About this sermon
Matthew’s genealogy continues with Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham did right but left the high places; Ahaz was one of Judah’s worst kings; Hezekiah one of its best. A quiet, faithful life like Jotham’s is no failure. Faith is not inherited: faithful parents can have faithless children and the reverse, and covenant children must believe for themselves. Through this mixed line came Christ, descended from David according to the flesh and declared Son of God in power by his resurrection, humiliation leading to exaltation.
Sermon transcript
Please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1 and to a parallel passage, 2 Kings 15. We’ll read just a few verses from Matthew chapter 1, continuing to read through the genealogy. And we will also read 2 Kings 15, 32 on through 16-4. Today we read the New Testament first. Please give careful attention. This is the Word of our God.
The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Turning to 2 Kings. 1532. In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, became king. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Only the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
In those days, the Lord began to send Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, against Judah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Ahaz, his son, became king in his place. In the 17th year of Pekah, the son of Remeliah, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel. He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
That ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word. May it be a blessing to us, both in its read and in its preached form. Let us ask for grace that that might be the case. Heavenly Father, We thank you for this opportunity to sit under the ministry of your word, and we ask that you would cause us to be rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful, obedient son. We ask, oh Lord, that you would cause us to rejoice because of the forgiveness of sins. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. In God’s providence, I have not had many opportunities of late to preach in the mornings, and so we have taken a little bit of a break from Matthew’s genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we are, back at it again.
Today, as God’s providence would have it, the next name on the list is Jotham. Jotham, who was a righteous king of Judah. He ruled over the southern tribe of the Hebrews. He ruled over Judah. We have had opportunity to study many of the other kings in this list, and I hope that as a result of that, the names of these kings are a little bit more familiar to you.
And I hope that you recognize them a little bit better than you did previously. Each one of these kings has a story to tell, each one of these people. And many of them, the story that they have to tell, or the story that’s told about them, has to do with something that points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the people that we’ve done in the past, in the past weeks, have led very, very interesting lives, significant enough for their lives to be shared with us. But if you were listening carefully to the reading that we did of 2 Kings and the life of Jotham, you may have been struck by nothing at all. Because Jotham, his life seems to be somewhat simple and somewhat basic.
We read about him coming to his kingship at the age of 25. We read that he reigned for 16 years. That’s common things that we read in the other kings. We read that his mother is Jerusha, who is in a holy priestly line. the line of Zadok, and we read that he lived a life that was right according to God. Now, when we read this, we don’t understand that to say that he was perfect at all, but this was a believer. This is one who trusted and had faith in God like Abraham did, but he was not perfect.
We read that he was very much like his father Uzziah. We read in Chronicles a similar passage that tells us about Jotham as well. We read that he was just like his father Uzziah, being faithful to the Lord. But he did not do. that deed that Uzziah did. And you may remember what Uzziah did. Uzziah lived for 52 years as a faithful king and the Lord blessed him. But in the latter years, he became arrogant. And what he did was to go into the temple and try to burn incense there. He tried to do the thing that only the priest is allowed to do. And in doing that, he was struck with leprosy. Just one red mark against that King Uzziah.
52 years of faithfulness, but one wrong answer right there. We read about him that Jotham did just as his father did, except for that one little thing where he went in and became leprous because he took upon himself priestly duties. Jotham was not a fully faithful man. He did not execute his office as well as he could be. Faithful, but a failure in some ways. We read that there was still paganism going on in the land. We’re not told the reasons why Jotham didn’t go the extra mile.
He certainly would have been within his right when he saw all of this idolatry and all of this wrong to speak out against it and put an end to it. He could have done that, and he should have done that. We have to wonder, was it the fear of man that he did not go that extra mile? He would not have been found as popular.
He might have had some drama in his life if he had gone the extra mile because the false priests would have fought against him. But we see then that this king lives a relatively simple life. drama free with no major stories. Yes, there began to be wars during his lifetime, but they just began to be. And those wars are not worth mentioning in great detail. When we read Jotham, we don’t read about one who has these interesting facts that stick in our minds. He doesn’t have major sins like King David.
