* The New Testament must open up with a genealogy that shows two things:

* 1) Jesus was a Jew descended directly from Abraham.

* 2) Jesus was royalty descended directly from David.

* The word used for genealogy is “hityahsu” - in Hebrew this means “be part of the list of all whom you belong to.” (Skip Moen)

* Matthew was showing that Jesus belonged to the Jews as their king.

* vs 2:1 - Herod was a descendant of Esau, which went against Genesis 25:23 that stated Esau would serve Jacob.

* The opening of Matthew 2 could read like this - "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days when the descendants of Esau ruled over the descendants of Jacob....."

* God had to set the stage for His Son to enter the world, and it was at a time when all hope seemed lost. But everything was about to be restored!