Proverbs 1

The object of the book: To promote wisdom, discipline, understanding, righteousness, justice, equity, prudence, knowledge, discretion, learning, and guidance.

The starting point is reverential awe for YHWH.

Then paying attention to parental instruction.

Avoiding bad companions.

Wisdom’s cry of warnings, and the dire consequences of ignoring them.

Matthew 1:1-17

Jesus is the Messianic heir of David.

Matthew’s purpose in giving this incomplete genealogy of is to highlight Jesus’ Davidic ancestry. Hebrew consonants represent not only sounds, but numbers too, and the numerical values of the consonants in David’s name in Hebrew add up to 14 (d=4, v=6). The 14 generations give a numerical reminder of Jesus’ Davidic descent.

Matthew 1:18-25

In antiquity, kings were said to have miraculous births, and Jesus is no different. Not only is Jesus born by means of virginal conception, but the Messiah will bear a divine throne name–Immanuel, meaning “God is with us.” God is personally present with His people in and through Jesus–Wisdom in the flesh and so a greater royal figure than even the earlier ultimate Jewish sage, Solomon (12:42).

-from The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible

Matthew 1:19-25

Joseph was a righteous, law-abiding man of God. But he was not a “by-the-book” only guy. He was open to spiritual direction and guidance in its many forms, listening for God directly-even if thru a dream. And He obeyed the voice of God.

May we never be confined to hearing God in only one way, or from only one place, even if it be the Bible, as great a source as that is. Joseph was a devout man, who no doubt studied God’s written word, which likely opened Him to the voice of God even more, since he had a heart for God.

Reading, studying, and meditating on the Bible is a very necessary means, never the end, of knowing God more deeply. The more we are in the word, the better attuned we become at hearing God’s “voice” everywhere we go. Joseph must’ve been pretty in tune to act so faithfully on what he heard.

Listen to and for God everywhere today.

Matthew 1:23

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”

THE WITH-GOD LIFE.

Finally, the ultimate with-God event is announced to Joseph. God had been present with individuals, with a family, with a tribe, then with a people. Now God announces that he will be with us personally and will experience all of the limitations, humiliations, and sufferings that are our fate as humans (Heb.5:1-8).

How has the reality that God took on human flesh and lived among us changed your life?

What can you do to make it more real?

-from The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible