Advent Gem #17 

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe 

What about Joseph the betrothed of Mary?  Skeptics argue that Joseph must have been the father of Jesus.  They even point to the genealogy of Joseph as listed in Matthew.  Joseph is a descendant of Solomon.  He is in the royal line of David.  Kingship seemed to be his heritage.   

We must look closely at Joseph’s lineage.  One person is of special interest, Jeconiah. Matthew 1: 11-12: “Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.”  

Jeconiah was a wicked king who was also known as Coniah.  Jeremiah 22:24-30 records the Lord God’s judgment on Jeconiah.    "As I live,'' says the Lord, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans. So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die. But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return. Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol? Is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know?  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord: `Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah.' '' 

From the time of the Babylonian captivity and throughout eternity, no descendant of Jeconiah can sit on the throne of David.  Simply put, if Joseph were the father of Jesus, Jesus could not be the Messiah.