Chapter 3 – The Second Rejection of the King (Part 4 of 8)

 

Jesus’s Right to Rule - Spiritually

In Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew establishes the fact that this baby “who is called Messiah” (v. 16)—who has been born with the right to rule on the throne of David from a physical, earthly, human, and political perspective—also has the “right to rule” from a spiritual perspective.

This section establishes the virgin birth of Jesus, which is one of the foundational doctrines of Christianity. I would venture to say it may be the foundational doctrine of the Christian Church, for without it, Jesus was just a good teacher and a product of the union between Joseph and Mary.

Just another man.

And we already have seen what mankind is like in our study thus far. Man’s history is not pretty.

Jesus’s death would have been just another death in a long line of casualties in this spiritual war within which we live, day in, day out.

However, the virgin birth changed everything. It set in motion a series of events that changed history, and it still continues to change people today. This doctrine, coupled with the life and ministry of Jesus and culminating with His death, burial, and resurrection, are the triumvirate foundation of Christianity. Each part is so needed by mankind and inextricably dependent on the other to have full impact of what God intended.

A baby born of a virgin has no impact, if the baby grows up and becomes a sinner who rebels against God. Thus, the importance of Jesus’s perfect life and ministry.

A perfect life and ministry has no impact, if Jesus is just another man and not “God in the flesh” (Isaiah 9:1-7). Thus, the importance of the virgin birth.

And neither of the above have an impact, if Jesus doesn’t become the perfect sacrifice for sin on the cross and then defy death by rising again on the third day, as He stated He would do (John 2:19).

Therefore, the virgin birth of Jesus sets in motion a critical moment in God’s redemptive plan (Galatians 4:4-5). It sets Jesus apart from every other Israeli king, every other Levitical priest, every other Old Testament prophet of God, as well as every other king, priest, or prophet that ever existed. Kings and queens always demand that their subjects die for the purpose of the expansion of their kingdoms but rarely do they get into the fight themselves, and never on the front lines. Nor would any king or queen be willing to die for people outside the kingdom in hopes they would become part of his kingdom, with no guarantee anyone will accept the gracious offer. No human priest would take the place of the bulls, sheep, and doves he normally would sacrifice. No prophet would willingly present his life as a sacrifice either. Thus, the virgin birth makes Jesus the perfect example of qadosh (i.e., holiness), never asking us to do that which He was not willing to do Himself.

The virgin birth also sets Jesus apart from all other deities, for no god or goddess ever dwelt amongst mankind for the purpose of dying for humanity. The other deities always demand the sacrifice be in reverse only, sometimes even demanding children be the sacrifices, which is atrocious.¹

The first part of Matthew 1 establishes Jesus as one hundred percent Man (vv. 1-17). This second section of Matthew 1 (vv. 18-25) establishes Jesus as one hundred percent God. Hence, the references throughout Matthew of Jesus being the Son of Man (Matthew 9: 6; 11:19; 16:27-28; 24:30; 26:2, 24) and also being the Son of God (Matthew 2:15; 3:17; 17:5; 27:43). In the person of Jesus, we have the reinstatement of God as the King, of His Kingdom of Heaven, in His own way, by His own means.

Without this second section of Matthew 1:18-25, Jesus is just another king in the long line of David. King number forty-three. He’s just another man with a human father, subject to sin and its effect like every other human being. This is why all other religions reject Jesus’s virgin birth. If Jesus was virgin born—in other words, born as the Son of God—then their gods and goddesses, whoever they may be—are false and inept.

Throughout the twenty centuries since the birth of Christ, there has never been a doctrine attacked more than the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth. Most people are very quick to ascribe honor to Jesus. They will acknowledge that He was a good teacher, a good moralist, a reputable man who lived an exemplary life. Some even go so far as to say He was a prophet. However, they cannot accept Him as deity.

Christianity is the only religion that assigns deity to Jesus alone. There are other religions that attach to Jesus as sense of “godhood” or god-like qualities, but He would be among many in which they would attribute such characteristics. In their religious understandings and teachings, His deity would not be any different or unique.

Now, before we bash other religions or their secular counterparts too mercilessly, it must be understood that the Church herself, within the last one hundred years particularly, has also had a hard time accepting the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.

