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Reading Matthew 1:6-11 and continuing the the genealogy of Jesus from David to Babylon, seeing how God worked even in the midst of evil to bring about the ultimate good. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
We continue through the genealogy of Jesus and we see in this genealogy a mixture of some righteous kings and some wicked kings. But ultimately the good that is being done is to God's glory, when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've been in the genealogy of Jesus and last week we made it as far as David in verse 6. So I'm going to start there and we'll read through to the deportation of Babylon in verse 11.
Hear the word of the Lord. And Jesse was the father of David the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, and Abijah was the father of Asa.
And Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram, and Joram was the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah was the father of Jotham, and Jotham was the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, and And Manasseh was the father of Ammon, and Ammon was the father of Josiah, and Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
So we read in verse 6, Jesse being the father of David the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. Now notice that Bathsheba's name is not mentioned there, it's that she is the wife of Uriah.
Previously, and what we had considered last week, we had the names of Rahab and Ruth. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth. Both of these women were godly women.
They didn't start out that way. They were pagans, and they worshipped false gods. But the Lord was merciful to them, and His mercy seemed not just that He brought them into the company of the Jews, but that they married godly men and became ancestors in the line of Christ.
What a beautiful story of redemption that is that we see even in the genealogy of Jesus. But the next woman that's mentioned is Bathsheba and not by name. David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.
Now why is Bathsheba's name not included? Because she was not a godly woman, unlike Rahab and Ruth. She had committed adultery with David. I'm sure you've probably seen a lot of ink, probably digital ink, spilled about David being a rapist, and Bathsheba was brought into this union against her will.
But that's taking power dynamics and reading that into the text. That's taking modern-day controversies and reading the Bible through that lens. Bathsheba committed adultery, and everything in the Bible indicates that this was mutual sin between David and Bathsheba.
We know that David had repented. We're really not given an indication that Bathsheba did. She mourned over the loss of her husband, certainly. She cleansed herself after this act that she had committed with David, is what the text says.
But we don't have any indication that she in particular had repented. So between David and Bathsheba and Uriah, including Bathsheba's husband, the only righteous one in that story, in that episode, was Uriah.
He did everything right, and yet David had him put on the front lines of battle, had the soldiers pull away so that Uriah would be killed to cover up this thing that David had done with Uriah's wife. And then after Uriah died, David brought Bathsheba into his house.
And of course, she had a child through that act of adultery that was committed between the two of them. Now, that child died. But then the son that was born between David and Bathsheba was Solomon. And Solomon, of course, becomes the one to receive the throne of David after that.
So Jesse being the father of David, David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and then Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. So once again, we're witnessing something where man did something evil and sinful.
David did wickedly, not only committing adultery, but then tried to cover it up by murdering the woman's husband. And yet God brought out of that a good that would lead to the Savior of mankind who would be born.
We've seen that in the genealogy thus far. Man means it for evil. God intends it for good. And so we're continually seeing that here in the genealogy. We've got the names of some wicked kings coming up here.
Yeah, believe it or not, wicked men in the genealogy of Christ. You're surely familiar with the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7, where God makes a covenant with David and says that on his throne, on David's throne, he will establish his kingdom forever.
2 Samuel 7 16, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. So it's assumed that when Solomon is born, he is going to be the fulfillment of this Davidic covenant.
And surely we see a time of prosperity in Israel, unlike they had ever seen before or will ever see again. The reputation that Israel had under the reign of Solomon was widespread around the world as being majestic and glorious.
It was not the largest kingdom, the largest empire in the world, but it was surely the richest. I remember reading from one commentary that talked about how the amount of money that Israel had per capita, like if you were to take the treasuries of Solomon and disperse it out among all of Israel, they would have been the richest people among the nations.
Just the amount of money that they had, though they were small, they were incredibly wealthy. There was that major route of trade that went through that part of the world. You had kings and queens from different parts of the globe that would come there just to behold the majesty, the richness and the wisdom of Solomon.
We have the account of the Queen of Sheba who came to observe Solomon and saw that he was indeed wise and the Lord had richly blessed him. So it was assumed because of all of this amazing, everything that was amazing and accomplished by Solomon, he was truly the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.
