I think a lot of us know that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, but I don’t think we really ask why.

Origins In Genesis

If we start with Genesis, we find a somewhat familiar passage right after Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden. God is handing out judgments and He is starting with Satan. The key verse we want to focus on is:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” –Genesis 3:15.

When we think of “seed,” we commonly associate this to the male species. Here, God is associating to the woman which is in anticipation of the virgin birth.

From this point on, Satan goes to work doing everything he can to corrupt this “seed.” Here’s a short list of some of the things he tries to spoil the seed:

• He causes Cain to murder his brother Abel (Genesis 4)
• He causes his fallen angels to corrupt the bloodlines of many generations that precipitate the flood (Genesis 6)
• He causes the tower of Babel to be built (Genesis 11)
• He causes Abram and Sarai to have Ishmael by Hagar (Genesis 16)
• He causes the rise of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19)
• He causes Joseph’s brothers to deal treacherously with him (Genesis 37)
• He causes the illicit affair between Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)
• He causes Aaron to make the golden calf and the resulting worship (Exodus 32)
• He causes David to commit adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)

There are many more examples, but let’s jump ahead to the event that probably caused Satan to rejoice.

King Jehoiachin (Coniah)

All through the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, we read of Israel’s many failures and departures from worshipping God and turning to idol worship. Things would get better but then go right back to mire. There would be good kings, and then bad ones. The northern and southern kingdoms would seeming go from bad to worse.

God finally has enough and so with king Jehoiachin He pronounces a blood curse upon him.

“Thus says the LORD, ‘write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.’” –Jeremiah 22:30.

With this proclamation, Satan thinks he finally has succeeded in undermining God’s plan of redemption through David’s bloodline. It was announced by God that the Messiah would come from David’s line, but now Satan thinks that the plan has been ruined by his doing.

Joseph

So if we turn to Matthew now, we run across king Jehoiachin in Jesus’ genealogy.

Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. –Matthew 1:11-12.

Here, Jeconiah is another spelling of Jehoiachin. The genealogy continues and we’ll pick it up in verse 16:

Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. –Matthew 1:16.

Remember, Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. If he were, then the blood curse that God pronounced on the lineage of David would apply to Jesus! No, Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, thus fulfilling the specifications that the Messiah was a descendant of David.

Something also peculiar that you might gloss over. In Luke 3, there is a little verse that has significant implications.

When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli. –Luke 3:23.

Did you pick up on that? In Matthew 1:16, it says that Joseph’s father was Jacob. Here in Luke, it makes it sound like there is a contradiction by saying “Joseph, the son of Eli.”

Who is Eli?

Eli is Mary’s father! In other words, Joseph is Jacob’s son by birth, and Eli’s son (in-law) by marriage to Mary. In order to really get at what is going on here, we need to dig back into the Old Testament to the book of Numbers.

The Daughters of Zelophehad

I won’t get into all the scriptures here, but will provide them in a moment. Basically what happened is that Zelophehad did not have any sons, only daughters. In ancient Israel, inheritance would typically go to sons. After Zelophehad had died, his five daughters came to Moses asking him what would happen to their father’s property who died without sons?

Moses then took the question directly to God who made a very particular exemption. However, this exemption was absolutely critical to the coming of the Messiah that we don’t appreciate the implications until we get to Jesus’ birth! God anticipated this detail a thousand years before Jesus’ birth!

If you want to dig into the background, check out these passages:

• Numbers 26:33
• Numbers 27:1-11
• Numbers 36:2-12
• Joshua 17:3-6
• 1 Chronicles 7:15

Merry Christmas 2010!

On behalf of the Chavez family, I wish each of you a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with God’s love, grace, and mercy.

May He Increase!

It amazes me how often “experts” and the average person will casually dismiss the Bible for what it really is. Have they actually read the Bible?

Then again, the natural man won’t be able to comprehend what he is reading. Certainly when I first became a Christian I had no idea of the treasures that God’s Word would reveal to me over time.