In a poll taken in 1998, 7,441 Protestant clergy in the U.S. showed a wide variation in belief.² The following ministers did not believe in the virgin birth:

·       American Lutherans: 19%

·       American Baptists: 34%

·       Episcopalians: 44%

·       Presbyterians: 49%

·       Methodists: 60%

In 1999, twenty-five percent of Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant priests in the UK did not believe in the virgin birth either. In 2002, another poll of 140 Anglican priests found twenty-seven percent did not believe in the virgin birth. In 2004, a poll amongst ministers in the Church of Scotland found that thirty-seven percent did not believe in the virgin birth. Many stated that their interpretation of the virgin birth event in Matthew 1:18-25 was metaphorical, not literal.³

The point is clear. When anywhere between 19% and 60% of the leaders of some major denominations within the Christian church do not believe in one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity, then it’s hard to point fingers at a world setting itself ablaze and say they are the bad guys. In the eyes of God, if a pastor, minister, priest, vicar (or whatever the title) claims to be a messenger of God and teaches blasphemous doctrine and leads people astray and away from God and His teachings and instructions, then all He has for them is woe and destruction. Matthew 23 deals with this very issue. Matthew 18:6 is another. These Christian ministers are falling into the same traps into which the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’s day had fallen.

They simply do not believe God’s Word. And as a result, they no longer wish for God to be their King. Instead, they want to follow someone else’s “Word.” And we all know whose “Word” that is (1 Peter 5:1-9).

Sometimes, these ministers and clergy members have a hard time understanding the truths surrounding the virgin birth, so they rationalize away the things that are hard to understand into a concept around which they can wrap their finite minds. Sometimes, they have a hard time accepting it because they feel its truths are too restrictive or not inclusive enough, or the truth seems too farfetched for our modern, sophisticated societies of today. Sometimes, they have a hard time believing it because what it teaches doesn’t align with their personal beliefs and understanding of the world. Again, it boils down to which “King” they wish to obey and serve. The Israelites wanted to be “like all the other nations around them” and have “an earthly king” (1 Samuel 8:4-5). It would seem the Church, in varying degrees, wants the same thing, and in some circles, wants to reject God altogether, just like the elders in Samuel’s day.

At the 1993 Reimagining God conference, sponsored by the World Council of Churches in honor of their “Decade of Solidarity with Women,” 1,700 delegates came from all over the world to “reimagine God” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As one commentator summed up the event, “When one begins to re-imagine God, then nothing is sacred—everything in on the table for reconstruction. Truth, reality, social institutions, modes of communication all fall prey to the corrosive analysis of post-modern subjectivism” (emphasis added).⁴

Five years later, a similar group met again in Minneapolis to continue to re-imagine God, and the assault on Jesus’s identity and virgin birth continued. Carter Heyward, who is the Howard Chandler Robbins Professor of Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1978,⁵ asked, “What does it take for us to break rank with the slave masters’ religion?” Her answer? Re-imagine Jesus. She claimed it is a mistake to emphasize “the singularity of God’s presence in Jesus…It was not Jesus’ identity with God, as if Jesus somehow thought of himself as divine…Jesus in reality was not God…Jesus was human like us, and also, like us, he was infused with God, with sacred spirit, and in that sense was divine, and he had a clue.”⁶

Do you see how it works? Are you hearing the same, tired, attacks and the same satanic verbiage? “Jesus wasn’t deity.” “Jesus was human like you and me.” “Jesus also was infused with divinity, a spark of the divine, if you will, which is available to all of God’s children.” These are the kinds of teachings being taught inside the Church! These “Christian” feminists and other “biblical scholars” have their own websites and push this theology into our bible schools, our schools of divinity, and our seminaries. So, it should not be surprising when we see church leaders joining hands with groups who flaunt their anti-God and anti-Christ rhetoric, because in their minds, God and Jesus have already been “re-imagined” into a more palatable, human definition and explanation of what truth really is…to them, or course.

Why is there such push back against God’s Word and its teachings? Why do people—even people who call themselves “Christians”—gather together at conferences and convince themselves and others of such things? Because they know that if Jesus was virgin born, then He is God in the flesh. And if He is God in the flesh, then what He said is true. And if what He said is true, then His words are true. And if His words are true, then passages like John 14:6 pose a huge problem for people trying to re-imagine themselves into a divine figure. If what Jesus said was true: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And no man comes to the Father but by me, then you cannot touch the divine without Jesus.

