October 2024: Birth of the Divine King

Published on 10/01/2024 by Dr-Shirley-Cheng.

Do you know that God interacts with people through covenants? Not a single person--past, present or future--is outside a covenant with the Creator.

A covenant is an agreement that governs the relationship between the parties involved. God has established various covenants with different people, so it's important to know which covenant governs your relationship with God. Even atheists are in a covenant, whether or not they are aware. Such a covenant stipulates that the penalty of sin is death. Everyone is born into this covenant, with no exception. However, once mature enough to make moral choices, each person can choose to enter into the new covenant by putting faith in Jesus Christ. In this covenant, the members are forgiven of their sins when they repent and are promised everlasting life following the future resurrection of all the dead.

The new covenant is the result of both the Abrahamic covenant and Davidic covenant. The person whose the object of the new covenant is none other than Christ, the one who fulfilled both earlier covenants. This is why Jesus' human ancestry is traced back to David and Abraham in the Gospels.

To Abraham, the grandfather of Jacob/Israel (whose seed formed the nation of Israel), Yahweh promised that all the nations will be blessed in his seed. This seed points to Jesus Christ, through whom salvation comes to the repentant regardless where they may be found in the world. Centuries later, Yahweh promised David the king of Israel that his throne will stand forever. God's prophets foretold that the everlasting King would be a son of David. David's throne will endure to all times because Jesus his son will receive the throne to reign over Israel for eternity.

Matthew was careful to trace Jesus to David to show the Jews that Jesus was the son of David since it's required that the Messiah come from David's line, so his ancestry proves that he meets this specific qualification.

In his genealogy, Matthew purposefully left out several of Jesus' ancestors, including the Judahite kings Ahaziah and Jehoash. He did so in order to make the generation count fourteen for each major period, for the period from Abraham to David, for the period from David to the Babylonian captivity, and from the captivity to the birth of Jesus. Some scholars explain that the Jews customarily shorten genealogies and grouped people into equal lengths in order to make memorization of genealogies easier.

Through His son, Jesus the Messiah, via the new covenant, Yahweh brings salvation to the world to all sinners willing to repent. That day of salvation began with the miraculous birth of the divine Son of God as a flesh-and-blood human being.

Birth of the King's Forerunner

"Mary stayed with her [Elizabeth] about three months, and then returned to her house. Now the time that Elizabeth should give birth was fulfilled, and she brought forth a son. Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her, and they rejoiced with her." (Luke 1:56-58, WEB)

Mary, who would be three months pregnant now, returned to Nazareth. At this time, her pregnancy would not have shown; before it showed, she had to return to the seclusion of her home. People in town would know that she was not yet married, so if anyone saw a protruding belly, they would conclude that she had fornicated, as there was no other "reasonable" explanation. If she told people that she was bearing the Messiah as a virgin, no doubt that folks would think she was out of her mind. This was a very risky time period for her, as she risked being stoned. Ancient Middle East, even until now, operated on an honor and shame system. There were certain values that the culture deemed as honorable, such as a woman upholding her sexual purity. Shame would befall the whole family, particularly on the father, if a girl lost her virginity prior to marriage. In order to bring honor back to the father, the girl would need to be executed. So Mary hurried home before her pregnancy showed and likely stayed home until she married Joseph, lest she bring shame to her family or worse, get executed.

Shortly after Mary left, the time for Elizabeth to give birth to John arrived. Her relatives and neighbors heard how Yahweh had blessed her with His mercy, and on the eighth day, they flocked around her for the momentous event: the circumcision of her newborn. Apparently, it was the Jewish custom to name their baby boys on the day they were circumcised. Elizabeth's family and friends suggested that her baby be called Zacharias after his father, but Elizabeth said that he would be named John. Puzzled, they turned to Zacharias, who asked for a writing tablet, as he was still mute, and he wrote, "His name is John" in accordance with God's will spoken by Gabriel (Luke 1:63). Everyone marveled. That very moment, speech returned to Zacharias, and he praised God. All that Gabriel prophesied had come to pass, so Zacharias's mouth was open as the angel foretold.

All the folks around the blessed couple feared once word of such miraculous events spread throughout the region. These things became the talk of town, and many wondered among themselves, "What then will this child be?" (Luke 1:66) They stored up these occurrences in their minds.

After his mouth was open, Zacharias praised Yahweh, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he prophesied the mission of his son, John:
"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
for he has visited and worked redemption for his people;
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),
salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show mercy towards our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant,
the oath which he spoke to Abraham, our father,
to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
should serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the dawn from on high will visit us,
to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death;
to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:68-79)

With God's empowerment, Zacharias realized the important calling of his son. John was not only an answer to his prayer but a blessing to Israel that would change the course of history. Redemption of Israel was near. The arrival of John meant that Israel's deliverance was near, for John was the appointed forerunner of Yahweh in the Person of Jesus. John was the prophesied messenger who would make paths straight before the day of Yahweh. He would reconcile people to Yahweh and prepare their hearts to accept Yahweh's Messiah. He would teach the Jews how to attain to salvation: through the remission of their sins. Hence, he shall be called the prophet of the Most High.

