Help from the Aged

I head back down to Wales and my final semester at WEST on Monday, but I was reminded that before I went I needed to visit an old lady in her 90’s from my home church who is now confined to a care home. She can no longer get out to church, her mobility is greatly reduced, she has to live with many of the problems and difficulties that come with old age. You might argue that she would have every reason to be pretty downbeat about life. She’s not. She’s easily one of the most encouraging Christians I know. She wanted to know all my latest news, and when she said she’d pray concerning each and every thing I told her about I have absolutely no doubt that she will. She then proceeded to give me a whole list of reasons why she’s thankful to God. Thankful for the health she has, thankful for her carers in the home, thankful for everyone who ever makes time to visit her, thankful for her Saviour, and for whatever small opportunities she has to serve him still.

She showed me a booklet that she’s been given by the manageress at the home. The booklet is full of blank pages with titles at the top such as “Childhood”, “Education”, “Marriage”, and “Religion”. The idea is that each of the residents fill in their booklet as fully as they can. New carers at the home are then given each resident’s self-completed booklet to read. It gives the new carers the opportunity to find out about the people they are caring for, I think it’s a fantastic idea. My friend was keen that I should look at what she’d written, particularly under “Religion”. In her shaky hand she’d written out her testimony to the fact that she’d come to know Jesus as her Lord and Saviour some fifty or so years earlier. Her greatest concern was that any employee at the home who picked up her booklet would read of what Jesus had done for her, and could do for them. She also knits various items for any carers who have baby children or grandchildren. All because she cares for those who care for her. What an example.

I guess most of you reading this are of the same generation as myself, the generation of facebook, twitter, blogs, youtube, of modern technology and the exciting worldwide online community. We can sometimes forget all about the older generation who know nothing much of any of these things. I’m all too guilty of it myself, but I’m so glad I went to that old people’s home this morning. I don’t think I’ll ever emulate my friends knitting prowess, but by God’s grace I hope I will emulate her radiant love for Jesus, now and in my old age.


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Zerubabbel son of who?

The Bible throws up all sorts of characters who might at first glance seem pretty insignificant. Take for example all those guys mentioned in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. Half of the list mentions men who you've probably never heard of. The bit from Adam to David is full of well known Bible characters like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, even Boaz. But then after King David Luke takes us off, via one of David’s sons called Nathan, through a list of men that just don’t appear anywhere else on the pages of the Bible. This list goes on through the unknowns, over hundreds of years, all the way down to Jesus, great David’s greater son. As far as I’m aware, what I’ve just stated is entirely true. Apart that is from one notable exception - Zerubabbel. So who on earth was Zerubabbel, and why do I say that he is the exception in Luke’s post David list?

You can read about Zerubabbel in the Old Testament books written around the time of the Jews return from exile in Babylon/Persia. What you find out is that he was the governor of Judah at this time. Do a bit more digging and you discover that he was also descended from royalty. His grandfather was Jechoniah, and Jechoniah was the last king of Judah before the Babylonian invasion, the invasion and resulting exile that was God’s judgement on a people who had turned their back on him. So Zerubabbel was a direct descendant of King David. He wasn’t a king himself, but he was in the line of kings.

Another thing about Zerubabbel is that he’s given a wonderful promise by God. At the end of Haggai God promises Zerubabbel that a day is coming when he will overthrow his enemies, he will overthrow evil, he will show who’s really king. In other words God will show that he himself is King. And God also says that on that day he will make Zerubabbel like a signet ring.

Now what’s a signet ring got to do with anything?

Roughly seventy years earlier, just before Judah and their king Jechoniah (that’s Zerubabbel’s granddad remember) were taken off in to exile, God said this to Jechoniah, “As I live, declares the LORD, though Jechoniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off”,(Jer. 22:24). A signet ring was a symbol of a King’s authority and it was given to someone by the King to show that they had been entrusted with the King’s authority. Such was the case with the kings of Israel/Judah. They were to rule both under, and with, God’s authority. That rule and authority had been taken away though during the time of Jechoniah. God had ripped away the authority of the Jewish king, due to his misuse of that authority. He ripped it away by sending the Babylonian empire to crush the land and take the people and their monarch into exile. This was a huge blow to the Jewish people on many levels, but one particular way in which it was a blow was that it seemingly extinguished the possibility of God’s promise of a Messiah King being fulfilled.

The promise of the Messiah King was given way back during the reign of King David. God had promised that one of David’s offspring would reign over a Kingdom that would have no end (2 Sam. 7). He would be God’s ultimate King, the one, it could be said, from whom the signet ring would never be removed. With the exile that seemed like a dashed hope, no chance of a great Messiah King now. But then God says to Zerubabbel, “When I show who’s really King, when I decisively defeat my enemies, when I overthrow the powers of evil, I will make you like a signet ring. I will give you rule and authority.”

So what became of Zerubabbel? Did he become a glorious King? No, he never became a king, he was only ever governor of Judah. But God’s promise to him showed that God had not forgotten his earlier promise to King David. He would send a King who would establish an everlasting throne and Kingdom, who would defeat the powers of evil, and who would reign forevermore. God’s promise to King David and governor Zerubabbel is fulfilled in Jesus. By putting Zerubabbel in his list of Jesus’ ancestors, by putting him amongst that list of unknowns, Luke is showing us that God does not forget his promises.

The King did arrive as promised from the line of David and Zrubabbel. He defeated the powers of evil on the cross (Col. 2:15), he rose again, and now he reigns, having been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). Christ is the longed for King!