Jesus: The Rightful Heir (Thursday)

Matthew 1:1

The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David.

To meet the biblical qualifications to be the Messiah, Jesus had to be in David's line, which is why the New Testament authors make much of Jesus's connection to David.

In Luke 1:32, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and says to her, your Son's going to be great, He "will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." The Messiah is going to be the one that was promised to David, who would be king forever.

In Luke 1:27, when Gabriel shows up to Mary to announce the birth of Christ, the angel is sent "to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph," and Joseph was "of the descendants of David." In Luke 2:4, we learn more about Joseph. It says that Joseph “went up from Galilee, to the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem." Why? "Because Joseph was of the house and family of David."

But to make it even clearer that Jesus was in the messianic line, not just one of His parents was a descendent of David, both of them were. In Matthew 1, we have the genealogy of Joseph, and Joseph's lineage came from David through David's son Solomon, which means the legal claim that Jesus had to the throne came through his adoptive father, Joseph. Luke 3, on the other hand, traces the genealogy of Jesus through Mary, and there we learn that Mary was a descendent of David, not through Solomon, but through an older brother named Nathan. And so, Jesus had a physical claim to the throne through Mary.

There's no question about it, legally, through Joseph as His adoptive father, and physically through Mary, His mother, Jesus was twice qualified to be the Messiah. He was twice a son of David.

That's why when you come to Paul's testimony in 2 Timothy 2:8, he says, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendent of David, according to my gospel." It had to be part of the gospel because He couldn't be the Messiah if He wasn't from David's line.

The lineage of Jesus is both a prophetic proof of his divine kingship, and a clear highlight of his true humanity. How does the combination of these truths cause you to wonder at God’s redemptive plan?


Heavenly Father, I ask that you enlarge my capacity to understand the importance of Jesus’ human lineage.  Only you could have divinely orchestrated his coming to seek and save your people. His human descendancy glorifies you and confirms to my heart that Jesus is my Lord and Savior.