So the angel told her that she had been chosen for the amazing but also extremely

serious assignment of conceiving, bearing, and raising Gods Son.Luke 1:26-33. What a responsibility was placed on the shoulders of this young, unmarried woman! How did she react? Mary might well have wondered who would believe her story. Might such a pregnancy cost her the love of Joseph, her fianc, or might it subject her to public shame

Mary would need such humility, for the angel held out to her an almost unimaginable privilege. He explained that she was to bear a child who would become the most important of all humans. Gabriel said: Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom. (Luke 1:32, 33) Mary surely knew of the promise God had made to David more than one thousand years earlier namely, that one of his descendants would rule forever. (2 Samuel 7:12, 13) So her son would be the Messiah that Gods people ov er the centuries had been hoping for! What is more, the angel told her that her son would be called Son of the Most High. How could a human woman produce Gods Son? Really, how could Mary produce a son at all? She was engaged to Joseph but not yet marrie d to him.

Isaiah also foretold that Christ would be a descendant of David, specifically mentioning Jesse, Davids father. Jesus did indeed directly descend from David. (Matthew 1:6, 16; Luke 3:23, 31, 32) Thus, before the birth of Jesus, the angel Gabriel told Jesus mother, Mary: God will give him the throne of David his father. This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob f orever, and there will be no end of his kingdom. Mary questioned how this was to be, since she, a virgin, was not having intercourse with a man. Gabriel responded that the child would be conceived by means of Gods holy spirit. This would be no ordinary c hild.Luke 1:28-35. A Foretold King Gabriels words must have helped Mary to discern that the son she would bear was the subject of ancient prophecies. The disclosure that Jehovah would give Marys son the throne of David his father would make herand indeed any Jewish person acquainted with the Scripturesthink of the promise that God had made to King David of Israel. Through the prophet Nathan, Jehovah had told David: Your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast to time indefinite before you; your very throne will become one firmly established to time indefinite. (2 Samuel 7:4, 16) Jehovah stated concerning David: I shall certainly set up his seed forever and his throne as the days of heaven. His seed itself wil l prove to be even to time indefinite, and his throne as the sun in front of me. (Psalm 89:20, 29, 35, 36) Thus, it was no coincidence that Mary had descended from the house of David, as had Joseph. These were not the only prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures regarding a royal son of David. Mary would also have been familiar with Isaiahs prophecy: There has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom in order to establish it firmly and to sustain it by means of justice and by means of righteousness, from now on and to time indefinite. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.Isaiah 9:6, 7. What Gabriel announced to Mary, then, was much more than the miraculous birth of a baby boy. Her son would be the royal heir of King Davidthe permanent, everlasting heir to a divinely ordained Kingdom. Gabriels prophecies concerning Jesus future role have profound significance for all of us.

WHEN the angel Gabriel announced Jesus birth to Mary, he said: Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king . . . , and there will be no end of his kingdom. (Luke 1:32, 33) Jesus was called Christ after God anointed him with spirit at his baptism. The title Christ, or Messiah ( al-Mas), means Anointed One. (Matthew 3:1317) From that time onward, he preached the good news of the kingdom of God.Luke 4:43. What is this Kingdom of God? It is a heavenly government that will restore paradisaic conditions on earth. It is under Kingdom rule that people of all the nations will experience Gods blessings earth wide. (Matthew 6:9, 10; 12:21) During his ministry on earth, Jesus performed miracles, thereby giving a preview of what the Kingdom will accomplish on an earth-wide scale. Given authority by God, Jesus healed the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, and the mute. He even raised the dead! Matthew 15:30, 31; Luke 7:11-16. Jesus demonstrated the qualities that are much desired in a king. He was kind and compassionate. He possessed a great love for people and helped all. (Matthew 9:36; Luke 19:2-10) His loving invitation is: Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. (Matthew 11:28-30) God-fearing people were drawn to Christ and looked forward eagerly to his reign.John 12:19.
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Jesus Christ, the Head of this Christian congregation, is elsewhere identified as the son of David who inherits the throne of David his father and rules forever. (Luke 1:32, 33; 3:31) Thus the prophecy of Amos points forward to the fulfillment of the covenant with David for a kingdom.

