new church life : november / december 2016
worst of them was King Jehoram , son-in-law of Ahab ( who was himself one of the worst if not the very worst king in the history of Israel ). And although Jehoram , “ walked in the way of the kings of Israel , just as the house of Ahab had done . . . and he did evil in the sight of Jehovah ” yet , “ Jehovah was not willing to destroy Judah , for the sake of David his servant . . . to give to him a lamp for his sons all the days .” ( II Kings 8 : 18-19 )
A few generations later , King Amaziah did better , but only somewhat better . He “ did what was upright in the eyes Jehovah , only not as David his father .” ( II Kings 14 : 3 ) In the end , after some 20 kings in the house of David , there were only two , near the end of the line , who were described as measuring up to David . These two great kings ( both of whom courageously attempted a revolution of doing away with pagan worship and returning to the sole worship of Jehovah ) were Hezekiah (“ he did that which was upright in the eyes of Jehovah , according to all that David his father had done ”) ( II Kings 18 : 3 ), and Josiah (“ . . . he did what was upright in the eyes of Jehovah , and walked in all the ways of David his father .” ( II Kings 22 : 2 )
King David had reigned in Israel for 40 years , but these last paragraphs showing how his memory continued and his legend was sustained , depict a strong influence for more like 400 years . Despite the reforms of the great and David-like kings Hezekiah and Josiah , Judah also fell to the Babylonians .
Later , the prophet Zechariah , who was part of the restoration of Jerusalem and the first rebuilding of the temple under the Persians , does make reference to the house of David in his prophecies ( e . g . “ . . . the house of David shall be as God .” ( Zechariah 12 : 8 ) But still about 500 years go by without a Scriptural record of how David and his royal line were spoken or thought of .
But then ( as we see in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke ) the angel Gabriel came to old Zacharias the priest , taking his turn burning incense in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem , and when Gabriel ’ s promise was realized and Zacharias ’ s wife Elizabeth bore a son named John , we see in Zacharias ’ s words that the memory of “ the house of David ” had not dimmed and if anything would soon be restored and raised to even greater , unimagined glory : “ Blessed is the Lord God of Israel , for He has visited and worked redemption for His people , and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David .” ( Luke 1 : 68-69 )
We know from both genealogy in Matthew 1 and in the account in Luke 2 of Joseph and Mary ’ s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem , that Joseph was “ of the house and lineage of David .” The Lord had no earthly father , so it is probably well that we tend to think of Joseph as a just but humble man . But his role in the story is an important one , and not just as one who facilitated key events .
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