“I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:19.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
My Son is the Light of the world, follow the Light and you will never walk in darkness. Keep your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of your faith. For the joy that lies before you, He will take you all the way through, for it is His joy as well to see you take advantage of all the good things He already made yours and to finish your assignment so He can reward you at the judgment seat of Christ. When you follow Him as His disciple, you will have the light of life in you and before you, around you and upon you.
Come, house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD. Isaiah 2:5.
Jesus always existed in unity with Me as God but when He set aside His powers as God and came to earth to save you as the Son of Man, He took flesh from the descendants of Abraham. And today we will look at the genealogy of My Son according to the flesh—son of David according to the flesh, but Son of God according to the Spirit, My Son and God Himself as the second Person of the One God with Me. Jesus joins your humanity and My Divinity in one seamless life where the one fits graciously into the other. Reconciliation puts back together what was torn apart through sin.
I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In this I pinpoint which descendants I have chosen for the line of My Son according to the flesh. I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In this I pinpoint which descendants I have chosen for the line of My Son according to the flesh. Jesus came down from Heaven as My Word, but the flesh from which He was formed was of the house of Jacob, a descendant of Abraham. There were others descended from Abraham, but I chose Jacob. Why? He chose Me. He was interested in Me. He loved Me. He loved the Blessing. He loved the birthright. He loved his inheritance. He walked with Me and received My input. His brother Esau cared nothing for Me or his birthright until he saw he lost it. Then he was jealous of and hated Jacob. But Esau never had a personal relationship with Me. He just was not interested.
So let us begin our journey with Abraham and trace the line down to Jesus, and then let us fill in from Abraham back to Adam. Abraham, however, is of primary importance in the coming of My Son to earth. I call him your father in the faith.
Abraham was the father of Isaac. I made Abraham, while he was still called Abram, a promise that he and his wife Sarah, whose name at that time was Sarai, would have a child. He was seventy-five years old at the time and his wife was seventy years. Sarai had never been able to conceive a child. Abram had given up hope for a child and had decided his servant would be his heir. But I told him that would not be the case. And to prove My point, I gave him a visual, as I did with Abraham throughout his life on earth for at that time there was no written Word for him to verify My Words. You now have both My written and My spoken Word to verify by two or three witnesses what you are hearing or what My Holy Spirit is witnessing with your spirit.
I took Abraham out into the still of the peaceful clear night and made him lift up his eyes off his earthly body to gaze at the stars I made and placed in the universe to shed light upon the earth and for signs, appointed times, seasons, days, and years. Genesis 1:14-17.
You can only see these distant luminaries in the night sky for it is then the atmosphere (raquia, dome, the first heaven) does not hinder your view through to the second heaven. My Kingdom is in the third heaven, the highest heaven, but only those who are born from above can see into that Kingdom. And he looked and looked at the beauty I showed before his eyes. I enabled him to see farther than the most powerful of telescopes and it filled him with awe and wonder. And then I told him not only to try to count them but to tell the story of them, for in Hebrew the word “count” is also the word for “recount and relate,” as to tell a story, it is the verb “saphar (סָפַר),” which is the denominative verb from the noun “sepher (סֵפֶר),” which means a “book” or “scroll.” The word “scribe” is also from this same word.
There are more stars than you can count or even gaze upon from earth and they also tell a story in what you call “constellations.” And there is a story there of Jesus, for the first month of the Jewish calendar at the time of Rosh Hashanah is Virgo, the Virgin, in the month you now call “September,” and the last month of the Jewish calendar year is “Leo,” the Lion, in what you now call the month of “August.” Do you see something here? A virgin would be with child, and He would be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. And that is only the beginning and ending of the story, there is much more in between for the fullness of days and appointed times and seasons that brought down the Messiah the first time.
And just as the Virgin was the sign I gave Isaiah of the first coming and the new birth for all mankind, gentile and Jew, that is, whoever received Him as Messiah and Lord:
Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord (Adonai) Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanu-el (God dwelling with us).” Isaiah 7:10-14.
So too she is the sign of the second coming and final saving of a born-again Israel:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (the twelve tribes); and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Revelation 12:1.
