Introduction

Today we are beginning a series of sermons on the life of David. And most of the sermons will be in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. Occasionally we will dip into some Psalms and other Scriptures. But I wanted to start the series by looking at the remarkable line of David.

Some of David's story seems like a series of random accidents if you read the story casually. But the more you dig into the details, the more you come away amazed with God's sovereign order and His redemptive purpose. And in this series we will be looking into many of those exciting details.

But sometimes it is helpful to back away from the leaves, bark, and branches and to look at the forest as a whole. And that's what I want to do today. I want to fly way up high and get a bird's eye view of God's overall purposes in sovereignly arranging David's ancestor's and his descendants up to the time of Christ. David saw himself as a pivot point in God's preparation for Jesus the Messiah. And even though he was anointed (and therefore some Jews call Him the Messiah, which means anointed one), David knew that he was not the ultimate Anointed One. He was only a faint, faint, picture of Jesus.

But the main lesson I want to teach you today is the critical importance of covenant succession. This genealogy shows a remarkable line of mostly believers in one family over 2000 years. That is covenant succession – passing on the faith for generation after generation.

God is a Sovereign Redeemer (v. 17)

And the first thing that I want to establish is that God was indeed sovereign in this redemptive history. There is nothing by accident here. And we will actually be seeing the theme of point number 1 throughout the sermon, but I think it comes out in a very beautiful way in verse 17. Matthew says, "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations." That's almost too neat for some people to find it believable. A number of liberals have brought arguments against this neat layout of three groupings of fourteen generations and have said that anything with that kind of symmetry is automatically suspect. It's the same presupposition that makes evolutionists arbitrarily assume in their Einsteinian calculations that the earth cannot be anywhere near the center of the universe because it smacks too much of design, and there can't be design in this universe. But the same Einsteinian physics actually work better with the earth near the center, and in the same way, the evidence perfectly fits what Matthew is saying here.

When you study the genealogies and chronologies in Genesis, you see that it is absolutely true. (And if you have questions about the insertion of Cainan in Luke's genealogy, talk to me afterwards. There is a perfect solution to that, which adds no generation into the mix. One clue is that Luke does not say "begot" like Matthew and Genesis do. It says "son of." And there are actually five quite credible explanations that show absolutely absolutely no gaps in either the chronology or the genealogy. But I'm just going to assume that you believe in inspiration and take Matthew at his word.)

In this series of three fourteens, God mapped out the story of redemption beautifully. Let me quote from William Hendriksen the significance of these numbers. He says,

In Scripture seven frequently indicates the totality ordained by God. Fourteen, which is twice seven, also bring out this idea. [And I would add in there that fourteen is a double witness of perfection. He goes on.] So, it would seem, does three times fourteen = forty-two. This is equal to six sevens, and immediately introduces the seventh seven, reduplicated completeness, perfection. (p. 110)

Christ of course is the reduplicated completeness of perfection. And accordingly, Luke 4 says that He started His ministry on a Sabbath day, in a Sabbath year, and during a Jubilee year, which is the year of release and Liberty that happens once every 49 years. And William Hendriksen gives a lot of Scripture and 24 pages of exposition to further describe the symbolism of these three fourteens and the people in it. When you dig into this it is really marvelous. Each of these fourteen generations is cross-sectioned with sabbatical years and jubilee years. Israel is in exile for seventy years, because over a period of 490 years they failed to keep the Sabbath years holy. And of course those Sabbath years were teaching Israel to find their rest in the coming Messiah, Jesus. And all of the Jubilees were pointing to Jesus. And Daniel predicts another 490 years (a Master Jubilee) within which redemption will be accomplished. But backing up a bit, there are ten Jubilee years from the time David is born till the exile (that's 490 years). I won't go into all of the symbolism, but the history in verse 17 represents a grand picture (or type) of Messiah Jesus, and His work as prophet, priest, and king.

But the middle section, where every king is from the house of David, is most relevant to our series of sermons. David's house had kings for about 490 years – another Master Jubilee), and then had faithful families for another 490 years. David stands as the most beautiful and complete picture in the Bible of our redemption. So that is one of the things that we will keep glorying in during this series – the marvel of redemptive history – God redeeming a people for Himself. And we are going to be seeing this His redemption is not just individual; it is comprehensive. It was intended for kings and nations; for citizens and for every area of life.