In a similar prophecy, the references to David as being the king of this cleansed people and their one shepherd and chieftain to time indefinite clearly point to a greater fulfillment on the nation of spiritual Israel, the Christia n congregation, under the anointed Heir to Davids throne, Christ Jesus.Eze 37:21-25; compare Lu 1:32; Joh 10:16. Mary was of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of David. Hence it could be said of her son Jesus that he sprang from the seed of David according to the flesh. (Ro 1:3) Through his adoptive father Joseph, a descendant of David, Jesus had a legal right to Davids throne, and through his mother, as the offspring, seed, and root of David, he held the natural hereditary right to the throne of David his father. *** it-2 p. 127 Judah *** Rulership Not Lost. This calamitous end for the kingdom of Judah, however, did not mean that the scepter and commanders staff had departed from the tribe for all time. According to Jacobs deathbed prophecy, the tribe of Judah was to produce the permanent royal heir, Shiloh (meaning He Whose It Is; He To Whom It Belongs). (Ge 49:10) Appropriately, therefore, before the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah, Jehovah, through Ezekiel, directed these words to Zedekiah: Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no ones until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him. (Eze 21:26, 27) The one having the legal right, as indicated by the angel Gabriels announcement to the virgin Jewess Mary some 600 years later, is none other than Jesus, the Son of God. (Lu 1:31-33) It is, therefore, fitting that Jesus Christ bears the title the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah.Re 5:5.

in the Holy Bible. It is the divine legal case now before all peoples and nations for final determination. It is in these last days that a final settlement of this issue must be made before all heaven and earth. Victory and vindication come to Jehovah, proving beyond doubt his universal sovereignty, his kingship. The crucial question before all of us is, Who will now maintain loyalty to Jehovahs kingdom? How we now stand on this matter bears upon our gaining everlasting life or suffering eternal destruction! However, did Jehovah God renounce his kingdom away back in the year 607 B.C.E.? Why such a question? Because in that year he let the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar destroy both Jerusalem and its temple and overthrow the kingdom of the Jews down till now. True, and yet God did not in that way renounce his kingship, or domination. Actually, he was the One who decreed the destruction of the royal city Jerusalem. This, though, was not an act of disloyalty to his typical subsidiary kingdom over his chosen people. He just acted according to the terms of the covenant that he had made with Israel and that had been added to the ancient Abrahamic covenant. By that fateful year of 607 B.C.E., Judah and the remnant of Israel had become flagrant covenant breakers. So God dealt with them according to the terms of his Law covenant mediated by Moses at Mount Sinai. The King with Legal Right With regard to the last Judean king at Jerusalem, God inspired his prophet Ezekiel (who had already been deported to Babylon) to say: And as for you, O deadly wounded, wicked chieftain of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the error o f the end, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, Remove the turban, and lift off the cro wn. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no ones until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.Ezekiel 21:25-27. According to those words the Lord God Jehovah still held firm control of the Kingdom affairs. The ruining of his subsidiary kingdom on earth was to be merely temporary. In his due time someone would come who had the legal right to the Messianic kingship, and then the Lord God Jehovah would give it to him. Till then the exercising of the legal right to the kingship must wait. Since the covenant right had resided in the royal family of David, the one who was to come and to whom the kingship would be given had to be a descendant of faithful King David. It was because of Davids loyalty to Jehovahs eternal Kingship that this covenant had been made with him for an everlasting kingdom in his family line. (2 Samuel 7:8-16) More than six centuries later, or in the year 2 B.C.E., an angel from God appeared to a female descendant of King David and told her that she was to be the mother of the promised heir of David. The angel went on to say: Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom. His name was to be called Jesus.Luke 1:32, 33; Matthew 1:18-23.
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he then said: Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. . . . A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no ones until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.Ezek. 21:25-27. Jesus Christ proved to be the one who has the legal right, by his faithfulness in the flesh to the death. He is Davids Permanent Heir. But the thing to which he has the legal right was not given to him in 33 C.E., after he ascended to heaven. Forty-four days before his ascension he gave his prophecy as recorded in Luke 21:5-36. In this he foretold the destruction that was to come to the then existing Jerusalem, which did come at the hands of the Roman legions in 70 C.E., and with regard to that he said: They [the Jews] will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive in to all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24) So in 33 C.E. he could not be given that to which he had gained the legal right, not even at Pentecost of that yea r. That to which Jesus Christ gained the legal right was the Davidic kingdom, an earthly kingdom, the turban and crown of which had been worn by David and his royal successors. (Ezek. 21:25 -27) As a perfect human, Jesus was born into the royal family of David, which naturally put him in line for the Davidic kingdom. (Rom. 1:3, 4; Luke 1:32, 33) Since