That’s extremely exclusive toward sinful people who chose not to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and obey Him. That’s very intolerant of sin. The passages like John 14:6 drive people like Carter Heyward insane because they wish to have their cake and eat it too. In other words, live sinful lives and still get to experience a heavenly existence. However, it doesn’t work that way. The clay doesn’t get to tell the potter what shape it should take (cf. Isaiah 45:9-13; 64:6-8; Jeremiah 18:6-10). Another way to put it is, the creation doesn’t get to tell the Creator how things are going to work. If you are a parent, then you understand this concept. Your children may wish to “run away from home” so they don’t have to abide by your “laws” any longer, but they cannot tell you how your relationship will be dictated. You’re the parent. They are not. That will never change. Just like our relationship with God. He’s God. We are not. That, too, will never change, no matter how much we “reimagine” it.

As you can see, if the church is having a hard time with the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth, it is little wonder those outside the church are as well. However, understand also that God is not in need of people to believe in Him. The concept of delegates voting on church doctrine doesn’t change God or His instructions and teachings (torah). He is about reigning in His Theocracy. Israel was not to be a democracy nor an aristocracy in the Old Testament. Christianity isn’t a democracy nor an aristocracy in the New Testament. Our disbelief as humans does not affect God’s character or His Word. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:3-4, “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar.” God rules. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, whether we believe in it or not. Therefore, we can never lose our faith to majority rule, although the push toward that kind of thinking grows stronger every day. “Majority-rule theology” always leads to sinful compromise and perversions of Scripture.⁷ If Jesus is not God in the flesh, then He cannot be the savior. And if He is not the savior, we are doomed, for God proved time and time again in Scripture His sovereignty over all the other gods of the nations. There is only one true God. If He’s a fraud, then we have no hope.

 

Thought for the Week:

How often do you hear in the news a report about a Christian religious group abandoning their Christian heritage and embracing the verbiage of groups, like the one referenced previously that met in Minneapolis? This kind of rhetoric has been plaguing God’s people for centuries. The Israelites had fallen prey to the worship of “The Queen of Heaven” (Jer. 7:18; 44:17-25). This queen came and went throughout history with many names (Semiramus, Aphrodite, Venus, Isis, Diana, etc.).

The point is that a “feminist” infiltration into the doctrines of God has always been an issue. We see it now in our political landscape, as religion and politics are joining hands and marching against everything they wish to change within the “slave master’s religion.” Does that sound familiar? Have you heard that phrase, or something like it, thrown around lately in the political debates of today? It’s a not-so-veiled reference to Christianity. They wish to eradicate the Christianity of the virgin-born Jesus from the world. They, instead, wish to re-imagine God in their own image, and while they are at it, re-imagine Jesus, too, into a kinder, gentler Jesus who really didn’t mean what He said in John 14:6.

I hope you are beginning to see the battle between the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of men. The former is run by God. The latter is run by the man of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:1-12).

As we move forward, this divide will only become more pronounced. It will become harder and harder to remain true to the Kingdom of Heaven, but we must, if we wish to see God in all His glory at the Second Coming of Christ.

 

NEXT WEEK:

We continue our study into Jesus’s spiritual right to rule.

 

Endnotes

 

1. Some would argue, as I do, that people of our times, particularly here in America, worship the god of Freedom. For many, committing abortion is their form of child sacrifice to this god, as they flaunt their freedom and want that “freedom” to be available to everyone, even encouraging it through various means, like lobbying for government funding to provide such “services,” encouraging promiscuous activities with abortion as the “parachute,” etc.

 

2. Robinson, B.A. “The virgin birth of Jesus: Beliefs of Christian clergy & public. Alternate explanations of Jesus birth.” Religioustolerance.org. Last updated: 23 Dec. 2007. Web. 25 July 2020. <https://www.religioustolerance.org/virgin_b7.htm>

 

3. Ibid.

 

4. Lensch, Christopher. “‘Re-imagining’ Review: Radical Feminism in Sheep’s Clothing.” WRS Journal. 10/1. (February 2003), pp. 9-11. Web. 25 July 2020. <https://www.wrs.edu/assets/docs/Journals/2003a/Lensch%20-%20Re-imagining%20Update.pdf>

 

5. According to the Virginia Tech University’s Center forDigital Discourse and Culture, a list of projects Carter Heyward was working on at the time of the writing of this blog chapter were:

•        Long-term Research/Writing project on Feminist Liberation Theology and Ethics (with Dr. Beverly W. Harrison of Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY).
•        Queer Theology and Ethics.
•        Christology (special attention to: suffering, passion, and atonement).
•        Racism, anti-racism, and the construction of "white people."
•        Mutuality and connections between healing and liberation (theological, psychological, and political study in collaboration with Dr. Janet L. Surrey of The Stone Center, Wellesley College.)
•        Sex, Gender, and Power: emerging issues.
•        Christian Right—Its history, theology, and political resurgence.