A second thing that we will be looking at is God's amazing sovereignty over every area of life. Think about the symbolism I have just outlined, and all of the detailed timing that had to be in place. The odds of this symmetry happening by chance are next to nothing. Every person begotten in this genealogy was perfectly prepared by God to be part of the process of producing the Messiah. Not one more or one less would do. Every one was essential. Every one was counted. Certainly there was a lot of chaos that can be seen in this genealogy, and we will take a look at a little bit of that in a moment. But God intended there to be symmetry in the midst of all the chaos. You see, the absolute determination of God's sovereignty works in, around, and through the chaos of man's freedom in a way that brings the two together. God is Sovereign; Man is Responsible. And in this series we will see that this is such an encouraging lesson during the troubled times that we live in.

But let's think about another application of those three fourteens and all that they presuppose. For this verse to be true, God would have to be sovereign in what home you were born into, and who your grandparents were. He would have to be sovereign in whether you have children and how many children you have. Think about how God prepared for you. Every ancestor that you have ever had, stretching back for thousands of years was part of the process of producing what God specifically wanted in your life. You might think, "I wish God had used different genetics for me." But those things are not by chance. We are going to be seeing some pretty interesting characters in the life of David who were absolute critical to the story, even though they had been rejected by men.

And there are other lessons of sovereignty. God wouldn't let David build the temple, because it would negatively affect the symbolism that God was producing. He wanted a prince of peace to build it, not a prince of war. And so He has David win the wars and prepare for the temple, but He has Solomon actually build it. And interestingly, from the dedication of the temple till the circumcision and dedication of the baby Jesus (the final temple) is exactly 1000 years. Mere coincidence? I think not. And there are other indicators that God was sovereign over David's timeline. He is sovereign not only over sun, moon and stars, but over the actions of men. He is sovereign over not only the big things of life, like wars and political changes, but also over who is attracted to who in marriage, and He is sovereign over conception, and personality traits and what family we have. And yes, He is sovereign over the fact that some of you have difficult and sordid backgrounds, like the sordid backgrounds we are going to look at in this genealogy. And it is not until we receive of His redemption and bow to God's sovereignty that we can begin to have an insight into what God is developing in our lives. So let's go through this passage verse by verse.

God Makes us Creatures of Hope (v. 1)

Verse 1 begins, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus the Christ [that's the Greek word for Messiah] the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." Notice that the whole book of Matthew is going to be an exposition in some way of this genealogy. This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus. And the words of verse 1 would have caught the attention of every Jew. The anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ has come! They have been looking for him for over a thousand years. But there are some in every age who don't believe in this Messiah. And as Matthew works through this genealogy of the Son of David, Jesus, he is going to systematically answer the objections of the Jews because they had subtly exchanged an unbiblical hope for the Biblical one.

These Jews might have objected that the Messiah couldn't possibly have come because we don't see any reign of glory. We are still oppressed by Rome. If Messiah has come, why are things not different? Where is our exaltation as a nation over all of the earth? Where are the riches; where's the plenty; where's the power? Where's the comfort?

And Matthew quietly reminds them through this realistic genealogy of sin-marred relatives that God did not send a savior to remove all the difficult circumstances from our lives. That's the promise of politicians and political saviors. "Vote for me and there will be a chicken in every pot; all the school problems will be solved; the terrorist problems; the drug problems. You name it, I'll fix it if you vote for me." That sells a bit better than a Savior who promises to save us from our sins, and to make us responsible, but refuses to take us out of all difficult circumstances. That's not the kind of Savior most people are hoping for. Their hope is for a political Messiah who would save them from circumstances and leave their carnal hearts alone.

In contrast, the real hope that Abraham had was for a Savior who would save him from His sinful actions; His sinful escapism; His sinful fears; His sinful anger. The real hope was a Savior who would help us to conquer our circumstances, not to escape from our circumstances. The bottom line from this second point is that we need to cast away a hope that is false and replace it with a hope that is real. And we will be seeing in this series that David had a true hope.

