This is important because it finishes explaining the “family fight” that started at the beginning of time between Cain and Able, how God kept Jesus’ true purpose a secret, why some people say God told two lies in the scripture, why there can be no permanent peace between the Middle East nations and the coming time when Jesus will be King of the Jews.
(Luke 3:23-38) The lineage is unbroken from Jesus back to God through Mary’s bloodline as was prophesied; remember the quote in (Gen. 3:15), “THE WOMAN’S SEED” WOULD BRUISE THE SERPENT’S HEAD. But (Luke 3:23-38) Joseph’s name, not Mary’s, is used in Jesus’ lineage and Joseph was not Jesus’ father.
As a matter of fact, Joseph and Mary’s marriage was not even consummated until after Jesus was born. Does the scripture lie? THINK ABOUT THIS: (Gen. Ch. 4-8) Adam and Eve’s first three sons were Cain, Able and Seth. Able fathered no children. (Gen. 4:25) Seth replaced Able after Cain murdered Able. Cain’s lineage was destroyed by the flood (Luke 3:38) but Seth’s lineage survived through Noah back to God.
Noah’s name is mentioned in Jesus’ lineage and both Noah and Shem lived on “both sides” of the flood. (Luke 3:36 keywords: Sem which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Shem and Noe which is also the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Noah) Shem, Noah’s son, survived the flood and his descendants (Gen 10:24–>see note 2 in the introduction, keyword: Heeber) through Eber are the Israelite nation Israel (Jews) from which came Jesus.
PERHAPS God did keep a ‘seed’ from Eve and genetically modify it so Jesus would not have the fallen nature common to mankind. (Luke 1:35-37 esp. V.37) PERHAPS that is a hidden part of the reason Gabriel said (V.37) “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (V.36) after he told Mary her cousin “Elisabeth had conceived a son in her old age” and was six months pregnant with the child (Luke 1:56-80 esp. V.63) who would be named John in about three months.
Don’t forget; (Gen. 10:6-20 esp. V.18 keyword: Canaanites) Noah’s son Ham also survived the flood and his descendants are the Canaanite nations. It is interesting to note that (Gen. 10:1-5 esp. V.5) Noah’s other son Japheth’s descendants are the Gentiles.
(2Ki. 17:14-24 esp. V.18 keywords: there was none left) At Jesus’ time in Israel’s history the 10 northern tribes had disappeared more than 700 years in the past. (Lev. 2:1-3 & Josh. 18:7) The Levitical (Levites- Aaron’s progeny- the tribe of Levi) priesthood did not receive a land grant in the promised land. (Lev. 2:3 & Num. 3:47-51) They lived from the proceeds of the temple. (Lev.21:6-24) The priests were allowed to take wives. Of course, some of the Levitical (Levi) priests were mixed among the population of Judah because, by God’s command, they conducted worship in the temple.
Intermarriage between tribes was common all through Israel’s history. (Luke 1:34-36) Mary’s cousin Elisabeth (Luke 1:5) was of the daughters of Aaron thus she was from the tribe of Levi and so was Mary but in the intervening 700 plus years one or some of Mary’s ancestors had married into the tribe of Judah. It is interesting to note that the 10 tribes had disappeared and Judah remained SO what happened to the missing tribe? (Josh. 18:28 keyword: Benjamin) Jerusalem was in the land allotment given to Benjamin (1Ki. 12:21-24) so the tribe of Benjamin was assimilated into the tribe of Judah and in Jesus’ time it had become known simply as Judah.
(Luke 1:26) The angel Gabriel said the Lord God would give Jesus the throne of his father David. David was of the tribe of Judah so Mary also had the bloodline of the tribe of Judah. Obviously, she was the product of a mixed marriage between 2 people from the tribes of Judah and Levi somewhere in her ancestry. GOD EXPECTS US TO USE SCRIPTURE AND FIGURE OUT SOME THINGS FOR OURSELVES.
So Mary and Joseph had the same bloodline, they were blood kin, and the scripture did not lie, the bloodline had held true. (Luke 3:23-38 esp. v.23 keywords: as was supposed) Luke carefully traces the lineage of Jesus, using Joseph’s name but Mary’s bloodline with the clarification that people supposed Joseph was Jesus’ Father, back through seventy-five generations to show the lineage was unbroken all the way back to Adam. (Gen. 2:23) Eve was made of Adam’s flesh so God did not lie when he told Eve her seed would bruise the Devil’s head.
Also, the Jews are all descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the tribes were related to each other anyway. So Jesus was of the same lineage (Luke 20:41-44) as David the *King from the tribe of Judah and also the same lineage (Num. 18:1-32 esp. V.5-7) as Aaron the first *High Priest from the tribe of Levi and those two prophetic physical offices are spiritually fulfilled by Jesus as stated in (Matt. 2:1-3 & Heb. 4:14-16).
