GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:32-33
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,
33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
and there will never be an end of his kingdom.”
The newest Nestle-Aland Greek editions of the New Testament format these verses as poetry, and I agree with this choice. The two lines of verse 32 are inversely parallel with the two lines of verse 33 (this ABBA pattern is sometimes called a chiasm). Gabriel sandwiches (if you will) the human expectation of the Messiah (the throne of David, the ruler over the house of Jacob) between statements of the divine truth of the Messiah (the Son of the Most High, ruling over the eternal kingdom). But the human and the divine expectations of Christ are and were important. The human expectations were based on the word of God and had to be fulfilled in order to be a sign for us and to strengthen our faith (and in some cases, to create that faith). The divine expectations had to be fulfilled in order for the work of Christ to be carried out to its completion.
The expectation that the Messiah would come from the family of David goes back to God’s promise to David: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:13) and “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). David also quoted the Lord as saying: “‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill,’ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Psalm 2:6-7). This is quoted by Paul as evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus. He said: “What God promised our fathers he had fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Acts 13:32-33, see also Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5). Another prophecy about the Messiah coming from David is Isaiah 9:6-7 (“He will reign on David’s throne”).
That the Messiah would also be the Son of God is clear from many Old Testament prophecies. “He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:26,27). “Our of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). “He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever” (1 Chronicles 22:10).
We should note that Gabriel specifically uses God’s title “the Most High.” In the Old Testament, this was the title El-elyon and was the name of God used by Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7:1) and in Aramaic Elahah Ilaya “Most High” is used by Daniel (Dan. 5:18). Even the demons acknowledged this title of God (Mark 5:7; Acts 16:17), proving the point that before Jesus “every knee will bow” (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 4:11; Philippians 2:10) and that even the demons believe that there is only one God, “and shudder” (James 2:19). Jesus is truly God.
Gabriel says that the Messiah would rule “over the house of Jacob,” which is a much more inclusive way of saying the whole nation of Israel, both Israel and Judah, the northern and the southern kingdoms, whether in exile or returned from exile. Therefore a woman like Anna from the tribe Asher is not omitted (Luke 2:36). But of course, Jesus would not only be the King of the Jews (Luke 23:38) but the King of all who put their faith in him. He is King over all who believe, and we who believe in him might not be from the physical nation of Israel. Yet we are the true Israel. Amos said, “‘In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken place, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles that bear my name,’ declares the Lord who will do these things” (Amos 9:11-12). All of us who trust in Jesus are a part of his kingdom—restored, repaired, and built as we used to be, before the fall, before sin, before we lost the image of God. Now we have that image once again in Christ, forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota