Davidic Covenant: The Coniah curse.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

GEN 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The Davidic Covenant says that the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ, will descend from the tribe of Judah through the family of David, 2SA 7:8-17; PSA 89:20-37.

The two lines of our Lord originated from David and Bathsheba. Their son Solomon’s line, given in Matthew, ends with Joseph, the legal but not real father of our Lord’s humanity.

This is another reason for the virgin birth. Solomon’s line had a curse upon it because of one of His descendants named Jeconiah, also called Jehoiachin and then eventually called Coniah.

His kingship lasted for only 3 months and 10 days before he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, who took him to Babylon and imprisoned him for 36 years when he was finally released.

The Coniah curse is when our Lord said Coniah will never ever have a son that will rule in fulfillment of the Davidic dynasty’s great covenant, the Davidic covenant.

This is why we have two lineages in the Gospels. Nathan’s line, found in Luke, ends with Mary, the source of the true humanity of Christ. Solomon’s line, given in Matthew, ends with Joseph, the legal but not real father of our Lord’s humanity.

Joseph is the surrogate or representative, but not the real father of the humanity of
Jesus Christ.

Satan thought he had defeated God by perverting the line of David, but Satan had no idea how the virgin birth would fit into the plan of God magnificently and bring glory to God.

As JER 49:16 and OBA 1:3 both say, "The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,"

JER 50:32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to raise him up;

Coniah was 18 when he succeeded his father, and was king of Judah for three months and ten days; the 20th king from David.

Judah was invaded and judged for their NVTD for three or four years by the Chaldaean, the Ammonites, and the Moabite armies sent by Nebuchadnezzar (as Jehovah’s executioner of judgment) in consequence of Jehoiakim’s, Coniah’s father, for his rebellion toward God.

If there is no response to the first four cycles of discipline, God eventually removes that client nation from history.

Negative volition, apostasy, and passive arrogance or indifference creates the vacuum which attracts the persecution of active arrogance and historical disaster.

Evil demands evil and cruelty demands cruelty, and therefore arrogance demands the function of active arrogance against it.

The ten horns and the beast represent political and historical degeneracy in the Tribulation period.

The harlot or the prostitute represents religious degeneracy.

If a client nation reaches the point of religious degeneracy, then some other nation will wipe it out.

Political degeneracy persecutes and destroys religious degeneracy.

However, when divine judgment falls on a nation, the pivot is secure.

Therefore, while the pivot is secure, the spin-off of apostate believers is always destroyed by historical catastrophe.

If the pivot is too small and the spin-off is too large, then the nation is destroyed.

While the nation is destroyed, the pivot is preserved through the disaster, ISA 28:5-6.

ISA 28:5 In that day [the day of divine judgment] the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown and a glorious diadem to the remnant of his people;

ISA 28:6 A spirit of justice for him who executes justice [the believer who is a part of the pivot], a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

The book of Lamentations was written by a believer who was a part of the pivot in Israel, and who observed as his people were being taken into slavery.

By destroying the great spin-off of apostates, the Lord protects future generations of history from evil, apostasy, and tyranny.

Historical crisis and disaster is the means of cleansing a nation from the spin-off of evil.

The divine destruction of the spin-off is therefore comparable to a national rebound.

If large enough, the pivot is the means of delivering a nation under discipline, either from or through the historical disaster.

The example is Judah in 701 BC during the Sennacherib invasion; the consistent ministry of Isaiah turned the tide in Judah.

ISA 28:9-10 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

When all the establishment means of deliverance fail, response to Bible teaching is the last hope.

Josiah was king; his second son, Jehoiakim, was made what they called a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar after the fourth cycle of discipline at the battle of Carchemish.

In JER 36:29-31,
his death was prophesied.

His son was Coniah, who in 597 BC ruled for three months and ten days. He was made a prisoner for thirty-six years.

This curse was fulfilled with the virgin birth, when Joseph (from Solomon and Coniah’s line) became the legal but not the real father.

That’s another reason Matthew traces Solomon’s line of the genealogy of Christ through Joseph, and Luke traces Nathan’s line of genealogy of Christ through Mary, 1CH 3:5 cf LUK 3:23-38.

God had to devise a plan by which He would be the legal heir of the throne, but He would not be in the line of David descending through Jeconiah or Coniah.