The Claims of Jesus to the Throne of David Both Legal and Bloodline

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There has been the big problem of some to fully understand why Jesus was called the Seed of David. Now it can be easily resolved because we have actually a record of the lineages of Mary and Joseph coming from BOTH the line of David. So here's the facts:
  • Joseph the stepfather (or legal adoptive father) of Jesus Christ came from the line of David through Solomon to which established the legal lineage. It is no accident that Joseph the descendant of David through Solomon from whom the legal kingship was to be established was engaged to Mary the descendant of David through Nathan. Matthew presented the legal family tree of Jesus to prove His claim to the Throne of David.
  • For Mary's lineage from David to Nathan, another sibling of Solomon born of David and Bathsheba, this established the bloodline of Jesus from His earthly mother. Remember again, Joseph is not the real father of Jesus but His stepfather. It was necessary that she too came from the blood of David in order for Jesus to be not only the Seed of the woman but also the Seed of David genetically in His humanity.

Some facts we do learn from Matthew's recording of Jesus' genealogy:
  • He mentions four outcasts in Jesus' genealogy namely the following:
    • First, Tamar who had a scandalous incest with her father-in-law Judah (which nobody can easily comprehend why the Messianic line came from Judah and not Joseph, remember it was Judah who suggested that Joseph be sold to the Ishmaelties). However one has to remember that Reuben committed incest with one of his father's wives, both Simeon and Levi were guilty of gross violence so what makes Judah any different? His confession of his sin about not giving Tamar off to his youngest son before he sired the twins Perez and Zerah. From Perez came the Messianic line. Matthew Henry comments on Genesis 49 and I will paraphrase them:
      • It can be seen that Reuben forfeited his birthright for he was unstable as water and that he shamed his father by having sex with one of his father's wives.
      • Simeon and Levi were passionate and vengeful, something that Jacob protested when their sister Dinah was defiled by the Shechemites.
      • Judah was called praise by his mother Dinah (Genesis 29:35) So while Judah had his own fair share faults like when he had Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites for money (interesting note that his descendant our Lord Jesus Christ was soon betrayed for money by JUDAS Iscariot, Judas is Judah in Greek) or that he had incest with his daughter-in-law out of ignorance, his repentance may have kept his birthright intact after his first three brothers lost it. Also remember Judah in Genesis 44:20 he made supplication for Benjamin and Jesus Christ does it for us lost sinners He has saved too.
    • Second, Rahab who coins in our mind the term... the harlot. She was a Canaanite doomed to be destroyed, supposedly no covenant was to be made between her and Gods' people YET God was willing to save a wretched Canaanitess like her when she sided with the living God from her idols. In fact, her story proves even harlots can respond to the life changing Gospel. She went from being a harlot to a godly woman only by God's grace. We must note that she became the wife of Salmon by whom she became the mother of Boaz and she became Ruth's second mother-in-law after Naomi.
    • Third, Ruth was another. She was born from the nation born out of father-daughter incest, Moab. Remember Lot got drunk by his two daughters whose names we don't know. One gave birth to Ammon, the other gave birth to Moab. Ruth was from Moab so her nation was born out of a scandal from the mountains after the destruction of Sodom and the Moabities were enemies of the people of Israel. Yet it should be amazing that she cleaved to her first mother-in-law Naomi, she went from Chemosh to Jehovah and she ended up marrying the old bachelor Boaz. What might have been a bonus was that Boaz immediately noticed her beauty and found out she was beautiful inside out but the real issue was she was a Moabite of great inner beauty, never mind how she easily attracted Boaz and the most important issue was her true conversion to the living God. Marrying Boaz, it meant she and her mother-in-law both showed the redemption of the Gentiles as well.
    • Fourth, Bathsheba was the last. Nobody can forget David's scandal in 2 Samuel 11 where David committed adultery with another man's wife. In 2 Samuel 12, we do have the entire account David is condemned and yet in the succeeding chapter of 14, David had the favored son Solomon. Later records show David and Bathsheba had more than Solomon, Nathan was another. Nathan was Mary's ancestor. Again, remember David was restored after his repentance thus showing God's grace can forgive even the worst.
  • We have the missing names of Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah and Eliakim. In the case of Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah it might be a rule of thumb that they were in that curse up to the fourth generation. Remember from the royal line of David, Jehoshaphat did very wrong to marry his son Jehoram to Ahab's wicked daughter Athaliah who really destroyed the temple as a queen. The other idolatrous kings didn't go as far as Athaliah did to defile the temple completely.
  • He starts with Abraham down to Joseph the stepfather of Jesus. It's most likely he did that to emphasize Jesus' claim as a descendant of Abraham down to Isaac, Jacob and Judah since the Messiah had to come from the Jewish line.

Here's also an interesting fact about how Luke records Jesus' genealogy in chapter 3:
  • Luke manages to go backward instead of forward. He traces Mary's steps from her father up to Nathan, then from Nathan up to David. Then we do also see the lineage that goes all the way back to David's ancestors like Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon and then back to Judah, and from Judah it comes back to Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. And from Abraham it eventually goes back to Shem to Noah, from Noah up to Seth from Seth to Adam. This was most likely going to show the following:
    • Despite Adam's offense in the garden, God forgave and restored Adam and Eve. Adam may have doomed humanity to physical and spiritual death by his sin yet God still promised a Savior, something way better than life in Eden (Genesis 3:15).
    • It's important to understand the coming of Seth. Supposedly Cain thought he destroyed the godly line by killing Abel but Abel wasn't the one to bring the godly line, it was Seth. Sadly Seth's line was soon contaminated by Cain's line, when the sons of God (Seth's line) began taking the daughters of men (Cain's line). However the line of Seth continued when God destroyed the Cainites in the flood.
    • One thing must be realized- man's ancestors were Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Jared, Mahaleel, Enoch the Sethite, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah were the main heads of the godly line. When Methuselah died, the flood finally came in. We all came from the line of Seth but sadly many follow the path of Cain like Nimrod did after the flood and Nimrod established Satan worship in a way that destroyed the world to this very day and comes to the world in different forms- thanks to the sin of Ham!
    • It might also show this- despite the sin of Ham, his lineage may have been cursed to bondage but still they can be set free. Remember that Rahab was a Canaanite woman a descendant of Ham and that of Canaan yet she became part of the Messianic line. Another type of redemption was that when Joseph married Asenath bringing her from the pagan gods of Egypt to the true and living God.
    • The line of Shem was given emphasis. Shem was a godly man but sadly also from his line came the Moabites, Ishmaelites, Ammonites and Midianites- all enemies of Israel and later, the Jews the chosen people rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and only a few Jews ever got saved since Shem is still a sinner but saved by grace. It was from Shem's line came Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah.