Study of Matthew |
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Matthew Chapter 1
The Messiah was supposed to come from the lineage of David in order to be in the line of kings and fulfill the prophecy concerning the linage of David. Christ is to become king of kings and Lord of Lords. In order to qualify as the King of Israel, according to prophecy, He had to come from the seed of David.
Solomon was exercising judgment in 1 Kings chapter two upon Joab for slaying innocent blood but the latter part of this verse shows that through the seed of David there is peace from the Lord for ever. We know that there has been no peace as yet from any of the kings or descendants of Judah. That peace is yet to come. Christ came the first time as an offering for sin. At His second coming, first will be judgment and wrath, then peace will come for He is the prince of peace. That is yet to be fulfilled. For now we are examining the prophecies concerning Christ being of the seed of David. I will use Jeremiah to show that a Branch of righteousness is to come from the seed of David to execute judgment and bring righteousness. This is not yet fulfilled as we can see in today's world.
It would seem as if the son of David is to sit upon the throne and the tribe of Levi will again be ministers in the the reign of Christ upon the earth. This is very interesting to study. We know this as yet has not come to pass because even though Israel is a nation once again, there is no Christ to reign on the throne. Some believe Israel will be fooled for a season into accepting the false messiah that we know as the antichrist. Some believe the antichrist will sign a covenant with Israel breaking that covenant in the middle of the tribulation period, than all hell will break forth. Only then will the real Messiah come to save all Israel. Jesus mentioned this once:
Back to Jeremiah:
In John the seed of David is referred showing that Christ was to come from Bethlehem. This was the words of those trying to figure out who Jesus was and was saying the Christ was to come from Bethleham so they figured Jesus could not be the Messiah because they thought He was from Galilee which is also true. They must not have realized that Jesus did indeed come from Bethlehem originally.
This was a fulfillment of Micah 5:2
That verse is powerful showing us that Christ already existed from past eternity to future eternity. He is as God existing forever and has existed forever. God came in the flesh and dwelled among men but was not recognized by His own people. He will be recognized at His Second Coming. This is similar to the story of Joseph
when he was in Egypt. His brethren did not recognize him when they
first came to Egypt but they did recognize him the second time they
went to Egypt. Paul tells of the seed of David:
There are those that say if Jesus had of committed one sin, He could not have been raised from the dead. He was the Son of God, He was holy and He died, not having done any sin. So His death can count for all who believe in Him. Because He was raised from the dead, all who believe will receive eternal life and be raised from the dead also.
Notice that the firstborn rarely was chosen as the linage of Christ. Isaac was the firstborn of Sarah but not Abraham. Isaac was the seed of promise. Isaac's firstborn was Esau. Actually Jacob and Esau were twins but Esau came out of the womb before Jacob. It was interesting that Jacob had hold of the heel of Esau when he came out of the womb. Jacob had Reuben first, then Simeon, then Levi, before the birth of Judah. Judah was the fourth born to Jacob but the one chosen as the line from which we get David and then Christ.
The sons of Judah that were first married to Tamar were slain by the Lord because of sin that must have been a type of sin that was beyond the other sins we read about in the Old Testament that would taint the inheritance, so we see Tamar continuing the line of Judah by bearing the child of Judah himself. Judah went in unto Tamar thinking she was a harlot. That is when Phares and Zara which were twins were conceived. The bible tells us the good and the bad. We are not to pattern ourselves after the bad. God does not condone all that is done in the Old Testament just because it is the line that Christ came from. Judah failed to fulfill his promise to Tamar by giving her his youngest son so Tamar tricked him into thinking she was a harlot. After Judah's wife died, he went to the one he thought was a harlot to get comfort. God never once condoned this act but that type of lifestyle was common before the coming of Christ. We can see by this that Christ really brought into the world a much better way to live. The teaching of Christ is that in the beginning God made one wife and one husband. Plural wives are a result of the lust of men, not the act of God. Notice that in Christianity, at least in the mainstream of Christianity, man has only one wife as it was meant to be from the beginning. God created one wife for Adam, not two. The influence of Christ upon the world was great and for the good of all mankind. It is the failure of men to live how God intended that brings trouble and reproach upon the gospel of Christ, not the teachings of Christ Himself. Judah committed sin and so did Tamar but it must not have been of the type that caused the Lord to slay the two elder sons of Judah. The bible doesn't say what the sin of the first one was except to say that he was evil. The second one refused to raise up seed in his older brother's name by spilling his seed upon the ground. Thus he was slain also by the Lord. That seed was to be the one that God would send forth His own Son into the world. To spill it on the ground was displeasing to God.
Ruth was a Moabite woman but a woman who claimed that the God of her husband was to be her God. She denied the false gods of her own people when she left her homeland to abide with her mother in law, Naomi. after the death of her first husband. She later married Boaz a kin of her first husband.