It's on his throne. God is establishing his kingdom forever. But then we see Solomon do wickedly. He marries all these women. He has 700 wives and 300 concubines. And he begins to sympathize with his pagan wives and he builds pagan temples to the gods that they worshipped.
And surely it was revealed that Solomon was not the fulfillment of this covenant that God had made with David. We see the end of Solomon's reign end very tragically. And so that his sons cause a split between the kingdoms and you have the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah, Rehoboam, who would assume the throne in Judah, goes right to idol worship.
I mean, immediately. Israel leaves the godly fellowship and worship that they were in during the time of Solomon. Remember, the temple is built during Solomon's time. They had that ordination at the temple in which God's presence comes down in fire and fills the temple.
And yet within the span of a generation, they go from worshipping the true God, this massive celebration that had taken place in Israel, celebrating the completion of the temple, the coronation of the temple.
And yet they go right to worshipping golden calves again. They went against the word of God. And the law of God even spoke to this, even warned about this in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14 to 20. You have statutes that are given for kings, and it says there in verse 17, he shall not multiply wives for himself or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
And we saw that Solomon did exactly that. Everything that was said in Deuteronomy 17 that a king should not do, Solomon did. So indeed, Israel enjoyed great prosperity, great power during the reign of Solomon, but Solomon's heart would turn away from the Lord and Israel and Judah with him.
And so we have a point in the genealogy here where once again, we see something wicked that has taken place, and yet God is going to use it to bring about some ultimate good. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, who was not a good king.
And where we see the genealogy of the line of kings in Judah, there were 20 kings in Judah, eight of them were righteous. Now, between Judah and Israel, there were 40 kings. The kings of Israel are not mentioned here, it's the kings of Judah.
But there were 40 kings altogether, only eight righteous kings. The northern kingdom, Israel, never had a righteous king. The southern kingdom of Judah had eight of them, and Rehoboam was not one of them.
So let's continue through, and we won't go into greater detail with all of these kings. We'll just kind of give an overview of the kings. So Rehoboam was a wicked king. It says in 1 Kings 14 .21, he was the son of Solomon.
He reigned in Judah. He was 41 years old when he began to reign, which means that he was born about the time that Solomon began to reign. So at the conclusion of Solomon's reign, Rehoboam takes the throne in Judah.
So he's sitting on the throne of David. The king in the northern kingdom was not referred to as being a king in the line of David. Whoever is sitting on the throne of Judah is regarded as a son or a descendant of David.
So Rehoboam, 41, he reigns for 17 years, and the Lord still was faithful to Judah, though they were not faithful to him. But Judah, it says in the very next verse, verse 22, Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed.
Above all that their fathers had done. Now, their fathers referencing those who were in the wilderness who grumbled against the Lord and fell and did not receive the promised land. So what we're seeing here is that though God has given this land to them, they're reverting back to the ways of those who grumbled in the wilderness.
And it only took the span of three kings. They chose a king for themselves who was Saul. He was wicked. He fell. God chose a man after his own heart who is David. He did righteously with the exception of the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and that's talked about in first Kings.
And then after David is Solomon who starts out righteous, but then he falls. And now the kingdoms are split. And this is what God does as a result of the wickedness of Solomon. He splits the kingdoms between the northern kingdom where Jeroboam reigned and the southern kingdom where Rehoboam reigned.
So in the span of just three kings, now Judah has gone back to doing wickedly and provoking the two anger after Rehoboam is Abijah or in some spellings Abijam. And he's talked about in first Kings chapter 15 in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
That was in that was the northern kingdom reigned Abijam over Judah. And it says in verse 23 years he reigned in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Mayaka, the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all of the sins of his father, which he had done before him.
And his heart was not perfect before the Lord, his God as the heart of David, his father. So you'll see this this mention throughout first Kings that when a king did righteously, he did it. He did as his father David had done.
But when a king did unrighteously, then he father he follows in the sins of his father's or it will mention Rehoboam. He did like his father Rehoboam had done. So Rehoboam would be the picture of sin and David would be the picture of righteousness.
Now, after Abijam, as we read in the genealogy in Matthew one, we have Asa and Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. So Abijah, the father of Asa, Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Asa was a good king. First Kings 1511 Asa did that, which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David, his father.
