When the wise men arrived in Jerusalem seeking the young Jesus, they were looking for a King. “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” they inquired of Herod. “For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). Many years later, the people who witnessed the miracle of the loaves and fishes tried to force a crown onto Jesus (John 6:15). Though that attempt to make the Messiah king was rebellious and self-serving, they weren’t entirely wrong. Jesus did come to be king. The wise men weren’t the first ones to identify Him as royalty, either. His title is much older than that.
The first indication that God would send a promised King is very early in Scripture. In fact, it is the subject of the second clear prophecy about the Messiah. In Genesis 49:10 Jacob names Judah as the tribe from which Israel’s kings would eventually come. These human kings, in turn, pointed to the coming of One called Shiloh, “and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” He would be the One that all people who claimed the name of the Lord would gather to.
Later, in Numbers 24:17, God fills the pagan prophet Baalam’s mind with blessings concerning Israel. Specifically, he described how a Star and a Scepter “shall rise out of Israel” to defeat the nation’s enemies. Once more, this prophecy pointed to David, the first Judean king, and any of his royal descendants who would also reign righteously. Two things are important to notice. First, faithful kings were identified by their ability to establish peace by defeating their enemies. Second, God was teaching His people to long for permanent faithful, victorious royalty.
As we have already seen, this idea of the Messiah being a king is prominent in the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. When Gabriel first visited Mary to announce her conception, he made this promise: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
To better understand the significance of Jesus being King, let’s go back to the very first prophecy of Jesus in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15. God indicated that there would be two rival factions, two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Throughout the OT we see this animosity play out. There is underlying enmity between God’s people and their enemies, such as Cain, the Philistines, the Edomites, Haman, or Sanballat and Tobiah, and in some ways the Romans. God was teaching His people to anticipate a great deliverer. One very clear example is in Luke 1. After the birth of John the Baptist, Zechariah’s mouth was opened. His overflow of praise included thanksgiving to the Lord for raising up “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,” that is, through the kingly line. Zechariah anticipated that, through God's work in the line of David, “we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us…that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:69-75). Part of God’s plan for His people was deliverance from enemies.
To summarize the prophecies about Jesus, God said that the final King from David’s line would bring to conclusion the strife between God’s people and God’s enemies.
Jesus explicitly spoke about how His victory at the cross would defeat God’s enemy, the devil. Speaking of His death in John 12:31, He said that “now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” He would cast out the world’s wicked prince by being lifted up from the earth and drawing all men to Himself (John 12:32). Though Jesus was both popular and controversial during His ministry, it was the Cross that truly revealed Him as the King of the Ages. It was also the Cross that dealt the death wound to the serpent’s head.
In this time after the Cross, there are still two spiritual kingdoms: one ruled by God’s enemy, and one under the authority of the King of Kings. Colossians says that the Father “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Additionally, we now look forward to the promise that Jesus, “having made peace through the blood of his cross,” is now working to “reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:20-23). One day, Christ will bring an end to all wickedness and the strife it causes, when all things are completely reconciled to God’s plans.
Before the coming of Jesus, the words of Isaiah 26:1-2 probably seemed unachievable. “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; ‘We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.’” Not even Israel could call itself a righteous nation, so how could a city of salvation and joy be populated? The answer is that Jesus Christ has made those who trust in Him righteous, to serve Him, as Zechariah proclaimed, “without fear in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:75). He is King, because He is our righteousness.
This Christmas, we shouldn’t forget that we are servants of the King who has come. He came to bring salvation and blessing, to crush Satan’s head, and to purchase a people for Himself with His blood. The Lord will come again, and He will have the victory. Christmas reminds us of it.
The above article was written by Jonathan Kyser. He is a pastoral assistant at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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