Chapter 3 - The Second Rejection of the King (Part 3 of 8)

Jesus’s Right to Rule as King over Israel

We learned last week how Jesus had the right to rule on the throne of David from a legal standpoint. However, there is one more thing Matthew does in verse 1 that is so critical for our understanding moving forward. He calls our Lord “Jesus Christ,” or you could render it “Jesus, The Anointed One.” He does this again in verse 16: “Jesus, who is called Christ.”

In Old Testament times, kings, priests, and prophets were “set apart” by God for their office, and to symbolize this act, they were anointed with oil. Once this happened, they were considered qadosh (i.e., holy; set apart) for that specific purpose of either ruling as a king, being the liaison between God and His people as a priest, or acting as God’s mouthpiece, and sometimes His bullhorn, as a prophet.

In Leviticus 4:3 and 6:20, the priest is referred to as anointed. In 1 Samuel 9:16, 15:1, and 2 Samuel 23:1, kings were referred to as anointed. In 1 Chronicles 16:22 and Psalm 105:15, prophets were referred to as anointed. And in 1 Kings 19:16, it lists both kings and prophets as such. The point being, to be anointed was to be “set apart” for a purpose. If you were anointed, you were being consecrated unto God. You were qadosh, and you were to live a life that demonstrated that fact.

Interestingly, the Messiah was “set apart” to be all three: Prophet, Priest, and King. In Isaiah 61:1-2 (AMP), according to Luke 4:14-21, was the first passage Jesus ever used when He began His preaching ministry in the synagogues:

“The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed and commissioned me to bring good news to the humble and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, to proclaim release from confinement and condemnation to the physical and spiritual captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance and retribution of our God.”

Prophets preached good news to the poor. They called God’s people to repent and to follow in His ways. Priests and kings did not do this.

Priests bound up the brokenhearted. They encouraged followers who were in despair and acted as the conduits between God and His people. Prophets and kings did not perform priestly duties. To do so would bring judgment upon the evildoer (Leviticus 21-22; 1 Samuel 13:1-15).

Kings proclaimed freedom for captives and had the power to release prisoners. Prophets and priests did not have such power.

In Acts 3, Peter preaches to a group of onlookers. In verse 22-23, he quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19, stating that God would raise up a prophet from among Israel, referring to Jesus. They were to listen to His words and obey them, or they would be cut off from God’s chosen people.

In Hebrews 7, the writer tells us Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek, thus He has a permanent priesthood. The implication here is that Jesus can save completely because he never dies like an earthly priest. His intercession for us is perpetual and thus became “the guarantee of a better covenant,” one where hearts of stone get replaced with hearts of flesh and God’s Spirit is placed within us (Ezekiel 36:24-28; Luke 24:49; John 15:26; Acts 2:1-13).

In John 18:37, Jesus confirms Pontius Pilate’s assertion that Jesus is a King. Paul writes in Philippians 2:10-11 that “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All those knees include earthly kings and rulers, even Pilate, by the way. Therefore, Jesus’s kingship is clear.

Jesus as The Son of David, The Son of Abraham

 However, Jesus is not just “The Anointed One,” “the Christ,” but he is also listed in verse 1 of Matthew’s genealogy as a Son of David and a Son of Abraham. Notice also that Matthew lists “Son of David” first, even though Abraham lived way before David did, chronologically speaking. Why would Matthew do that? Because the fact that he is a “Son of David” already implies He is a Son of Abraham. More importantly, though, it establishes Jesus’s right to rule on the throne.

In John 7:37-42 (ISV), Jesus stands up and addresses the crowd: 

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! The one who believes in me as the Scripture has said, will have rivers of living water flowing from his heart.”…

“When they heard these words, some in the crowd were saying, ‘This really is the Prophet,’ while others were saying, ‘This is the Messiah!’”

“But some were saying, ‘The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the scripture say that the Messiah is from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived’ (emphasis added)?”

 

Surely thinking of Old Testament passages like 2 Samuel 7:12-13, Jeremiah 23:5-6, and Micah 5:2, just to name three more besides Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18:18-19, these people in the crowds following Jesus knew the Messiah was to come from the lineage of David, and Matthew was checking all the boxes for them. Jesus fulfilled all the promises. He fulfilled all the prophecies. He fulfilled all the prerequisites of the Messiah.

He was to be King of all, including Israel.

I love what William Barclay states about this passage:

“Right at the beginning, the genealogy is to prove that Jesus is the Son of David. The title, Son of David, is used oftener in Matthew than in any other gospel. The wise men come looking for him who is King of the Jews (2:2). The triumphal entry is a deliberately dramatized claim to be King (21:1-11). Before Pilate, Jesus deliberately accepts the name of King (27:11). Even on the Cross, the title of King is affixed, even if it be in mockery, over his head (27:37). In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew shows us Jesus quoting the Law five times abrogating it with a regal: ‘But I say to you….’ (5:21, 27, 34, 38, 43). The final claim of Jesus is: ‘All authority has been given to me’ (28:18).

“Matthew’s picture of Jesus is of the man born to be King. Jesus walks through the pages as if in the purple and gold of royalty.”¹

 

Ultimately, Jesus had the right to be King because God Almighty was His father, which coincides with Matthew’s account in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke’s account in Luke 1:5-56 and 2:1-20. So, as we would expect, God had all the bases covered when it came to the birth of His Messiah. And that leads us to the next step in Matthew’s gospel account: Jesus’s Right to rule spiritually.

 

Thought of the Week:

The message of the Messiah is found all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. He was to come to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). First, in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth (Acts 1:8). God’s plan was always to save the world. He wanted to use Israel to accomplish this feat, but they rejected Him. So, He tried to get them to “repent,” “see the light,” and “turn from their wicked ways.” However, that never happened. Therefore, God sent His Messiah to do the job Israel refused to do. That Messiah, in turn, commissioned the Church to be that New Covenant conduit between God and humankind. However, the Church has done much of what Israel did. We have committed the same sins, made the same mistakes, made the same demands, and now we are reaping those “rewards” as the Church wanted to be more like the world, especially in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

The world we experience today is in large part the shambles it is because the gospel has been tainted, placed under a basket, and subjugated to “weightier issues,” like “truth, freedom, and the American way.”

However, Jesus came to be prophet, priest and king. And He did so for one sole purpose: To bring honor to God and serve Him faithfully.

We need to have the same, singular focus in our daily lives.

 

NEXT WEEK:

 

We look at Jesus’s Spiritual Right to Rule.

 

 

 

 

Endnotes

 

 

1. Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew – Volume 1: Revised Edition. (Philadelphia; PA; Westminster Press, 1975), p. 9.

Pictures courtesy of  Pixabay and the following photographers/artists:

"Jesus" by GDJ

"Calvary" by geralt

"Jesus/Eye" by JeffJacobs1990

"Shiny" by ctvgs