Yeshua the Messiah’s Right to David’s Throne

By Fred John Meldau

Messiah in Both Testaments

Here is an intricate, involved puzzle: so involved it will take a little concentration on the part of the reader to follow the problem and its solution-but it will well repay the effort.

Messiah, the Seed of David, must be virgin-born, and yet have a legal

right to the throne of David despite the fact that one of Solomon’s descendants was a certain evil man named Jeconiah, of whom it was written that none of his descendants would ever rule in Judah (see Jeremiah Chap. 22 verses 28-30), and despite the fact that in Israel the right to the throne was transmitted only through the male line. Here Messiah was born of a virgin!

It is perfectly clear that the Messiah will inherit “the throne of David”

(Isaiah Chap. 9 verse 7; Jeremiah Chap. 33 verses 15-17; Psalm 132

verse 11; I Chronicles Chap. 17 verses 11, 14).

Since He had to be born of a virgin, how can He get His legal right to the throne of David? How can the roadblock erected by Jeconiah’s sin be circumvented?

Who can untangle these apparently hopelessly confused predictions?

Leave it to the Master Mind who both devised the strange prophecies

and worked out their fulfillment. Remember, the prophet Isaiah said, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this”

(Isaiah Chap. 9 verse 7).

Not only was the apparently impossible solved and resolved in Yeshua

the Messiah, but God has given us the complete record of how He did

it in the genealogies of the New Testament.

In Matthew’s genealogy, the genealogy of Messiah through Yoseph is given. This genealogy shows Messiah to be “the Son of David”-so giving Him right to David’s throne-and also “the Son of Abraham”-so giving Him right to the Land of Promise, the territorial possessions given to Abraham and his seed.

In Matthew’s genealogy, Yoseph is seen to be in the REGAL line of

descent from King David, down through Solomon. But Yoseph was also a descendant of David through Jeconiah (also called Coniah)-hence, succession to the throne for Yoseph personally is barred.

Matthew’s genealogical record is careful to show that Jesus was NOT, through Yoseph, the “fruit of David’s body,” i.e., a direct descendant of David through Yoseph.

In Luke Chap. 3, verses 23-38 Messiah’s genealogy is given through

Mariam. (Heli was obviously Miriam’s father, Yoseph’s father-in-law,18 verse 23).

In this record, Messiah is shown to be the LITERAL “fruit of David’s

body” through His mother Miriam. This is important: while Miriam

was in A ROYAL line from David, she was not in THE REGAL lineage, for she was a descendant of King David through Nathan, whereas the throne rights were to come through Solomon’s line (see I Chronicles Chap. 28 verses 5-6). Therefore, Yoseph’s marriage to Miriam before Yeshua was born was an absolute necessity-and that is exactly what happened!

“Now the birth of Yeshua Messiah was on this wise: When as His mother Miriam was espoused to Yoseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit…behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Yoseph, thou SON OF DAVID, fear not to take unto thee Miriam THY WIFE: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”

(Matthew Chap. 1 verses 18-20)

So, through Miriam, Yeshua the Messiah obtained His literal descent from King David; and from Miriam’s marriage to Yoseph, who was also a “son of David,” He obtained His legal right to David’s throne, for Miriam was Yoseph’s wife before Yeshua was born, so making Yoseph Yeshua’ legal father, His foster father, and withal, the prophecy concerning Jeconiah was fulfilled too, for Yeshua the Messiah is NOT the “seed”-a direct descendant of Jeconiah.

Can you think of anything more intricate and involved and yet worked out with such precision?

Yoseph and Miriam had to be the parents (foster father and mother) of Yeshua the Messiah: they were the only two people of that generation who could be, and fulfill prophecy about the Messiah. And Yoseph had to be married to Miriam before Yeshua was born so He could get His legal right to David’s throne through Yoseph. At the same time, Messiah could not be a child of Yoseph because of the bar against a descendant of Jeconiah. Though Yoseph had to be married to Miriam, yet Yoseph could not “know” Miriam as his wife until after Yeshua was born, for He had to be born of a virgin! And the Divinely ordered fulfillment was perfect in every detail!