One of these treasures that was recently revealed to me is found in the book of Joshua. The term for it is a “remez,” which basically means a hint of something deeper.

I believe that everything in the Bible–every place name, person, event, etc.–is there for a reason. Some may not be as exciting as others, but if you dig a little deeper at things you read, generally God will have a little treasure for you in the text.

Rahab and the Spies

In Joshua, there is the story of the two spies who find shelter in Rahab’s house. There is a passage where they are having a conversation with her about how they will hide themselves and what sign she will hang outside her house so that the Israelites wouldn’t destroy her house when they invade.

Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall. –Joshua 2:15.

Just a simple, informative verse, right? The word to pay attention to here is the word “rope.” The King James Version uses the word “cord.” Either way, the Hebrew word used is “חֵבֶל” which is transliterated “chebal.”

The two meanings for this word are:

1. a cord, rope, territory, band, company
2. pain, sorrow, travail, pang (pains of travail)

Interesting dichotomy of meanings, aren’t they?

Let’s look at the next verse:

She said to them, “Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way.” –Joshua 2:16.

What she’s telling them is to hide out from the men of her city. She’s protecting these two Israeli spies, basically. We’ll come back to this verse. Let’s look at the next two verses.

Then men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household.” –Joshua 2:17-18.

The phrase to key into here is “cord of scarlet thread.” The King James Version calls it “this line of scarlet thread.” The Hebrew word used is “תִּקְוָה” which is transliterated “tiqvah.”

The two meanings of this word are:

1. cord
2. hope, expectation (things hoped for)

Again, completely different meanings, right?

Have you picked up on this yet?

What separates the meaning of these two words for “cord?”

Three days.

Do you see something remarkable hidden in the text yet?

What happened at the Cross of Christ? Pain, sorrow and travail!

What happened next? He was three days in the grave!

What happened next? He rose to give us hope and expectation!

The Bible, friend, is not a collection of writings by men of old. The Bible is the Word of God, the creator and king of the universe. The Bible is God’s plan of salvation.

Don’t casually dismiss the Bible. Don’t criticize the Bible unless you’ve  spent time in it. Read it! It is the only truly life-changing book in all history.

May He Increase!

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. –Genesis 3:6.

The steps are clearly outlined in 1 John 2:16:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Here they are:

1. Lust of the flesh (“the woman saw”)
2. Lust of the eyes (“it was a delight to the eyes”)
3. Boastful pride of life (“desirable to make one wise”)

Another example is in the book of Joshua. When Joshua was giving the instructions to the people the day before they conquered Jericho, he specifically told them that they were to take no spoils from the victory. This was in accordance to Leviticus 27:28-29. This was going to be first-fruits victory in the land of Canaan and as such, was to be devoted to God. Unfortunately, one of the members of the tribe of Judah did not follow the command.

So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” –Joshua 7:20-21.

We see the same pattern again here. The story of Eve is well known. We all know what happened with Eve and Adam. We may not remember or know what happened with Achan as a result of his choices.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan … his sons, his daughters, … his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. –Joshua 7:24-25.

Achan and his whole family including all of his animals were executed!

Our last example may also be familiar. It deals with King David. After David had defeated Goliath and became king, you could say that David became complacent. In the Spring, when it was advantageous for kings to go to war, David decided to stay home. This is the beginning of a downturn in David’s reign, one precipitated by bad decisions.

Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearace. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her. –2 Samuel 11:2-4a.

David’s specific steps were that he saw Bathsheba first. Had he turned away and went back into his house, he would have been fine. But instead, he inquires of her. His servants told him that she was a married woman. But in spite of this, he then yields to temptation and distruction insues. The consequences affect his whole family and his children.

Although Jesus’ words were specifically talking about adultery, the imagery He uses is applicable to each of these Biblical characters as well as us today.

“If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.” –Matthew 5:29-30.

In the end, self-deception leads to sin. “Just one more quick look,” or “just one more sip of this bottle,” or “I can say ‘no’ to her/him,” etc., are all self-deceiving lies whispered to us by our adversary, the devil. May He” lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

May He Increase!