The King Has Come Pt. III | Matthew 1:1-17

August 10th, 2025

Ludwig van Beethoven composed some of the greatest music the world has ever heard while being almost entirely deaf.  It is hard to imagine a man writing music when he was cut off from the very sounds he was creating.  Centuries after being written, Beethoven’s work continues to move and stir in the hearts of his listeners.

With symphonies, every part has a purpose, each note, instrument and crescendo coming together to deliver a masterpiece.  Until it is written and produced for people to hear, the symphony lives in the mind of its composer.  The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 is this kind of great symphonic piece.  It is very easy to look at this list of unfamiliar names and see them as distant from us; but, these names are the trumpets, violins, tubas, the woodwinds sections, when viewed together as a whole, they become a symphony that contributes to the attributes of the composer, and we begin to understand his heart.  All of these names play a part in the grand orchestration of redemption, as Matthew is bringing Christ forward in his writing.

In this list, we need to see that God intentionally creates and uses each life, strategically layered and woven together with breathtaking precision to produce something very specific that reflects His heart.  God is the Great Conductor, revealing Himself through these vessels, these instruments.  As humans, we do not have the grand picture as that of God and we struggle to see the relevance, the importance of the instruments God uses to write His symphony.  He hears what we cannot and He sees the end from the beginning.  Matthew has the great privilege of writing this symphony of the coming King, with every name revealing a specific sound and each sound unveiling the heart of the Conductor.  God’s desire is to reveal His character, His attributes to us through the lives of people.  As we looked at Psalm 23, last week, we saw how David revealed to us the Shepherd’s heart of God for His people.

The people Matthew lists reveal specific attributes of God.  Today, we are moving from Abraham, where we saw the faithfulness of God on display, to Isaac where we will see God revealing the nature of His mercy, laying the foundation for the rest of the names in the genealogy.  In these first few names, we have the Promised Seed of Genesis who is to come forward.  Now, preserved by a faithful God who extends mercy, the Promised Seed has come and Matthew is recording it, the Promised King and this line that is preserved throughout time.  For God’s glory and for our benefit, let us not look at this list as simply names, but as names divinely recorded to reveal the truth of God’s character, His attributes and His love towards us.

  Preserved by Mercy

In its most simple definition, “mercy” is “withholding deserved punishment”.  (The flipside of mercy is “grace”, which is “(extending or receiving) unmerited favor”.)  Mercy is an exceptionally complex concept such that approximately eight Hebrew and six or seven Greek words are required to put a framework around our understanding of it.  Throughout Scripture we find numerous synonyms for it, a few of which are compassion, lovingkindness, favor, adoration, desire, loyalty, to spare, to show pity, to console, to pardon or to forgive, steadfast love and kindness.  One systematic defines mercy as “God’s compassion and kindness toward the miserable and afflicted, coupled with a desire to relieve their suffering.  It is closely connected to grace, but while grace is extended to the guilty, mercy is extended to the pitiable”.  As stated by a noted theologian, mercy is “compassion to the miserable” (R.C. Sproul).

We find God’s first display of mercy in Genesis 3 in His dealings with Adam and Eve.  Deserving punishment, they were covered in garments of skin by God and promised a Redeemer, Christ, whom Matthew now proclaims has come.  Mercy is a way in which God handles rebels with a covering and a promise...it is a restorative action.  As we look at the eight Hebrew words that come together to form the vocabulary for mercy, we find them used across all of the Old Testament, which demonstrates a very real, dynamic, multifaceted theology of mercy.

For the purposes of today’s teaching, let us see mercy from two specific pillars: emotion and action.  In Genesis 19:16, “...So the men seized him (Lot) and his wife and his two daughters by the compassion of Yahweh upon him”, we see that Yahweh’s compassion is highly emotional, an intense and overwhelming sensation of tender love, like the tenderness of a mother towards the child in her womb.  In Genesis 24:12, we see the second pillar, when Abraham’s servant, sent by Abraham to find a wife for Isaac, says, “O Yahweh, the God of my master Abaham, please cause it to happen before me today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham”.  In this context, lovingkindness (mercy) is a covenantal love specifically based on a mutual agreement.  The servant understood the covenant God made with Abraham.

We see this same loyal, steadfast love of God expressed to Moses in Exodus 34:6, “Yahweh, Yahweh, God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth”.  God wanted Moses to see that He is faithful to His love.  God’s love is rooted in His own character.  In all of Scripture, this is one of the most important self-disclosures of God, and in this passage comes the theological anchor that people use for mercy.

Let us now ponder mercy as presented in the New Testament, beginning with its usage in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice–living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”.  The word Paul uses for mercies carries the idea of a deep inward groaning or lament that arises from intense compassion or pity that grips your entire being for another person’s pain, exceeding logic and compelling one to immediately act in a restorative manner.  Emotion and action.  Mercy.

To demonstrate Paul’s meaning of mercy, consider the aftermath of a horrific car crash, where you are the first responder, help is nowhere near and communication seeking outside help is not possible.  You are the only source of help.  You do not pause to weigh the pros and cons of acting.  Instantly you move, making every attempt to prioritize care for the injured and then to provide required assistance.  In this situation, you are not moved by logic, but rather pity–a compassion that grips your entire being and compels immediate, restorative action.  You will see this through to the end, no matter what it takes!  From your vantage point, you are the giver of mercy.  This is Paul’s teaching.

