Matthew 1:1-17
We’ve probably all had some sort of run-in with law enforcement. If you haven’t, you at least know somebody who has. We’ve all heard the words, “Let me see some id” or “License and registration.” Similarly, there were “religious police” in New Testament times who checked Jesus’ credentials to verify His far-fetched claim to be King of the Jews (Matthew 27:11).
There had been a royal line in the history of Old Testament Israel, and it began with king David. Almost a millennium before Christ walked the earth, God made a promise to David that one of his progeny would succeed his throne and reign in perpetual righteousness (2 Samuel 7:16).
Unless it could be proven that Jesus was a legitimate descendant through the royal line of David, His claims to the throne were just a hoax. Consequently, one of the first questions a Jew would ask concerning a messianic claimant was, “Is he a relative of Abraham and from the line of David?”
Fittingly, Matthew opens the New Testament with the formula “the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Matthew presents a descending line from Abraham through David, through Joseph who was Jesus’ legal father by adoption (Matthew 1:16). Since inheritance rights are always passed through the father, Matthew’s genealogy validates Jesus’ royal claim by His legal descent from David through Mary’s husband Joseph.
Since the destruction of Herod’s Temple in A.D. 70, no genealogies have existed to trace the ancestry of any living Jew to date. Moreover, since Jesus had no children, and since He continues to live even to this day, the Christ of the Bible is the last verifiable claimant to David’s throne, and consequently to the messianic line.
Reflect:
With proof in hand that Jesus is King, what is one area of your life you need to surrender to His control?
Seeing how God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things, what’s one way Jesus can use you to accomplish His will this week?