This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
Today we are looking at the Promise of a Messiah being fulfilled through the line of King David. Isaiah, the prophet, by inspiration of God writes, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this (Isaiah 9:7). Thus, according to Isaiah, writing by inspiration of God, in order to be the Messiah, Jesus had to be born as a King, as it were, through David. But please do not misunderstand Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus’ Kingdom was not a kingdom of this world as He so pointedly told Pilate when He was on trial. His was and is a heavenly kingdom, an eternal life in heaven kingdom.
If Jesus were simply an earthly king, as many in Israel were seeking, then His coming to earth would be one of revolt. His would be one of overthrowing the Romans, those suppressing the Children of Israel. His would be a kingdom in which the people were seeking an earthly peace, calm and serenity. His would be a kingdom in which His followers would follow, would revolt, would have an uprising in order to throw off the shackles of tyranny.
No, Jesus kingdom was not and never was intended to be an earthly kingdom. His was to be a kingdom of justice and righteousness forever, brought by paying for and giving us forgiveness of sins. And no, His was not to be an earthly justice as we hear the cry today for justice for so and so, for this cause or that cause. Too often the justice about which we hear a call today is simply a justice in one’s own eyes often amounting to revenge or vengeance.
As you recall, the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, the price being life. Human life, the shedding of human blood for human sin. The price for sin is death, physical death and, apart from faith in Jesus it would be eternal death and hell. Thus, Jesus came to bring justice, that is a heavenly justice, which is the giving of His life for ours, a human life for a human life, the shedding of His blood for us and for our sins. Jesus justice brings forgiveness of sins through the price for sins being paid by Him, for us, as our substitute.
And Isaiah even tells us that it is that “the zeal of the Lord will do it,” in other words, God will accomplish His purposes. Just as a person does not choose to be born. Just as we do not choose to be reborn through the waters of Holy Baptism. Just as drowning person cannot save themselves and just as a dead person cannot bring themself back to life, so our salvation, our forgiveness, our being brought from death to life must come from outside of us and it does. Our salvation comes from God who accomplishes our forgiveness and salvation from outside of us, through Jesus and Jesus alone.
And so we move into the New Testament into the Gospel of Matthew wherein he begins by tracing the genealogy of Jesus so that we can be sure that Jesus is the One promised by God, the one who is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, even the Son of God Himself. As Matthew recites the genealogy of Jesus, “1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 6and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:1, 6).
Notice first how Matthew traces Jesus line of descent through to David. David was the greatest king in Israel. He is the one who consolidated the kingdom giving the Children of Israel peace in their land and laying plans and gathering materials to build the greatest temple to the Lord in the land of Israel. He was known to be a man after the Lord’s heart. Yes, he was a sinner, but he repented and remained faithful to God all his life. Jesus is a descendant of King David making Him truly a king, but not an earthly king as the promise, as we said in week one, was always the promise of the ultimate fulfillment of an eternal life in heaven kingdom.
Matthew traces Jesus line of descent through Abraham. Interestingly enough it was Jesus Himself who told the Pharisees, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Jesus was at the creation of the world with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As John attests, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3 ). And Jesus fulfilled God’s promise, again as John attests, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 ). Jesus is true God in human flesh born from the line of Abraham, the one called by God and promised that through his seed the Savior of the world would be born.
God’s promises are always faithful and true. As you have heard me say many times, when humans speak we can never be sure because humans get it wrong. Human reason can not be depended on to be trustworthy and true. However, God’s Word is always faithful and true. When God says it we can depend on it. When God says it we know it will happen. God, speaking through the prophets foretold of how He would fulfill His promises and especially His first promise in the Garden of Eden. And now as we read and hear in our Gospel reading and in the other Gospels, God does fulfill His promises, all the promises that He has made have been fulfilled.
What does this mean? As we are again being reminded, it was sin that brought death into our world. Because of God’s great love for us He promised that He would take care of our sin, that is that He would pay the price, the death penalty, the wage and cost for sin for us in our place. When the time was right, according to God’s perfect timing He made and reiterated His promises. God’s promise was narrowed as for its fulfillment through Abraham as well as through David and others. And God’s promise always had two parts, the earthly and the heavenly.
The earthly part of God’s promise came with a condition. The condition of the earthly part of the promise, that is that God would make Abraham into a great nation and would give them a land in which to live was that they would be His people, that is that they would live according to His Laws. Unfortunately, because the Children of Israel failed, miserably, and often, as they rebelled and went awhoring after and worshiping other gods they lost the earthly part of God’s promise. They were disbursed throughout the world and their land was taken from them. However, their disobedience and loss of the earthly part of the promise never negated God’s eternal part of the promise and His bringing forgiveness and eternal salvation.
Thus, the heavenly promise, that is a heavenly kingdom of justice and righteousness, has been accomplished by Jesus. Jesus is true God in human flesh. Jesus is from the line of Abraham and King David. Jesus was born as our prophet, priest and king. As our prophet He continues to proclaim to us His Word which is done through the called and ordained servant of the Word, our pastor, through the means of grace. Jesus is our priest who offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins, shedding His blood on the cross, suffering the eternal death penalty of hell for us in our place, paying the price for our sins. He continues to be our priest as He is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding, praying for us. And Jesus is our King where in heaven He is watching over us and ruling over us.
Notice, as always is it God who does and we are being done to. It is God who gives and we are given to. God created, man sin. God promised a Messiah, man rejected Him. God put man’s sin on His Son and He paid the price for our sins. Now God gives us faith, forgiveness and life and we are given to.
What a great, loving, gift giving God we have. Greater love can no one have than one would lay down His life for another and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. God made His promise in Eden and fulfilled His promise in Bethlehem and Calvary. Jesus won our forgiveness on the cross and gives it to us through His Word, through Holy Baptism, through Holy Absolution and through His Holy Supper. And He moves and stirs in us our response of faith to rejoice and declare, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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