As you can see by this list, when we re-imagine God, current affairs—like the ones America has been facing now—become the reality mankind must face and embrace. Those who preach “tolerance” will become very intolerant, especially if you are a follower of Jesus in the traditional sense. Then, other movements will join forces, and interestingly enough, they will espouse the same “beliefs,” even if they are not “religious,” by definition.

As was noted before, Satan is getting very close to creating the kind of havoc needed to bring each human to the brink of all-out war, filled with hatred toward one another while believing at the same time they have “exonerated” themselves from the “strictures” of God’s instructions and teachings and from the “white Jesus theology” of the traditional Christian Church. In this clash of subjective ideologies, everybody is right in his or her own mind (and thus, nobody is right). Agreeing to disagree will no longer be an option. As everyone will see eventually, mankind cannot survive without morals (i.e., God’s instructions and teachings). This will be the time when Satan introduces his anti-Christ and supposedly delivers what he has been promising all along: peace, fulfillment, and contentment apart from God. This “heavenly, utopian nirvana-like existence” will last for a few years (three and a half, to be exact, according to God’s Word), but then the gloves come off, and the world will see (too late, we might add) who they really are serving (See Revelation 12, particularly verse 9).

Oh, and by the way, the anti-Christ figure and what follows after the three and a half years of peace will make Hitler and his barbaric acts look like an amateur.

6. Lensch, Ibid. Another attack on Christianity, specifically the virgin birth of Jesus, as well as the validity of the New Testament is found in the works of the Jesus Seminar. Started in 1985, it has done more to discredit the authenticity of the Scriptures than possibly any other group because they claim to believe in the Bible, but they wish to understand it through didactic reasoning. When they were finished examining the four gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they concluded that 82% of Jesus’s words were inauthentic. Only fifteen sayings of Jesus should be in “red letters,” all of which are short, pungent remarks of little spiritual value when taken from their contexts. To read more about it, you can find it here: https://www.westarinstitute.org/projects/the-jesus-seminar/. When you couple this kind of “scholarly” work with people like Carter Heyward, it is no wonder Christianity is in shambles today. It’s no wonder the world is setting itself ablaze, overdosing itself to death, and curled up in a ball in the corner of some room, feeling depressed and seeing no hope around them. The Church is taking the only hope there is (Jesus) and making Him, in their own minds, just like us. Without a savior from sin, where can anyone find hope?

7. This is not to mention the tearing apart of His Church in the process. All participants must dedicated to God, His Torah, and His Messiah. If they are not, and church splits occur to allow worldly beliefs to infiltrate, Satan wins another battle in a war he cannot win. However, he knows this, so he’s working hard to take as many captives with him to eternal punishment. Satan hates God, and he hates everything to do with God, including His creation (John 8:44; 10:10; Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 11:3; James 4:7; 1 John 3:8). For a very current example of this battle taking place, see Reyner, Solange. “Methodist Conservatives to Split from United Methodists over LBGTQ Rights.” Newmax.com. 04 March 2022. 15 May 2022. <https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/lgbt-methodists-church-religion/2022/03/04/id/1059744/>

Pictures courtesy of  Pixabay and the following photographers/artists:

Heaven by jplenio

King Jesus by malst

Blinded by StockSnap

Saddened by StockSnap

Aphrodite/Venus etc by Gordon Johnson

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

 

Chapter 3 - The Second Rejection of the King (Part 2 of 8)

 

The Legality of This Kingship

It is clear from the outset that Matthew wishes to portray Jesus as the King. This is the theme of his gospel account. Throughout the chapters and verses, time and time again, Jesus is lifted up as the King of Kings, and His Kingdom—The Kingdom of Heaven, or sometimes called The Kingdom of God—are the focal points of every word. If you want to know Who Jesus is, why He came, why He lived on Earth, why He died, Why He rose again, and what He taught all along the way about that Kingdom, including what we must do to enter it, Matthew makes it vibrant and visible, if a person has the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

