-Morning-
Today's morning passage (as will all morning passages) was from the New Testament. It was from the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 1. The main point of this chapter was to give a brief genealogy of Christ from Abraham on down and to introduce us to Joseph and Mary. The reason Matthew only goes back to Abraham is because Matthew's writing is focused mostly on the Jewish people.
Matthew also gives a brief account of how Mary came to be pregnant and Joseph's reaction. Joseph was about to send Mary away (divorce her) to avoid her getting stoned when he had a dream where an angel spoke to him. The angel tells Joseph that Mary has been made pregnant by the Holy Spirit and will give birth to the Savior of mankind.
Another interesting side note that MacArthur makes note of in the study notes is how Matthew uses the unambiguous term for "virgin" (quoting from the LXX) in his writing, ergo the debate between whether or not later gospels meant "virgin" or "maiden" is settled with Matthew's gospel in Chapter 1.