It is difficult to put a specific definition to mercy as it is something we receive, something we experience originating from a relational aspect.  “Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness” (Psalm 103:8).  God shows mercy and we experience it in salvation.  From this verse, Thomas Watson said, “Mercy sweetens all God’s other attributes.  It is the golden scepter in His Hand.  It is better felt than defined.”  Also, mercy is contextual in its understanding, taking shape in time of need, in the midst of sin, brokenness, judgment and suffering.  We see this displayed in Genesis 19:16, read earlier, with the good Samaritan (Luke 10) and in Romans 9:15.  It is divine intervention in a real situation.

Puritans John Owens and Jonathan Edwards highlight the transformational aspect of God – it is a movement of God toward the sinner.  It is not just a point of doctrine.  Again, it is best understood by receiving it.  In the book of Ephesians, Paul opens with the richness of the blessings of God in Christ and beautifully lays out God’s plan of salvation, which he preordained, then in Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul reminds the church of its former life, being dead in their trespasses and sins, “by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind”.  With this understanding at the forefront of their thinking, Paul then reminds them of the compelling action of God towards them, “But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ–” (Ephesians 2:4-5).  God’s mercy flows from love and it is known by those who have received it.  (See also 1 Peter 2:10).

If we return to Romans 12:1, we offer our lives in sacrifice, we lay out our body for God because of our experience, because of God’s movement towards us by the salvation in Christ God has given us.  Without God, we have no hope, no possibility of survival.  Mercy is not God’s reaction to human goodness; it is the very nature of who He is.  In Lamentations 3, we find another great illustration of God’s mercy, when Jeremiah, writing about the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction, that which was prophesied in Habakkuk, speaks with the feeling of God’s abandonment and as being personally attacked by God (3:4-7).  Yet, in the midst of this experience, Jeremiah remembers the compassion and mercy of God and cries out, “It is the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (3:22).

Mercy is the rich soil in which redemptive history begins to grow.  Isaac is a green shoot that comes forth from this soil.  In mercy, Isaac is made manifest.  The first child born of the promise to Abraham was not born by merit, human effort or strategic planning, but a loving movement of God.  All hope in human effort was gone.  In the birth of Isaac, God wanted the world to understand that He is a merciful God.  He moved in a barren womb to create a line for Himself so that He might bring forth our Savior, Jesus Christ.  In universal history, God continues to unfold the nature of His mercy.  In Genesis 22, we see Abraham lay Isaac on the altar of sacrifice, but God mercifully spares him and provides a ram in his place.  Here we begin to see that God’s mercy extends beyond Abraham to all generations.  Yahweh Yireh (Yee-rah), “The Lord will provide” (22:14), is Abraham’s declaration, emphasizing the mercy of God, which propels us to Romans 8:32, where we are reminded of God’s mercy in that He DID NOT spare His own Son.

Later, in the life of Isaac, we see the continuing development of God’s mercy, demonstrating mercy in the face of Isaac’s human error.  Jacob was the son favored by God, but Isaac, failing in his discernment, favored Esau (Genesis 25:28).  As determined by God, and again not by human effort or planning, the blessing of Isaac did fall on Jacob.  Isaac becomes a type of all who are born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God (John 1:13), a divine portrait of God’s mercy.  He should not exist, but mercy made him.  He should have died, but mercy provided a substitute.  He tried to bless the wrong line, but mercy preserved the line.

Our life in Christ is not the result of our power, wisdom or planning, but rather the result of the mercy of God.  “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Romans 9:16).  In Matthew’s writing down the names of Abraham, then Isaac, it is not merely tracing the lineage of the Messiah, it is revealing the very heart of God and the very nature of Christ’s ministry, rooted in the fertile soil of mercy, which overrides every human limitation.

As we come to the next name, Jacob, we see that God’s mercy is not only restorative, but also elective.  By definition, mercy is an experience by sovereign choice.  Through the interpretive lens of Romans 9:10-13, we see clearly God’s election of Jacob. “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that the purpose of God according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older shall serve the younger.’  Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’”.

Humanity tends to wince, pastors want to skip over, believers attempt to justify by human philosophy, excuse or dance our way around it.  As we understand God’s mercy, we understand this action is not cold determinism, but the warm mystery of divine mercy.  It is not just something we receive from God, but also something believers are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to give to others.  It can only be shown by God’s children. “A truly gracious spirit is above all things merciful, as having been made the partaker of infinite divine mercy” (Jonathan Edwards).  Mercy is a divine, relational attribute that we have with God.  The one who shows no mercy will be judged because, by their fruit, they are proving their father is not Yahweh Yireh, the God who provides.

In its beauty, as we extend mercy, we also experience it and the love the Father has for us.  This is His divine design.  God gives command after command after command for His children to give mercy, but for what reason?  As we extend mercy, we will experientially know (in real time) His love for us.

Let us walk away today with a truly grateful heart for the divine mercy of God and the love that He extends, for helping us to experientially know Him.  May God lead us in new ways to understand the depth of His love for us.  May we be diligent to remember God’s great mercy, His great love, extended to us through Christ as atonement for our sin.  In our remembrance, may we then obediently demonstrate by our extension of the same mercy towards others.

Selah

• In His written word, we find that God’s will is to reveal His character, His attributes and His love towards His children.  As it relates to His mercy, did the Lord reveal anything about His love towards you that deepened your love for Him?
• Understanding the truth and the depth of God’s mercy towards you, the true child of God, as found in Ephesians (2:1-4), should experientially serve a great motivator in the expression of your mercy towards others.  Do you see evidence of this in your heart, which flows into your words and actions?
• In requiring the death of His Son, God did not withhold anything in demonstrating the depth of His love and His mercy for mankind.  Is it now your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1) to withhold nothing from God?
• If mercy towards others is not present in your life, is now the time to examine whether God is truly your Father?