This tricked the devil because the devil knew Joseph was not Jesus’ blood father so the devil thought Jesus was an illegitimate imposter. The devil was completely blind-sided by the spiritual aspect (Gen. 3:15) this was the promised seed who would bruise his “head” (Heb. 2:14-18) which means (to break the spiritual hold the devil had on mankind through death) and the devil would bruise his “heel” which means (to break the Promised Seed’s hold on physical life: think crucify).
(Heb. 4:14) Jesus has fulfilled the *High Priest part spiritually and (Rev. 20:1-6) will fulfill the *King part physically when (Rev. 20:1-4) He will have His thousand year reign on earth in the future.
Think about the above 7 paragraphs again. (Matt. 23:24) “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” It’s odd how some people strain at swallowing the gnat that God’s Holy Word is true and nearly choke to death on it and yet swallow the camel of the theory of evolution without a burp! AND if you do not believe in God you cannot believe in Satan, the devil, and the devil is free to use you against Jesus and His church and to deceive non-Christian people so they will not believe in Jesus and they will not accept Jesus as Saviour!
Satan could not comprehend that God was swinging the physical earthly “family fight” back into a spiritual realm that would include the gentiles (non-Jews) through the Church. THIS IS IMPORTANT: (Rom. 16:25) This “mystery” was kept because (1Cor. 2:6-8) if the devil had understood spiritual salvation, by the Grace Covenant, was through Jesus’ atoning blood sacrifice he would not have let the princes of this world crucify Jesus.
Satan thought Jesus was going to lead physical Israel to physical world dominance, (Acts 1:6) “the Kingdom” so he “killed” Jesus and that event brought spiritual salvation under the “Grace Covenant” to anyone in the whole world who chooses it. Please remember: Since time began the fight between God and the devil had been centered on the “family fight” in the Middle East.
According to the Bible two branches of the same family, through Abraham, founded nations and that same fight is now between God’s covenant nation Israel and the non-covenant Canaanite nations for a (Acts 1:6) physical world kingdom. At this present time the warfare between God and Satan is being fought on two fronts: through the Church spiritually and through Israel physically. That is why no politician or nation will ever broker a permanent peace deal in the Middle East.
(John 18:36) The Jewish Leaders could not believe Jesus was Messiah because he didn’t preach war against their Roman oppressors and Israel’s Canaanite neighbors. (Matt. Ch. 5, 6, & 7) Jesus preached love thy neighbor as thyself. (Acts 1:3-8 esp. V.6) Even after Jesus’ resurrection the disciples were still hung up on the physical kingdom and couldn’t really understand what was happening until (Acts 2:1-4) the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost in the upper room.
Please read Matt. 5:17 before reading these next eight paragraphs. This one special baby, who is the Son of God, has fulfilled all the Old Testament (verbal) prophesies that:
(Isa. 7:14) a Virgin would conceive and bear a Son and (Isaiah 9:6) His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. (Mic. 5:1-2) The Ruler of Israel would come from Bethlehem, (Genesis 3:15) from the promised seed, and (Job 19:25-27) He would be called the Redeemer (Job 33:24) who is a Ransom for many.
(Luke 3:23-31) King David lived forty generations before Jesus and wrote (Psalms Ch. 22) the prophecy of (V.1) the exact words Jesus would speak while He was on the cross, (V.7) they would laugh and mock Jesus, (V.14-16) what Jesus would feel during His crucifixion, and (V.18) they would gamble for His clothes. These seven prophesies and dozens and dozens more were given hundreds and even thousands of years before the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem.
There are dozens and dozens of physical (objective) prophecies in the Old Testament in which Jesus Christ is typified by objects such as these seven:
(Gen. 7:7) the ark of salvation that Noah built, (Gen. 22:13) the substitute sacrifice, (Ex. 16:4) manna, the bread of life that came from Heaven (Ex. 17:1-6) the rock of Meribah from which flowed the water of life when Moses the Jew smote it, (Ex. 25:22) the mercy seat in the tabernacle, (Num. 21:8) the serpent on the pole and (Judg.14:8) the Judean lion in whose body was found honey (salvation) after it was slain by Sampson the Jew.
See note #3: The Jews had sacrificed “by bringing forth blood by cutting, by passing between flesh”, millions upon millions of animals on their alters throughout the centuries to atone for their sins, were still doing it and each one of those animals typified the coming sacrifice of Jesus, the promised Savior, on the cross at Calvary.