By sending John and then Jesus into the world, Yahweh was fulfilling His oath in the holy Abrahamic covenant, namely the promise that Abraham's chosen seed (Israel) shall possess the gates of their enemies (Genesis 22:18). Israel will defeat all their foes by the hand of the Messiah, who shall save them from their woes and usher in God's righteous Kingdom over them. Then and only then shall Israel possess the Promise Land eternally and live in peace, with no one to assail them anymore. From that day onward, they will worship Yahweh freely, with no fear and in holiness and righteousness forever. This is possible only because Yahweh raised up the Messiah as the horn (power) of divine salvation to Israel, from the throne of David.

Yahweh was fulfilling His oath to Abraham and his seed due to His tender mercies for the house of Israel. Through His mercy, divine light shall dawn upon the people to "shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:79)

Every person, not just Israel, sits in the shadow of death, ever moving closer to eternal death. Only faith in Yahweh's Messiah will bring us out of that darkness and to the light and salvation of God. Faith in Jesus leads us to everlasting peace, peace that's possible only due to the forgiveness of our sins.

Yahweh's hand (power and guidance) was with John from his birth onward (Luke 1:66). God made the child grow strong in spirit. This meant that God guided his walk or conduct in life so that he lived in accordance with His will.

John lived away from society in the wilderness. There, he was free to grow in the spirit, without any ungodly distraction or influence of the world. He lived in seclusion until he began his ministry as Jesus' forerunner.

Birth of the Divine King

When Joseph, the man betrothed to Mary, found out that his fiance was pregnant before they got married, he naturally thought that she had been unfaithful to him; not in a million years would he have guessed that she conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. In ancient Israel, betrothal was taken as seriously as marriage; if a couple wanted to break their betrothal, they must get a formal divorce. If someone who was betrothed or engaged to be married committed fornication, that amounted to adultery. Under the Torah, adultery warranted execution by stoning, and both the adulterer and adulteress should be stoned to death.

Seeing that his would-be wife was pregnant, Joseph thought of divorcing her. He didn't think of executing her, perhaps for mainly two reasons: a) it wouldn't be just since no adulterer was caught in the act and so only Mary would be executed which was in conflict with the Torah; and b) he was a compassionate man. I believe it's the latter reason why he did not think of executing Mary. Note that when he thought of divorcing her, he planned to do so secretly. He didn't want her or her family to get publicly shamed. He was not spiteful or vengeful, but likely heart-broken and confused.

As Joseph was mulling the situation over and apparently fell asleep doing so, an angel appeared to him in his dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21) Joseph would have rejoiced at such a revelation! Not only did Mary not cheat on him but was carrying the Savior of the world in her womb! Surely, the news would have first shocked him. Then his feeling would turn to awe and joy.

With no more doubt lingering in his mind, Joseph took Mary as his wife after the betrothal ended; the betrothal period usually lasted one year. By this time, Mary was perhaps around fourteen years old, as girls often got engaged by age thirteen. However, Joseph did not consummate the marriage by having any sexual relation with his wife. Abstinence would leave no doubt in everyone's mind that Mary's child was not of human origin but from God by virgin birth. By abstaining from sexual relation until after the birth, Joseph and Mary were displaying self-restraint.

Luke 2 gives us a detailed account of Jesus' birth and shows us that he wasn't born in Mary's hometown of Nazareth but in Bethlehem of Judah, about eighty-five miles away.

Perhaps merely a week or two prior to her due date, Mary with Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to fulfill the emperor's decree. Caesar Augustus ordered all the citizens in his vast empire to be counted in a census, likely for tax purposes, and all the men must be counted in their ancestral town. Since Joseph was a descendent of David whose hometown was Bethlehem, Joseph had to take his pregnant wife to Bethlehem. Such a journey would have been grueling for Mary.

There in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. This fulfilled Micah's prophecy where he foretold that this small town would be where the Messiah was to be born. Without Augustus' decree, Mary would not have ended up there. This shows us that Yahweh can see far into the future; seven centuries earlier, God saw that the emperor would make such a decree.

When it was time for Mary to go into labor, the couple could not find any inn. "Inn" is translated from the Greek word "kataluma," which would be better translated as "guest room" here, as it refers to any lodging place, not specifically an inn, as there's another Greek word that specifically means "inn" and it's not used here. The lack of a guest room was likely at Joseph's own ancestral home; the house, which would be occupied by multiple generations, was likely full before the couple arrived.

