In the previous lessons we saw that the Old Testament prophesied that Christ is both God and man. In His first coming, Christ was God becoming man to enter into mankind with all His riches and to bring God into man in His ministry. For this divine dispensing He needed to be born and to grow up as an ordinary man and to begin His ministry through the recommendation of John the Baptist. Under God’s sovereignty all these matters were recorded in the books of prophecy in the Old Testament long before Christ was born. In this lesson we will consider the prophecies concerning Christ’s birth, His youth, and the recommender of His ministry.
In the previous lesson we saw that the prophet Micah, in his prophecy concerning Christ’s birth, said, “You, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will come forth to Me / He who is to be Ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2). Furthermore, Jeremiah 23:5 is a prophecy concerning Christ as a righteous Shoot raised up by God out of David who would reign as King. These prophecies tell us that, on the one hand, Christ would be born in Bethlehem and, on the other hand, Christ would be the seed of David to reign in the kingdom.
In order to fulfill the prophecies in Micah 5 and Jeremiah 23, Christ had to be born of the royal house and in Bethlehem. According to the genealogy of Christ in Matthew, Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a descendant of Zerubbabel who returned from captivity (1:13-16). Zerubbabel was a leader of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of Solomon, the son of David. He led the captured Israelites in their return to Jerusalem from Babylon to rebuild the temple (Ezra 2:1-2; 3:8; 5:2). Mary, the wife of Joseph, was also a descendant of the returned captives, but she was the descendant of Nathan, another son of David (Luke 3:23-31). Luke 3:23 says, “So it was thought, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli.” So it was thought literally means “according to law,” indicating that Joseph was not the son of Heli in the flesh but was reckoned as the son of Heli according to law. This means that Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, because Mary was Heli’s daughter. Heli was a descendant of Nathan, who was also a descendant of David. Thus, both Joseph and Mary were descendants of David: Joseph was of the line of Solomon, and Mary was of the line of Nathan. According to the record of Jeremiah, no descendant of Solomon’s son Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) was qualified to inherit the throne of David (22:28, 30). Although Jeremiah prophesied that all the descendants of Jeconiah were excluded from the throne of David, he also prophesied that God would raise up a Shoot (branch) to David, and this Shoot would be King. This prophecy of Jeremiah indicates that Christ must be the descendant of David, but He could not be a descendant of Jeconiah. The birth of Christ truly fulfilled these prophecies. He came out of Mary, a descendant of David, and not out of Joseph. Even though He was a descendant of David, He was not of the line of Jeconiah, who was cursed according to Jeremiah. Thus, He can still sit on the throne of David’s house because He is fully qualified to reign as King.
By the sovereignty of God, the forefathers of both Joseph and Mary returned from the land of captivity. Before the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary did not live in Bethlehem but in Nazareth of Galilee (Luke 1:26). When Mary was in Nazareth, she was already engaged to Joseph (v. 27). Before they came together, Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:31-35). During her pregnancy, Caesar Augustus issued the decree for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth. Hence, all the people went to be registered, each to his own city (2:1, 3). Since Joseph was of the house and family of David, he went with Mary to Bethlehem, David’s city. At that time Mary was already heavy with child. While they were there, Mary’s days were fulfilled for her to bear, and she bore Jesus (vv. 4-7a). Under God’s sovereign arrangement, the birth of Jesus precisely fulfilled the prophecies of the prophets Micah and Jeremiah concerning His birth in Bethlehem and His being a descendant of David.