There was a rather important shift in Israel’s religious life that happened with David and his plans for temple worship rather than the older pattern of worship at the Tabernacle: It was that the priests and Levites were re-organized into groups appropriate to the new state of affairs, and not based on the original family lines. This reordering was still in effect in the beginning of the New Testament, where we read that Zechariah was a member of the priestly division of Abijah. So we have precedent for not always ‘doing it’ the way it was done in the past.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/1ch.25.nlt
Today’s highlighted verse:
30 No human wisdom or understanding or plan
can stand against the LORD.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/pro.21
Matthew’s Gospel was written possibly as early as 50 AD, and some material was based on Mark’s Gospel. Matthew was probably written by Levi Matthew, the tax collector and the disciple of Jesus. He does not identify himself (similarly to John in John’s Gospel), but if he did, he would have started to do so in chapter 9.
It is clear that Matthew was written for the Jewish audience, and indeed, at the time it was written, the Gospel had not yet gone far among the non-Jews. Again and again Matthew points to fulfillments of Scripture. And at times, especially near the end, he does not bother to use the words “This fullfilled …” but just includes a couple of words that would have been obvious allusions to Scripture for his audience. An odd feature is that sometimes ‘one’ thing or person in other Gospels switches to ‘two’ in Matthew. My own original opinion on that feature is this: Every assertion according to the Law needed to be maintained by at least two witnesses. At the times 1 becomes 2, I think Matthew is specifically telling us that he was an eyewitness.
I saved Matthew for the last of the Gospels to be read in our reading calendar because I wanted to group together several New Testament books written to the Jewish audience.
Today we will hear the genealogy of Jesus. Most commentators think that Matthew traces the genealogy through Mary instead of Joseph. And there are hidden treasures to look for in this genealogy.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/mat.1
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