By Editor Bob Terry
Can anyone imagine the feelings of Abraham after encountering God? After hundreds of years of apparent silence God dramatically spoke to Abraham calling him from his dwellings in Haran to a place God said He would show him (Gen. 12:1–3).
Hope and anticipation must have been central among the array of emotions Abraham felt. God had promised to turn this immigrant family into a great nation. More than that, God said He would bless all the people on earth through Abraham. How could that fail to put spring in Abraham’s steps? He had God’s promise that his family would be special — living with God’s blessings and God’s protection.
Probably Abraham could hardly wait to see how God was going to keep His word. But the twists and turns of Abraham’s story over the next several decades provide little confirmation that Abraham’s descendants will ever be a great nation.
In Genesis 22, the writer recounts God stopping Abraham’s hand in mid-strike as the patriarch attempted to offer his son, Isaac, as a human sacrifice. Again God spoke and promised that because Abraham withheld nothing from God, Abrahams’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
God’s promise
And God said a second time that through Abraham’s offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Again hope and anticipation. But there is little in the story of Abraham’s son or his grandson, Jacob, indicating fulfillment of God’s promise.
David was king of Israel. His journey to leadership had been perilous but the youngest son of Jesse had ascended to the throne just as God promised him as a young lad tending sheep. In 2 Samuel 7:12–14, God made another promise to David. Speaking through the prophet Nathan, God promised, “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you … and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father and he will be My son.”
Psalm 89:3–4 echoes that promise, “You said, ‘I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’”
The politically astute of that day may have thought King David was the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. The immigrant Hebrew people had become a great nation. The Jewish empire had been expanded. Enemies had been defeated and Israel was first among the nations of that day.
But God’s promise led a different direction. It was more specific. The one to be a blessing to all people would be Abraham’s seed and the Anointed One, the hoped for Messiah, would be David’s heir.
David must have looked expectantly at Solomon. Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem. He governed wisely for a time and leaders of other nations paid him homage.
Unfortunately, Solomon also began the nation’s journey away from God. Israel was torn apart by political rivalry. Israel and Judah both drifted away from God and both walked into oblivion. Israel was overrun by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and Judah was led into captivity by the Babylonians in 597 B.C.
Gone was the greatness of the Jews under David and Solomon. Now Israel was a puppet nation which wore the successive yokes of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The Jews became a despised people and the royal house of David was buried in obscurity.
The fertile soil of Israel had become a dry, arid land and the tree of Jesse was now a rotting stump.
Ironically, those were exactly the conditions the prophet Isaiah described for God to keep His promises to Abraham and David. In Isaiah 53 the writer declared the one who “took our infirmities and carries our sorrows” (v. 4) would spring up “like a tender shoot … out of dry ground” (v. 2).
In Isaiah 11:1 the writer shared, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.” The writer adds, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of power, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (v. 2).
This “shoot” from the dry ground of Israel and the stump of Jesse would be Abraham’s blessing to all people and David’s heir to rule forever and forever.
The writer of the Gospel of Matthew argues the “shoot” from dry ground and from the stump of Jesse is Jesus whom the writer labels the “Christ,” the Greek equivalent of “Anointed One” or “Messiah.” Despite circumstances most would label improbable, God acted to fulfill His promises made to Abraham and David.
In the opening verses of this Gospel, the writer symbolically traces the generations of Jesus to establish beyond doubt that Jesus is both Abraham’s seed and David’s heir. Only if both are true could Jesus be the Long Expected One.
Matthew makes no attempt to list every generation. In fact, some are omitted. Rather, Matthew writes to show the line of descent. He uses the number 14 in each section of the generations to convey special meaning. In Jewish numerology the number 7 represented spiritual perfection. Since 14 was twice 7, the writer was likely implying that Jesus possessed a double measure of this virtue which placed Him beyond mere mortality.
Fulfillment in Jesus
His groupings of the generations begins with the time of God’s promises followed by the epoch of man’s failure. The final group moves from failure to fulfillment in Jesus. As Abraham’s seed, Jesus, “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). As David’s heir He “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand — with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him” (1 Pet. 3:22).
Through earthly eyes neither Abraham nor David ever witnessed the fulfillment of God’s promise to them regarding blessing and heir. But delays in keeping promises does not weaken what God has said. God is always faithful to His promise and will make good on every word He speaks.
He did for Abraham and David and He does for you and me.
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