In the Old Testament physical (living) prophesies Jesus is portrayed by dozens of men who delivered Israel from the hands of oppressors and these seven deliverers are examples:
(Judg. 3:9-10) Othniel delivered Israel from Chushan-rish-a-thaim, king of Mesopotamia; (Judg. 3:15) Ehud delivered Israel from Eglon, king of Moab; (Judg. 4:6 & 24) Barak delivered Israel from Jaban, king of Canaan; (Judg. 7:1-25) Gideon delivered Israel from Oreb and Zeeb, the princes of Midian; (Judg. 11:29) Jephthah delivered Israel from Ammon; (Judg. 20:28) Phinehas delivered Israel from the Belial worshipping, rebellious tribe of Benjamin; AND:
(Ruth 2:1 thru 4:15) Boaz (a type of Christ) purchased Ruth the gentile (a type of church) by purchasing a parcel of land (a type of grave) and with that act Boaz raised up the name of the dead (a type that the gentiles had no way to obtain salvation until Jesus bought the parcel of ground) so the name of the dead would not be cut off from among the brethren (a type that the gentiles would have the opportunity to be saved) (Eph. 2:11-22 esp. V.12) and be grace covenant brethren to blood covenant Israel and spiritually join the commonwealth (citizenship in a free community) of Israel.
And with that act Boaz also restored Naomi the Jew (a type that the Jews will be (Rom. 11:24) graffed (engrafted) back into God’s grace). The story of Ruth is an exact physical prophecy of the relationship between Jesus, the Gentile Church and the Jews. If you want to read about this please read (Rom. 11:11-26).
There are so many prophesies, atoning blood sacrifices, names, signs, types and exact quotes from so many different people, in so many different locations, at so many different times in history it is impossible for the circumstances, location, time and names involved in Jesus’ birth to have been coincidence. The Old Testament verbal prophesies concerning the promised seed had been studied, discussed and preached about by every generation of Jews. The Jews intimately knew the situations in which the physical prophesies typified the Redeemer.
The Jews deeply admired their Jewish hero deliverers whose lives prophesied a Saviour was coming. The Jews had all these events, miracles, history, prophesies and the law from God for hundreds and even thousands of years (Gen. 3:15) even from the beginning of time and YET, except for just a few individuals, they as a nation missed the birth of their promised seed, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Saviour, the Son of the living God, Jesus the Christ (Messiah).
Matt. 2:11) The gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men are a prophecy in themselves because (Rev. 9:13) gold denotes kinghood and (John 12:12-16) Jesus is a *King; (Lev. 1:14-2:1) frankincense denotes priesthood and (Heb.4:14) Jesus is our great *High Priest; (John 19:38-40) myrrh is a spice used to pack around a dead body when it is wrapped in grave clothes and (Rom. 8:34) Jesus, our redeemer, died for our sins.
Please remember these 2 days because they will be repeated. (Luke 2:21) Jesus is circumcised and officially given His name on the eighth day (Lev. 12:3) according to Jewish Law it is the day of naming. (Lev. 12:1-4: V.2–> 7 days & V.4–> shall continue 33 days so 7+33= 40 days) According to Jewish Law Mary’s purification takes 40 days and on the fortieth day (Luke 2:22) Jesus is brought to Jerusalem, shown to the priests and presented to God by His parents according to Jewish Law: it is the day of showing and presentation.
(Matt. 2:1-23) This particular King Herod (heroic, and is the name of 4 separate Jewish kings, this one was known as King Herod the Great or King Herod the First and he was a political appointee king by the Roman Empire.) heard about the coming King of the Jews. He was not about to let anyone “take” his crown and he made every effort to kill Jesus.
Through his actions at least 4 prophesies were fulfilled. #1) (Micah 5:2 & Matt. 2:6) “Out of Bethlehem shall come a Ruler in Israel.” #2) (Hosea 11:1 & Matt. 2:13-15) “I called my son out of Egypt.” #3) (Jer. 31:15 & Matt. 2:16-18) “Rachel (representing the Jews in this usage) weeping for her children.” #4) (Zech. 9:9 & John 12:12-16) “shout, O daughter of Jerusalem thy king cometh unto thee—lowly and riding upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
(Luke 2:41-52) When Jesus is twelve years old his family goes to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. It is Jewish Custom to celebrate a male child’s twelfth birthday with a ceremony called the bar-mitzvah that signifies his childhood is over and it is time to start learning to be a man. (Luke 2: 46-47) That must have happened at this time because Jesus goes right to work learning what He needs to know concerning the scriptures.
All He needs to do right now is to eat and grow, to study and learn and (Luke 2:51) He is still under His family’s supervision just like any other Jewish teenager. (Mark 6:3) Just like other Jewish youth Jesus goes to work and works until He starts His ministry. (John 14:2) He is a carpenter and His physical work is spiritually prophetic that Jesus will go prepare (build) a place for His people.