Jesse had many sons older than David but Samuel anointed David to be king. Remember too that David had a man killed and took his wife. Although God chose her child to be the heir, God did not approve of the way it was done. God judged the house of David for the sin of killing Uriah. The first child by Bathsheba died. Solomon was the child that came later after David repented and got right with God. God never condones sin but does make a way through faith in Jesus our Christ for us to be cleansed and forgiven of sin. David was a man after God's own heart, not because everything he did was perfect but because he was a man that repented and acknowledged his sin. This was a picture of grace and why Jesus came to save from sin. We all sin in our natural lifetime so we all need a savior. We need God's mercy and grace. Salvation is not by our good works but by the mercy and grace of God. We obtain salvation by repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus to save us from sin, not by trying to keep the law on our own. Through David we see a picture of the mercy of God. Though in this life we may have to pay the price for our sin by sorrow and pain but in eternity our soul is saved by grace. David had to suffer, the death of his son, rebellion of another son, the rape of his daughter and many other things because of his sin with Bathsheba but because he acknowledged his sin before God and repented, God removed the sin so that he could be saved eternally but the consequences of his sin still was in effect in his lifetime. An example would be an alcoholic. A man may drink so much that it destroys his body with the poison of alcohol. He may smoke so much that the smoke kills his lungs. That same man may come to Christ and be delivered from smoking and drinking. His soul is saved but the body may still suffer from his past habits. I believe in miracles though and divine healing. There is always a chance that someone may experience physical healing as well as the healing of the soul but it doesn't always happen that way. Many times a person knows what he was doing to his own body but does it anyway. Another thought about David. Notice that any reference to David in the New Testament is always good. The New Testament never mentions his past sin. Another picture of God's grace.
Even though many of the kings were evil, even though the kingdom of David was split because of Solomon's sin, the lineage continues. God is not condoning anyone's sin but just fulfilling His promise to Abraham and to David.
The captivity to Babylon shows us that God is a just God and sent the children of Israel into captivity because of their idolatry and sin against God. Yet even in that we see the lineage of Christ continuing; fulfilling the word of God beginning with Moses.
Back to Matthew
There are more prophecies about the seed of David ruling and reigning forever. We know as yet this has not come to pass in full:
The immediate descendants of David did not keep His covenant and the kings were removed from Israel. Israel did not exist for years until 1948. So the prophecy concerning an everlasting throne from the seed of David has not yet been fulfilled. This happens at the 2nd Coming of Christ.
This is the part the Jews missed. The 1st coming of Christ was to be as a savior from sin before He became the king to reign forever. The Old Testament prophecies tell mostly of the 2nd Coming but there are many hints at the 1st coming also but it is easy to miss because it is not easily discerned. From the view in the Old Testament it is like seeing the tops of two mountains and not seeing the valley between them. The valley is the part where Christ had to come to give Himself as an offering and sacrifice for sins. The whole chapter of Isaiah 53 tells of the suffering Messiah that I have not included here but one can look it up and read it along with this study.
This fulfilled part of Isaiah here: The child was born but the 2nd part about ruling is yet to be fulfilled.
Luke also records the events of
Christ's birth and foretells of His ruling upon the throne of David.
The angel that spoke to Joseph in Matthew, told of the child that was to be named Jesus but mentions that He would save His people from their sins in verse 21 of this chapter. The angel mentions the fulfillment of this prophesy:
Immanuel means: "God with us." What a wonderful thought. God Himself coming down from heaven leaving His throne and abiding with His creation. For Jesus, the Son of God was God just as much as the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God. He existed before His birth on earth. He is the Second person of the triune Godhead. Whether or not we understand all about the trinity, it is important that we get the fact that God became flesh and dwelled among us. God with us. When Jesus went back to the Father, He send the Holy Spirit to abide with us as individuals. We now have the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit to abide with us so that we are never alone. God is still with us but only to those that have believed and received the Son, Jesus Christ. We cannot have the Holy Spirit until we are cleansed from sin made possible by the first coming of Jesus to die for sins and make the way of salvation perfect. The study of Hebrews gives more details of the two covenants and the sacrifice of Jesus and the change in the priesthood. The angel that spoke to Mary mentions also that His name shall be called Jesus but mentions that He will occupy the throne of David and that the birth was not by man but by the power of God. A virgin shall conceive fulfilling Isaiah 7:14 mentioned above. So we see Christ fulfills the savior from sin Isaiah 53 and the 2nd coming will fulfill the prophecies concerning the king of David. Matthew and Luke both tell of the same event but speaks of different details of that event. God is a complete God and does not leave us in the dark if we diligently search His word and seek His understanding. His word is for those that desire to understand and know the truth. Understanding is not given to those that desire to find an excuse to sin or tear apart the holy scriptures. DC I will close this chapter with a promise from the book of James:
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