WWUTT 094 Darkness In the Genealogy (Matthew 1:6-11)

John 1 says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The darkness we see in the world today should make us reach for and shine the light of Christ.

For as we have witnessed in all of history, no darkness has ever been able to overcome it when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. I want to be sure that I'm going to get all of this in today. So let's get right to it. Turn to Matthew 1.

First let's open with prayer. Our wonderful God, as we continue to study the genealogy of Christ, I pray that you continue to shine the light of Christ in our hearts and in our minds.

And I pray that we give you all the glory for this sovereign plan that you have had at work since before the foundation of the world.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew 1, verses 6 -11.

David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam.

Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz.

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh. Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Jessiah.

And Jessiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

Now, here from verse 6 to 11 is where we have a line of kings in the line of David.

This middle section is the royalty section of the genealogy. It is also the section that may be filled with the greatest amount of evil.

This was a very dark period in Israel's history. Few of Israel's kings were ever good kings.

This is what led to the deportation of Babylon. God exiled his people because of their sin.

And great those sins were, full of sexual rituals to false gods and even child sacrifice.

That's how evil some of these kings had become. Of the 40 kings that are listed from the split of the kingdoms to the

Babylonian exile, 20 kings in Israel, 20 kings in Judah, of those 40 kings, only 8 of them are listed as good kings.

8 out of 40. And all 8 of those kings were in Judah. None of Israel's kings were ever described as good.

And the main thing that distinguished a good king from a bad king was that he loved the

Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and worshipped no other gods but the one true God.

That was the distinguishing characteristic between a good king and a bad king. I remember my dad teaching me this when

I was young because he actually went through the scriptures and did kind of like an exposition of all of the kings and decided which ones were evil, which ones were spoken about as evil, and which ones were spoken about as being good kings.

The good kings all followed the Lord. So the first king after David was, of course, his son

Solomon, who experienced 40 years of peace during his reign. In 2 Chronicles 1, also in 1

Kings 3, we read the famous story of Solomon asking God for wisdom. God appeared to Solomon in the night and said, ask what

I shall give you. And Solomon praised the Lord for his great and steadfast love he had shown to his father

David and to the people of Israel. And he considered his appointment as king to be so great an honor that he had nothing to ask of God, except that the

Lord would give him wisdom to govern God's people the right way.

And this was wonderful to the heart of God. And God said to Solomon, because this was in your heart and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you or even long life for yourself, then

I'll give you wisdom and knowledge. And guess what? I'm also going to give you possessions, wealth, and honor.

So in the next several chapters of 2 Chronicles, we see Solomon prepare to build the temple of God. Remember that because of David's sin,

God wouldn't let David do it, but Solomon got to build his temple. And until the temple was built, sacrifices were still being done in the tabernacle, which was at Gibeon.

And then after the temple was completed, Solomon offered the first sacrifice and asked

God that he would fill the temple with his presence. All of Israel was gathered there for the consecration of the temple.

And we read Solomon's prayer of dedication in 2 Chronicles chapter 6. And then at the start of chapter 7, the fire of God consumed the sacrifices and the glory of the

Lord filled the temple and the people worshiped and said, great is the Lord for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever. And then there was a great feast throughout the whole empire that lasted a whole week.

Then starting in verse 12, 2 Chronicles 7, 12, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and gave an answer to his request, the prayer that he prayed before the sacrifice in the temple.

And he said to Solomon, I have heard your prayer and I have chosen this place to dwell as a house of sacrifice.

When I shut up the heaven so that there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people.

Verse 14, 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then

I will hear from heaven and we'll forgive their sin and heal their land. God said that his name would be in that house forever and his heart and eyes would be there for all time.

And he said to Solomon that if you will walk before me as your father David walked, I will establish your royal throne forever.

But in verse 19, God said that if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments and serve other gods and worship them, then

I will pluck you up from the land that I have given you. And this house that I have consecrated for my name,

I will cast out of my sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among the people.

And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, why has the

Lord done thus to this land and to this house? And then they will say, because they abandoned the

Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worship them and serve them.

Therefore, he has brought all this disaster on them. And we are going to see that play out just like that.

As the story goes on, Solomon was famous for his wisdom. He was famous for his wealth.

He was also famous for what else? Having a whole lot of wives, 700 wives and 300 concubines to be exact.

First Kings 11, 1 King Solomon loved many foreign women from the nations concerning which the

Lord had said, you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you.

For surely they will turn your heart after their gods. And that's what happened.

Solomon started erecting temples to the false gods of his pagan wives. These places of worship that he built were the places that were torn down in the book of Joshua when

God sent Israel into the promised land to take it. And God did to Solomon just as he promised.

If Solomon walked as an upright man, God would be with him as he was with his father, David. But if Solomon went after false gods,

God would remove his blessing. But God said to Solomon, the ramifications for this sin would not come upon him, but upon his sons.

And indeed, Solomon was the last king to reign in a united Israel. Now Second Chronicles doesn't talk about Solomon's apostasy.

It's in First Kings chapter 11 that we read about Solomon losing step with the Lord. And I'm going to pick up from there as we go through the rest of these kings and kind of coincide this with the genealogy that Matthew is listed.

Many have asked if Solomon went to heaven or hell. And my answer to that question is God only knows.

As I mentioned before, we understand the Old Testament best when we read what the New Testament writers wrote about it.

And we do not see Solomon spoken about as a hero of the faith in the New Testament. Neither do we see him spoken about as cursed for all eternity.

So on the issue of whether or not Solomon repented of his apostasy and went to be with the

Lord, only God knows for sure. Let us understand, though, the danger of worshiping anyone or anything other than God alone.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

And make sure that nothing in your life takes his place, the place that he is supposed to have above all things.

Two of Solomon's sons were Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and they fought over who would be king. Imagine that.

This is what led to the split of the kingdom. And through their whole lives, they continued to do battle with one another.

The northern kingdom became Israel, the southern kingdom became Judah. And Jeroboam reigned in Israel, Rehoboam reigned in Judah.

Both of them were bad kings. Neither one was faithful to God. Both worshiped false gods. But it was the line of Rehoboam that God would bless.

According to First Kings 12, 19 through 20, Israel remained in rebellion against the house of David while the tribe of Judah was faithful.

So that is the line that was blessed. And it was Rehoboam's name that we see in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1.

Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. And you have to be careful there because First Kings 14 records that Jeroboam's son was

Abijah. Well, they both had sons named Abijah. Another spelling of Rehoboam's son's name is Abijam.

And we read about him in First Kings 15. Verse 2 says that he walked in all of the sins that his father did.

But Abijam had a son named Asa. And he's the name that we see spelled Asaph in Matthew's genealogy.

Asa was a good king. First Kings 15, 11, he did what was right in the eyes of the

Lord as David his father had done. And we talked about this. I think it was yesterday that there is no

Hebrew word for grandfather. So a father could be a grandfather or a great grandfather. In this case,

David is referred to as Asa's father. Asa removed all the cult prostitutes and he removed all idols.

And he also removed his mother from her place as queen because she was an idol worshiper. Unfortunately, all the high places to all the false gods had not been removed.

And so idol worship would resume again later on. But the Bible still speaks positively of Asa and his son

Jehoshaphat, which has to be one of the coolest names in the Bible. Jehoshaphat. I like that one. Anyway, he was a good king.

In fact, he reigned in Judah at the same time that Ahab reigned in Israel.

Ahab was one of the worst kings. In First Kings 16, 33, Ahab did more to provoke the

Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. He and his wife, the infamous

Jezebel, instituted Baal worship. This was also during the days of Elijah the prophet.

The whole episode of Elijah and the priests of Baal. Elijah said, let's both build an altar.

You pray to your God, your false god, Baal. I'll pray to my God and whomever answers by fire, he is

God. Okay, that was during this time. That story you read about in First Kings 18. Then in First Kings 22, we see

King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat go to battle with one another. And Ahab died because Jehoshaphat had a cooler name.

We don't see the line of the kings of Judah pick up again until Second Kings 8.

When Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, became king. And it says that Jehoram did all the evil things that the kings of Israel did.

Ahaziah, his son, also a bad king. The next few kings mentioned are not in Matthew's genealogy.

Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. Then came Uzziah, who is in the genealogy, and he was a good king.

He started his reign when he was 16 and he reigned for 52 years.