Having no guest room, Joseph and Mary would have gone to the back of the house where livestock was kept. Amidst smelling livestock, Mary brought the Messiah into the world. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger or feeding trough. Thus the appointed King of Yahweh had a most humbling beginning and would experience a most humiliating death.

Note from this nativity account that the date of Jesus' birth is not revealed. The idea that Jesus was born on December 25 was a manmade invention. Apparently, God didn't think it was necessary for us to know the birthday of His Son, otherwise He would have told us.

Celebration of the King's Birth

Shortly after Mary gave birth to the Messiah, Yahweh sent His angels to announce his arrival, not to prominent men but to the lowly of society: shepherds whom the elite despised.

As a group of shepherds were overlooking their flocks that night in the countryside, an angel suddenly appeared to them and bright light of God shone all around. To the terrified men, the angel announced, "Don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough." (Luke 2:10-12) Immediately, a chorus of angels appeared and praised Yahweh, proclaiming:
"Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14)

After all the angels returned to heaven as suddenly as they appeared, the shepherds exhorted one another to go to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus whose birth was just revealed to them by Lord Yahweh. Hastily, they went to where Joseph and Mary were, and saw the divine baby lying in the manger. As eyewitnesses of the newborn Messiah, the shepherds made proclamation to many people regarding what was divinely revealed to them about the child, and their hearers wondered in amazement about all that was told them. Meanwhile, Mary stored up all such sayings and pondered them in her heart. Since none of us has ever experienced what she went through, we cannot come close to imagine what must be going through her mind. Certainly, an overwhelming sense of honor, joy, and wonder would be what she was feeling that very moment.

When Jesus was eight days old, his parents circumcised him in accordance with both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, and his father named him Jesus in obedience to the angel's order. "Jesus," meaning "salvation of Yahweh," is a fitting name for the child since he's Yahweh's Agent to bring salvation to the world. Anyone who trusts in him will receive forgiveness of their sins.

Do you trust in King Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Does he sit enthroned in your heart? Or do you have an idol (anyone or anything you put above Christ) in that place instead?


~*~ Q&A with Dr. Shirley ~*~

Question: Jesus' human genealogy recorded in Matthew 1 includes four women apart from his earthly mother, Mary. Who were these women?

Answer: Biblical genealogies contain mostly men, but the Spirit-filled Matthew chose to name four women in Jesus' earthly ancestry, and they are:
a) Tamar: Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah (the fourth son of Jacob/Israel) and she pretended to be a prostitute in order to trick Judah into sleeping with her, so she could bear a son in the name of her deceased husband, Er. She bore to Judah the twins Perez and Zerah. Her account is found in Genesis 38.

b) Rahab: Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute whose entire people were destined to be annihilated as divine judgment for their great wickedness. But because she hid the two Israelite spies and confessed faith in Yahweh, she was spared and married into the head family of the tribe of Judah, her husband, Salmon, being the son of the tribal leader. Salmon was the seed of Perez. Her story is in Joshua 2.

c) Ruth: Ruth was a widow from Moab who left her family and homeland to remain by the side of her mother-in-law, Naomi, a widow herself. Because of her self-sacrificial love for Naomi, Yahweh blessed her with a wonderful husband, Boaz, with whom she bore Obed, the ancestor of King David. Boaz was the son or descendent of Rahab with Salmon.

d) The wife of Uriah: This woman was Bathsheba, the beautiful woman with whom David committed adultery which resulted in her pregnancy. To cover up his sin, David murdered Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, and married her. Yahweh killed the son that Bathsheba produced in his adultery, but later blessed her with Solomon. Her account is found in 1 Samuel 11-12.

What an ancestry! An incestuous relationship, a Canaanite prostitute, a gentile from Moab (an enemy nation of Israel), and an adulterous affair were part of Jesus' human genealogy. This goes to show that Yahweh can work through anyone He so chooses. No matter our past, we can be part of history thanks to the grace of God. And no matter who we are, God is eager to show us grace and bless us immeasurably in the new covenant established by the precious blood of His Son, so join the covenant today by accepting the Messiah as your Lord and Savior and repenting of all your sins! Cast away your pride and selfishness and replace them with a desire to do God's will for His glory all the days of your life!

Do you have Bible questions and want answers? Contact Dr. Shirley and she'll be happy to answer your questions by the grace of God.

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Then you may subscribe to Dr. Shirley's newsletter by filling out the contact form at the bottom of this page.

Do you have Bible questions and want answers? Contact Dr. Shirley and she'll be happy to answer your questions by the grace of God.

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Then you may subscribe to Dr. Shirley's newsletter by filling out the contact form at the bottom of this page.