From Abraham the genealogy of Jesus proceeds to Isaac, and Jacob, and Judah who was the “father” of one of the “twelve tribes” of Israel. Going down the line we see Ruth and Boaz, whose story is told in the Scripture book of Ruth. And then a few generations more and we see King David.
During the reign of King David, there was consistent warfare and challenges. I remember a study of his life over two decades ago when I was a youth pastor in Grand Junction, Colorado. After studying his life month after month with a singles Bible study, it got to a point when I thought, “When is all the strife going to end?” And his mistakes are renowned. Yet his kingship led to a period of prosperity and security. The era of King David was a golden era in Jewish history. And King David remained committed to God up to his death in this world.
Like Abraham, really in conjunction with the promise made to Abraham, God made a promise to David. The promise: “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). Just like with the promise to Abraham, the statement “established forever” could be a literary term meaning a really long time. Yet God really meant forever! God’s promise to David was an unconditional promise that his throne would be established forever, and that promise was fulfilled in the Messiah.
Though born in the embarrassing manner of being born in a manger, the baby Jesus was a king. Magi knew that fact, which is why they asked King Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2)
Jesus is risen from the dead, and He lives eternally in heaven. Thus His throne is established forever, as Jesus reigns daily in heaven! Revelation 19:16 states: “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
So what scholars call the “Davidic Covenant” involved an unconditional promise of a forever throne, of which only the Messiah could sit. And Jesus did.
So the covenant made by God with Abraham discussed last week was unconditional. And the covenant made with David was unconditional. Both found fulfillment in Christ. Yet the covenant God made with the Hebrews with Moses as the mediator, after the Israelites left Egypt, was a conditional covenant. The Mosaic covenant: If the Israelites obeyed God, they would live long and prosper in the land of Canaan. But if they did not obey God, there would be curses.
Unfortunately, the Jewish kingdom went through more curses than blessings after the reign of David, due to sin. To start with, King Solomon, David’s son, did plenty he was not supposed to do. Then the kingdom split with his one son being king of ten tribes and his other son being king of two tribes. Trouble continued from there. Scripture records the fact many Israelite kings did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the result was countless tragedies, many of which are recorded in the books of I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, and II Chronicles. And sin was rampant among the Israelites. There is a sad summary in I Chronicles 9:1 – “…The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.”
The genealogy of Jesus includes the line of kings of Judah, up until the exile in 586 B.C., when the third and final wave of Jewish people were taken to Babylon. Zedekiah was the final king of the Israelites.
God’s faithfulness involved a miracle in bringing the Jewish people home in 536 B.C. But until the Messiah came, there was never again a king from the tribe of Judah on the throne of Israel. Upon the miraculous return, a man in that royal line, Zurrubabel, was a “governor,” and he is in this genealogy. Hebrews still wanted leaders from the lineage of King David, which was possible under Persian rule, but even that would end as the Greeks and then Romans conquered the restored nation of Israel.
The royal line digressed to the point that you had a man, Joseph, with royal blood working as a carpenter in a region called Galilee, which had not been a part of the vast kingdom of Israel which King David procured for many years. However, God was true to His promises, and that rural carpenter was in for an unexpected adventure.
Hunter Irvine
