GOD’S WORD FOR JANUARY  11 ~ ~ Matthew 1:21 ~ ~ “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Today we’re going to begin looking at the specific prophecies of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ:

Again and again throughout the Old Testament, God speaks prophetically of a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David – a descendant through whom all the people of the world will be blessed.  The Old Testament predicted that this descendant, the Messiah, would be born in a specific lineage, in a specific way, in a specific place, at a specific time.

In Genesis 12:3, God promised Abraham that all the inhabitants of the world would be blessed through his lineage: 

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  God reaffirmed this promise in Genesis 17:19 and 28:14.

In the earliest days of the Church, soon after the resurrected Lord ascended into Heaven, the Apostle Peter stood in the Temple and told the Jewish people that God’s promise to Abraham was now fulfilled:

“Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days.  And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers.  He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’  When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”  (Acts 3:24-26).

In Genesis 49, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, called his sons to his deathbed to bless and prophesy about them.  To his son Judah, the father of the Judean people, he said, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until He to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His.”  (Genesis 49:10).

This is a prophecy of the Messiah, the coming ruler whom all the nations will obey.  This is a strange prophecy, because it says that the scepter – the ruler’s staff of authority – will not depart from Judah until the Ruler arrives.  Why would the scepter of authority depart from Judah at the time of the Messiah’s appearing?  Wouldn’t it make more sense that the Messiah would seize the scepter and wield it as a sign of His authority?

From the day Jacob pronounced that prophecy, the people of the tribe of Judah remained proudly unified and certain of their right to self-rule.  After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel split into two kingdoms.

Even when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the people of Judah into exile, the tribe remained united and determined to maintain their tribal authority and identity.  The tribe of Judah was later returned to the land of Judah by Cyrus of Persia.

NOTE:  (This is why God kept giving them word to keep singing the Psalms and the Songs of their land all during their captivity, while at the same time, telling them to mix with the people, grow crops, etc.—see Psalm 137)

The symbolic scepter of self-rule that Jacob had promised did remain in the House of Judah for the next few centuries, even after Palestine came under Roman rule.  The Romans permitted the Jews to maintain a great deal of self-rule, albeit under Roman supervision, through Herod the Great, the client-king of Judea.

In 4 BC, Herod the Great died, and his son, Herod Archelaus, became king of Samaria, Judea and Idumea.  In AD 6 the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus removed Herod Archelaus as king and made Judea a province of Rome.  At that moment, the scepter of self-rule departed from Judah.  Many of the Jewish religious leaders were in despair.  Why?  The prophecy seemed to have failed.  Where was the Messiah?

What no one knew at the time was that the Messiah had already come.  He was a ten-year-old boy named Jesus, living in the Galilean town of Nazareth.  Jesus had fulfilled Jacob’s prophecy to the letter.  No one else could fulfill that prophecy except Jesus, because once the Romans removed the scepter from Judah, the window of time for fulfilling it was shut forever.

It is worth noting, too, that as the Roman soldiers prepared to crucify Jesus, they placed a crown of thorns on his head and a mock scepter of wood in His hand, taunting Him with shuts of “Hail, King of the Jews!” (see Matthew 27:27-31).  The same Romans who had removed the symbolic scepter from the House of Judah returned it to the hands of the One who will one day return and wield the supreme authority in Heaven and Earth!!!!

In 2 Samuel 7:12-13, the prophet Nathan prophesied over King David:

“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish His kingdom.  He is the one who will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.”

Jesus, of course, is David’s “own flesh and blood,” a lineal descendant of Him (see Matthew 1:1).   When Jesus arrived, He announced that “the kingdom of God is in your midst”  (See Luke 17:21).  When He returns, He will establish the throne of his kingdom forever, as Nathan foretold.

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Jeremiah 32:17

Oh! Lord God!  You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power, and by Your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too difficult for You! 

Psalm 37:3

Trust in the Lord and do good.  Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness

Isaiah 14:24

The Lord of armies has sworn saying, ‘certainly, just as I have intended, so it has happened, and just as I have planned, so it will stand.”

Psalm 18:28

By my God I can leap over a wall.

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