Jotham reigned while Uzziah was ill, his son. So he took over for his father and then

Jotham ascended to the throne and he became a good king. But his son Ahaz was wicked.

Ahaz was so evil that he burned his son as a sacrifice. And this was something that would become kind of a regular deal in Israel, flip -flopping among kings then, kind of from that point on.

Hezekiah, who was Ahaz's son, he was a righteous king. And Hezekiah did tear down all of the high places to every false god.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied during the time of Hezekiah's reign. But then Hezekiah's successor,

Manasseh, was an evil king. He rebuilt all of the high places. Hezekiah had torn down and he also burned his son as an offering.

And after Manasseh was Ammon, spelled Amos in Matthew's genealogy,

Ammon was as bad as Manasseh. For almost 60 years, through Manasseh and Ammon's reign,

Judah practiced child sacrifice. But then came a righteous king named

Josiah. And to explain his story, I want to turn to one of our

What videos. This is the one called Abortion in the Bible. In ancient

Canaan, the people worshipped the pagan god Moloch, which in Hebrew means the king of shameful sacrifice.

Worship included ritual prostitution and sacrificing children. Babies would be placed in the idol's arms or abdomen and burned alive.

In doing this, the people believed that Moloch would give them financial prosperity and bless their future children. This took place just outside of Jerusalem in Tophet in the valley of Hinnom, a location that became synonymous with hell.

Unfortunately, the Israelites were not wise to the ways of this false god. Solomon built a place of worship to Moloch.

The people sacrificed their children as did kings Ahaz and Manasseh, provoking the Lord to anger.

Then came Josiah, a king who loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might. He read in the law that anyone who sacrifices their children to Moloch shall face the wrath of God.

And those who ignore child sacrifice would be cut off from God and his people. Josiah was grieved and repented before the

Lord. He destroyed every high place to every false god. He defiled Tophet so that no one would ever again burn a son or daughter to Moloch.

The Lord blessed him with peace. But Israel remained unrepentant and were handed over to their enemies.

The Bible is not silent on the subject of abortion. It is a sacrifice to a false god, the work of the devil himself.

The Lord hates hands that spill innocent blood. He will judge this sin as before and also those who remain silent.

We must be cleansed by Christ and end this shameful sacrifice when we understand the text.

But because of Josiah's faithfulness, God blessed him and he became one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ.

It was from the line of Josiah that the Messiah would come because he was such a faithful king.

But his sons, who reigned at different periods, were wicked kings. And Matthew even mentions the sons there in his genealogy.

God told Josiah that Judah's wickedness was too far gone and they would be turned over to the hands of their enemies.

Both Israel and Judah were sent into Babylonian exile. Folks, I want to tell you something that we must learn from these wicked kings.

If our nation does not repent from the murder that we have done through abortion and the sexual sacrifices that we have offered up at an altar to a false god through porn, adultery, orgies, homosexuality, defiling marriage and calling it same -sex marriage, if we don't repent of these things,

God will turn this nation over to our enemies. And we will be destroyed.

It doesn't matter if we have, in God we trust, printed on our money, or we say, one nation under God and the pledge of allegiance, or we sing

God bless America at all of our pro -sporting events. There is blood on our hands and the marriage bed has been defiled.

And we must repent and call this nation to repentance and preach to them the gospel of Christ, which has the power to save us from our sins.

Return to the love that you once had. Jesus says in Revelation 2 .5, the church especially must be a light shining in this dark world.

Let no church that conducts same -sex marriages or recognizes same -sex couples as married be called a church for God is not honored there.

But also let no church who will not welcome the broken, the hurting, the contrite sinner with open arms, let that church also not be called a church for Christ is not there.

We must preach his gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom

I am the foremost. We can see parallels in the kings of Israel and Judah and the things that they did, raising up sexual sacrifices, sacrificing their children and an altar to a false

God. We can see that happening in our country. Even today, we must repent of these things and be restored, renewed, washed in Christ Jesus.

God, I pray that you would bring revival to this land. And I pray that at times like this around Christmas time, that we're looking toward the light of Christ and being reminded of the savior that has come into the world to save us from our sins.

Turn our eyes upon Jesus. Let us look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

Remind us of your salvation and let us walk in your ways. Faithful to you, O God, loving you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength by the power of Christ.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching.

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