Matthew 1:18-25
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’ Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.”
In my previous article, “Jesus the Perfect King” we set out to establish that Jesus was the rightful heir to the throne of David. He is legally the King of Israel and was in fact executed for that reason.Today we will talk about His birth here in earth.Yes, I know that it is not Christmas. The birth of Jesus is not a Christmas story; it is the very foundational pillar of the faith that we have.
His birth was the most foretold event in the history of mankind.God the Father put His absolute credibility on the line with the birth of Jesus.He wrote so many indicators — that He had to have absolute confidence in His ability to perform all that He said that He would. Or He would appear to be weak and certainly not in control.One of my favorite verses in the Bible about God’s sovereignty is found in Proverbs 16:33:
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
God allows Man to have freedom of choice in decision making BUT it is God who determines the outcome ALWAYS.God will never violate the will of Man, but He also maintains the absolute control over the consequences of our will. Thus God had to take control of the consequences of Man’s decisions from the very first sinful episode in the Garden of Eden to the very day that Jesus the baby breathed his first breath as a human.
According to a writing by Pastor Mark Driscoll there were at least 10 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus’ birth; prophecies that an innocent new born babe had no control over so that the idea of a conflict of interest could be levied against Jesus.Let us explore some of these and you can draw your conclusions.If Jesus is the Messiah then serve Him and if not then stop wasting your time and His with pretending.
1.His mother would be a VIRGIN.
This is the fulfillment of a prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah wrote this prophecy about 750 or so years before Jesus was even born. In the fulfillment of this prophecy there are several — what I call complementary prophecies that had to be fulfilled as well.You see not only did Jesus’ mother have to be a virgin,she had to be a woman with the right lineage and the right heritage to be Jesus’ mother.
Her lineage is a fulfillment of Genesis 49:10 and Numbers 24:17 and 19. In Malachi 1:2-3, God explains that He had chosen Jacob to bless. Part of that blessing was that the Messiah would come through his lineage.Without these complimentary prophecies being added to the fulfillment of her being a virgin, then her being a virgin would be of no value. In addition to being a virgin, she had to be of the line of Jacob, the chosen son.
You see there is a line of Abraham that goes through the line of Esau and these Jews are not the chosen people. These are not the ones through whom the Messiah would come.So Mary had to be born from Abraham, and then come through the line of Isaac via Jacob.These are all areas of life that she did not have control over.God had to make sure that these were performed and that she was in the right lines all along.
This is a good example of how many of the prophecies that we see fulfilled had complimentary prophecies tied to them that made human efforts of no value.Mary could choose to be a virgin; and she did but she had no control over her lineage and to whom she was born.
2.God made a Promise to King David that He cannot break
These promises are found in the following verses and God takes His Word very seriously:
2 Samuel 7:12-13“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”
Psalm 89:35-36“Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.”
Psalm 132:11:“The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”
God promised King David that he would have a descendent on the throne of Israel forever. This is a serious promise to make since that would mean that you would have to be able to make sure that someone in David’s lineage was the ruler through wars, treason, sedition, deaths and any other disasters that could come. But God ran into a problem, beginning with Solomon who went away from the Lord in his old age.
In Psalm 132:12 God makes it clear that the descendants of David had to be faithful to Him if they planned on taking advantage of this promise.But as we know the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom went away from the Lord for the most part. The final straw in God’s patience came with King Jeconiah where God makes it clear that no one of his line will rule in Judah, in Jeremiah 22: 24-30:
“As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD, ‘Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.’”
The last verse is the final judgment; God makes it clear that no one from Jeconiah’s seed will sit on the throne of David.So how then does God keep His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David? How does He remain the omniscient God knowing the end from the beginning if the acts of mere men can put a “kink” in His plans?
The answer is found in the lineages of Mary and Joseph respectively.In Matthew 6: 11 we see that Joseph, David’s earthly dad was from the lineage of Jeconiah, so he was forbidden from being on the throne of David, and so too would his son.But, in Luke we find the lineage of Mary; it goes through Nathan another one of David’s sons (Luke 3: 31) not through Solomon. Thus Jesus is allowed to be the King.He is still a descendant of David and thus God is able to fulfill all of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well.
I encourage you to put your trust and confidence in the God who can make a promise 1500 years in advance and then make sure through His sovereign power that it happens exactly as He said it would.There is no other God like this.
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Sean Gooding
Pastor
Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Mississauga, ON Canada.