This is a link to our weekly radio program Search the Scriptures Daily .
You may listen to the program by clicking on the "mp3" link above.
For more listening options, please see our Radio Page .
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in- depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay with us.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom, I am fascinated by the genealogies of Jesus Christ found in the scriptures. One would think that Jesus, being the Jewish Messiah and King, would be of a purely Jewish descent, yet His ancestry includes some non Jews. Some would argue that such a mixture in His lineage disqualifies Him as the Messiah of Israel. What do you think about such an argument?
Tom:
Well, Dave, one thing that comes to mind right away is then, why I guess then we have to disqualify king David.
Dave:
Exactly.
Tom:
Because we go back in his lineage, you have Rahab, Ruth, Ruth the Moabite, and Rahab the Moabitis, and Rahab she would have been a Canaanite.
Dave;
I don’t know where the questioner got that idea from, it doesn’t say that.
Tom:
That what, that His lineage needs—
Dave:
Must be pure.
Tom:
No, but you would think that, Dave. You would think, Look, we have the King of kings, the Messiah, don’t we look for pure breeds and something that we hold in high esteem, and so on?
Dave:
Well, but Tom, Abraham was a Chaldean, and he was not a Jew, and Jews didn’t even exist then.
Tom:
Go back to Adam and Eve, they weren’t certainly Jesus is of the lineage of Adam and Eve. Right, we all are?
Dave:
No, but what is important is that He fulfilled the prophecies, dozens, actually hundreds of prophecies, because when the Messiah comes how are we going to know? I don’t know by some pedigree as to the purity of His Hebrew blood, which really is non existence, because it has had a mixture all the way down. What counted was, would He be of the lineage of David, and would He be born in Bethlehem , would He be the everlasting Father, the mighty God, the everlasting Father come born of a virgin, come in the flesh? Would He be crucified like the prophet said? Would He be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, which would be thrown down in the temple, and they would use it to buy a field to bury strangers, or would they do to Him what they never did and crucified and not do to Him what they always did in crucifying? I mean, Tom, there are so many definitive, prophecies that prove that Jesus was the Messiah. So, I don’t quite understand the question because there never was a pure Jew who walked this earth. He was called a Hebrew, his descendants were called Hebrews, that was a name that stuck, but there are all kinds of mixture in there, as you have commented, Tom. Now, what does this impress us with? The grace of God, because, strictly speaking, non Jews were not to be allowed. This was not a missionary venture, they were not out there to take the heads off of people who wouldn’t confess that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the one true God, like the Muslims are doing. But they were to welcome strangers, and a stranger could be brought in to, you know, become an Israelite by his faith in the true God, circumcision and keeping the law, which nobody could keep, but then the animal sacrifices that would cover temporarily for a breach of the law, and it’s the grace of God, His mercy.
Tom:
Dave, would you say, when we think about women for example, such as Rahab, who was a prostitute, yet she figures in the lineage of Christ. You have, we could go back to Judah, you know Judah’s wife was a Canaanite woman, and we’re not sure about Tamar, another woman who fits in the lineage of Christ, whether she was a Canaanite or not, but we find that happening. It goes against what God wanted, but these women converted, I mean they became believers in Jehovah God.
Dave:
Right, absolutely. Tom, it’s a difficult question for us to understand because today of course, it doesn’t depend upon your race, your nationality. The only genealogy that counted was not that there should be no non Jews, however you define that, of course that became more definable the longer this went along because that we know who they are today and they don’t intermarry, some of them do but not very many. But the proof of the Messiah is, as I mentioned, in the prophecies fulfilled, that is undeniable, no one can explain that away how these prophecies could have been given in detail centuries before they were fulfilled. The prophecy of the crucifixion was about 500 years before crucifixion had been practiced on this earth, was even known. So you have such remarkable prophecies, that’s how we know this is the Messiah, not because beginning with Abraham and Sarah there was never a mixture of blood that came in there. The Bible never says that. Furthermore, if that’s to be the basis upon which we accept Christ how would you verify this? You might get some DNA, but that’s not going to solve the entire problem. But we have prophecies that can be verified as to their fulfillment, and we know who the Messiah is today.
