I have wondered if anyone is reading this.  Someone told me that they had sent me a comment, but I haven't figured out how to find it!!!  So if you are reading and communicating, I am sorry I haven't answered you.  I will learn how, so don't give up.

In Matthew 10: 2-7 the twelve apostles are named and sent out to witness to the "…lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Jesus tells them  "And as you go, preach, saying The kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Then in verse 14 He says, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet."

Those are horrible words.  He says for them to leave.  Go somewhere else.  Did you ever think about the fact that when God invites a person into his kingdom and they refuse to listen that they might never get another invitation.  As a Bible teacher, I am always aware of the people who are in my class from habit.  So I try to reach the ones who listen.  Years ago I asked God to give me just one person each year that I could pour His Word into.  It has been such a remarkable experience to see these women take what they have learned and pour that knowledge into someone else.   And they know who they are.  They knew what I was doing.  They are doing the same thing for someone else.

For that reason, I believe that when the Holy Spirit speaks to you that you should always respond.  Even if you don't know everything, you should reply in a positive way to the knowledge that you have.  And that includes little children.  Faith is a strange phenomenon.  It is real.  It produces a positive response from God.  It's like a muscle, when you use it, it gets stronger.

I responded when I was seven.  I had faith in God with the mind of a child.  I responded again when I was twenty-three.  With the mind of a young adult.  God says that he holds you in his hand.  There is a beginning, but there is also a 'continuing' and God holds you.  Our faith grows through the years as we discover new things from the Word of God.

That's so neat.  What a comfort to know that God has you in his hand.

When I read the Lord's Prayer, there is something I have wondered about.  Temptation.  Christ says for us to ask God to, "Lead us not into temptation".  I have a hard time thinking that God would lead us into temptation.  But I am reminded of Christ's temptation in Matthew 4: 1-11.  "Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."

It was the devil who was doing the tempting, but the spirit that led him up into temptation.  In the Lord's prayer,  Christ is saying that we should ask God not to lead us to the place where Christ had been led.  The place of temptation.  He knew what He was talking about.  He wanted to spare us what he had been through.  So he told us to pray for ourselves that God wouldn't lead us into temptation.

There are those who would tell you that Christ wasn't capable of being tempted since He was God.  But that point of view is not scriptural.  In Hebrews 4: 15 we find, "For we don't have a high priest (Christ) which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."  He was tempted.  God chose to limit himself in every human way when he came to earth and took up residence in the body of Jesus.  Jesus was God.  Jesus was man.

It is very interesting to note that the way Jesus resisted Satan was to quote scripture.  He was ready for the battle because he had memorized scripture.  In verse Matt. 4:4  when Christ was tempted to use his power to turn stones into bread, he quoted this verse from the old Testament: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy. 8:3)

A few years ago, I decided to take a class called the 'Mind of Christ'.  I memorized a section of scripture (Philippians 2; 3-11), by pasting it on my dashboard where I could review it as I drove the 116 mile round trip to work and back.  It was harder to do than when I was younger.  Two of those verses came to mind as I was writing about Christ's temptation.  Verse 7-8a.  "But (he) made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself…"  I bet it was humbling to become a man when you were God, and to allow yourself to be limited to our likeness.  Just so he could die for us.

Last year, I asked the question of my Bible class:  "How do you start your prayers?  Who do you speak to?  How do you phrase the beginning of your conversation with God?"  I have always started my prayers by saying "Dear Father".  Others addressed Jesus.  One person said they spoke through the Holy Spirit.  Of course there wasn't a 'right' answer.

Over forty years ago, I had a class a that I taught that had been studying the little book "Prayer, Conversing with God" by Rosalind Rinker.  We set a chair in the middle of the room, invited God to join us and have a seat.  I asked each person if they would like to say something to Him.  It was simply an object lesson on how unfamiliar we are with talking to God.   If I had called on any one in the room to pray, they could have done it.  But the thought of God sitting in a chair waiting for us to speak to Him was daunting.

"Hi, God."  "Jesus, we are glad you are here."  "Hello, Lord."  There were so many possible openings.

I say all that to say this.  I realized this last year that I needed to do a better job of talking to Him.  So I started doing something I had never done.  I started my prayer by quoting "The Lord's Prayer" before I said anything else.  As a result,  that prayer has become so much more meaningful to me.  Christ said:

Matthew 6: 9-13  "After this manner therefore, you pray:  Our Father who is in heaven, Hollowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:  For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen." 

Sometimes I sing it. 

 I think I took The Lord's Prayer for granted because it was so familiar.  I like the word "Hallowed" when I think about God.

Although I skipped the first and second commandments and covered the third and fourth,  suffice to say that the first four commandments concern our relationship to God.  The last six concern our relationship to our fellow man.

For this reason, when Christ was asked the question by the Pharisees which commandment was the greatest, he could answer the question by saying:

Mark 12: 30-31  "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength:  this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is none other commandment greater than these."

God and your neighbors.  And the first neighbor you have is your spouse.  The second is your children.  Sometimes we forget that.  Love starts with God and those in your home.  Sometimes the hardest people to continually show a loving attitude towards are those that we live with.

Turn the other cheek.  Load the dishwasher.  Pick up the wet towels.  Take out the garbage. Etc. Etc.  Write a note to those who failed their house chores.  Stick it on their toothbrush.  Or write a note on the mirror in the bathroom.  Yelling does't help.  Neither does nagging.  Try something else.

Take food to the sick.  Visit those shut in their houses or nursing homes or the hospital.  Volunteer for some community charity.  Join Meals on Wheels.  Do something to help.

People used to sit on their front porches and greet those walking down the street.  We don't do that anymore.  We drive into the garage, shut the door and many of us don't even know who our neighbors are.  Surely we can do better.

I was so distracted yesterday by the Moore tornado I couldn't post.  My son and daughter teach at the high school and their baby was at day care.  Everyone at the high school took refuge in the basement or hall.  My daughter stayed with the high school children until late that night because many of them had no where to go and no one picked them up.  We are thanking God that their baby was safe as well.

By God's grace they are all ok.  Of less importance but also a relief, their home was also spared.  Oklahoma is grieving for the parents who lost children and the families who lost loved ones.  The entire situation is horrible.  At times like this we need God.  He is our strength.

I am always blessed by the scripture that comes into my mind when such terrible things happen.  One of my favorite is Psalms 46: 1-2a.

"God is our refuge and strength;  a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, although the earth be removed…"

That's the only way you can bear such tragedy.  In His refuge.

My children live in Moore Oklahoma.  I just received  a text that said "OK"  Thank God.

As I move through The Old Testament, I can't skip Exodus 20: 7-17.  Here we find ten verses that mean so much not just to me, but to you and to the world.  Our sense of moral behavior rests on these ten verses.  They are timeless and just as true for mankind today as they were when they were written.

3.  Do not ever take My name lightly.  I grew up thinking this meant swearing in God's name. Which it does.  But later, I came to realize that "In Vain"  meant more than that.  It means that we should not refer to God in any way that is not holy.  "Hallowed be thy name."  The Jews wouldn't even say God's name aloud.  If you have gotten into the habit of saying OMG, or Lordy, Lordy, etc.  you might want to consider whether that glorifies God, or is just a habit picked up from the world that we live in.  Years ago, I would say, "Oh my Lord."  I quit.  But the habit was hard to break.

4.  Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  I grew up during a time when we had "Blue Laws".  I don't know why they were 'blue', but what the law meant was that all stores were shut on Sunday unless there was an emergency.  Although Saturday, not Sunday is the Jewish Sabbath, Christians have set the first day of the week as their holy day.  We follow the example that Christ  gave us of meeting on Sunday.

 I recently reevaluated my Sunday behaviors and decided that I would not shop on Sunday.  I grew up in a family that didn't shop on Sunday.  I had just grown lazy about planing ahead and setting aside a day for God.  Actually in Ex. 20: 9-11 God tells us that just as he rested on the seventh day, that he wants us to cease working and rest.  "You shall not do any work…"  I think that you and I can find many ways  to say, "I will make this day different.  I will only do those things that absolutely have to be done.  I will remember God today".

When I started making changes concerning Sunday, I felt so free to do 'nothing'.  I read, I puttered in the garden.  I sat on the back porch and did absolutely nothing but listen to the birds  .  And it was God blessed.  It was God commanded.  I rested from all the demands of my life.

Sometimes we ate peanut butter sandwiches with a glass of milk.  Nobody starved.  (Continued…)

In Matthew 11:28-30  "Come unto me, all you that labour and  are  heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The picture is a comparison with work animals, probably oxen, under a load that is almost more than they can bear.  Heavily laden.  Working hard.  They needed rest.  They had a yoke that held them in place with no relief.  Trudging, one foot in front of the other.  All day long.

I've been there.  You probably have, too.  The world grinds us down and spits us out.  You can't ever get any rest from it.  But Christ is saying that there is a better way.  Instead of being under the yoke of the world, he says to take his yoke, learn from him.  He lived a very simple life.

Then he gives us a reason.  He is not like a farmer driving oxen with a whip.  He tells us that he is kind, and humble, and that he will give us rest.  He will provide for our needs.

For those who have lived a long Christian life under the yoke of Jesus, there is such peace even in the midst of turmoil.  His yoke is easy.  The burden of His yoke is very light.

I never have had a single regret that I have followed Him.  I can't imagine a life that has nothing to look forward to.  Or a life that never found His peace.  His yoke doesn't weight anything at all.

My daughter's dog Maya, who was 13 years old passed away a few hours ago.  We have loved Maya for such a long time and we are all very, very sad.   Seems like I once read a book titled "All Dogs  (or horses?) Go To Heaven."  That is certainly a comforting thought.  My other daughter reminded me that horses will be in heaven, that  Jesus is coming back on a white horse.  So why not dogs?   We certainly love them.  And best of all, they love us back.  Unconditionally.  Just like God does.

After Moses' encounter with the voice of God coming from the burning bush, he had three responses to the voice of God.

1.  In Exodus 3:4  God spoke and Moses said, "Here am I."  God told him that he was standing on holy ground.  Then God told Moses who He was, and what the situation was in Egypt, and what his plan was to rescue  the children of Israel who were enslaved.  Moses hid his face because he was afraid.  Moses listened, but didn't look.

2.  Then God told Moses that he was going to send him to Pharaoh.  Exodus 3:10b "…that you may bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."  Then in verse 11, Moses said,  "… Who am I  that I should go to Pharaoh…and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?".

3.  God tells Moses in verse 12, "Certainly I will be with you…".  Then Moses tells God that he has to have a reason to go back to Egypt that is good enough to make the people listen and follow him.  He says that the people will ask who sent him and want to know the name of this God.  And then in Exodus 3: 13,  Moses says,  "What shall I say?

Then in verse 14 God said,  "… I AM THAT I AM: …say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.".  The majestic, holy, eternal, I AM.

I am here, but who am I to do your work--but I'll do it, I just don't know what I shall say.  Moses was just a human being that God wanted to use.  Any old bush will do.  But you have to be willing even though you don't know what to say.

I confess, that when I of six years old, my mother enrolled me in an elocution class.  I was required to memorize and recite.  My teacher suggested looking in a mirror so that I could see what my verbal presentation actually looked like.  I still use that today.  If you want someone to listen to you, practice what you are going to say.  Practice makes perfect.

I found this draft that hadn't been published yet.  Don't know why.  Since I am through with Peter, I will sed this that I wrote about Moses now.

In the O.T. in the book of Exodus we find Moses alone in a strange land.  He had fled Egypt and sat down by a well where the daughters of the priest Reuel had come for water. They were trying to water their flocks but were driven away by shepherds.  Moses intervened and helped the sisters.  When Reuel heard about this, he asked Moses to come to dinner.  The rest is history.  Moses quit wandering, settled down and married Reuel's daughter.  Moses didn't have anywhere to go.  He had killed a man in Egypt and Pharaoh had 'put a price on his head'.

Back in Egypt, God's people were in agony.  God heard their cries, remembered his covenant with Abraham to make of his linage a people and give them a land.  So who does God turn to?  A fugitive, a man who had gone from being a prince to being a sheepherder.  From wealth to poverty.  From somebody to nobody.  Moses.

And here are the verses that mean something special to me:  Exodus 3: 2-4 "And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and bush was not consumed.  And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.  And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.  And he said, Here am I."

This is what I love about this passage.  When God wants to reach someone, any old bush will do.  It wasn't the bush that was important.  It wasn't the fire.  It was God.  And God knew Moses' name.

When God has a plan, any old bush will do.  Even you.  Even me.  He can use us to reach others.

Keep on burning.

Skipping from rainbows to a N.T. verse that I love:  Matthew 6: 33-34  "But first seek the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.  Take therefore no thought for tomorrow:  for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."

I am a systematic, logical, orderly person.  Although I have emotions like everyone else, I try to always set them to the side to deal with whatever needs to be done now--at this moment.  I try to keep putting one foot in front of the other and deal with my emotions later.  That's probably why I made it day to day with the problems of military life.  Never enough money.  Always moving (19 different directions in 15 years).

I have also seemed to have been a challenge to the medical community.  Not through any fault of my own, that's just the way it happened.  It has slowed me down, but I never have considered the possibility that I should slow down.  I've had some difficulties.

However, for whatever the cause, I am always thinking: "What if".  "What then".  "What will I do if this happens, or that happens."  (Probably why I ended up teaching math for 20 years.)  But if carried to the extreme the "what if, what then, " approach to life can be called "worrying".  If you think about something long enough, hard enough, and if there is no immediate solution  it turns to worry.

Yes, I can take my problems to the Lord.  I just tend to pick them up again when I get off my knees.

That's why the verses I quoted help me.  First things first.  Seek his kingdom and righteousness.  Quit worrying about a day (or something) that hasn't yet come.  Do what you can do right now.  And finally, a friend once told me to think about the last part of those two verses this way:  "One day's trouble is enough for one day."

Remember there is a difference between 'worry', and 'concern'.  One is anxiety.  The other is caring.

This is what is so great about God's word. When you study scripture, it is there when you need it.  David said it this way in Psalms 119: 11a, "Thy word have I hid in my heart…"  When you hide his scripture in your heart, when you memorize what God has given you in his Word, it comes back to you when you need it.  It simply leaps to your mind.

And here is the scripture that leaped into my mind at that moment, the moment the rainbow appeared.

Genesis 9: 11a, 12-15a "And I will establish my covenant with you,"…."And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:  And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you…"

My covenant.  Which is between me and you.  And every living creature that is with you.  (My children.)    For perpetual generations.

I explained to my children the meaning behind what had just happened. I told them that the rainbow that they had just seen was ours.  God had given it to us.   I told them why God sends rainbows and reassured them that God was with their dad.  And that God would be with us.  There was such peace.  Not that Ken would come home, but that God was in control of the events of our lives.  We weren't in this alone.

One strange thing about Our  rainbow.  "And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud…."

There weren't any clouds.  The sky was blue; the sun was shining.  It was personal.

After 6 months of surviving he got a week of leave. Not to go home, just to get out of Viet Nam..  I guess they were trying to keep the troops morale up.  I don't know.  The problem was, after the week of leave was up, you had to go back to Nam--with a better idea of what you were going back to.  

Most of the Marines flew into Hawaii for their leave.

I hocked everything I owned, charged the rest, bought four tickets and met him there.  He later said that it was strange, one day you were getting shot at.  The next day you were with your family on the beach.  It was bittersweet.  Wonderful to see each other.  Horrible to know it was for seven days and then he would go back to Viet Nam and I would take our children and go back to Oklahoma.  And wait.  The waiting was pretty awful.  But not as bad as getting shot at.

After seven days in Hawaii, we said good-by (again) and the children and I climbed to an observation point to watch him take off.  I couldn't help but wonder if he could survive 7 more months.

The four of us watched his plane as it rolled to the end of the runway, revved up and started to move.  And at that moment, just as his plane began to move, a rainbow arched across the runway and the plane lifted off underneath it.  And then the rainbow vanished.

There are times in your life when you know for certain that God is speaking to you personally.  This was definitely one of those times. And the verses I had learned from scripture as a child were so vivid in my mind at that moment. .

Continued………..

I don't know how old you are out there, but maybe you will remember that most of the residents in 'Hanoi Hilton'  were pilots who had been shot down, been captured, and survived.  However, there were many of our friends who were shot down that didn't survive. It was an unpopular war, but my husband would remind me that he "served at the pleasure of the President of the United States of America".  He said that over and over again--president after president.  He meant it.  He might not have liked what he was called upon to do, (although I never heard him say that) but he would say, "Saddle up."  The Marines were moving.  And as a result, so were their families.

So, we bought a house at "Home" in Oklahoma.  We settled in, enrolled the kids in school and said good-by to him.  Like I said, we had no illusions.

Cell phones didn't exist.  And we had no money for expensive international phone calls of any sort.  We wrote.  With a 10 to 14 day delay for a response.  You lived for the letters.  I saved all of mine.  He didn't.  He said they were covered with mold, probably because he was living in a tent and it rained every day for the first 75 days after he got there.  He wrote things like, "My finger nail clippers have rusted in my pocket."  Or,  "I keep volunteering for extra missions so I can see the sun."  Or, "I couldn't send (someone) on the mission yesterday, he would have got himself killed."  (What he was saying was that he assigned himself the mission on the pretext of seeing the sun).  I think the man truly believed that he was invincible.

But then he got hit.  A 50 millimeter shell through the cockpit.  "I was 'on the deck' (really, really low) trying to hit a loud speaker that was harassing the ground troops."  A loud speaker!!!   "I leaned up in the seat and pulled back on the stick to pull out of the dive when the shell took out the canopy of the airplane, passing between the back of my head and the front of the ejection seat.  His take on that story, (which I didn't hear until his tour was over) was "If I hadn't been leaning forward to pull out of the dive, the shell  would have cleaned the wax out of my ears."  He wasn't unique.  All of the pilots were like that.  Something horrible would happen and they would turn it into a "Funny Story".

Continued……………...

This blog will take al least two days because I have set a limit for myself of 8" of type. I figure that that is all a person has time for.  I want to tell you a story.  Then,  I'll give you the scripture in Genesis that means the world to me.

I married a Marine fighter pilot.  Single seat, air craft carrier, all weather.  Night, day, storms, getting shot off the by 'cat' into blackness, and landing in the dark, hooking wire on a pitching deck in rolling seas.  He had already flown over one-hundred missions in Korea.  Been hit 7 times in his first twenty-five missions, and totaled 2 planes,  pitched over the side after he landed because they had taken so much battle damage.   He should have been dead a dozen times.  He was 26 and I was 18 when I met him…it was a God planned meeting.  (I'll tell you that story some other time.)

Six months before the time when he could have retired, he got orders to Viet Nam.  I was 27 years old.  He was 36, and we had three children.  Two daughters in the fourth grade and second grade, and a son in  pre-school.  Ken, my husband,  had no illusions.  Neither did I.  He would be gone for 13 months.  And he would get shot at almost every day.

He had lost a nose strut on take off  a few months before this and burned an A-4  on the runway at Roosevelt Roads ( East end of Cuba)  He truly shouldn't have survived that one.  What these Marines did in training for combat was dangerous enough.  (You get the picture.)

At the time, he was the Commanding Officer of VMA 331, and had been trying to prepare pilots for what was going to face them when they got shot at.  Missile evasion, etc.  Sooner or later, almost everyone in the squadron was going to Viet Nam.  Ken would come home late at night and stress over the fact that the Marine Corps didn't have enough money to get the fuel they needed.  "If I had more gasoline, maybe I could give these young men the training time they need in the air.   Give them a fighting chance.  Maybe more of them could survive."  (Continued)

Back to Matthew and skipping through for passages that have had special meaning for me.  In Matthew 5: 3-11, we find the beatitudes. Nine "Blesseds", followed in verse 14 with Christ telling his followers that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Matthew 5: 14-16 are the verses I want to share.  "You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

One of my earliest memories of church is a childrens' song based on those words.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel?  No!!, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

I don't remember the song perfectly, but I remember the point.  I memorized verse 16.  And took it to heart, realizing that as a Christian I had a responsibility to do good works for the purpose of letting the world know that I was a follower of Christ.  So that they could also glorify our heavenly Father.

We do good things for others, and for each others so that God can be glorified.  Period.

Speaking of genealogy, in Genesis we find the lineage of Cain.  Next comes the genealogy of Adam through his third son Seth all the way to the three sons of Noah:  Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  This is an amazingly detailed history of all of the men born from Adam to Seth, to Noah.  The Jews have trusted in the Old Testament linage for their entire history.  Just like Kunta Kinte in 'Roots'.  Oral lineages were preserved for many years before men learned to write.  Oral history was important to people.

After that point, "...the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair…and they bare children."   They deserted God.  And then they committed every imaginable evil.  Gen. 5:a, 4:b

And it 'repented' the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."  Gen. 5: 6-7.

I've given you a little background in order to tell you the verse I love:  Gen. 5: 8 "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."  In the midst of universal evil, Noah clung to the precepts of God and found grace.  When you become discouraged by the direction that the world is headed; when you feel all alone in your Christian walk; stay in there.  Grace is coming.  God's grace.  Amazing grace.

One other thought.  God was going to destroy men, beasts, creeping things and fowls.  I guess he was leaving the fish?  I wonder if this had happened before?  Maybe between Gen. 1:1 and Gen. 1:2?  Just thinking out loud.  

I will toggle from the Old Testament (Genesis) to the New (Matthew) as I look at verses that have special meaning to me.  Looking at the first chapter of Matthew we find a genealogy of Jesus that would seem boring except for a few interesting facts.

First, the fact that Matthew thought this genealogy was so important that he devoted  a sizable part, almost a chapter of his account of Jesus, to it. Of course, we know that when the Bible was written, it wasn't divided into chapters and verses.  That was done by compilers who wanted an easy method to reference the accounts.

Why did Matthew do this?  Well, he wanted to validate Jesus' right to the throne of David.  He was tracing linage to assure his Jewish readers of Jesus the King, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the fulfillment to prophecy.  And Matthew does this admirably.  14 generations from Abraham to David.  14 generations from David to the carrying away to Babylon, and 14 generations from Babylon until the birth of Christ.
It is interesting to note that he traces this linage to Joseph, not Mary.

Matthews' book is considered to be written to validate the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

Luke traces Jesus' linage in the other direction.  From Joseph all the way back to Adam.  Even though Joseph was not the father of Jesus,  we need to remember that Luke and Matthew both lived in a patriarchal time.  Linage was masculine.  However, Matthew did include four women in his account which is unusual but important.  He included Thamar,  Ruth, Bathsheba,  and Mary.  Saints and sinners.

His Kingship was further validated in this next verse by the wise men who came to Jerusalem  "Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?  For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him." Matthew 2:2

How did these wise men know that there was a King?  Who told them?  Why were they looking for a King in the first place.  Whatever the answers to those questions,  They found him.  Jesus.  King of the Jews.  Right up to the end.  When Pilot nailed "King of the Jews" to the cross.  Matt. 27:37