The purpose of the genealogy appearing in the first chapter of Matthew is summarized in the first verse : “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” The purpose of this genealogy is to show that the covenants God gave to Abraham and David were related to the mission of Jesus Christ.
At the end of the genealogy in verse 17, the same purpose is restated in other words : “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations ; and from David to until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.”
In our last discussion we studied the connection between Abraham and Christ and discovered the following facts :
- That God gave promises to Abraham that he and his seed would inherit the land, and bring blessings to all the people of the earth.
- That because of Abraham’s belief of that promise, God imputed righteousness unto him —justified him, or declared him righteous.
- That by divine arrangement this happened prior to both circumcision and the giving of the law of Moses so that justification could come only by faith —the belief of the promise—and was not contingent on rituals or rules of conduct imposed later.
- That neither Abraham or his descendants ever received the things promised.
- That the “seed” named in the promise did not refer to the plural descendants of Abraham, hut was intended in the singular sense, and referred to Christ (Gal. 3:16). We become joint-heirs with Abraham and Christ by belief of the promise and baptism into Christ (Rom. 4:20-25, Gal. 3:27-29).
We will now turn our attention to what the Scriptures have to say about David’s connection with God’s plan of salvation through Christ. While the relative importance of things cannot be determined by merely comparing the number of times they are mentioned in the Scriptures, yet it has some weight. And the number of times the name of David is mentioned in the New Testament suggests he had a vital and important connection to God’s saving truth.
In Rom 1 :13, Paul says Jesus Christ was of the seed of David, according to the flesh. In Rev. 3:7 Jesus says that he “hath the key of David.” Isaiah 5:53 is quoted in Acts 13:34 to show that Christ was promised the “sure mercies of David.” There are also many casual remarks that tell more than they say.
In pleading for mercy and help the blind men by the wayside said, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on us.” When Jesus healed one who was blind and dumb the people were amazed and said, “Is not this the son of David ?” (Matt. 9:27, 12:23). The Jews of the first century knew that the promised Messiah would be the son of David, and the healing of the dumb, the blind, and the lame, caused the people to think he was David’s son because those very things were promised in the covenant given to David. The sample performance of those mighty acts was proof of his claims that he was God’s anointed son of David.
The Pharisees derided the man whose eyes Jesus had opened. They said, “We know that God spake unto Moses : as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is” (Jno. 9:28-30). The healed man answered, “Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.” Who he was, what he was, and from whence he came was fully declared and witnessed by opening the eyes of one that was born blind.
Jesus reminded the people on many occasions that his miracles bore witness to his claims. “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true . . . there is another that beareth witness of me . . . for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me” (see John 5:31-37).
The miracles of Jesus would have been no “witness” at all unless the Father, through the Prophets, had foretold the things by which Israel could identify their Messiah. For this reason Jesus had “greater witness than that of John,” for “John did no miracle” (see Jno. 5:36, Ch. 10:41).
It might be asked, since Jesus was “son of Abraham” as well as “son of David” why did not his miracles remind the people of his descent from Abraham ? This might be explained by the fact, as stated by Dr. Tomas, that the Abrahamic covenant was “the gospel in a nutshell.” The covenant given to Abraham promised universal inheritance and blessings, but it did not define the blessings nor state the means and instrumentality through which they would be realised. This was revealed in the covenant given to David, and quite naturally the miracles carried the mind back to the covenant in which those things were announced.
Therefore, the two covenants are fundamentally the same covenant. The covenant to David was the amplification and unfolding of what was comprehended in the Abrahamic.
The Jews of the first century understood that their Messiah, promised in so many Old Testament prophecies, would be of the lineage of David (Jno. 7 :42), and would reign on his re-established throne (2 Sam. 7:12-16, Psa. 89: 34-37, Isa. 9:7, Jer. 23:5,6, Jer. 33:14-17). With this background of Old Testament prophecy in mind, the statement of the Angel concerning the birth of Jesus is significant, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David ; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32,33).
This is the connection between Jesus Christ and David, briefly referred to in the first verse of Matthew’s gospel. And nothing but the plain, natural interpretation in this inspired passage from Luke 1 can explain the joyous expectation and confidence of those who felt the healing touch of Jesus, and rejoiced in the prospect of his administration of world affairs on David’s throne.
The prophets speak in glowing terms of the goodness of Messiah’s reign on David’s throne. He will speak peace to the nations and wars will cease (Isa. 2:4). Poverty will be abolished, and universal prosperity will be enjoyed by all people (Amos 9:13,14). Sickness and disease arrested, and the length of natural life increased (Isa. 35). And for those who are accepted as his co-rulers, death will be swallowed up in victory, and tears wiped from all faces (Isa. 25:8, see Psa. 72).
The reign of Christ on the throne of his father David will be the remedy for everything that has gone wrong in the world. It is the cure that exactly fits the disease. It is the “hope of Israel” that Paul preached (Acts 28:20). It is the “hope of the promises made of God unto our fathers (Acts 26:6). It is that hope by which we can draw nigh unto God (Heb. 7:19). And unless the covenant of promise is the basis of our approach unto God, we are without hope, and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One