Waiting for the Good King-Advent 3, 2021

As we go back in time from Mary and Joseph not being direct royal office holders, back 500 years over the full interlude they knew about as their history, and we can see what led to the end of the direct royal Messianic line we looked at yesterday. 

As existed in Israel before Judah, there were enough bad kings to exhaust even God’s patience.  There comes a time when enough is enough.  The Ten Northern Tribes of Israel were carried off into Assyrian Captivity.  From Jeroboam 1 to Hoshea—nineteen bad kings, one after the other, not a good one in the bunch, Israel was done.  Finished.  Kaput.

But the royal line God established was never through Israel but Judah. 

And even that would involve an Interlude.

The tribes of Judah (and Benjamin) had a series of kings, twenty of them to be exact, and sad to say, there were more bad ones than good ones.  God had enough of Judah’s royal line which had become corrupted even through Israel’s United Kingdom years of Saul, David, and Solomon. Captivity in Babylon was God’s choice, plan, and intended outcome of ending Judah’s royal line on earth.

Now hold on, you say.  What about Judah?
After all, there was a promise in Abraham’s blessing about a scepter and a ruler.

Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

What about that?  That’s saying that the Messianic King was to come from the line of Judah. “No king” for 500 years was not a “departure” from Judah to someone else.  But it was an Interlude, a parenthesis of time, a placeholder brought about by bad, bad kings.

Questions for further study:

Why do you think a placeholder of time, an interlude, was necessary?

Before the bad king series, think about Saul and his following after evil and consulting a witch.  Think about David committing just about every sin under the sun and shedding blood, even though he repented and was a man after God’s own heart, he was still a sinner.  Think about Solomon and his many foreign wives.  Why might God not want to go the direct descendent route?  What would that say about sin? 

Even the good kings had sin.  1 Corinthians 6: 9 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?”  What did the Interlude do to help us see that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and the Messianic Deliverer came to set even good kings free from bondage to sin?

Some of the bad kings had good kids.  Some good kings had bad kids who became bad kings.  Some bad kings had bad kids who were a chip off the old block of bad old dad.  Are children of godly parents automatically going to be godly?  What about children of sinful parents?  For every parent out there, what can you do to ensure your children learn how to live so they will model it when they reach adulthood?  (See Proverbs 10: 6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” And Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

Now think about parents like Mary and Joseph.  How could imperfect sinners (though righteous by human standards) raise a child who is the perfect Son of God?  How might an Interlude have helped frame their expectations of themselves and given them increased faith that God was bringing it all to fruition and it was not up to them? 

James 2: 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love Him?

===

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.

===

• 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.