Please read the passage before the commentary.
The book of Matthew starts with a reminder of the book of Genesis. Genesis gives us a genealogy of creation; Matthew gives us a genealogy of the Lord Jesus. We might expect a series of seven days of genealogy, corresponding to the seven days of creation.
Instead, we have a series of three groupings in the genealogy of fourteen generations. Why fourteen? Because in Hebrew mathematics, the name David, dvd – without the vowels – equals fourteen (4++6+4). Fourteen is also two times seven, a perfect number for the Hebrews. In effect, Matthew gives us the first six days of creation. The seventh, in Genesis, was a day of rest. The seventh for Matthew would be the birth of the Christ.
Five women are listed in the genealogy. They are important for keeping the line of kings intact from David to the Christ. They also have this in common, that there is some irregularity in their marriages. They include foreign women, a married woman taken by a king, a woman seduced by her father-in-law, and an unmarried woman with child by the Holy Spirit.
It includes good kings and bad ones. Great sinners and loyal believers. The genealogy is probably very much our own genealogies, with skeletons, villains and heroes. If the Lord Jesus came from a long list of good and bad people, but triumphed over history with his goodness, then we, likewise, can conquer the evil of our families’ past with the goodness of our lives.