Romans 1: 3-4a- Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness...
We are going to look at these verses in two parts and in this first entry we will only discuss verse 3. Paul makes it clear in this verse that Jesus was born, or his heritage came from that of King David. God promises David on several occasions that he would have an heir that would sit on the “throne of David” forever. The scriptures also make it clear that the Messiah would come from the seed of David and that His rule as King was eternal.
When you look at the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, you will discover they both list the genealogy of Jesus. They both trace the lineage of Jesus all the way back to King David. His lineage actually traces all the way back to Abraham, but that is another discussion.
Why is it that the genealogy in Luke's gospel is different from the genealogy in Matthew, and yet they both trace back to David?
Very interesting, isn’t it? A closer examination will help us understand the reasoning of the Holy Spirit to list it differently. Luke gives us the genealogy of Mary, the mother of Jesus, while Matthew gives us the genealogy of Joseph. Why would Matthew do that since Joseph was not Jesus father? Let’s look back in Matthew and see if we can determine why.
Matthew 1:6- and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
Then we skip down to verse 11 and find something very interesting. (Matthew 1:11) Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. Keep this verse in mind as we travel on.
Matthew is following the Kingly linage from David through Solomon and all the way down the line to Joseph. Solomon was the son of David who God placed on the throne after the death of his father. Solomon had the “Actual” right to sit on the throne because he was chosen by God as David’s successor.
If you look back in the Book of Jeremiah though, God speaks prophetically through Jeremiah and He says something extremely significant.
Jeremiah 22: 30- "Thus says the LORD, Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.”
Who was God speaking about? If you look back at verse 24, you will see that God looked down through time and was speaking about Jeconiah. The same Jeconiah that is listed in the lineage of Solomon in Matthew 1:11. God placed an eternal curse on him and declared that none of his descendents would ever sit on the throne of David. Joseph came from this line, thus eliminating any actual seed from Joseph to ever sit on the throne. Joseph was not the blood father of Jesus, he simply adopted Jesus as his own son, thus by-passing the curse placed on Jeconiah, enabling Jesus to sit on the throne, by way of Joseph.
With that in mind, look back to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 3:31) and you will again discover a different branch of heritage from King David listed.
...the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
Luke follows the line of Nathan who is the older brother of Solomon. As the older brother, Nathan actually had the legal right to the throne of David more than did his younger brother Solomon. God placed Solomon on the throne, but in legal terms, Nathan had the legal president.
Mary, the blood mother of Jesus comes from the line of Nathan, the elder son of David. Luke traces Jesus, being born from the virgin birth of Mary, back to David through the older brother Nathan. That is why God, by the Spirit, places both lines of heritage in the scriptures. To show you that Jesus had the "actual" right to sit on the throne of David through the Kingly line of Solomon, and the "legal" right to sit on the throne, through the legal line of the older brother Nathan.
God is so incredibly wise and sure……None of this was some haphazard plan, thrown together at the last minute. In the foreknowledge and wisdom of God, we have Jesus “born of the seed of David according to the flesh”.
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