King David, we remember seeing a woman showering upon her, a roof of her house, and him taking her to be his, having the husband of that woman put to death. and a prophet Nathan coming to him, telling him a parable, and David taking the bait, and David saying, this man must die. And Nathan saying, you are that man. You are the person who sinned in the way that I just described. And David realizing that and putting that into a psalm, Psalm 51.
We don’t have these fascinating things going on with Jotham. We don’t have about the wisdom of Solomon, like we do with the wisdom of Solomon, where Solomon’s wisdom was known throughout the ancient world so that people came to him to hear him and to see his kingdom. We don’t have that. We don’t have the fascinating facts about Jotham like we do about his father, that he was struck down with leprosy. I don’t think you’d be out of line to say it seems as if Jotham lived a bit of a boring life. Well, I would just ask you if that’s so bad.
Would you prefer a life of drama upon drama? Or The simplicity of a life in faithfulness certainly could have been more faithful, could have been stronger, could have opposed sin in greater ways, but lived a very casual life, a simpler life. Is it so bad to have a boring life? To live your life Going to work, going to school, worshipping God, and then for six more days, going back into work or for school, and then returning to worship again. Is that so bad?
Some people would look at that and they would think, that’s just, there’s no action there. But it seems to me, What a wonderful way to live life without that much drama. Certainly life always has good things happening in it. The simple things, the things that come to be appreciated. Getting married if God calls you to that and having children if God calls you to that. Certainly events that are not boring, but we wouldn’t call them drama either. Living a simple life of faithfulness to God.
I put that forward to you as not something that you ought to find discontentment in, but great contentment. Now that’s not to say that if someone lives a life with drama in it, that that person is out of God’s will or anything like that. It certainly is the case that living a life of sin will cause you to live a life of great drama. But that’s not always the case.
There are many people who try to live a humble and simple, quiet, pious life, and they’re constantly aggravated by those around them because of it. Read the psalmist and the way that the psalmist is just trying to serve God, but his enemies are coming against him. Certainly the case for preachers as well, those who are called to confront people in their sins and to risk the consequences Oftentimes there can be drama in those sorts of circumstances.
Certainly in the life of Jotham, there would have been more interest if he had gone the extra mile and pushed out all of the paganism and the false religion out of that land. And he should have. All things told, life can be relatively drama-free. And God blesses what may seem to some, though, as a boring life. And God will say to many people who live a life not making history, not seeking to be known, just keeping their nose down, worshiping God and praising Him and working But after reading about this life of Jotham, relatively eventless, we read about Ahaz. Now there’s a man who lives a life that there’s a lot to say about it.
For Ahaz was a wicked king, and we You can read about all the events of Ahaz’s life. He comes up in a number of places in Scripture. You may remember the prophet Isaiah, when the prophet Isaiah is talking to a king, and the prophet Isaiah gives a prophecy of the Christ, of the Messiah.
It’s Ahaz that he’s dealing with. We read that Ahaz was a wicked man who introduced paganism back into Judah in a way that it had not known before. Ahaz tries to make the southern kingdom to reflect the northern kingdom with all of its paganism. And we also read about Ahaz, the way that he sacrifices his son. We don’t need to talk about the other details of his life. It is this sacrificing of his son. We read about the way that he caused his son to pass through the fire.
This is an awful thing for someone to do. To take a child and desire to please a God, something that the God of Abraham and David have not required. To try to appease a God by making a child into a burnt offering. See the difference between these two men, Jotham. Simple, quiet life. and Ahaz, sacrificing his own dear son that was not dear to him. When we speak of Ahaz, we are speaking of a cruel and heartless man. A man who did not share the understanding that the psalmist had.
