And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
because thou hast obeyed my voice.--Gen. xxii. 18.
We now meet with a prophecy of the family from which Christ, after
the flesh, should spring. The lineal descent from Abraham to Joseph,
the husband of Mary, is given us by Matthew,[12] through forty-two
generations; and Luke[13] gives the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam,
through Abraham, in the whole seventy-four generations, showing at
once that the seed promised to Adam and Abraham, is the same, even
Jesus in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.[14] The
reader will discover a difference between the names in the Old and
New Testaments, which arises from the former being translated from
the Hebrew, and the latter from the Greek language. It will also be
observed, that the genealogies given by Matthew and Luke differ,
but Matthew gives the pedigree of Joseph, and Luke that of Mary.
Although the supposed father of Jesus is said by Luke to be the
son of Heli, yet Matthew informs us Jacob begat Joseph,[15] who is
called the son of Heli, only on account of the contract for marriage
subsisting between Joseph and his daughter. This was a custom
prevalent with the Jews, and these agreements were often made by
the parents, before the parties most interested had ever seen each
other, as was the case with Isaac and Rebecca. Although Abraham's
posterity have been, as the sand on the sea shore, innumerable, and
as a nation have enjoyed exceeding great and precious privileges,
yet all the nations of the earth can never be said to be blessed in
them, unless we take the prophecy in its true light, as pointing to
Jesus "the promised blessing," whose day of "tabernacling" on earth,
Abraham by faith saw afar off, "rejoiced, and was glad."
[12] Mat. i. 1-17.
[13] Luke iii. 23-38.
[14] Genesis xii. 3., xviii. 18. Psalm lxxii. 17.
[15] Matthew i. 16. Luke iii. 23.