Preparation for David (vv. 1-6)

Verses 1-6 list the people who formed David. Verse 1 starts with Abraham. And the Jews were proud of Abraham. And it's good to be proud of your family heritage, so long as it does not become idolatrous. But the Jews made Abraham out to be almost sinless. Yet Abraham was a pagan idolater in Ur of Chaldees, and God saved him out of that idolatry and made him into a hero of the faith. But in himself, Abraham had nothing in which to boast. But he begins the line of covenant succession that I want to look at today. His faith spanned the generations for 2000 years.

Verse 2 says, "Abraham begot Isaac." Yes, Isaac was a hero of the faith too, but he was certainly not perfect. Isaac was a coward who allowed his wife to go to a harem rather than risk getting killed. He inherited some of his father's sins, including fear, manipulation, and lying. How would you like it if your husband let some sleazy Sheik steal you away into his harem and didn't do a thing to protect you? Both Abraham and Isaac were guilty of that. And though the Bible honors Abraham and Isaac as fathers, it does not put them on a pedestal, but uses them as examples. We tend to pass on our characteristics (both bad and good) unless we self-consciously cut them off.

Think of the issue of favoritism. Who was Abraham's favorite? It was Ishmael. He pleaded with God to let Ishmael be the one in covenant with Him. Who was the favorite of Isaac? It was Esau. In his old age if Isaac had gotten his way, God would never have blessed Israel. Instead, the hated Edomites would have had dominion over Israel. Remember that? He wanted to bless Esau rather than Jacob, despite the fact that God promised the seed would come through Jacob. Jacob (and through him the nation of Israel) was blessed no thanks to Isaac. Covenant succession is a scary thing as well as being an exciting thing.

It says, "Isaac begot Jacob." Jacob was a schemer, a liar. We will be seeing later in this genealogy that there are people who learned to cut off the sins of their ancestors. But Jacob picks up some of the family sins. Jews may not have had problems with his cheating Esau, but it was unthinkable to cheat and lie to one's own father. That was low.

It goes on: "and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers." Of all people to be in the line of Messiah, Judah is a very strange one. As a kid I kind of rooted for Joseph, and was disappointed that Judah got that privilege. In fact, what really bummed me out as a child was that God rewarded the scheming of Laban and Leah and had the Messiah come through Leah rather than through Rachael. You all know the story. Jacob falls in love with Rachael and asks her father Laban if he can marry her. Laban says, "Sure. But your dowry is that you have to work for me for seven years." And he worked his tail off. Jacob's love for Rachael was so great that the seven years seemed like nothing. And on the wedding night when he went to his tent to sleep with Rachael, it was dark, and he didn't notice that Laban had switched sisters and put Leah in the tent. Now don't tell me that Leah was not part of this scheming. She could have said something, and as a kid it made me mad that she didn't say anything. It ruined the love story. Now it's true that Jacob got to marry Rachael anyway, but a polygamist home is never a happy home. And because of the problems with these two sisters that he married, under Moses God made it a law that you could never marry your wife's sister while she was alive. The point is that God can bless you with covenant succession despite problems, but there are always consequences to your actions.

If you think you've got a tough home life, think of theirs. If you think you've got crummy in-laws, think about what it would be like to have a father-in-law like Laban, who constantly cheated Jacob, and after Jacob fled with what rightfully belonged to him, Laban came and would have killed him. Despite a warning from God, Laban still claimed that the daughters and flocks belonged to him. And yet God sovereignly used Leah to be a mother in Christ's genealogy. Remember, God is sovereign. We don't make up the story. We sometimes wish that we could make up the story and have Jacob marry Rachael and have them live happily every after. We sometimes wish that we could make up our own stories – perhaps to have married someone else; or to have had a different parent. But God is sovereign, and our job is not to buck against God's sovereignty, but to ask God how we can best glorify Him in the midst of our difficulties, and to improve upon this covenant succession with our children and grandchildren.

But let's go on. The Jews could have overlooked the fact that Judah was willing to visit a Canaanite harlot, and that he unknowingly committed incest in the process. But what must have seemed strange to the Jews is the way God would honor a man who first plotted to kill his brother Joseph, and then when the opportunity for money came up, sold his brother Joseph into slavery. Talk about a crummy brother. And what would be even more galling to a Jew, he married a Canaanite. So there is Judah. He had many good traits, but he picked up bad traits that the family had not had, through his mother. Evaluating marriage is so important to godly covenant succession.

