We developed a prophetic framework —inmillennialism—in previous posts. It affects how we understand many passages of Scripture. We saw this when we applied it to Hebrews and Revelation.1 That exercise showed inmillennialism’s accuracy. We are now ready to begin a new phase of our blog.
Future posts will offer meditations on New Testament books. We will work through each book showing how inmillennialism illuminates selected passages. Our goal is not to produce a verse-by-verse commentary. Nor do we seek to re-establish the accuracy of our prophetic model.
Our purpose here is to show how inmillennialism helps us meditate on the great things God has done. We also wish to emphasize the wonderful things he has promised for our future.
We will begin with Matthew.
Matthew had betrayed his own people. He had rejected Israel’s heritage and now served as a publican—a tax collector—for the hated Romans. Money caused him to do it. He pre-paid tax money to the Romans, then demanded more than that amount from his kinfolk. The excess went into his personal bank account.
God’s purposes for Israel meant little to him. Sure, he knew the tales of how God had acted on behalf of the people in ancient times. And, he knew the prophets had foretold a glorious future that would come. Someday. Maybe.
That was of little consequence to Matthew. He was a here-and-now, practical kind of man. Stories and promises would not buy a new house, but tax money extorted from his neighbors would.
This love of money brought Matthew into disrepute. He was a traitor and his reputation was on par with harlots (cp. Matt. 21:31). Many people considered him a sinner incapable of redemption (cp. Matt 9:10; Mark 2:15–16; Luke 15:1–2). The Jewish leaders despised him (Matt 9:11; 11:19; Luke 5:30; 7:34). Who could love a man like him?
Matthew’s situation changed one day (probably) in AD 28. He later described what happened. “As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me” (Matt 9:9).2
Jesus had a way of changing the hearts of publicans. Zacchaeus was the chief among the tax collectors. (He may have been Matthew’s supervisor.) After he encountered Jesus, he said “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8).
Jesus had altered his affections. Money was no longer his primary aim. He now acted like a true “son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9).
Matthew experienced the same change. He forsook his money and followed Jesus as his Lord. Israel’s history and promises became his chief delights because Jesus was at the center of both.
We see evidence of Matthew’s changed affections in the first chapter of his gospel account. He connects Jesus to Israel’s story through genealogy, typology, and eschatology (prophecy).
Genealogy
Israel’s existence as a separate nation began with Abraham. God gave him wonderful promises. He would own a good land and produce many descendants. They would bless the nations. Matthew knew Jesus was the fulfillment of all these promises (2 Cor 1:20). Therefore, he placed Jesus in Israel’s history through a genealogy that linked him to Abraham (Matt 1:1–17).
This genealogy shows the extent to which Matthew had thought through Israel’s history. It shows God’s control of the generations between Abraham and Jesus. Matthew arranged his list in a symmetrical pattern. “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations” (Matt 1:17).
Fourteen generations after Abraham, Israel reached the pinnacle of her glory. This was during the reigns of David and Solomon, his son.
Then things deteriorated. Israel’s disobedience over the next fourteen-generation period led to the Babylonian captivity. Another fourteen generations had passed when Matthew wrote his gospel.
Each of Matthew’s 14-generation periods corresponds to a different phase of Israel’s history. “He divides into three parts, because of the threefold state of the Jews, first under Patriarchs, Prophets, and Judges, next under Kings, and then under Princes and Priests.”3 A new chapter began when Jesus arrived. He would continue Israel’s story.
Matthew meant for us to draw inferences from his 14-14-14 arrangement. Israel’s history was leading somewhere. God’s promises to Abraham showed this. Previous generations had failed to establish those promises. Now, through Jesus, God would fulfill them.
Genealogies disappear from Scripture after Jesus’s birth. The apostles warned about their misuse (1 Tim 1:4; Titus 3:9). Their purpose had been to point to Jesus as the climax of Israel’s story. Matthew’s genealogy shows how his affections had changed. Everything now focused on Jesus.
Typology
Matthew’s genealogy omits the Exodus, one of the most important events in Israel’s history. It also omits Moses and the giving of the law. The tabernacle and Temple receive no notice. Perhaps Matthew was anticipating Paul’s analysis. The Mosaic ceremonial law was a temporary arrangement that ended when Christ came (e.g., Gal 3:17).
Still, Matthew alludes to the Exodus. Typology helps us identify it.
Matthew tells how an angel informed Joseph about Jesus’s birth. “And she [Mary] shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21).
Consider the Exodus typology to which this points. God designed this historical event to show spiritual truths (1 Cor. 10:6, 11).
Israel was in physical bondage in Egypt. God sent Moses to them to deliver them from bondage. Pharaoh tried to compromise with Moses. He would allow only some people to leave as God commanded. Moses did not budge. He said all the people must go (Exod 10:8–11). When God defeated Pharoah, he redeemed every one of his people from bondage. Theirs was a true and complete physical redemption.
Just so, God’s people were in spiritual bondage to sin and death. God sent Jesus to deliver them. In fulfillment of the angel’s promise, Jesus redeemed “his people from their sins” on the cross. This was an actual redemption of all God’s people. Jesus did not lose one person the Father had given to him (e.g., John 17:1–5).
Moses told Israel, “because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut 7:8; emphasis added).
Paul told the church, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13; emphasis added).
Matthew linked Jesus to Israel’s history by presenting him as the true Redeemer. He saved his people (spiritual Israel) from spiritual bondage just as Moses saved his people (Israel after the flesh) from physical bondage. Moses was the type, Jesus was the fulfillment or antitype.
Eschatology
Matthew also connected Jesus to Israel’s story through eschatology. His gospel account shows how Jesus fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. “This was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet” (Matt 1:22) becomes a formula that appears often in Matthew.
The first fulfillment involves Jesus’s birth. The apostle says, “all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt 1:22–23).
Isaiah gave this prophecy during a time of national crisis in Judah. Syria and Ephraim were threatening to destroy Jerusalem. The prophet comforted the people, saying
The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. (Isa 7:14–16; emphasis added)
This was a prophecy for Isaiah’s day. A young woman—Isaiah’s wife—bore a son. And, before that son grew to manhood, God removed the threat of destruction (Isa. 8:3–4).
Typology comes into play here, too. The birth of the son in Isaiah’s day was a sign. Isaiah made this clear. “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion” (Isa 8:18; emphasis added).
When Matthew applied this prophecy to Jesus’s birth, he was not saying God fulfilled the prophecy twice.4 The birth of the prophet’s son had been a type (or sign). Matthew was saying Jesus’s birth was the antitype (or fulfillment).
In this way, Matthew again linked Jesus to Israel’s story. God had granted the nation deliverance from its physical enemies in Isaiah’s day. He fulfilled Isaiah’s virgin-birth prophecy when Mary gave birth to Jesus. Through this son, God brought Israel’s true deliverance. Isaiah, his wife, and his son were types or signs of things far greater.
Conclusion
How is it with us? Where do our affections lie? Are we still pursuing money like Matthew did when he worked as a tax collector?
Matthew came to love Israel’s story. He saw Jesus as the central figure in that story. May God grant us the same love. May we learn and tell Israel’s true story. An accurate prophetic framework will help us do so.
Footnotes
- The first post in the Hebrews series is here and the first in Revelation is here.
- The above image is Calling the Apostle Matthew by Andrey Mironov. This file (here) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments in The Baptist Commentary Series (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 7:6.
- Dual fulfillment is a device used by other prophetic systems to account for certain prophetic time statements.
