emphasizes Jesus as the messianic King of the Jews. Matthew starts his Gospel with the genealogy. To us, a genealogy might seemed incredibly boring. But to a first-century Jew, it was incredibly important. And that genealogy begins with Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew stresses that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham—that through Him, all nations would be blessed. He’s the fulfillment of the promise made to David—the Davidic covenant—that one day God would