But Mathew goes on: Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. For Jews, this is an embarrassing piece of history. Not only is Messiah a son of idolaters, adulterers and a man guilty of attempted fratricide, he was the son of an incestuous relationship. Tamar was the daughter in law of Judah. Perez was the result of incest. What a mess! But God is in the business of restoration.

The next set of names represent people who were born in the Egyptian captivity: Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab. These were generations that Joshua describes as having been caught in idolatry. Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. There was some godly heritage that had been laid up to the time of Perez. But godly heritages can be lost overnight if you are not diligent to guard your hearts and to pass on the faith.

Amminadab was initially a total unbeliever worshipping false gods. And you might think: "So much for covenant succession!" But he got saved out of Egypt. And so we see the mercy of God even when we blow it. Think about this: even though your parents might be unbelievers and you might think of yourself as a first generation believer, that may not be true. It would be good to do a little research and see if your great, great grandparent believed in covenant succession and was praying for his great, great, grandchildren. You see, covenant succession has the power to span and jump over generations.

But back to Amminadab - unfortunately, he brought into his family the worldview and thinking of Egypt. He did not have antithesis in his worldview, and he thought Moses was a legalist. He was one who feared danger, and he wanted to go back to the slavery of Egypt where there was financial security and good food. He was a prince who refused to conquer the land of Canaan and ended up dying in the wilderness under God's judgment. This genealogy is a genealogy that makes me pray daily for my kids. My dad prayed for us daily that we would not fall into the same fate. I don't want our children and our grandchildren losing their godly heritage. But frequently children don't see ten moves ahead; they don't value what they have; and within a few generations all is lost. If you are not moving forward, you are sliding backward.

The next two names represent great men of faith who have no tarnish to their names that I know of. Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Nahshon was a man who was passionate for God, and passionate for conquest, and was willing to sacrifice everything for God. And this is encouraging in that having a tarnished reputation is not a forgone conclusion for a Christian. God intends for us to be like those men. Nor was there anything wrong with the next name, though Jews would have cringed at having yet another Canaanite in the family tree of the Messiah. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. You remember the story of Rahab? She was a former harlot who turned to God, saved the spies lives and delivered the city of Jericho over to the Israelites. So Salmon married a Canaanite temple prostitute. But Scripture portrays that as a good thing. It shows the power of restoration.

But it seems that Matthew just continues to undermine the prideful arrogance of the Jews who were mainly looking at their outward pedigree, and were not looking at the heart. Any uninspired Jew who wrote this genealogy would have left out the names of these pagan women, but Matthew by inspiration does not. He says, "Boaz begot Obed by Ruth." Of course you remember the story. Ruth was a Moabite who Josephus says was the daughter of the hated king of Moab, the obese Eglon. When Ehud stabs a knife into Eglon's stomach in Judges chapter 3, everyone cheers. No one but God would have thought that God would have mercy upon a member of Eglon's household. But he did. It highlights, rather than diminishes His grace and mercy.

Through an unlawful marriage, God paints another beautiful portrait of how His grace works. It was not lawful for Chilion to marry Ruth, and Chilion ends up dying and leaving Ruth childless. But by God's grace, Ruth had soundly converted to the God of Israel. And if you have never read the book of Ruth, you need to. It is one of the fun stories in the Bible.

These names beautifully demonstrate how Christ identified with sinners and took them to himself, changing and purifying them. This first set of fourteen is also a testimony to the fact that in Abraham not only Jews, but all the families of the earth would be blessed. But it is also a testimony to the fact that we can never assume that we won't fall, or that our children won't fall. Covenant succession can only happen as we cling to Jesus.

Matthew goes on. Obed begot Jesse. Jesse was standing on his parents' shoulders. He wasn't great in the eyes of the world. In fact, commentators point out that when Saul calls David "the son of Jesse," it shows scorn for David because Jesse was a peasant. But Jesse was great in God's eyes. Christ was willing to associate with those of humble origins. And Jesse begot David the king. You already know about him. He was a man after God's own heart, but he certainly was not perfect. Verse 6 goes on to say, "David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah." Ouch! Why does God have to keep mentioning these things? It reminds everyone of David's murder, and of David's adultery. And it also shows that God is willing to associate with Hittites. Bathsheba's first husband was a converted Hittite. What a marvelous testimony to God's love.

