Click to hide HTML preview
Microsoft Word - kings-david.doc
Abraham to David to Exile to King Jesus
Matthew 1:17-18a
"So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to
the deportation to Babylon (Exile), fourteen generations; and from the deportation to
Babylon (Exile) to the Messiah, fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah
took place in this way."
1 Kings 11 explains where there was a divided kingdom. God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:16-
17 is that his house (kingship) will last forever. But David's son Solomon strayed from the Lord and
God wanted to take away the throne from Solomon. But for the sake of David, the Lord waited to
do this to Solomon's son. (1 Kings 11:30-36)
After Solomon's death, Solomon's son Rehoboam became king of Judah, but 10 tribes are then
stripped from him and given to Jeroboam. These become Israel, the Northern 10 tribes.
Rehoboam only gets Judah and Benjamin, the Southern Kingdoms. Judah is a remnant tribe and
only for the sake of David.
The kings of the Divided Kingdom are compared to King David. Did they walk in the ways of King
David, or did they walk in the way of their ancestors (their non-David-king predecessors)? See e.g.
of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 14:8 and of Rehoboam 1 Kings 15:3; 2 Chron 21:6b-7; cf 2 Kings 19:34.
It seems too that the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 are played out in the history of Israel,
unified or divided.
Matthew now tells of King Jesus, who is in the line of David. This King Jesus, David's son, will be
King of Israel, and so the Lord of the world. God is faithful to his promises to Abraham and to
David to redeem the world. And his rule shall never end.
Think back to Genesis 49:8-10 where Jacob is blessing his sons (the Twelve Tribes of Israel)--and,
stunningly, compare Romans 1:5 and 15:12 (where Paul quotes Isaiah 11:12). Of Judah he
prophecies:
8Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you. 9Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my
son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness--who
dares rouse him up? 10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from
between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.
Think, lastly, of Acts 2:29-32 where Peter sees Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to put
one of David's descendants on the throne.
David Suryk © IVCF 2007
Click to see HTML preview
