The First Noel: Matthew 1

Hello, everyone. I've finally arrived. It's been a crazy few weeks (many weeks) but I made it. Here are my initial thoughts about Matthew:

We begin with the genealogy of Jesus, which as a child, I certainly glanced over to get to the "good stuff"; here's the finale:

Matthew 1:17 "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations."

I never thought of "fourteen" as being a very biblically symbolic number -- I guess I was expecting twelve or seven or forty...fourteen. I guess it's a multiple of seven...

And now we get into the birth of Jesus (which we will see over and over again, of course)...here are a few lines

"18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."

What does that mean, "make a public example"? Is that a nice way to say she'd be the town whore? Would she be killed for a child out of wedlock? Would she be a public mockery? And what stopped her from being a perceived one anyway? Did they go around and say, "No, no it's okay. She's giving birth to God's son. Duh." I mean, I guess when he marries her, everyone assumes the baby is his, but still. Don't they have a sense of timing? But, then again, whose to say that God didn't allow Jesus to be in the womb for ten months instead of nine so that people wouldn't talk. Who knows?

"20But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

As a grown adult, and as someone whose father has said that "dreams are our way of putting our mind's garbage out," I wonder about this. How does he know it's DEFINITELY an angel of the Lord? Aren't we taught as little Christian children that Satan is often in disguise? How could he be sure of this?

Last week, I had a dream about Jesus -- that I was talking to him. These things just don't happen anymore, right? So why should I believe it was ACTUALLY Jesus when it could have just been my psyche telling me to get back to work on this blog, or something of that nature?

I wish this conversation with the angel was more of a dialogue. I would like to hear Joseph talking to the angel, wondering, "What the heck did I get into?" It would make him more human, I think, to be scared of the repercussions of this. Here it just looks like he's blindly following a dream vision, which nowadays is unheard of. I guess I just can't relate.

"24Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS."

Notice, people! Firstborn son! So many people think that Jesus is her ONLY son. He's not. Jesus had brothers from Mary and Joseph. Can you imagine having Jesus as your older brother? It's bad enough for younger siblings needing to live up to their older sibling's legacy...I can't even fathom what it would be like to have the Saviour as my older brother.

"Why can't you be more like Jesus? HE doesn't complain about taking out the garbage."

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I have read more than this, but I don't have time to write the thoughts yet -- will update later with more chapters.