This then is the heritage of David. What a list! There are heroes and there are sinners. And there was a lot of good that was passed on as well as a lot of sin. We see reversals and restorations. We see that God's grace can capture the worse of sinners. It captured an idolater, a kidnapper, a coward, a deceiver, a whore, an incestuous relationship, two Canaanites, a Moabitess, an adulterer, and a murderer. How would you like to have that as your family tree? The interesting thing about this is that the names of those who were for the most part considered OK in Jewish genealogies are just mentioned, whereas the names of people who would have been an embarrassment to a genealogy are highlighted and explained. Matthew by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wanted it to be unmistakably clear that Christ does not just associate with the righteous. Instead we find that He was a friend of publicans and sinners. He was not ashamed to associate with the worst of men and women. After all, it was for the purpose of saving men, women and children from such sins that Christ was born and died. So this genealogy leading up to David was preparing him to depend upon the Messiah alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. David knew that if God withdrew his grace for even a moment, he would be in trouble. And he learned to hunger for God and to depend upon God. The stories that were passed down did not teach him to be self-righteous, but to receive the righteousness of the coming Messiah.

The House of David (vv. 7-11)

When we get to the house of David we find David to be a man after God's own heart. He wasn't perfect any more than his ancestors were, but when he fell, he always repented, got up, and walked by grace again. You too can have a heart after God's own heart if you will do so. If you you're your sin as much as David did, and if you love God's grace as much as David did, God will powerfully use you.

And of course Solomon is mentioned here. He is a testimony to the fact that God can bring good out of bad sins. And even though he backslid through his wives, he later repented and showed another aspect of God's grace - restoration.

Verse 7 says, "Solomon begot Rehoboam… It was under Rehoboam that the kingdom was split into two to demonstrate for all time, that man cannot bring in the kingdom by His own efforts. Less than half of the southern kings were good, and some of the brightest spots came from people like Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. But over half of the southern kings were bad. They show how power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. They show how tyranny can result from establishing the kingdom apart from grace. The Gospel must penetrate politics. And if you aspire to politics, let me warn you, don't go into politics without daily asking God to show you your sins and putting them under the blood of Christ. Don't go into politics without a prayer cover of other godly saints. Do not think of going into politics if you have not developed a Biblical worldview and can instantly give answers from the Bible for politics. A magistrate is called by God to be a minister for Him, and you better be able to minister God's Word. Don't go into politics unless you have personally become successful in spiritual warfare against demons. This second set of names shows how vulnerable politicians are to corruption. Satan always goes after these power centers. They desperately need God's grace.

Count with your fingers and see if you can count the number of good kings in this list as I read them: "Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon."

If you counted five kings, you are correct. Eight of these were evil. And let me tell you a little secret about these good kings. Every one of them had a good mother and a good wife. And every one of the evil kings had either an evil wife or an evil mother, or both. The power of you women to influence the men for either good or bad is amazing. It is almost impossible to have covenant succession if both husband and wife are not one in the Lord. Malachi insists that this spiritual oneness in a marriage is essential. And then he says, "And why one? He seeks godly offspring?" (Mal. 2:15) In other words, He wants covenant succession.

So the application is, don't take marriages to covenant people for granted. Many covenant people abandon the faith. Many of these bad kings were covenant people who had never sanctified themselves in the small areas, and they ended up compromising in the big things. Some of these covenant people failed to take down the high places in their lives. They were good in many ways, but they didn't take down the high places. And what happened to their kids? Often the kids made things worse.

And so the marriage lesson is clear - just because a person professes to be a Christian does not make them marriage material. Many a godly wife in this list had to endure some very compromised husbands. So, young single men and women – make the most of these years to prepare yourself to be a godly partner, but also be in prayer for your future spouse right now. And engage in due diligence in your search for a spouse. You parents are a key to helping them to be objective in this matter of courtship and romance. Too many times young people give their hearts away even though they see problems. When a young man asked if he could court Jonathan's Edward's daughter, Edwards said "No." When he asked, "Why? Am I not godly enough?" Edwards responded – "She is not godly enough for you." He kept working with his daughters long after they were eighteen. Discipleship should not stop when your kids graduate from highschool. Where do you see that in the Bible?

