This past week, I was reading the genealogy of Jesus. It's not the first time I've read this, and it won't be the last, but something stuck out to me this time that I have never noticed before.
There are two accounts of Jesus's lineage in the Gospels. The first one is in Matthew, and it traces Jesus's family line back through Joseph - all the way through David, back through Abraham. As we should, we recognize that this is intended to demonstrate to the reader that Jesus was rightfully a King in Israel - King of Kings. Just look at that family line!
But what we don't talk about is that if Jesus is rightfully king by virtue of being Joseph's son, then Joseph should have been a king, too.
Think about that for a second. Read it through, and you should recognize the names that lead to the birth of Joseph:
David.
Solomon.
Rehoboam.
Abijah.
Asa.
Jehoshaphat.
Jehoram.
Uzziah.
Jotham.
Ahaz.
Hezekiah.
These are the kings of Judah. Flip back to your Old Testament, and these are the guys you're reading about. Several of them were very good kings, a few bad ones thrown in, but these were the guys. Follow down the line, and the last one we see before we see Jesus...is Joseph.
He should have been king.
And that should change the way that we think about this earthly father of our Lord and Savior.
No comments:
Post a Comment