The teaching continues Matthew chapter 1 in the genealogy of Christ, picking up after Judah through Jesse and moving through the royal line from David to Jehoram.
Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, moved from giving up a brother to protecting his brethren, and the royal line comes through him. Perez broke through at birth after his brother’s hand appeared first. Hezron headed the Hezronites in a princely role. Ram is briefly noted. Amminadab became father-in-law of Aaron the high priest through his daughter Elisheba. Nahshon marked the rise of Judah’s authority, including military leadership. Salmon married Rahab. Boaz acted as kinsman-redeemer, marrying Ruth and raising a seed for Elimelech so his name would not be cut off; Obed was born. Jesse is tied to the prophetic branch that would come from his line.
David is the one God selected; Saul is the one the people selected. Samuel was sent to anoint one of Jesse’s sons and anointed the youngest (1 Samuel 16:1–13). God promised that after David’s days a seed from his body would have his kingdom established and his throne established into the ages (2 Samuel 7:12–13). David is described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), focused on obedience, in contrast to Saul, who was disobedient, took forbidden possessions, and lost the throne and his seed. David is the sweet psalmist of Israel (2 Samuel 23:1), establishing the literary foundation of temple worship. He occupies the tenth generation from Perez. Ten denotes completeness in biblical symbolism: ten generations from creation to the flood (Genesis 5), ten from the flood to Abraham (Genesis 11:10–26), and ten from the breach (Perez) to the royal dynasty (Ruth 4:18–22). David lived seventy years and reigned forty years—seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem—beginning to reign at thirty (2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11). He refused to usurp the throne and waited for God to appoint him.
Solomon, son of Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, was chosen by God among David’s many sons to sit on the throne of the Lord over Israel (1 Chronicles 28:5). Nathan named him Jedidiah because the Lord loved him (2 Samuel 12:24–25). He asked God for an understanding heart to judge the people and discern good and evil (1 Kings 3:9). He was wise but not known as merciful in establishing his throne: Adonijah was put to death after a failed coup (1 Kings 2:23–25); Joab, who supported Adonijah, fled to the horns of the altar and was executed (1 Kings 2:28); Shimei of Saul’s house was executed after violating the terms of exile, with the warning “dying you will die” (1 Kings 2:36–46). God gave Solomon wisdom, riches, and honor and promised lengthened days if he walked in the ways of David (1 Kings 3:12–14). David was not permitted to build the temple because of blood on his hands; Solomon built it (1 Kings 6:1). Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel (1 Kings 11:42–43). In the end, wives and idolatry entered.
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was forty years old when he became king and reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem; his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess (1 Kings 14:21). The restriction on Ammon and Moab concerned males, not females. He went to Shechem to be made king. He rejected the elders’ counsel to serve the people and lighten the yoke and followed the young men who said his little finger would be thicker than his father’s waist (1 Kings 12:7–11). The turn of events was from the Lord to fulfill the word spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam: ten tribes torn from Solomon’s house (1 Kings 11:31; 12:15). Israel answered, “What share have we in David? … To your tents, O Israel” (1 Kings 12:16). The kingdom split: two tribes with the house of David, ten with Jeroboam. Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him (2 Chronicles 12:1). High places, pillars, wooden images, and abominations of the nations were permitted (1 Kings 14:23–24).
Abijah claimed the throne of David, blamed the split on worthless men, and adhered to the Mosaic priesthood of Aaron and the Levites against the northern calves and self-made priests (2 Chronicles 13:4–12). He still walked in the sins of his father and his heart was not loyal to the Lord as David’s heart had been (1 Kings 15:3).
Asa did what was upright in the eyes of the Lord, as David had done (1 Kings 15:11; 2 Chronicles 14:2). He banished the perverted persons, removed the idols his father had made (1 Kings 15:12), deposed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother and cut down and burned her obscene Asherah image, restored the altar of the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:8), and led the people into a national covenant to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:12).
Jehoshaphat sent leaders and Levites throughout the cities of Judah with the book of the law of the Lord to teach the people (2 Chronicles 17:7–9). He established judges in the fortified cities to hold the people accountable to the law (2 Chronicles 19:6). He aligned himself with Ahab by marriage (2 Chronicles 18:1), went to war with him, and nearly died. Jehu the seer rebuked him for helping the wicked and loving those who hate the Lord, so wrath came upon him (2 Chronicles 19:2). He is presented as one who sought the Lord with all his heart (2 Chronicles 22:9), yet the alliance ignored the spiritual divide with the idolatrous north.
Jehoram, fifth king of Judah, son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab (2 Kings 8:16). When established, he killed all his brothers with the sword and the princes of Israel (2 Chronicles 21:4). He walked in the way of the kings of Israel because the daughter of Ahab was his wife and he did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 8:18). A letter from Elijah rebuked him for not walking in the ways of Jehoshaphat and Asa, for making Judah play the harlot like the house of Ahab, and for killing his brothers who were better than himself; the Lord would strike the people with a great affliction (2 Chronicles 21:12–15). After two years his intestines came out because of the sickness; he died in severe pain and his people made no burning for him (2 Chronicles 21:18–20). Only his youngest son survived.
From Jehoram the line continues through Joash (whose sister preserved the royal seed), Amaziah, and Uzziah.
