The First Chapter of Matthew

Those who were used of God to group the books of the New Testament have done wisely in placing Matthew first of the four gospels. Matthew is more intimately connected with the Old Testament than any other. To him it was given to draw the portrait of Christ in the manner best suited to meet the difficulties of the Jewish Christians, and to show them that every prophecy of the Old Testament had its perfect fulfillment in Him. This is why the quotations from the other scriptures are far more numerous in this gospel than in any of the others.
In Matthew we get a far more detailed account of Christ's rejection by the Jews than in the remaining records. He is presented to them as their Messiah, rejected by them, and only then reveals God's counsels as to what should be the result of this rejection. This gospel presents Christ in three ways:
Chapters 1 to 3: The Bethlehemite of Micah 5
Chapters 4 to 20: The Light from Zebulon and Napthali as in Isa. 9
Chapters 21 to 24: The King of Zech. 9
Unlike Matthew, there is no genealogy in Mark or John. Mark omits it because he presents a divine servant doing God's will, so the introduction of a genealogy is unnecessary. John gives us Jesus as the Son of God. It is impossible to trace the descent of the
One who "was in the beginning with God" and who "was God.”
In Matthew and Luke the case is different. All the Old Testament scriptures had converged to prove that the Messiah should be "born of a woman," and that He should belong to the house of David as well as of the seed of Abraham. The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. In David's seed was the royal line. We find, therefore, the genealogy most suitably traced up through David to Abraham. To go further was unnecessary where the thought in the mind of the Spirit was to present the Messiah.
In Luke, where He branches out into the wider glory of the Son of man, the genealogy naturally goes back till it comes to "Adam, which is the son of God.”