And guess what? The king that would come right after Asa, that was Jehoshaphat. And he also was regarded as a good king. The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father, David, and sought not unto the bales.
But he sought the Lord God, his father, and walked in his commandments and did not go after the doings of Israel because Israel was doing wickedly the northern kingdom. I misread that there. I said he sought after the Lord God, his father.
It was the Lord God of his father. That's rarely is God ever referred to as father in the Old Testament. That's something Christ rather reveals in the New Testament. Anyway, just kind of throwing that as an aside since I misread that particular portion.
So continuing on here, Jehoshaphat being a good king, his son is Jehoram, or in the genealogy, it's spelled as Joram. And Joram was a wicked king. So in Second Kings chapter eight, verse 16, in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.
He was 32 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Now, all of this kind of transpired because Jehoshaphat had this desire to see the two kingdoms unified. These were kinsmen, were supposed to be brothers in the Lord. Israel and Judah should not be separated.
We should be united into one kingdom. And so Jehoshaphat did these things to try to unite the kingdoms. However, it was foolish. Though he had good intentions, the people of Israel were wicked. And Jehoshaphat ends up giving his son a wicked wife, and she causes her husband, Jehoshaphat's son, to go after the wickedness that Israel was in.
So it was kind of a foolish effort on Jehoshaphat's part to unite the kingdoms, even using his own son. I'm going to have him marry the daughter of Ahab, and maybe that will bring the kingdoms together.
It seems like a practical thing for two kingdoms to do, but it doesn't result in that, and Joram ends up becoming a wicked king. But here in this, we still see that God is working through even the evil of man to bring about some ultimate good.
Though these people seem to be doing a terrible job with this throne upon which God has said he's going to establish a kingdom forever, yet the Lord is going to redeem it and bring about the ultimate Savior, who is Christ.
That is not to the praise of any man, because we see how wickedly man is dealing with this, but that is to the praise and the glory of God alone. Now, we skip down a little bit in the genealogy. So we go from Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram.
Joram was the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Now, Uzziah, whose name was also Azariah, he was a good king. 2 Kings 15 .1, in the 27th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.
He was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem. And he did all that was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father, Amaziah, had done.
And we go from Uzziah to Jotham. Jotham was a good king, but he was the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz was a wicked king. He was very evil, in fact. 2 Kings 16 says that when Ahaz began to reign, he was 22 years old—sorry, 20 years old when he began to reign.
He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the sight of the like David, his father, had done. Ahaz does wickedly, but God has mercy on Judah. And after Ahaz comes Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was regarded as a righteous king.
But then after Hezekiah is Manasseh, and we go right back into evil again. Manasseh was so evil, he sacrificed his own son. 2 Kings 21 .1, Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.
And it says in verse 2, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathens whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So this was even worse than what his own fathers had done.
Manasseh is doing like the pagans had done, even sacrificing his own child. After Manasseh comes Ammon, and we have here in the genealogy, Ammon was regarded as a wicked king. After Ammon comes Josiah.
Josiah is the last righteous king in Judah, and he issued more reforms in Judah than any other king had done before him. He had smashed all of the high places. He had destroyed those places where children were being sacrificed to the Baals.
But the wickedness of Judah was too far gone. And though God's favor was with Josiah, it was said to Josiah that Judah would still be given over to the hands of their enemies. But Josiah would be blessed, and surely he was, in that he is regarded as one of these righteous kings in the line of the Messiah who would come.
So we have in verse 11, and we arrive here at this point in the genealogy, Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. So it's here where Judah is exiled, and yet even through the exile, God is still working all things together for the good that he intends.
And we'll talk about that a little bit more tomorrow as we finish up the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1. Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here, and that even in this genealogy, though mankind does wickedly, we see that you are doing something great.
And as we can read this in history, may we be able to apply it to our present. We see all kinds of evil going on in the world around us. Yet we know you are working this out together for our good, for those who love God and are called according to your purpose, Romans 8 .28.
So we continue to hold fast to you, and we seek the good of your kingdom that is being done even here on this earth until the day that Christ returns. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. It's in his name that we pray.
Amen.