End of the Line- Advent 2, 2021

So what happened to the royal line if Mary and Joseph weren’t royalty for Jesus to inherit? Why the 500-year-plus silence? As the author of RevelationLogic.com called it in conversation to me, there was “a curse upon the royal line.”

“Surely not!,” you say. “After all, David was promised a throne that would last forever.” (2 Samuel 7:10-29). Yeah, I get that. But the Lord also promised in Jeremiah 22:30

“This is what the LORD says: “Record this man [Zedekiah] as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

Ouch. Pretty harsh words. Not. None. Anymore.

Like a divine period at the end of the royal decree from the Eternal King

that the earthly royal line was ending.

That promise was a shocking down payment on God’s bringing it to pass (and thereby accomplishing that 500-year interlude of royal vacancy).

2 Kings 25:1 “So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it… 5 the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, 6 and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him. 7 They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.”

In gruesome Ancient Near East wartime tradition, the last memory Zedekiah would have prior to his eyes being gouged out was his sons being executed. That was the end of the royal line and a lasting memory.

Questions for further study:

How does an interlude overarch time or act as a bridge over sheer human logic? How did this promise of a never-ending kingdom but the end of the royal line destroy any “point A to point B” of man’s expectations?

How would the end of the earthly royal line keep people from trying to predict which king would be the Messianic one? Or try to turn him into one?

How might it allow God’s eternal view to proceed and be correctly interpreted?

Why an interlude? What was so bad about the royal line?

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times. Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence. His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology. They began November 29, 2015.
Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols. You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives. They began November 30, 2014.
The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John. It began December 1, 2013.
The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story. It began December 1, 2012.