Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah in Isaiah 11:1-2:

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of Yehovah will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yehovah."

Jesse was the Father of David. David was the second king of Israel. Luke tells us that Jesus descended from Jesse (Luke 3:23, 32), that the spirit descended upon Jesus (Luke 4:18) and the Apostle John tells us in Revelation 2:17 and 12:5 that when Jesus comes back to earth that He will rule with a rod of iron.

Jesse was an unknown person. He was not the head of a royal family, but God made him the father of a king, David, putting him in the royal Messianic line. Matthew’s genealogy mentions David’s name five times and his name dominates the Old Testament appearing fifty-eight times.^220/55 God assured David in 2 Samuel 7:16 that his throne would endure forever and that the increase of his government would have no end in Isaiah 9:7. The fulfillment of these promises will come about through Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, when He returns and establishing His rule among men forever. Micah wrote in Micah 5:2, and 4 concerning the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ:

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity. . . . And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of Yehovah, In the majesty of the name of Yehovah His Elohim. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth."

*Jesus Christ’s Genealogy According
    to Matthew & Luke

The Gospel’s of Matthew and Luke list Genealogies giving evidence that Jesus comes from the prophecied line of the Messiah. Luke’s genealogy gives us evidence that Mary and Joseph are relatives and truly of the line of Judah and David, lines through which the Messiah had to come (Luke 2:4).

Luke lists all 74 generations. Matthew lists one generation in fourteen. W. Graham Scroggie comments concerning this:

"Luke tells us that Joseph was the son of Heli, and it is conjectured with much probability that Mary was the daughter of Jacob. If it is assumed that Jacob, having no son, adopted Joseph, his nephew and heir, we see that Mary married a relation, and that she, as well as Joseph, was descended from David, Joseph in the line of Solomon, and Mary, his wife in the line of Nathan."^220/49

Why do we have two different genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels? Both genealogies show the descent of Joseph: Matthew shows his real descent and Luke his legal descent. Matthew shows Joseph’s legal descent to the throne of David. Luke shows his real parentage.

Both were needed to prove that redemption was no after thought on God’s part, but designed from the beginning. In Matthew’s list, Abraham and David are singled out to prove the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies to Abraham 2,000 years before, and to David 1,000 years before. Luke takes us back to Adam, the father of the human race and brings the first Adam and the last Adam together - the two federal heads—Adam, of the human race; Christ, the Head of a redeemed people, His Church. In Adam we die, in Christ we are made alive. "So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, was created a living soul.’ The last Adam into a life giving Spirit." (1 Cor 15:45)

The period from Abraham to David is that of the patriarchs; from David to the Babylonian captivity, that of kings; and from the captivity to Christ, that of private individuals. The first and second periods have notable beginnings, but the third does not. It is the period of captivity because of sin and rebellion; yet it ends with the Messiah who came to set prisoners free. During the third period the people were a hierarchy with priests as mediators. Israel’s history is exhibited through these three periods: growth, decline, ruin; her utter failure pointing to the need of redemption through Jesus Christ who heads each genealogy.

Luke gives us 41 descendants from David whereas Matthew only gives us 27. Matthew is tracing only heirs to the throne and so only comments on descendants that are recognized since "the heir of my heir is my heir." Others are omitted for spiritual reasons. For example: Simeon is omitted in Moses’ blessing on account of his cruelty (Deut 33) and Dan is excluded because of his idolatry (Rev 7:4-8).

A comparison of the two genealogies reveals the different standpoints of the genealogists. For instance: Matthew is writing for Jews and so gives Jesus’ legal descent and shows that He is the King of Israel. Luke is writing to Gentiles and therefore gives the natural descent. Matthew lists the descendents’ names downward from Abraham who is the father of the Jews, but also the spiritual father of the Gentiles (Gen 17:5, Rom 4:16-17). Luke, on the other hand, lists his names upward from Christ to Adam "who was the son of God" and both father of the Gentiles as well as the Jews who were all sinners alike (Rom 5:19). Luke writes of Christ as the Son of Man. Matthew presents Jesus as the legal and royal heir to the promises and prophecies given to Abraham and David. Luke shows the line of Mary which shows Jesus’ blood or physical descent as the "seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3). Matthew focuses on Jesus the King whereas Luke focuses on Jesus’ humanity. Both writers witness to the virgin birth of Jesus and His deity.

Mark and John do not give space to these genealogies for the following reasons: Mark’s task was to present Jesus as the true Servant of Yehovah. A servant is a slave and no one keeps or cares about the genealogy of a slave. John leaves out any record of Jesus’ human descent because he believed his purpose in writing the Gospel of John was to establish that Jesus was Yehovah Elohim God in the flesh. Jesus had no beginning and his existence goes before any earthly genealogy of men to record. The four Gospels show Jesus as King, Servant, Man and God.