But back to My promise to Abraham that gave My Eden promise new momentum towards the goal. Abram gazed at the stars of that night and believed Me for many descendants. He said “amen.” And I credited it to him as righteousness by faith. And that day I made Covenant with Abraham. And there began the journey that would bless every family, nation, and person on earth because of the faith of Abraham. Your faith and participation with Me blesses you and everyone on earth, even to future generations.
And later I showed him, in fact, he participated in it, the story of how I would sacrifice My Son as the lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham saw the day of Jesus and was glad. He was a prophet. Genesis 20:7.
And when Abraham and Sarah, for I changed their names adding one of each of the two letters “hei (grace)” from My Name into each of their names, so that the spoke the desired outcome each time they called each other’s names, became fully persuaded My promise of a child for them was true, the child Isaac, which means “laughter” was born. For Sarah at first had laughed at the impossibility of her having a child at age ninety-five years (yes, it took twenty five years of walking with Me for them to become fully persuaded that My Word would come to pass) but I had the last laugh and she laughed with Me. And she was still so young and beautiful that Abimelech had taken her into his harem as his wife. I renew your youth. That is a Covenant promise. I rescued Sarah and kept her pure, but that is another story.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:18-25.
And do not forget Sarah was involved as well, and she had tried other means, such as Hagar, to bring My promise to pass. But finally she too was fully persuaded, and it was then the promised child came to be.
And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Hebrews 11:11-12.
Isaac, the child of the covenant promise, became the descendant of Abraham of whose line My promised redeemer, the anointed One, the Messiah, would be born. Abraham had other sons, even after the death of Sarah, but Isaac was the chosen one. Both Isaac and Jesus were children of a promise, born in faith from what seemed impossible by human reasoning. But nothing is impossible or too wonderful for Me.
I chose a bride for Isaac from the line of which Abraham was descended, whose ancestor was the son of Noah named “Shem,” which simply means “Name.” But that is appropriate for it was from this line that the One whose Name is above all other names would be birthed in the flesh. And the bride of Isaac was Rebekah. She had a brother named Laban, but more about this later.
Rebekah learned of Me and put her faith in Me after hearing from Isaac and Abraham about their God. At first, Rebekah could not conceive, but then Isaac prayed to Me for her, and she conceived twins, Jacob and Esau. And between those two, the battle began in the womb.
Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. Genesis 25:21-24.
Though there was a struggle between them, Esau was the firstborn son, I chose Jacob. The worldly scoffers will always persecute the godly ones. I loved Jacob but I hated Esau. I honor those who honor Me. Esau despised the things that were from Me and was entirely earthly minded. He sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of bean soup saying it meant nothing to him.
Adam also despised his birthright in Me and had it taken from him by the devil for earthly glory. Esau’s god was his belly, that is, limited to the things of this life only. I chose Jacob because of his love and faith, because of his interest in Me. Jacob pursued Me to the point of wrestling with My messenger for an entire night. And he prevailed. The Kingdom of Heaven is suffering violence and the violent take it by force, the force of their faith which works by love. They are not lukewarm. And I renamed him from Jacob, which means a supplanter or schemer, to Israel, which means prince of God. He was an overcomer.
Jacob was the father of twelve sons, but I chose the tribe of Judah for the line of the Messiah. People have wondered why I chose that tribe and not the tribe of Joseph, which I will discuss further in the next life lesson. As you look back to his birth, you will see, like Samuel, it was all about his mother. Judah’s mother, Leah, was the first one to praise Me, and she put the praise in the prophecy in his name. And it was about his father, Jacob, he prophesied that the line of kings would be from Judah and the Messiah would be in that line. Genesis 49:10. His parents spoke it and they had the authority to do so. You who are parents think about that. What are you prophesying over your children? I am listening. And it was all about, as I looked ahead, one of his descendants. Yes, the man of praise, David.
The voice of thanksgiving works wonders.
But more about this in our next Life Lesson.
I love you. There are many members but one body. And you are part of this great edifice built by faith on the chief cornerstone, the Lamb slain since before the foundation of the world who became its foundation stone. Everything that was made was made by Him, through Him, and for Him. He is My Word. Everything is built on Him, everything is summed up in Him, everything is reconciled to Me through Him.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:10-11.