Matthew 1:1-17
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.
Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife[a] of Uriah. Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.
Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.”
Today we begin a new journey on an old road. As a complement to the book of Daniel we will take a walk through the kingdom gospel, Matthew. Each of the gospels offer us the different view of Jesus; Mark presents Him as the perfect servant, we find the words ‘immediately’ or ‘straightway’ often in the book of Mark showing the diligence of Jesus’ obedience in His earthly ministry as a servant of the Most High.
In Luke we find the perfect man; his lineage is traced back to Adam, Luke’s goal right from the very opening verses was to establish a degree of certainly about the things he saw and experienced and learned about Jesus. In John we find Jesus shown as the Son of God. Over and over again His deity is expressed with the great verse of John 10:30, “I am my Father are one.”
But in Matthew Jesus is shown as the perfect King; it is established both through the lineages in Luke and here in Matthew that He is the rightful Heir to the throne of David and thus when He comes to rule He will rule with legal authority from HIS rightful throne in HIS kingdom Israel from the city of Jerusalem. It is impossible to separate the importance of the nation of Israel from Jesus; He is the King of the Jews.
We will set the stage for His return as we see the unsettled world around us once again clamoring for the little strip of land called Israel. Satan knows that Israel is front and center to the kingdom of Jesus here on earth and so he must seek every tool and use every resource to eradicate the nation so as to thwart the return of Jesus.
But no such victory will come to the great deceiver; Jesus will rule the whole earth from Jerusalem for 1000 years and Satan will have to part in that time. He will be bound for the whole time waiting for the end and his final judgement, Revelation 20:1-3.
The earth is designed to be ruled. People always set up rulers. Even Utopian systems have rulers. Jesus is the Ruler we are all looking for. He is holy, righteous; cannot be bribed or bought. He is ethical in everything He does. He cannot sin nor can He tempt anyone to sin and His staff will have the same integrity as He. Jesus has never been nor ever will be defeated in battle and even His death which was perceived to be a victory by His enemies has actually become His greatest victory.
His army does not fear death; it is actually our friend, our final release from a body that betrays us and our Savior way too often. Come with me and meet the King of kings. One day you will bow to Him either in fearful reverence as one who is redeemed from your sins and the penalty of death. Or you will bow in fear at the holy Living God who has the power to judge you in hell forever. The choice is yours.
The promise to Jacob, Judah and Abraham (Genesis 49: 8-12). As he approached the end of his life Jacob met with his sons to bless them; this event is recorded for us in Genesis 49. In verse 8 Jacob begins his blessing on Judah. In verse 8 we see that the children of Israel will “bow down to you” and in verse 10, “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah” and in verse 11 we are reminded of how Jesus would enter Jerusalem on that day we celebrate as Palm Sunday, on a donkey.
In 1 Kings 1: 33, 38 and 44 we see that David made Solomon to ride his mule as a sign that he (David) had chosen him to be the king. Unlike pagan kings of earth the kings of Israel were not permitted to amass horses as we see in Deuteronomy 17:16. Some did; Solomon had 40,000 horses but the accumulation of horses was forbidden by God. A lot of the leaders of Israel, even in the time of the Judges, before the rise of the kings of Israel, rode mules or donkeys.
We see then that it is the tribe of Judah that God decreed would rule the nation as far as kings were concerned. Thus, Jesus came to fulfill this promise. He is the oldest living male in the kingly line and thus fulfills this promise to Jacob. But if we go back a few centuries this is actually a fulfillment of the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12: 1-3. One of the parts of the covenant says that in Abraham would all the families of the earth be blessed.
This covenant has its fulfillment in both of Jesus advents. In the first one the families of the earth are blessed because He came to die for the sins of the world and offer salvation to every man, woman and child. But in the Second Coming, His return as king, Jesus will offer them a chance to live in the Utopia they seek. As stated before Satan will be bound for 1000 years, in Isaiah 65:25 we see this description of what life will be like:
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.”
Jesus will offer to the remaining fallen world a visible gospel, one of sight and touch. One where people will see the effects of His presence first hand and their lives will be blessed simply because he is a just ruler who loves mankind infinitely. My God keeps his promises, even the ones that are 4000 years old; even the ones made to dead men.
He must keep His promises for my God is a God of integrity and honor. What God do you serve? Does He keep His promises? Does He break covenants? The God of Israel neither breaks His covenants nor His promises so He sent Jesus, of the lineage of Judah to satisfy the promise He made to Judah and the covenant He made with Abraham.
A King for the Jews (Matthew 1:1-17)
These verses confirm the linage of Jesus Christ back to Abraham. In Luke Jesus’ lineage is traced back to Adam to prove His manhood. He was born of flesh just like you and me but without the aid of a man. We will explore this even more next lesson. Today’s focus is about His right to be the King of Israel. A king without a kingdom is a sad man. Jesus the man must then have a kingdom that is His.
Matthew makes it clear through the lineage that Jesus is first of all a Jew via the blood line of Abraham, He is the Son of Promise via the blood line of Jacob and He is the rightful king of Israel as the oldest living male in the line of Judah. Now Luke one of the most historically accurate writers, compliments the lineage shown in Matthew 1 in Luke 3: 23-38 and the two agree that Jesus is Jewish, son of the Promise and of the line of Judah.
If you take the time to read ahead and look at Matthew 27:29-31 the soldiers actually made fun of Jesus and put the crown of thorns on Him in order to mock Him as the ‘king of the Jews’. In particular the actual charge under which Jesus was executed was that he was “king of the Jews.”
Since there could be no other king in Israel but Caesar, Jesus had to be executed. Many will read this and miss this. But Matthew was a Jew, writing to the Jews and showing them not only the Messiah, but their future King.
God works within His own laws. He established the rule of two witnesses and so the lineage is recorded twice in the NT. He made sure that there was no question about Jesus legal right from man’s point of view to sit on the throne of Israel. So as God, Jesus is the King of the world, but in man’s earthly courts He is the rightful king of the Jews.
Now one might ask why this is so important. This is important because we can see that God is setting up the world for His Son to rule. He re-established the kingdom of Israel in 1948; he then reset Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 1967 and Israel is the central focus of most of the leading nations around the world.
Israel is taking her place right now as a rescue mission and shortly as the focus of the most anticipated peace treaty ever written and prophesied about for millennia. And then 7 short years later she will be the political center of the world. Is Jesus already the King of your heart, life, family, dreams and hope? If not them why not make Him your Lord, Master and Savior today?
Jesus the King is also for the Gentiles (Matthew 1:5).
I am a Gentile and it is likely that you are as well. In the midst of this all of this it is easy to think that Jesus had forgotten about us once He called Abraham to begin the nation of Israel. But to do so would be to call into question the universal love of God for all men. In Matthew 1:5 we find the names of two women in the lineage of Jesus, Rahab and Ruth.
We meet Rahab in Joshua 2 as she rescues and helps two spies sent by Joshua to spy out the city of Jericho. She admits in Joshua 2:8 that the God of Israel is the God of heaven and earth and she is rescued by her faith and shows her obedience by shielding the two spies. She is a Gentile woman whose blood line is in the lineage of Jesus. After her we meet another Gentile woman named Ruth whose story we find in the book of Ruth. She is a Moabitess, a Gentile, and she is then married to Obed the grandfather of King David and Jesus is a direct descendant of David. There we are represented in the lineage of this great King—Jesus the King of the Jews and the Gentiles. He is a righteous King; the Godly King; the one who will rule with honor and compassion and the one who has proven Himself in battle. He took on death for you and me and won. He defeated death and took away the power of the grave, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Has He conquered death for you? Call on Him today and live forever in the victory that Jesus purchased for you.
Sean Gooding
Pastor
Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Mississauga, ON Canada