The Life of Christ
The Genealogy of Christ (Part 5 of 6)
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
E-Mail:
To: Life
of Christ Main Menu
To: Grace
Notes Home Page
The Geneaology, Continued
Isaiah 9:1-7, "But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Thou shalt multiply the nation, thou shalt increase their gladness; they will be glad in Thy presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For Thou shalt break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, and cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the governement will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this."
Here again is the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Also, this passage establishes the location of the hometown of
Christ, and the place where much of His ministry will take place.
Zebulun and Naphtali are two tribes of Israel. Their tribal boundaries
form the area to the West and Southwest of the Sea of Galilee.
Included in these territories is the town of Nazareth, the hometown
of Jesus Christ.
They are made glorious because of the ministry of Christ around
them.
Isaiah 11:1-5, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His lins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist."
This passage concentrates on the prophetic character of Christ.
Through the Spirit and the Word, Christ will be the greatest
prophet of all time.
Isaiah 40 proclaims the coming of the Messiah to the people of
Israel.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
This passage predicts the ministry of John the Baptist. This
passage hearkens back to the wilderness journey of Israel.
It emphasizes the need for faith perception of the truth. For
us, it looks forward to the coming of Christ, or our joining
with him.
Read Isaiah 42. It establishes the purpose of the Messiah.
These verses spell out the purpose of the life of Christ.
He will bring justice to the nations.
He will open the eyes that are blind.
He will set free the prisoners from the dungeon of the cosmic system.
The passage also confirms that these things are a part of the
Divine Decree in eternity past.
Read Isaiah 49, which records the call of the Messiah.
This call will result in the salvation of Israel, and of all
mankind. It will solve all problems, no matter how great. It
will bring about the millennium.
Isaiah 53 records the substitionary spiritual death of Christ,
a priestly function.
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand,
he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
This is really important, because it records the purpose of the
death of the Messiah. He is to die a substitutionary spiritual
death, one that will pay for the sins of all mankind. It is a
great sacrifice, and so God gives Him a great destiny.
Jer 23:5-6, "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely ; and this is His name by which He will be called, the Lord our righteousness."
Daniel 7:27, "Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him."
This is a passage which describes the eternal kingdom of God
under the rulership of Jesus Christ.
It tells of the gathering of all nations, human and angelic,
and their subordination to Christ at the Great White Throne.
Micah 5:2, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be amon the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."
The eternal nature of Jesus Christ is set forth here. He is truly
God. Micah also identifies His birthplace - Bethlehem.
Zech 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first born."
This is a little different. It records the crucifixion of Christ
as it relates to the Jews who demand His crucifixion. The Jews
turned against Christ, and demanded his death over that of Barabbas,
a common criminal who had participated in an insurrection against
the Roman rule.
Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the Lord of hosts.
There are two predictions here. First, the prophet predicts the
ministry of John the Baptist. Second, there is a prediction concerning
the scouring of the Temple, which actually occurred on two occasions.
King David, the Forerunner of Christ
King David was the forerunner of Christ in at least three ways:
In his selection by Samuel the prophet.
In the establishment and administration of his kingdom.
In his fantastic relationship with God. The words of a man on
his deathbed reveal a lot about him. David, for all of his sin
and tragedy was a man of God.
1 Samuel 16:1-13, "David the son of jesse declares, and the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The Rock Israel spoke to me, He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain. Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow? But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand; but the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they will be compleely burned with fire in their place."
David to the Exile
Joseph's Line, the Legal Line of Christ (Matthew).
Solomon
Solomon was a true genius, and he exploited that genius by having
a great relationship with God. "Now God gave Solomon wisdom
and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand
that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom
of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For
he was swiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol,
and Darda, the sons of mahol; and his fame was known in all the
surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs
were 1,005. And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in
Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also
of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. And men came
from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the
kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom."
Yet, Solomon became involved with the queen of Sheba, and his
lust for her nearly destroyed him. Toward the end of his life
he wrote a testimony to the folly of his lust. We have that testimony
recorded in the Bible - it is the book of Ecclesiastes.
"Futility of futilities! All is futility!" Is the tone
of the book.
Solomon then proceeds to record all of his accomplishments, and
all of his doings, he says, added up to nothing.
His final conclusion was this: "The conclusion, when all
has been heard, is: fear God, and keep His commandments, because
this applies to every person. for God will bring every act to
judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."
Rehoboam
The son of Solomon, he was a weak king, and although he wanted
the right things, he lacked the leadership to bring them about.
He wanted a unified kingdom, but the Northern kingdom of Israel
split from him.
He wanted the pure worship of God, but the entire nation rebelled
and conducted even the most depraved forms of idol worship.
He was an immoral man, and he had a knack for making bad decisions
from a position of weakness.
Abijah
Abijah saw the split of the two nations in a very black and white
way. The Northern kingdom had rebelled, and must be forcibly
brought back under the reign of one. That one, of course, was
him.
He fought a great battle with Jeroboam, and though he won, he
was unable to bring the rebels under his rule. The kingdom remained
divided.
Abijah was also an immoral man, and he too was a failure as a
king.
Asa
Asa returned to the pure worship of God. Although he allowed
idolatry to exist, he emphasized what was true and right: the
ritual plan of God.
Prosperity also returned to the southern kingdom. Many came down
from the north because in him they saw a renewal of David's glory.
However, he did make a great mistake towards the end of his life.
Zealous to make the northern kingdom return to the rule of God,
he allied with a pagan nation, Syria.
Asa became ill and did not seek God's help. Depending on his
household physicians, he died.
There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to:
Grace Notes
% Warren Doud wdoud@bga.com
1705 Aggie Lane
Austin, Texas 78757
Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/
Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/
Grace Notes is a ministry of Village
Missions International.