Listen:  107.1

Let’s start by reading that remarkable verse.  Revelation 22:16 says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”  Now, let’s compare that to Matthew 1:1, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  Notice in Revelation 22:16, that not only is the Lord Jesus called the offspring of David, but firstly he is called the root of David.  In His deity, Christ is the creator of David, but, in His humanity, Christ is the descendant of David.  David came from the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus came from David.  What a remarkable truth!

The Lord was also called the root of David in Revelation 5:5 which says, “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”  Here, He is also called the Lion of the tribe of Juda.  Judah was the tribe of Israel of which the kings came from.  When Jacob, or Israel, blessed his sons, the royal, or kingly, line was given to Judah as we read in Genesis 49:8-10, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”  David was of the tribe of Judah and so a long succession of kings came through Judah.  Christ is referred to as the Lion, or the greatest, of that kingly tribe.

Now let’s read Matthew 22:41-46, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”  The Lord, in dealing with these unbelieving Pharisees, asked them about the Messiah, or the Christ.

While these men certainly did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Lord quizzed them about the person of the Christ.  Whose son is He?  They properly answered that Christ is the son of David, or that He would come through David’s lineage.  They understood the prophesy of Isaiah 11:1-2 which says, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”  Jesse, of course, is the father of David.  The Lord then asked them to explain the meaning of the prophetic words of David in Psalm 110:1 which says, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”  The first use of the word ‘Lord’ refers to God, the Father.  The second use of the word ‘Lord’ refers to God, the Messiah.  If David called Christ his Lord, how could he be his son?  The proper answer is that Christ is both the Lord and the son of David.  As God, He is David’s Lord, and as man, he is David’s son, or offspring.  (107.1)