King Messiah, Son of David, and Son of Abraham!
Traci wrote last week about our This Is and we are here at the outset of our journey through His story! He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last! A powerful bookend is He, framing Genesis to Revelation. And from the first words to the last, we find His story woven through… And This Is why we are here!
Today we dig into verses 1 and 17. These seemingly simple verses are actually mighty bulwarks of message we do not want to miss! Verses 1 and 17 frame, introduce and then conclude the list of names recounting the earthly lineage of Christ. Before Matthew recounts even one name in the list of ancestry, he paints a complete portrait of Christ in the 2 verses below that sandwich Christ’s genealogy!
“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1
“Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.” Matthew 1:17
Pause here a while with us. Dare to tread forward, chart a trail, and gain a glimpse, no, a vivid expression, of just who this Messiah King is. Matthew wrote with purpose for his Jewish audience to see Christ, to really see Him. We desperately want you to see that portrait, too! Friend, it is time. Journey with us as deeper still we go...
It is strange that the King prophesied in the Old Testament had come in flesh, yet many of the Jews did not get Him. (They had, after all, envisioned and anticipated a different picture of who this king would be!) As you know, Matthew, with urgency, writes to show them that Jesus was that King. Remarkably, Matthew sets the stage of his book in the first verse in a few words! He tells them, just as it was prophesied, that Messiah was the Son of David, Israel’s king, and the Son of Abraham, Israel’s promise! Protector and Provider, Eternal King and Father, Promise Giver and Keeper, all Israel had waited for and wanted, wrapped up in one Living-to-Serve, Dying-to-Conquer, Rising-to-Reign King!
THE SON OF DAVID
“I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 2 Samuel 7:12-13
“I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me… but My Lovingkindness shall not depart from him… Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:14-16
“For thus says the Lord, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually.” Jeremiah 33:17-18
David was from the tribe of Judah (Jacob blesses Judah in Genesis 49:8-12), the 8th son of Jesse, and was God’s choice for a King! Samuel anointed him as a teenager (1 Samuel 16) and he would later become Israel’s 2nd king (following King Saul). In 2 Samuel 7:8-13, God established a covenant with King David, promising him that a king would sit forever on his throne. From him would come the Messiah! Fast forward to the New Testament and pause to realize that Matthew presented Jesus, in human nature, as the Son of David in his genealogy. Christ was born generations after David, but He was, without question, a direct descendant and the perfect fulfillment the prophecy recorded in 2 Samuel 7!
We have to marvel here at God’s plan, trace for a moment His hand, and then rest in awe of His sovereign design to reconcile man to Him… God chose a humble shepherd boy to become Israel’s greatest king. It thrills me to know David was a simple shepherd, but God looked into his heart and saw a king (1 Samuel )! Still more, He could see 1000 years forward into David’s earthly lineage. And through the scope of time, He could see another, greater Shepherd King, to come!
God told David that through him, He would deliver a King. I found a verse a few days ago when I was digging and loved, loved, loved it! God used it to tender my heart, set it beating wildly, and then stilled it to rest in sweet awe and thanksgiving of just what this Christ did when He came. In Jeremiah 33:17-18 (above), God promised that David would never lack a man for His throne and that the priests would never lack a man before God to offer sacrifice. And, precious one, He kept His promise! Do you realize? Can you see? That is just what Christ did! That King came, grew, and made a sacrifice worthy of eternity. Our Isaiah 53 Suffering Servant carried the weight of iniquity, making Himself offering to justify those who didn’t and don’t deserve it. Yes, David’s King, My King, Your King, is seated in Heaven, victorious! He has already, on the throne of cross, prepared a way for you and there remains power in His blood! If you, friend, know Jesus, He is your Forever King who once and for all, settled your account when you had not merit of your own.
So you see, friend, this King, the Messiah, Son of David, was different from any earthly king! Promised long before, He came in exactly every way He said He would! His birth shattered the silence of the Old Testament and ushered in God’s ultimate plan for Saving Grace! Misunderstood, mocked and rejected, this King offered Himself, His throne a cross and His crown thorns. He came, lived, died and rose with purpose! He authored your faith, intercedes for you now, and will one day call you home to perfection in glory! And as promised, He is coming again to reign (Isaiah 9:7)!
Yes, Matthew knew many of the Jews had missed it. I have to ask you today, reader, have you? Do you know Him as Salvation? Still more, do you know Him as Lord? I know the difficulty of peering within, of viewing a heart that is your own. I know Him as Salvation. I know Him as Redeemer. But, with humbling pause, I have to reflect whether I have given Him rightful place as King. Do I in any way doubt His authority to rule this stubborn heart of mine? Friend, I have missed it so many times, making anything and everything all about me, walking in comfortable complacency and self-absorbed apathy. I know full well that that heart and place is NOT a satisfied one. I am thankful today for One who is faithful to pursue, and I want to know this Eternal King as mine in every way! I don’t want to miss it. I choose to rend this heart open, to let Him invade each crevice, and to allow Him to remake it into a throne worthy of Him.
Beyond my understanding, beyond yours, He came, gave, died, rose, lives, and rules as King! Sweet one, He already sees your heart just as He saw David’s. Will you let yours be fully His?
THE SON OF ABRAHAM
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
Just as God established a covenant with David, God cut a covenant with Abraham. Before we deal with the details of the covenant, we must grasp the profound nature of this covenant itself! I have enjoyed digging deep here because God is, once again, leaving me in awe of Him! I don’t know that I have ever thought of the promise God made to Abraham in the manner we are about to discuss. It is all I can do to not fall to my face in praise for a God who ordained so much when I have nothing to give in return…
The nature of the covenant God made with Abraham was literal, eternal, and amazingly, unconditional! Don’t gloss over the beauty in that! Dare to get it. Soak it in and let Him astound you once again as you reflect on a God who would offer you so very much…
As with God, there is more! Dig with me as we view specific elements of the covenant God made with Abraham and the way in which Christ fulfilled them and will bring them to complete fruition!
The literal, unconditional covenant God made with Abraham was also an eternal one! Through it, God endeavored to set apart for Himself a people through whom He would bless the nations. In Genesis 12:1-3, we see that God’s covenant with Abraham is threefold, promising land, seed, and blessing.
First, in Genesis 12:1, God promises land. We see the literal promise of this more specifically in Genesis 13:14-15. Abraham had just departed ways with his nephew, Lot. Abraham stood in Canaan; God told him to look and promised He would give to him all he could view in every direction (see also Genesis ) so that only He would pass between. Only God Himself would be responsible to fulfill the covenant...
Certainly God fulfilled this covenant throughout history in His dealings with Abraham and Israel, yet there is part of this covenant promising still a future fulfillment! Many writers in the Old Testament point to Israel’s restoration, repentance, and forgiveness (Ezekiel -14, Jeremiah 31), denoting the covenant as ultimately complete with the return of the Messiah!
You might wonder what, if anything, this covenant has to do with you. Everything, friend. Everything! Truly we can’t examine the Old Testament without this seeing this foundational picture of God’s plan for one day bringing His Messiah! From the beginning, God could see the cross. He foretold His Son in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, before Abraham, before David. HE IS the great I AM and You can find Him in every page of His story. In this instance, His covenant with Abraham is a foreshadow of His greatest Covenant to come, the Messiah! And He would be a perfect one, remove the veil, and make us adequate before God (2 Corinthians 3)!
Are you getting it? Do you see? He extended the same unconditional grace to you and to me at Calvary. He made a way. He did it all! He passed between the pieces of His own Son’s sacrifice so that we could forever be blessed. If you are God’s child, come to Him by the way of the cross, He knew you would come and He was preparing the way long before through Abraham, through David, and certainly even in the garden! The same God who promised Abraham land, blessing and seed knew He would later promise David an Eternal King. And He certainly knew His Son would one day arrive to be the perfect fulfillment of both, a New Covenant founded on Better Promises! (Matthew 5:17; Hebrews 8:6). Yes, God’s promises of blessing and redemption are for you and they find every ounce of meaning in Christ!
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Yes, there is something about that name. Messiah, the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, had come -- The Perfect One… in Perfect Plan… with Perfect Purpose. Eternal King who loved first and Eternal Promise who won’t fail. Let Him exult a new song over you today.
Unending, unconditional, unparalleled! Covenant cut and Covenant fulfilled!