In this development of the overall theme, Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus in chapter 1, verses 1-17, offers interesting information which simply proves just how God Almighty is the lone and master operator of the machine that is human history. In these first seventeen verses, we have the lineage of Joseph listed, the husband of Mary. For most people today, genealogies are just something to explore in an effort to find out if they are related to someone famous or infamous, using DNA services to help determine their pedigree. For many readers of the Bible, they just skip the genealogies because they are “boring.” However, there is nothing in God’s Word that is there simply as “window dressing.” Every chapter, every verse has a reason for being there, for God could not put everything down on paper, otherwise, the Bible would be voluminous (John 21:25).

In Jewish culture, the husband’s or man’s lineage was needed to establish legality in everyday living and all legal proceedings. All taxes, land and property transactions, inheritances, etc., were tied to a person’s lineage or pedigree.

Having said that, there is an interesting little lesson contained in Joseph’s genealogy that must be addressed before we can move on in our overall study. In this lineage, we have a person referenced in verse 11 by the name of Jehoiachin (some versions call him “Coniah”). According to Jeremiah 22:24-30, Jehoiachin was cursed by God. What was the curse, specifically?

“As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—“even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I’d pull you off and give you to those who are out to kill you, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, and then throw you, both you and your mother, into a foreign country, far from your place of birth. There you’ll both die. You’ll be homesick, desperately homesick, but you’ll never get home again. Is Jehoiachin a leaky bucket,  a rusted-out pail good for nothing? Why else would he be thrown away, he and his children,  thrown away to a foreign place? O land, land, land,  listen to God’s Message! This is God’s verdict: Write this man off as if he were childless,  a man who will never amount to anything. Nothing will ever come of his life.  He’s the end of the line, the last of the kings” (The Message/TLB).¹

God was so angry with Jehoiachin, he was cursed with the kind of curse that would haunt any human king: “You are going to die at the hands of a ruthless and powerful enemy, and your offspring will not carry on the family line. It is your kingship that became the final nail in the coffin of the nation of Judah.”

Ouch.

But how can Jehoiachin be “as if he were childless” when he had children? It meant he was not going to have any offspring who would be allowed to sit on the throne of David. Hence, the “as if he were” part of that phrase.

When you look at this curse at first on its face, it immediately raises some questions with Joseph’s genealogy in Matthew 1, because it seems the curse of Jehoiachin would nullify Jesus from inheriting the right to rule from David. However, two things must be noted here. First, Matthew is very careful not to list Joseph as Jesus’s “blood” father. When he gets to the end of the genealogy, he changes the verbiage. Up until that point, the phrase “was the father of” is used consistently throughout the genealogy. But when we get to verse 16, we read, “Jacob was the father of Joseph,” but it does not say, “Joseph was the father of Jesus.” Instead, it says Joseph was, “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” This is because Joseph was not the father of Jesus, as we learn in verses 18-25.

This solves the Jehoiachin issue, meaning Jesus doesn’t fall under the curse of Jehoiachin as a blood relative would. However, it still leaves us with a genealogy problem, for Jesus had to be of the line of David by pedigree (i.e., be a blood relative) in order to be a legal heir to the throne.

And this is where Luke’s gospel account comes into play.

The Lineage of Mary  

In Luke 3:23-38, we have the lineage of Mary, a Jewish woman. This genealogical account not only travels backwards in time through her genealogy, it also goes all the way back, past David, past Abraham, past Adam even, to God Himself, because God, the Father, is the Father of us all (Matthew 5:9, 16, 45, 48; 6:1, 9, 26; 7:11; 18:14; 23:9; Mark 11:25-26; Luke 11:2, 13; John 12:28; 17:1).

Thus, Jesus had the legal right to rule because of Joseph’s lineage, and He had the blood lines of Mary’s lineage. By Jewish law, Jesus could be the legal heir to the throne of David, according to Matthew’s account and Luke’s account. He could be that “Righteous Branch of David” spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah. This shows just how in control God is of everything. Even a curse smack dab in the middle of a genealogy could not prevent Him from orchestrating the lives of two Jewish teenagers, growing up in the same vicinity, from being pledged to one another and eventually married, all the while making sure the Messiah’s lineage was pure and legal.

Thought for the Week:

If God can orchestrate history, centuries of Jewish history in this particular case, and bring about the exact moment in time He needs to have happen, then can He do the same in our lives? Of course He can. However, do we always live like that?