So back to our sections of fourteen - the first section had sinners yes, but for the most part they were sinners who were overcoming their sin, who were being transformed into the image of Christ, who like David wept over their sins and resolved not to sin again. The difference between the first section and the second section is that almost half of the people in the second section did not care. Manasseh was perhaps the worst. If I were Manasseh's son, I would have refused to allow my children to go to his palace by themselves. No way. I think that kind of contact would have been disastrous. He was one of the worst kings. But after Manasseh was exiled, there was repentance and a change. There was a change with Jeconiah as well. So there can be hope for Biblical change in our country despite the fact that we have more Manassehs than Davids.

The Descendants Leading up to Jesus, the Son of David (vv. 12-17)

But let's end by looking at the exile and beyond. The exile itself was a discipline of God to restore the people to righteousness. And our nation may have to face some intense persecution and other forms of judgment before the church wakes up and repents. Those were very discouraging times. Yet God was always faithful to His promise to David. And it is such covenant promises that we can lay claim to as well. Verse 12 says, "And after they were brought back to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel." Jeconiah was counted once in verse 11 and again in verse 12 because of how radically different his life had become. He was banished from the throne and cast into prison in Babylon. But God changed him around so that he was elevated above the other kings in Babylon. Jeremiah 52 talks about that (Jer. 52:31-34). And this is the beginning of an upward swing in this whole line of David. In fact, this is the most encouraging part of this genealogy. These men had finally learned the valuable lesson of covenant succession. Covenant succession is faithfully passing the faith from one generation to the next, and to the next, and to the next, without any stop. It's not enough to be a good guy like David if you lose your family. The men in this last section of the genealogy learned their ancestors that you cannot take your children for granted. They learned about the mess you can have with multiple wives. They learned about how important it is take care of your own household before you try to fix culture. They learned how important it is to catch the hearts of your children before they grow up. They learned of the power of God's grace to make generation after generation of godly descendants. David wanted that, but he messed up by failing to discipline and train his children in the fear and nurture of the Lord. But discipleship of your kids is a dad's most important work.

These men start a long line of men who are true to God and who take the pursuit of righteousness seriously. Covenant succession can happen. Jonathan's Edwards family is a modern example of how every child in multiple generations can love God with all their hearts and be used by God to powerfully impact culture.

Well, let's look at a couple of these names. Zerubbabel is described as being as close to God as a signet ring. So the beginning of the line starts with righteousness during troublous times and the line ends with Joseph who was a righteous man in troublous times. The praise of God is achieved in terms of faithfulness to Him and the kingdom of God comes in terms of faithfulness to God. Their goal was not to win elections. Their ultimate goal was to be faithful to God and to leave it up to God what the results would be.

I think this too can be a lesson to us. It matters not if we are unknown and insignificant like the carpenter Joseph. It matters not if we are in times of peace (as in the days of Zerubbabel) or in times of war (as during the Maccabean war). What matters is that we are faithful to serve God where we are and we are willing to pass our faith on to our children to the best of our ability. There is no reason why your children cannot stand on your shoulders and go beyond what you have been able to accomplish if you will empower them, give them tools, teach them to avoid your mistakes, disciple them to think Biblically in every area of life, read books on worldview and theology, give them a heritage, help them keep out of debt, have a full-orbed picture of what the covenant is all about, and teach them about covenant succession.

Conclusion

In conclusion let me say that if our church could have the faith of Abraham, the tender and passionate heart of David, the antithesis of Zerrubbabel, and the humility of Joseph; if we could stand on these men's shoulders and learn from them, we would have a Christianity to be envied indeed. I hope this big picture overview has given you an appreciation for what God was looking for when he rejected Saul and looked for a faithful king. Let's pray.

Charge: Brothers and sisters, you might be impressed with the progress that was made in David's family over a period of 2000 years of mostly believing children. That's 42 generations. But I want you to set your sights higher. God's promise is to be faithful to 1000 generations of those who love Him. Commit yourself to covenant succession and do everything you can to achieve it.