Luke #39 - He Wasn't Lying!

Luke #39 – He Wasn’t Lying!

“Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David” (Luke 3:31 – King James Version).

“And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias…And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon” (Matthew 1:7 & 11 – King James Version).

My daddy likes to play music. When I was growing up he and his friends would play at dances, fish fries, stews, family reunions and functions of that like; most of the time I went along with them. Most of the time I managed to stay out of trouble…or maybe the most accurate terminology would be that half of the time I managed to stay out of trouble. One particular night a boy and I got into a fight early in the evening; my dad hadn’t begun to play yet…that’s how early it was. My daddy caught me by the arm and said “I am going to whip your behind when we get home.” I was worried for a while, but by the time I got home it was late. We had been at that stew for nearly eight hours! I was sure daddy had forgotten about that whipping or would have forgiven me and decided not to whip me. Guess what…he wasn’t lying! My daddy did not forget how ugly I had acted and he did not forget to give me that whipping!

Yesterday I said that it was a big thing for Mary’s genealogy to be presented in Luke. Today I want to tell you why that is. Mary was descended from David’s son Nathan. Joseph was descended from David’s son Solomon. What’s the big deal with that? Of Solomon’s line there was a descendent named Jeconiah (Jechonias in KJV – same fellow, different spelling). Jeconiah was also known as Jehoiachin and in at least one instance was called Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24). Jeconiah was a bad king. God gives authority to any who have it and God will always deal with those who misuse His gifts. In Jeremiah 22:30 we find a curse pronounced on Jeconiah: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless, for none of his children will ever sit on the throne of David to rule in Judah. His life will amount to nothing’” (NLT). UUNNH! That’s hard! Read all of Jeremiah 22 and you will find that Jeconiah had fair warning from God but would not do as God said. As a result, God removed that line’s privilege to be king over Judah in His sight.

In 1 Samuel 22:9 God had promised to establish Solomon’s line as the kingly line, but in Jeremiah 22:30 God removes Jeconiah as king. Jeconiah’s sin did not disestablish God’s promise; there still was legal right from Solomon’s line, but sin had ruined the validity and holiness of the legal line. Still…legal is legal, so we get Joseph as Jesus legal father passing on the legal line to Jesus. AND we get Mary as Jesus physical mother passing on the uncursed line, still descendants of David, in truth to God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 (born of a woman’s seed), and in truth to Himself God would not allow Jeconiah’s descendent to rule as king. So, Jesus is legal before men, legal before God and righteous before both.

Some say the Bible is confusing, but the more I study that wonderful record of God’s dealings with man the more straightened out I get! When God disavowed Jeconiah, He wasn’t lying! God is always true to Himself and He never lies to us. He remembers His promises and by His very nature cannot forget them!

This little testimony of Jesus’ family tree serves as further truth that Jesus is the only One that could have fulfilled every prophecy and requirement of law involved in identifying the one true Messiah; King of Kings; Son of the Living God. God wasn’t lying when He said He would send a redeemer and no matter how much mankind sinned and goofed up in between God saying it and doing it God remained true to Himself and kept His promises.

What does this mean to us today? Well…we can be more confident in the holiness of God, more sure of His promises, and more confident that Jesus is exactly who He said He was and is. That confidence should breed in us more holy boldness than we have ever had before. We can share boldly about Jesus affirmed in the truth that He really is the way, the truth and the life. HE WASN’T LYING! God never forgot a single promise! He never forgot a single punishment either. That’s another thing we can be sure of although we’d probably like to forget.

Grab hold of the promises of God today…when He made them, HE WASN’T LYING!