The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 26

repent,ed God thnt be bnd made man upon earth; the Flood destroyed the 1rn"odly. 0 'l'licn God ostnblishcd hie covenant, first with Noah, afterwards with Abraham, The promise became clearer nod more definite. The generations had descended from God. now they begin to ascend towards Goel again, towards the Christ, who is the Son of God, himself God incarnate. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Chri3t; he saw it and was glad. Generation after generation looked for the promised Saviour; Simeon was "wJJ.iting for the consolation of Israel," The Jews inqnired of John the Baptist whether he was the Christ that was to comll-the Christ was to restore all thin"s, In Arlam all died, in Christ shall all be made alive; for the last Adam is a quicke~- ing Spirit, even the Lord from heaven, He came to restore the almost lost imacre of God., "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we must also bear the image of the heavenly." Goel hath predestinated his elect to be conformed to the image of his Son. Ae they dmw nearer and nearer to Christ, imitating his blessed example, lookin" always unto Jesus, they are being renewed in knowledge after the image r,f him that created them. The generations ascend towards the Christ; so must each Christian strive in his own spititual life to rise ever nearer to the Lord. 3. The variations of ranlc in the genealogy. The generations begin with patriarchs; they rue to king8 ; they descend again to private men. From Abraham to David the king; from Dav:d the king to Joseph the carpenter. Human ancestry, however illustrious, could add nothing to the dignity of the Son of God. But both his blessed mother and Joseph, his father by adoption, were descended from David. Apparently the Lord Jesus was, according to the flesh, the representative of David, the lineal heir to David's throne. But he lived in obscurity for the first thirty years of hi~ earthly life. He was meek and humble in heart; he prided not himself on earthly rank. Indeed, what was rank to him? The difference between the greatest monarch and the humblest beggar is altogether inappreciable compared with the infinite descent from heaven to earth. When ouce he had emptied himself of his glory, and taken the form of a servant, it was as nothing that he chose the carpenter's shop rather than the royal palace. His earthly ancestors varied in rank. 'l'here were kings, there were priva.te men; the reputed father of the Lord, the husband of his mother, was a carpenter. Honours, like wealth, are vanity; the one highest honour, the one loftiest title, is theirs to whom he. hath given power to be called the sons of God. 4. The variations in moral and spiritual character. In the genealogy there are holy men like Abraham, there are wicked men like Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon. There is a Moabitish woman, pure indeed, and lovely in character, but of heathen blood. Others there are whose lives had been defiled with sin-Tamar, Ilahab, Bathsheba. The Lord indeed was born by n. miraculous concep- tion, without stain of human corruption; but sinner~ as well as saints are reckoned in his genealogy. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, though he was without sin. His ancestry was not uniformly holy, any more than uniformly royal. The poorest have an interest in him as much as the noblest; the sinful have an interest in him as well as apostles and saints. 5. The genealogy, lil~e all genealogies, shows the transitoriness of all things human. "Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah," Man comes, and man goes; a man is born into the world; man goeth to his long home, Each man represents a long line of ancestors, a. line ,;-hich each genemtion lengthens, a line stretching back into the remotest past. Most of us know very little of those who havo gone beforn us, not so much as their names. 'l'hey are gone, and we must follow; we shall soon be but names in the memory of posterity; .soon our very names will be forgotten. But God bath saiJ, "I am the God of Abra- ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Then the dead of nges past are living still; we speak of them as the dead, but they live unto God. Their number is incalculable; the world of the dead is infinitely more numerouu than tho world of the living. Dut they are all known, every one of them, to the all-seeing God. 'vVe shall soon be gathered to that countless multitude. It matters little now to them what their rank, their wealth, was in life. The patriarch, the king, the carpenter, are distinguished now only by their faith, their holiness. Many that onco were last are first now, and tho last are first. So will it be with us who are living now. "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ; " "Seek first the kinf:clom of God." 6. The genealogy shows the true manhood of Christ. According to the flesh he is descended, like ourselves, from a Jong line of 12 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oa. 1. 1-W.