I hope all of you are reading your two chapters a day of the four gospels! Here's a couple of thoughts on Matthew chapters 1 and 2. Matthew is writing specifically to the Jews so he starts with a genealogy to show how Christ descended from Abraham and David. The Messiah was prophesied to come through that line so he had to prove the Savior was a descendent of those two prophets.
It says that Joseph didn't want to make Mary a public example. There were two steps in a Jewish marriage, espousal (engagement) and marriage. To be caught in adultery in either was punishable by death. Since Mary was pregnant, Joseph could have not believed and made her pregnancy known and then Mary would have been stoned to death. But Joseph decided he would just quietly become unengaged to her. But the angel appeared and told him what was up so he went ahead and married her and called the child his own.
When he wise men came to Jerusalem they went to Herod, not to Bethlehem. Herod then looked for the Savior in Bethlehem because of the prophecy that he would be born there. But he didn't find him because he was already gone. After they leave Herod, they follow the star to "the house" of Mary and Joseph. So they went to Nazareth and saw the Savior there. Jesus was not a new born by this time, but not more than two years old because Herod is going to slay all of the children who are two and younger. Verse 23 of chapter 2 is a good example of lost scripture because we don't have this.
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