Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we dropped out on a new gospel, Matthew, and even though he's a new gospel to us in our reading plan, he's quite possibly the oldest of the four Gospels.

Most people believe this is Matthew the Apostle

slash disciple of Jesus who was a tax collector before Jesus called him.

Given his attention to numbers and money and return on investment, it seems likely.

Matthew's unique lens on Jesus is Jesus as King.

As a refresher, Luke's lens is Jesus as man,

and Johns is Jesus as God.

So far, we have Jesus as God, man, and king. Matthew starts out by giving

us the lineage of Jesus, and if you were with us in the Old Testament, you probably recognized

at least a few of these people. Here are three things worth noting about this genealogy.

First, it includes women.

That's unheard of in ancient Jewish genealogies.

So we can see right out of the gate that the message Jesus sent his disciples about women

was one of inclusion. Jesus obviously taught Matthew that women matter, otherwise he would

have left them out. Second, his inclusion extends beyond just gender because this genealogy

also includes Gentiles. That's any non-Jew, and it includes people with scandalous histories.

For instance, rehab had been a pagan and it includes people with scandalous histories.

For instance, rehab had been a pagan prostitute,

and we don't have time to go into all the stuff

David and Solomon did.

The message God sends in this genealogy is one of redemption. He says, you belong here in my family.

...