That understanding that we read about in Psalm 127, that children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. How glorious it is to see a family of whatever size, but the Old Testament understanding is that the bigger the better. Each child is like an arrow. And each one is in the quiver. And I have so many arrows in my quiver. How glorious and how wonderful. Because children are a blessing. They’re not simply an inconvenience. They’re not simply a pain. They’re a blessing. And this man did a wicked deed. He does not understand the significance of children. For him, a child is just a tool to get the attention of the gods. Ahaz was an awful man. What should be our assessment of this situation then? Of these two kings? How can such a simple, righteous man give birth to such a wicked son? Is there something wrong with the parents? I want to say yes and no to that.
How can any faithful, believing parent give birth to a demonic child like Ahaz was? When I say that parents, there’s something wrong and that there’s not something wrong, I mean that both ways. There is something wrong with each and every parent because each and every parent bears upon himself the imputation of the sins of the first Adam. Each parent is a sinner. and is not fully faithful to God in every single way. Every parent, when their child leaves the house, will say, there were things I could have done better. There were sins I committed that I have confessed.
But the answer to the question if there is something wrong with the parents who give birth to a poisonous viper such as Ahaz is no. In many instances, no. There may be nothing wrong with a parent. They may be raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord as best as they know how.
Teaching this child the Bible and the catechism But for some reason, this child grows up and becomes faithless. And it is a great burden to the parent. It certainly is strange the way that a faithful parent can give birth and have a child who becomes faithless later on. But it’s also strange that a faithless parent can have children who grow up to be believers, who serve the Lord with great zeal and love. How are we to assess this?
Clearly, our faith in God is not passed down to our children genetically. These things are of the Lord. And we call upon him to have mercy upon all of our children and to have mercy upon all of the covenant children in our church. We are like Jotham, sons of Adam, imperfect people who at best would give birth to imperfect children. We are born in sin and so are our children, immediately in need of God’s saving grace. But while on the pages of Holy Writ we see Jotham and Ahaz, an imperfect father begetting an imperfect son, we look with eyes of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ and upon His Father. For an imperfect father can only bring about an imperfect son, but a perfect father can bring about a perfect son. And on the pages of scripture, we see what the creed summarizes for us as the one who was begotten, not made of one substance with the father.
God the Father, perfect in every way. God the Son, perfect in every way. And this is a mystery. Our God is a mystery. We know what begetting is. It’s having children. The concept though, of eternal begetting. The concept of eternal begottenness is something that is beyond our comprehension. God the Father eternally bringing forth the Son. What a great mystery this is. But taken from the Creed, which is taken from the words of Scripture, Jesus Christ was a perfect Son. And when I say perfect here, I mean perfect in every sense of His being. Perfect in His essence. Perfect in His ontological status. Perfect in who He was. Perfection was an attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father begat the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, of her substance, yet without sin. Unlike Ahaz, though Christ was an obedient son, Christ was a perfect son. Christ did not have a sin nature as we do, though he came in the likeness of our sinful flesh. Christ was perfect, and when I speak here, I’m not talking about His essence, His being, I’m talking about in terms of His perfect obedience to the Father.
The law of God is laid out for the Hebrew people. And Jesus Christ is a perfect law keeper. He fully kept the positive aspects of the Old Testament law. There is not one thing that was undone by him. And the negative aspects of the law, the sin aspects, don’t do this. Christ avoided every single one of those.
No sin was committed by Christ and no good work was omitted Such an obedient son deserves a great reward. The greatest reward that could ever be given. But what is the reward for Christ’s faithfulness in His life? The reward for the faithful life of Christ is three nails and a crown of thorns. His reward is to be made naked in naked shame for the world to see hanging upon a cross. My God! My God!
Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning? Why did God forsake His Son, the eternally begotten, perfect One, perfect in eternity past, and perfect in this life? Was it because of disobedience? No! He receives this because of His perfect obedience.
In fact, Jesus Christ going to the cross and suffering that He did, and in the way that He did, was only the furtherance of this obedient Son, faithful in all things, faithful even to the cross and to the greatest humiliation and pain that has ever been known or could be known.
