Advent Day 9

His Mother Would be a Virgin…

To retrace the steps we have taken so far…..the Messiah, the King of kings, will come through the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse and David. He will have someone who comes before Him to prepare the way.

We now come to the miracle that has never been, nor ever will be repeated again. And what a miracle it was!!! It was to be a sign….the Messiah would be born of a virgin. There would be no human father, because God would be His Father.

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a Son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” Psalm 2:7

I love the last verse! Again, we have Jesus in the Old Testament speaking of the plan He has for entering into His creation. How incredible!!! It makes me want to squeal with sheer joy!!

Jesus was born of a virgin, but God provided Him with an earthly father. We spend a fair bit of time talking about Mary and thinking about what she would have been like, but think about what a special guy Joseph must have been. Here is a guy who was born with such a special purpose, but he is not even mentioned until it is time for him to take his active role in the most AMAZING event in His-story!! The entrance of the LIVING GOD coming as a helpless baby!! This guy was Mary’s birthing coach, for goodness sake! And by the way….he wasn’t surprised when it was a boy!! We are so impressed with sonograms and technology today! Mary and Joseph didn’t need it! They had each received a SON-o-gram from the angel Gabriel!! I am really looking forward to meeting Joseph when I get to heaven. I want to know what it was like to tell the Son of God to go and get His sandals on for synagogue, or to chew with His mouth closed! Talk about intimidating!

Joseph was descended from King David, but when you look at the genealogy listed in Matthew and in Luke they are the same up to a point, but then each one goes through a different son of David. Matthew goes through David’s son, Solomon. Luke goes through David’s son, Nathan. The problem is both have Joseph listed in their genealogies. This is not an error or contradiction in the Word of God. This is PERFECT planning by God. Are you ready?!

(The genealogies of Jesus are given in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38)

The Matthew account is presenting Jesus’ claim to the throne of David through Joseph as His legal father. But here we hit a bit of a snag with regards to Joseph’s bloodline. There is a wicked descendant of King David’s by the name of King Jeconiah, also known as Coniah or Jehoiakhin. He was so evil and idolatrous God had this to say:

“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.” Jeremiah 22:30 KJV

In other words, God has just put a blood curse on the royal blood line that comes down from King Jeconiah to Joseph. You might think God shot Himself in the foot with this one, but wait…..there’s more. Are you surprised? Of course not! It’s God! He loves to keep things interesting!
Hundreds of years before the blood curse being put on King Jeconiah, there is an obscure event recorded in the book of Numbers about the daughters of Zelophehad. This event took place in the time of Moses, after the Exodus from Egypt. You can read the account in Numbers 26:33, 27:7, but I will try my best to summarize it here.
There was a man named Zelophehad. He had five daughters, but he had no sons to inherit. The daughters of Zelophehad came before Moses, the priest, the princes, and the entire congregation to state their case. Their father had died in the wilderness, but having no sons, his name would die with him. The girls asked Moses to give them a hereditary possession among their father’s brothers. Moses inquires of God and God tells him the daughters were correct to request this. They would marry within their own tribe to keep the inheritance within their family. The daughter would then be entitled to inherit as if she were a son of her father.

With that in mind, let’s get back to the genealogy of Jesus. The genealogy in the Gospel of Luke shows Jesus has a claim to the throne of David both legally and by bloodline.

“And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli….” Luke 3:23

The actual rendering in the original text is “reckoned as by law”. In other words Joseph was the son by law of Heli, because Heli had no sons, only daughters. This means two things; Jesus had a legal right to the throne of David through His adopted father, but without the blood curse. It also means He had the bloodline to the throne of David through His mother, Mary. God does not believe in loose ends!

I think about the planning that goes on at my house for Christmas. I think of the looks I will see on the faces of my kids when they open the gifts we have so lovingly chosen for them. Then I stop and think of the enormity of God’s love for us and the planning He did with regards to EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of sending His gift to us on that first CHRIST-mas. I stop and think of how He so lovingly sent HIS precious, beloved, only begotten Son into this world to become a sin offering for us, so that we might have eternal life and be in fellowship with Him for eternity. He waits to see the look on our faces when we choose to accept the GIFT. He is heartbroken when it is rejected by anyone. I am so completely humbled and in love with our Lord!!! Merry CHRIST-mas!! I pray the Lord blesses each of you reading this.