Is Jesus the Messiah?
zambia I'm going to get technical on ya, :)
Zechariah 14:9 says the LORD (Jehovah) shall be king over all the earth. Is Jesus Jehovah, this Jesus who died for sinners?
In Matthew 1, we have the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Joseph. Don't miss verse 11! It may be one of the most important verses in the New Testament. Who is Jeconiah? In the Old Testament he is known as Coniah. During his captivity in Babylon, the Babylonian king renamed him Jehoiachin. Why do we care?
It is important because Joseph is in the bloodline of King David through Coniah and in Jeremiah 22:30 Coniah is cursed. He is declared childless, meaning no seed of his shall ever sit on the thrown of King David. Coniah had seven sons, but they and their posterity all carried the curse. During Coniah's lifetime the Jews were taken off into captivity and have not had a king since.
If we could go to Israel in Jesus's day and ask educated Jewish Pharisees or scribes who their king is, they would say they don't have one. We could answer, "But I thought the Jews had a king. You had many kings in the past. If you had a king today, who would it be?"
If these scribes and Pharisees searched the records they could have traced the kingly line to man named Joseph, who was the legal father of Jesus. They would have to admit if Israel had a king in Jesus' time, it would have to have been Joseph, but the curse on Coniah still applied. Joseph was only royally entitled to the throne.
In the providence of God, Joseph fell in love with a girl name Mary and asked her to marry him. Luck? Not at all! Was there any descendant of King David legally entitled to the throne of Israel? Tracing the genealogy of Mary beginning in Luke 3:23, the line from King David goes down through Nathan to Heli. However, Heli had no sons, only daughters. One was Mary.
Joseph and Mary were engaged when he realized she was with child, he thought he shouldn't marry her, but God told him to, for her child was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He was to call her son Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:18-25) In Hebrew, Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation."
In the infinite wisdom of God, Joseph, who was royally entitled to the throne of King David, is engaged to a young woman, a virgin, who is legally entitled to the throne. But Joseph is cursed, and all his children would carry the same curse.
Because Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, the curse does not apply. He was not of the seed of Joseph, but Joseph was Jesus' legal father, so Joseph passed his legal right to the throne to Jesus. Mary passed her royal right to the throne to Jesus.
In the Jewish economy, the father could choose whom to give the birthright to, as David chose Solomon instead of Amon, his firstborn. Joseph had this right by adoption, and he chose Jesus. So by the process of adoption, Joseph passed his legal right to the throne to Jesus, but the curse did not apply, because Jesus was not of the seed of Coniah! Jesus was entitled legally and royally to the throne of Israel and he had no children.
So, the right to the throne ended in a man named Jesus! He was crucified on a hill outside of Jerusalem. There is no one alive today who is entitled to the throne of Israel except Jesus!
Again and again Scripture declares Jesus is God. Jesus states in John 10:30, "I and the Father are one." Jesus is the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15.
Isaiah 44:6 (NIV) states: "This is what the LORD says- Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." In Romans 10:9 we read, "if you confess...'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Scripture is emphatic that Jesus Christ is God, Jehovah and the Messiah!
By Doris Mataya.
From the book..Current Issues in the Light of Scripture
AI
