In Matthew 1, we see the genealogy of Jesus. But the interesting thing is that the kings Ahaziah, Jehoash, and Amaziah are left out of Jesus’ genealogy. Why is this?

First of all, the important thing to keep in mind is that God always works according to his word, never according to human systems.

In the 1970s, Christian leaders in the West said that God works through the “Seven Mountains”: religion, family, education, media, arts & entertainment, business, and government. These leaders said that if we wanted to win the world for Christ, we would need to “influence” these mountains.

But, in reality, to God these are not mountains. God is not an influencer. To God, what shapes the world is not human systems but his word. God’s word does not influence the world. It creates it.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3)

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3)

Many translations of the Bible have Matthew 1:1 reading “The genealogy of Jesus”. But the original word is not “genealogy” but “genesis”. Jesus’ birth does not just influence the world; it is its genesis. God is not constrained to work through the world’s systems. If God wants, he can just leave out human systems and those who manage them, such as the three kings who are not included in Jesus’ genealogy. They are nullified.

“God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,” (1 Corinthians 1:28)

This is what happened in the “genesis” of Jesus:

“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).”

When the Lord acts in our lives, he usually doesn’t act in ways that are according to our plans or systems. His actions generally interrupt our lives because God is not constrained by human systems. He acts according to his word.

The birth of Jesus interrupted Joseph’s life because he was forced to choose between the law of God and God. According to the law, Joseph should have cancelled his engagement to Mary. But, instead, he obeyed the word of God from the angel and took Mary as his wife.

“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,” (Romans 8:3)

God had to work “apart from the law” (cf. Romans 3:23) in order to set us free from sin because the law was powerless to do so. Working through the “seven mountains” is not a definition of God’s action, but it is a better definition of sin: rejecting the direct care of God and indirectly receiving his care through mediators such as nations, kings, priests, and laws.

Throughout the Old Testament, God promised that he would come personally to rule on the earth, to save us from our sinful rejection of him. He promised to do this by coming personally and removing all mediators from between him and us, not by replacing bad mediators with good mediators. This is the good news of the Kingdom of God. This is the promise that is fulfilled in the birth of Christ, Emmanuel.

Joseph was a descendant of David, but Jesus was not the flesh-and-blood son of Joseph. Jesus became the son of David through adoption. Joseph adopted Jesus by naming Jesus. We might think, “Wouldn’t it be better if Jesus was a direct descendant of David rather than an adopted one?” But God does not work through human systems. God knows that spiritual parentage is more important than fleshly bloodlines.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

“children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:13)

Names that are given to babies by God are also the word of God and carry the power of the word of God.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

God tells Joseph to give Jesus two names. One, “Jesus” and another “Immanuel”. As for “Immanuel” it is because Jesus is “God with us”.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

In fact, the whole of the Gospel of Matthew is about “God with us”. He is born as Emmanuel and, at the end of the Matthew, he says “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Note: “I am” is the name of God).

There are only two scriptures in the Old Testament about God saving his people from their sins. They are Ezekiel 36:16-29 and Ezekiel 37:21-27

“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness..” (Ezekiel 36:24-29)

“They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God. “‘My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd.” (Ezekiel 37:23-24)

In modern popular theology, sin is breaking God’s law and, because we broke God’s law, Jesus had to die as a substitute for us, so if we believe in Jesus we are counted righteous and can go to heaven when we die. But Ezekiel 36 and 37 show us that sin is not about a broken law, but something far deeper: a broken relationship between us and God. It was broken not because we are not perfect, but because we rejected the relationship with God, a relationship where we receive God’s direct care and reign over us.

In Ezekiel, it wasn’t just that Israel broke God’s law. They rejected God as their sole ruler and provider and sought care and rule from worldly systems–in the “Seven Mountains”, so to speak. So, the Lord scattered them among the nations they emulated. But he promised to bring them back, giving them a new Spirit and new hearts which trust him by washing them with water—a promise fulfilled when we are baptized into Christ’s death, receiving the Holy Spirit.  

With Joseph and Mary, God spoke to them through angels and dreams. Most of us would be thrilled if God guided us through angels and dreams. But the writer of Hebrews says this:

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Now God speaks to us not merely through angels and dreams but directly, through the Son. By his blood, the Lord Jesus saved us from our sins. He freed us from our slavery to the structures and systems of this world, to which we had turned instead of God. Now Christ gathers us as his people to rule over us personally and provide for us directly until the end of the age. Now we see him through the eyes of faith, but then he will appear, and we, in our resurrected bodies on a new heavens and new earth, will see him face to face!