And we have our hope in Him, because without our faith in a crucified Messiah like Him, we have no hope. But with faith in a crucified Savior like that, we have the guarantee of eternal life, for we are His bride. Confess the Lord and the truth shall set you free. Our catechism tells us that Jesus had a state of humiliation and a state of exaltation. And this is such a helpful way to summarize the life of Jesus Christ in redemptive history.
Christ’s humiliation is His being born of the Virgin Mary and His living the life that He lived, a meager, humble existence. I would say probably boring for about 30 years. living a life of no consequence to many, it seems. But he was being faithful to God through the whole way, but it was a life of humiliation. For one who is worthy of infinite heavenly glory, this is such a low condescension. He stooped so low That his whole life is a humiliation until he goes to the cross. And the humiliation that he received before that did not compare with the cross.
But Christ was exalted! And so we have our catechism telling us about Christ’s exaltation, which is His resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His sitting at the right hand of the Father there, and everything that comes after it. Humiliation unto glorious exaltation. That’s the incarnate life of our Savior. The book of Romans opens up telling us about Christ’s humiliation and His exaltation. And you may go there with me if you want in our closing moments.
Romans chapter 1, 3 and 4. Very briefly, I want you to see the way that Paul just summarizes what our catechism tells us. Because our catechism oftentimes, the concepts, if not the words, come straight out of the Bible. It talks about Jesus Christ in Romans 1, 3 and 4. And it talks about the Father. in the preceding verses. The Father and the Son, and what the prophets told, and it says concerning God’s Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.
That is His humiliation. Everything else in Christ’s humiliation can be subsumed under that. But verse 4, His glorification and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. The life of the incarnate Christ. Humiliation and exaltation. I want to say infinite humiliation and infinite exaltation. because Jesus Christ was infinitely high and he came so low.
But when Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, his resurrected body and the person that he is, is not less glorious than he was before. He takes upon himself our nature and he is raised from the dead in that and he is raised to an even higher height of glory, a higher pinnacle, a higher acme.
But isn’t it interesting the way that he serves? How do kings serve? Well, usually they don’t. Usually kings are served. But the Lord Jesus Christ was a king in his humiliation. And isn’t it amazing the way that Jesus washes feet? He cleanses people’s feet in his humiliation. That is to say, this is the creator of the world washing men’s feet. We’re talking about a low humiliation here. You would think though that that’s the end of Christ’s washing and serving in that sort of way. Certainly you would say, Christ’s humiliation, the washing of his disciples’ feet, that is an obedient son, obedient to the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
But in his exaltation, he washes as well. He just changes the object that he washes. In his exaltation, he does not wash feet. In his exaltation, Christ the Lord cleanses hearts and he washes minds of their filth. In Christ’s exaltation, Christ still serves you. Though it is so counterintuitive. He is exalted, ought we not to serve Him? Yes, but He serves us. And He serves His bride by praying for her. He serves His bride by interceding for her, and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for your sins even now.
And Jesus will finish the work that King Jotham left undone. purging all of the idolatry. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when he completes that work, will not just cleanse some land out in the Middle East. He shall be shown to have cleansed heaven and earth, purifying them and making you able to dwell there. because of your cleansed hearts and minds and giving you holiness and righteousness. He shall complete that work. He purges the idols from your mind and from your soul. And he shall finish that work on that day, infinitely exalted yet stooping to cleanse your heart of idols by his broken body and his shed blood.
What a faithful son, faithful to his Heavenly Father. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please renew our hearts and minds. Help us to stand against sin, but help us to do so in the light of Jesus Christ, the One who truly stood against sin, and fought against it, and won the victory over it. We thank you, O Lord, that we are the recipients of your mercy and grace, and we shall be the same for eternity, recipients of that mercy and grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. I’d ask you to open your hymnal to page, hymn 179. 179, there we shall sing the first tune of awe. Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended that man to judge thee hath in hate pretended. 179, the first tune.
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