BORN AS A KING

     BY FAITH I WALK, KNOWING JESUS IS MY KING FOREVER.

         Matthew 1.21   Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.    This is what the Angel told Joseph when he was tossing and turning in his sleep over the problem of his now pregnant wife Mary.   It was to him a BIG issue, for his betrothal be broken by shaming her, or by quietly "divorcing" her.    So he was about to decide to divorce her.   You see, my friends, a Jewish betrothal was NOT an engagement as we know it today.   It was a PROMISE of TWO PEOPLE TO BE MARRIED and legally that was what it was -  except that in the Betrothal, the Bride was to wait at her father's home for the Bridegroom - while the Bridegroom was to go to his Father's house and prepare for her a place.    JESUS told the Disciples in John 14. 1 - 6  that He was the Bridegroom going to prepare a place for His bride the Church -  and that He would come again
                 Let not your heart be troubled:  believe in God, believe also in me.  In
                  my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have
                 told you.   I go to prepare a place for you.   And if I go and prepare a
                  place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that
                  where I am, there you may be also.    And whither I go ye know, and
                   the way ye know.   Thomas saith unto him,  Lord, we know not whither
                  thou goest, and how can we know the way?   Jesus saith unto him, "I am
                  the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me."

You see,  in the Book of Ruth - we already have a record of how GOD planned it all from the very start that in Israel, if a woman's husband died, then the NEAREST KINSMAN was intended by how it was set up for REDEEMING THE LAND and PROVIDING A CHILD

Ruth followed Naomi her mother in law from the land of Moab where false gods were worshipped, to the land of Israel where she had no thought but just serving her Mother in law with help.   She trusted that the LORD God in whom Naomi believed would be her God.

She vowed not to leave her.    When they arrived in Bethlehem, she went into the fields to harvest grain so that the two of them would have food and provision.    Boaz was Naomi's near Kinsman, and it was in his field Ruth worked steadily during harvest.   He noticed her, and when told of her loyalty to Naomi, he instructed the workers to leave "extra" measures of grain so that she had enough.     Naomi knew right away that this was a blessing from God, and so carefully showed Ruth what to do.    She put herself at the mercy of this man, and instead of seeking younger men, she did what was "right" by the law of Moses.   He said,  There is a kinsman who is nearer than I, but I will see to it.     So she went home and told Noami.   I think the sweetest words in that story is when Naomi told her "Sit still my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall, for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day."   

       That day, Boaz took care of this KINSMAN-REDEEMER business  publicly and asking the kinsman that was closer to Naomi than he, if he wanted to redeem the land of the deceased relative by marrying Ruth.    He rejected it, and gave his shoe to Boaz, as the custom indicating that he was refusing to do it.   So Boaz now had the right to buy it, for he declared WITH WITNESSES publicly that he intended to buy the land, and to marry Ruth.4

Boaz married her, and their baby   Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.    So  Ruth became included in the lineage of baby Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, as foretold.  

       The interesting thing is that Boaz was the son of Rachab and Salmon.   Matthew 1.verse 5.   Rachab was the prostitute who BELIEVED that the LORD GOD would help the Jews and she hid the spies that came to look at Jericho before Israel took the city.   By putting a "scarlet cord" out her window - she was SAVED - with her family - and she became the great grandmother of King David.  

        JESUS was born as a King.    The King promised.   The King came.  And in the fore-knowledge of God and in His Purpose, Jesus again and again told the apostles that he would be handed over to the Gentiles, and suffer, and die, and be buried, and the third day rise again.  Four times at least it is recorded that he told them.  

        In the 28th chapter of Matthew, verses 28 - 20  Jesus is Risen.   The women first are told, and when they tell the apostles and the others, they still do not believe.   Jesus appears to them.   They know now He is their Risen King.

        The book of Luke tells us a little of what He said.   His first words to them in Luke 24.36 were "PEACE (BE) TO YOU."    In Hebrew, it would have been  "SHALOM".    

       Oh, I exhort you to come with me as I walk by faith climbing higher.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.   Hebrews 12.8

Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4.13,14   Whoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life."

       Matthew 12. 49, 50  When Jesus was with a multitude of people, his mother and brothers came to take him, because they thought "he was beside himself, not even taking time to eat"  Jesus told the people "Behold my mother and my brethren !   For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.    

      Jesus in the book of Matthew refers to himself frequently as the Son of Man. 

      I recommend to you that as the Son of Man, He was the promised King of Israel.  Someday, we who have believed on His Name, and trusted in Him as our Savior and our Kinsman - Redeemer, will be face to face with Him in glory.    He is the Only One we will see, for in John 4.24 Jesus Himself said "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."   When the woman at the well said,  I know that when Messias cometh, which is called Christ, when he is come, he will tell us all things."

Jesus saith unto her, "I that speaketh unto thee am he."   In the Greek - the words

  egw  eimi   =   I am       Jesus is saying here that He is the I AM - the Messiah -

and the same I AM of  whom God told Moses his name was I AM.   

      I intend to keep walking with Jesus.   Someday I will see Him face to face, but He has given me of His Spirit within me that bears witness to my Spirit that He is here.  

Romans 8.16  and  John 14. verses 26 and 27. 

     Matthew chapter 22 tells us of Jesus when he questioned the Pharisees about

Psalm 110 which King David wrote.   "What think ye of Christ?  whose son is He?"

He asks clearly.   They answered  "The Son of David"   They knew the line of everyone who was in the temple at any time.   They kept good records.   They knew who he was.

He then stated, "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying " The LORD saith unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thine footstool?" 

And continues, "If David called him Lord, how is he his son?"    The implication is that they

steadily hardened their heart against his claim to be the Messiah, the King of Israel.

In God's plan for you and me, Israel had to reject their king, to crucify and have him die. But what they did not know is that indeed, HE CAME TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS as said by the Angel in Matthew 1.21. and on the cross he cried "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO."