for David embedded in it:  

2 Samuel 7:11-16 (NIV)
¹¹ “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: ¹² When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. ¹⁵ But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'”

What an amazing promise, and it was fulfilled completely by Jesus, the descendant of David who is now the King forever, not only of Israel, but of the whole Universe!

The second promise was the one given to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3.  The situation for this promise was that Abraham
was being called to leave his family and go to the Promised Land that God was going to give to him and his descendants:

Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV)
¹ The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ² “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Again, this prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus to the last degree!  Through Jesus, “the Son of Abraham,” all peoples on earth have been blessed, especially those who acknowledge Him as their Lord and Savior!