Sadly, the answer is “no” more often than it is “yes,” I think.

We used to sing a song many years ago, particularly to our children. Even sang it in the kids’ Sunday school classes and children’s church. The song went like this:  

“My God is so big,

So strong and so mighty,

There’s nothing my God cannot do.

My God is so big,

So strong and so mighty,

There’s nothing my God cannot do.

The mountains are His,

The Valleys are His,

The stars are His handiwork too.

My God is so big,

So strong and so mighty,

There’s nothing my God cannot do.” 

Is He?

If so, then why do we doubt? Why do we wander in despair? Why do we grumble and complain? Could it be that we do not see Him as the King? Could it be that we do not view this life through the eyes of the Almighty? Therefore, we do not see His kingdom? The one that is at hand (Matthew 3:2; 4:17)?

It’s a matter of faith, isn’t it?

 

NEXT WEEK:

We’ll look at prophecy pertaining to the King.

Endnotes

1. It should be noted that this passage in Jeremiah, which denotes the end of the nation Judah because of their wicked, human kings, is immediately followed by chapter 23 where God tells of how He is going to raise up for David a “righteous Branch” (v. 5). This “Branch” will “reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” Jeremiah goes on to prophesy that “in His days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety,” and “His name will be ‘The LORD Our Righteous Savior’” (vv. 5-6). 

The “human king experiment” started in 1 Samuel 8 was a catastrophic failure. One unified nation was split into two warring ones and ended up in separate captivities to the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The elders in 1 Samuel 8 got their wish. They wanted to be like all the other nations around them. If it were not for God, Israel would have been exactly like them—nothing more than a few paragraphs in some history books and some relics buried in the dirt for archeologists to use to piece together what their culture was like. But God made a promise. And only a Savior from the line of David could pick Judah and Israel up from the ashes and bring them back to the Promised Land.

Pictures courtesy of  Pixabay & Unsplash and the following photographers/artists:

"Matthew" - Pixabay by Scottish Guy

"Luke" - Pixabay by wisconsin pictures

"Strong Boy" - "Upsplash by Ben White

Chapter 3 - The Second Rejection of the King (Part 1 of 8)

 

As we learned in the last six blog posts of Chapter 2, Israel wished to divorce themselves from God. They no longer wanted to obey His teachings and instructions, known as the Torah. They no longer wished for Him to be their King. They would use Him when convenient and ignore Him when it was equally convenient.

However, that wasn’t the only time the Israelites rejected God.

Enter Matthew 2

 Rejection #2

A baby is born in Bethlehem in the midst of an established, ruthless, pagan culture called the Roman Empire. All the things of “king and country”—the ways of the serpent—that God said would happen through the prophet Samuel have been well-entrenched in Israeli society since 1 Samuel 8.

However, by this time, they get to experience the heavy hand of a human king as an occupied nation as opposed to a free one.

That is approximately six hundred years of Israelite history, by the way, interspersed with decades of national division, captivity, cries unto the Almighty for salvation from their oppressors, God’s gracious and merciful hand lending aid, followed by more rejection of God’s teachings and instructions and their utter rejection of the concept of being qadosh (holy).

This period ended with the frightening words of Malachi in chapter 4 of his prophecy:

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts.

“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse” (vv. 1-6; NASB 1995).   

All these centuries later, God is still pleading with Israel to abide by the Law of Moses and be obedient.

And this will never change. Only those who have done so will have their names written in the Book of Remembrance, or the Book of Life (Psalm 69:28; Malachi 3:16-18; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). 

Four Centuries of Silence

Then, four centuries of divine silence followed as the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans exacted their wills upon everyone in that region of the world, including the Israelites, who heard nothing from their rejected King during those four centuries.

Even after God’s admonition to think twice about wanting an earthly king, He admonished all the subsequent kings, as well as their people, to change from their wicked ways. To seek God first. To be qadosh. He did so through His prophets. But did the people listen? No. They killed the prophets. Why? Because they did not want to love the Lord their God with all their hearts any longer. They did not want to be set apart, and the Law of Moses was quickly becoming a cauldron of human platitudes, designed to make the torah more palatable and easier to obey. They wanted to be like their pagan counterparts, but they wanted the goodies God offered in His Word too. So, they adopted pagan means and pagan ways into their religious practices, their economic systems, and their political affiliations, which included becoming hostile toward anyone who tried to tell them their ways were wrong. In essence, they tried to marry the Kingdom of Heaven to the kingdom of men.

Does this sound familiar at all to you? Does that sound like the church of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries? I’d say our current social, economic, political, and theological climate in the church of today is Exhibit 1-A in that trial, but I digress. More on that later.

God Responds 

This abandonment of God and His Theocracy led the Israelites to the time period covered in Matthew, Chapter 1.

It is here they find themselves completely subject to one of the greatest, strongest, and ruthless political and military machines in human history. Only the British Empire in more modern times spanned a greater swath of the globe than did the Romans. And when you consider the technological advances available to the Brits versus the Romans, it makes the Roman Empire even more impressive.

It is here, in Matthew, Chapter 1, where we find God Almighty implementing Phase Two of His redemptive plan for the world. It is here where God reestablishes His Kingship. Not in the way the Israelites were imagining it, mind you. They envisioned a Messiah, riding in on a white horse, sword drawn, wielded high for all to see, with an army of angels following behind, armed to the teeth themselves, to do what?

Vanquish His foes.

Just like a human king.

Just like the king God had warned the Israelites about in 1 Samuel 8.

And for what purpose?

To exact revenge upon their oppressors, the Romans. To get some payback, as we would say today.

Then, He would re-establish the nation Israel to its “rightful place” and get all of its precious Promised Land back.

Instead, God had a different approach. A qadosh approach, if you will. A “holy, set apart, different, consecrated, sacred” approach. An approach so foreign to them by this time in their history, they never would recognize it.

The Messiah would come in the flesh, but He would not live in a palace or a temple made of stones (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58). He would not wield a sword in the conventional sense like an earthly king would do (Matthew 10:34), and would actually repudiate those who wished to live by the sword (Matthew 26:51-54). He would not ride a traditional steed to His coronation (Matthew 21:1-11). He would even be willing to die for His subjects so they may live. This King would be different, consecrated, set apart. Sacred. Qadosh.

Yet, despite the differences, Jesus would be the One all men, women, and children would have to acknowledge as King (Isaiah 9:1-7; Isaiah 11; Isaiah 45:22-25; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:61-62; John 18:37; Romans 14:9-12). They would have to follow His ways. They would be His people, and He would be their God (Revelation 21:3), if they wished to see their names written in the Book of Life.

The Right to Rule - Politically

In Matthew 1:1-17, Matthew establishes this kingship, noting it via Jesus’s genealogy. In verse 1, Matthew uses the Greek word γενέσεως, from which we get the word “genesis,” or “beginnings,” referring to Jesus’s “genesis” or “beginnings.”

Genealogies were extremely important in Jewish culture because it denoted one’s pedigree. In the Old Testament, there are many genealogies listed. In Genesis 5, Adam’s pedigree is listed. In Genesis 10-11, the family trees of Shem, Ham, and Japheth are recorded. Abraham’s mother Terah has her genealogy recorded in Genesis 11:27. And in First Chronicles, chapters 1-9, we see a boatload of people mentioned. There are over fifty genealogies listed in the Old Testament alone.

There were a number of reasons why this was important to know. For example, in Numbers, chapters 26 and 35, you see a listing of Israelites according to tribe, family, and the father’s house. This was so when they conquered the land of Canaan—the Promised Land—they knew who was to receive which portion. So, one purpose genealogies served was the business of land transactions.

In Ezra 2:62, pedigree was used for establishing the priesthood. If a young man was not from the tribe of Levi, he didn’t have to bother applying for the job. His application would be filed in the “round filing cabinet” because he was not certified as a member of the correct tribe.

The Apostle Paul used his pedigree to help his witness before men, particularly Jewish men in the synagogues of the cities he visited. In Romans 11:1 (GNT), Paul tells the Church in Rome: 

“I ask, then: Did God reject His own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.” 

He also used this to witness to the people in Philippi:

“If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault” (3:4b-6; GNT).

As you can see, pedigree was used for many different things. However, the most important aspect of preserving these records was maintaining the royal blood line. As with any kingdom, keeping the royal blood line identified and pure was of utmost importance in the establishment and perpetuation of the kingly line. Lose that, and the kingdom would be thrown into chaos as anyone and everyone could lay claim to the throne.

Matthew, by listing the “genesis,” or beginnings, of Jesus, accomplishes two very important things. First, by utilizing the Greek word γενέσεως, he ties this beginning to another beginning found in the very book by that name, Genesis. “In the beginning… (Genesis 1:1).” This isn’t simply a “Greek word ploy” used by Bible scholars to show links between the Old Testament and the New Testament that are fabricated to make connections that aren’t there. By starting the New Testament with the same word and in the same way. God is reestablishing His Kingship by showing that in the Old Testament, He created the heavens and the earth. In the New Testament, Jesus has the same Kingly qualities to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a King-like quality to this Jesus being referenced here. One that mirrors the God of Genesis 1:1. Later, we would see why (John 8:58; 18:37; Revelation 5).

John even goes a step farther at the beginning of his gospel account:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1-4; KJV).

The connection is plainly revealed to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The tie-in to Genesis 1:1 is purposeful.

Second, Matthew also mentions that Jesus is the son of David and of Abraham, thus establishing this baby’s “right to rule legally.” This baby is a descendant of King David. He has the pedigree to sit on the throne of Israel. This would have been the first thing His detractors would have attacked, but Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, begins the implementation of Phase Two of God’s redemptive plan: Reestablishing Himself as King. The Israelites tried it their way, and their current predicament of being in the hands of the Roman Empire was proof positive their ways were not qadosh by any true understanding of the word.

God’s response could have been to allow the nation Israel to “die on the vine,” as it were. But His redemptive plan was always about more than just the Israelites. He wanted to be their King so they could be His chosen people. Obeying His commands, they would have been the “city on a hill.” They would have been the “salt of the Earth.” They would have been the conduit through which salvation reached out to the nations around them.

Imagine what the world would be like today if they had been obedient all those years ago and remained so?

However, that didn’t happen, so we have now reached the point where God takes command again like He did in Egypt. He establishes a King that meets the criteria of Deuteronomy 17: 14-20. This baby will be the “King of Kings,” meaning the one true King over all the others (Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 14:11; cf. Isaiah 45:22-25).

Thought for the Week:

Before we toss stones at the windows of the house of Israel, we as the Church of Jesus Christ, must first look at our own houses of worship, both individually and collectively. How much do we mirror the actions and thoughts of the Israelites in the Old Testament times, as well as those who existed in the times of Jesus?

What do I mean by that?

What got them in trouble with God? What did God take issue with, concerning their relationship to Him during those times? It was all about the heart, was it not? Their hearts were not given over to God. They still wanted to “rule” their own hearts and only allow God to do so when it was convenient.

In other words, God was viewed in the same way we view Amazon and Sam’s Club today. We need something, so we get on the “God website” and order it, expecting next-minute delivery with free shipping. But we also want to try other stores, too, like “Satan’s Select,” wherein we can find things that promise everything good but deliver nothing, except heartache and separation from God in some form or fashion. Then, when we go back to “God’s website” and order some comfort and peace, God purposefully places it on backorder because our account is overdrawn in the areas of humility (being poor in spirit), mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, mercy, and purity of heart (Matthew 5:3ff).

The Israelites went to their Old Testament version of “God’s website,” called the Tabernacle (and later the Temple), with the wrong heart one too many times, and God said he would not hear them when they called (1 Samuel 8:18). They heard that message again and again throughout the Old Testament: “Repent, and turn away from your wickedness” (1 Kings 8:47; 2 Chron. 6:37; Psalm 7:12; Jer. 8:6; 18:8; Isaiah 1:27; Ezekiel 14:6; 18:30, et. al.).   

On the flip side of this, just like the Israelites of old, when life gets “tough” (and that is such a relative term), then God becomes our “first responder/physician” with the purpose of healing our situation so we could go back to His website and place more orders. In other words, go right back to the lifestyle that lead us here in the first place.

God is not a genie. He is not “all around us,” just waiting to supply our every beck and call. The exact opposite is how it should be. We should be on our knees, asking Him where we should go, what we should do, how we should live. That’s what slaves do (Romans 6:16; 1 Cor. 7:22; 9:19). As slaves, we serve a Risen Master.

And slaves never tell the Master what to do.

NEXT WEEK:

We will look deeper into the Legality of Jesus’s Kingship.

Photos Compliments of Pixabay.com:

Baby Lamb - PublicDomainPictures

Genesis - SpencerWing

David - GDJ

Jesus/Peter's Feet - JeffJacobs1990