Up until the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans, the Jews had an exhaustive genealogy of every person in their twelve tribes complete back to Adam. Thus Jesus’ being a candidate for the Messiah was easily proved. This is the reason why Matthew and Luke in their Gospels record Jesus’ genealogy. Christianity is based on the fulfillment of God’s prophecies to us of the coming Messiah to save us from our sins given to us in the book of Genesis. This is why for the past 150 years Satan has worked so hard to try and discredit the book of Genesis through the Documentary Hypothesis, Higher Criticism, and all that is related which is the discussion of Chapter 7. He has done this because he knows that if he can convince man that the book of Genesis is just made up, then man won’t take the teaching of the book of Genesis seriously. If man does not take the teachings of Genesis seriously then neither will he take his need of Jesus as Savior and Lord seriously. The end result will be that man will not be saved.

Jesus Himself said that this would be the end result in John 5:46-47. He said, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" Jesus said that if we do not take as absolute truth all that Moses wrote in the book of Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch that we will not take what He says as absolute truth or His salvation for us seriously either. Jesus said that Moses was writing about Him? Who was Moses writing about? He was writing about Yehovah Elohim, the one and only true God. Therefore, Jesus in making this statement was claiming that He was Yehovah Elohim, the only true God Himself in the flesh.

How do we know that what Moses wrote and that what Jesus said are absolutely true and that our salvation depends on accepting their teachings? When Jesus was asked by His enemies what his proof to His claims were, he looked them straight in the face and said,

"Kill Me! I will stay dead for three days and then I will come back from the dead to prove to you that I really am the author and creator of life, Yehovah Elohim in the flesh who Moses wrote about, and that I really am the promised Messiah: Jesus Christ your Creator and Savior from Your sins." (See John 2:18-22)

They did kill him. He did stay dead for three days and on the third day, with more than 512 witness, He came back physically from the dead (1 Cor 15). Genesis is absolutely true and according to Jesus is to be taken as absolutely true truth historically, genealogically, theologically, scientifically and cosmologically. This means that the heavens and the earth were created in six literal 24-hour days, not that they evolved over billions of years. It also means that the heavens, earth and man have only been in existence for the past 6,000 years, not millions or billions of years. Jesus also said, however, that if you do not take the book of Genesis literally in all that it teaches about the creation of the cosmos and man in six literal 24-hour days, the fall of man, the destruction of man through a world wide flood and all other recorded events in the Pentateuch, that you will not believe anything He says as absolutely true truth either. You know what? Jesus was right. People who deny the literal historical record of Genesis also deny that Jesus is God who came down from heaven and became flesh. They deny He is fully God and fully Man. Because they deny His divinity, they also logically reject His teachings and as a result reject Him as Savior and Lord of their lives.

If you do not take the book of Genesis literally, you won’t take Jesus literally either. If you don’t take Genesis literally then you won’t take Jesus literally as being your Messiah and Savior from your sins. And if you do not take this literally, you won’t turn to Jesus as Your Messiah and Savior to be saved from your sins. If you don’t receive Jesus as Savior from your sins and as Lord over Your life, you will not be saved. If you are not saved you cannot go to heaven. If you remain in this state of mind until you die, you will go to a Christless hell forever and ever and ever with no possible means of ever being able to be redeemed. The writer of the Book of Hebrews states, "And inasmuch as it is laid up for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Heb 9:27). Once You die in this condition, no redemption is possible.

Jesus did come back from the dead. He did prove that all that He said and taught and all that Moses said and recorded are absolutely true truth. Evolution is a lie and all it teaches. Modern secular psychology is a lie. Our modern secular educational system is a lie. The Bible is true! Jesus came back physically alive from the dead to prove that it is true. Darwin and all his followers did not. They are dead and in the grave. Theirs is an inferior science compared to Jesus’. I choose to follow Jesus and all that He taught. How about you? He taught that what Moses taught was absolutely true truth. To claim to be a follower of Jesus is to claim to believe that what Moses wrote in the Book of Genesis is literally true truth in all it teaches and affirms.

If you want to be successful in Evangelism, you first have to start by emphasizing that Genesis is literal historical truth. If you don’t start with this truth, you have no basis for proving that Jesus’ claims about Himself and His salvation for us is true. If you cannot establish this then neither can you convince the people you are talking to that they need to receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Why? Because Jesus said if they do not believe Moses they won’t believe or accept Him either. Reject the literal historical teaching of Genesis in your presentation of the Gospel and our claim of their need to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord falls to the ground.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the book of Genesis are true! How do we know? Because Jesus came back from the dead to prove that the writings of Moses and His teachings ARE absolutely true truth to base life and society on. To take any other position will not lead to the truth. They will lead to death and hell. The Apostle John wrote,

"WHEN THEREFORE HE WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture [Old Testament], and the Word which Jesus had spoken [New Testament]." (John 2:22)

1. Lockyer, Herbert. All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, Copyright © 1973 by Hebert Lockyer.
2. McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Vol. 1. San Bernardino: Here’s Life Publishers, 1979.