If you
didn’t pay careful attention, you might pass right over one of the most
important announcements in the New Testament: the miraculous birth of
Jesus Christ. Matthew took only one verse to announce it. Such a concise
statement, though it doesn’t all by itself prove the point, strongly
suggests that our Lord and Savior’s virgin birth was not simply a
man-made story.
A human author, writing strictly on his own initiative, would tend to
describe such an amazing event in an expansive, detailed, and elaborate
manner. But not the apostle Matthew. He does relate additional
circumstances surrounding the virgin birth, but the basic fact is stated
in one simple sentence: “After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Spirit.”
Matthew devotes the previous seventeen verses to Jesus’ human
genealogy but just this part of one verse to His divine genealogy. As
the Son of God, Jesus “descended” from His heavenly Father by a
miraculous and never-repeated act of the Holy Spirit; even so, the Holy
Spirit chose to announce that astounding truth by just one brief,
declarative sentence. As all God’s Word does, Matthew’s simple statement
contains the solemn tone of authenticity. By contrast, a human
fabrication would tend to have that false ring of exaggeration to it,
being filled out with much more “convincing” material than what this
inspired version needed.
Scripture gives us little information about Mary and even less about
Joseph. Mary was undoubtedly a godly young woman, probably a native of
Nazareth who came from a relatively poor family. Joseph was the son of
Jacob (Matt. 1:16)
and was a craftsman, probably a carpenter (13:55). Most significant, he
was a “just man” (1:19), one who placed saving trust in the coming
Messiah. Keep Reading >>>
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