David was an earthly king, he could not bequeath to Jesus Christ anything more than he himself had had, an earthly kingdom. The angel Gabriel told Jesus earthly mother, the virgin Jewess Mary, that God would give him the throne of David his father. Was this kingdom given to Jesus in 33 C.E., when he ascended back to heaven and sat down at Gods right hand? Davids kingdom had been overthrown in 607 B.C.E., to continue inoperative for the seven times of Gentile world domination, or, for 2,520 years from 607 B.C.E.Acts 1:6. So, before the glorified Jesus Christ could exercise the rights of Davids earthly kingdom, he had to wait at Gods right hand until the Gentile Times ended in 1914 C.E. (Heb. 10:12, 13) He had to wait until Jehovah God took to himself his great power as Universal Sovereign and brought to an end the Gentile Times and assumed the kingdom of the world. Then God could invite Jesus, as the Permanent Heir of King David, to share with Him in the kingdom of the world, a kingdom over all mankind on earth.Rev. 11:15. Thus in 1914, not in 33 C.E., the symbolic stone seen in King Nebuchadnezzars dream was cut out of the great mountain that pictured Jehovahs universal sovereignty. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45) It was at that time also that Jehovah God planted his feet upon the symbolic mountain of the olive trees and it split in the middle to form two mountains, one towa rd the north and the other to the south. (Zech. 14:4, 9) This corresponds with the birth of the male child by Gods heavenly woman, as pictured in Revelation 12:1-5. In this way a new kingdom was brought forth, a new expression of Gods sovereignty toward our earth. God then put his King-Designate on the throne to exercise his legal right. The symbolic bands of copper and iron were removed from around the rootstock of Gods interrupted sovereignty toward our earth. The prescribed seven times had now passed over the rootstock.Dan. 4:23, 26.
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Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his [fore]father . . . and there will be no end of his kingdom. Also, Jesus referred to himself as something more than [Davids son] Solomon. (Luke 1:32, 33; 11:31) As a warrior-king, David extended the borders of Israel to the full limit of the territory that Jehovah had promised His people, and then King Solomon reigned for a glorious forty years of peace over a prosperous nation: Judah and Israel were many, like the gra ins of sand that are by the sea for multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. (1 Kings 4:20) But as a far greater warrior than David, Jesus will go forth conquering and to complete his conquest of the entire wicked world. Then with a far grander and wiser rulership than Solomons he will reign in peace for a thousand years. (Revelation 6:2; 20:4) What a happy time all mankind will enjoy when Christ Jesus rules as King over a paradise earth! Many faithful prophets of God pointed forward to the Messianic kingdom. Literally hundreds of their prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus, thus serving to identify him clearly as the promised Messiah. For example, these foretold that he would be born of a virgin in the city of Bethlehem, that he would be despised, afflicted and impaled, and that he would rise again on the third day. The sufferings that Jesus went through could not possibly have been staged just to make the ancient prophecies come true. The cruel persecutions that Jesus own countrymen heaped upon him were real, and Jesus integrity in support of Jehovahs sovereignty was also real
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This Messianic kingdom had its roots in the earthly kingdom of David, whom Jehovah caused to be anointed as king over the nation of Israel. The seat of his government came to be, finally, Jerusalem or Zion. With him Jehovah God made a covenant for the Messianic kingdom to continue in his family line and to become an everlasting kingdom. In due time this kingdom took on the aspect of a spiritual kingdom when Davids Permanent Heir arrived on the earthly scene. This was because the heavenly Son of God was miraculously born as Jesus into the royal line of David. By taking on this natural connection, he became the natural heir of the title to the throne of King David. (Matthew 1:1 through 2:6) In harmony with this, immediately after Jesus was baptized in water at the age of thirty years, Jehovah God anointed him with holy spirit to be

future King over Israel, the house of Jacob. God also begot him to be a spiritual Son of God and acknowledged him as such.Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 1:32, 33; 3:21-23; Acts 10:38. Jesus Christ died as a martyr for preaching the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens. He died in the flesh, as a perfect human sacrifice; but, says the apostle Peter, Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18) Israel, the house of Jacob, was therefore to have a heavenly king over it, an invisible spirit king, namely, the resurrected Jesus Christ, immortal in the heavens. (Romans 1:3, 4) Thus the resurrected Jesus Christ is the Permanent Heir or Kingly Heir of David, and his kingdom is an everlasting one. This Messianic kingdom is the one that is cut out of the mountain of Jehovahs sovereignty without help of human hands.
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This Messianic kingdom had its roots in the earthly kingdom of David, whom Jehovah caused to be anointed as king over the nation of Israel. The seat of his government came to be, finally, Jerusalem or Zion. With him Jehovah God made a covenant for the Messianic kingdom to continue in his family line and to become an everlasting kingdom. In due time this kingdom took on the aspect of a spiritual kingdom when Davids Permanent Heir arrived on the earthly scene. This w as because the heavenly Son of God was miraculously born as Jesus into the royal line of David. By taking on this natural connection, he became the natural heir of the title to the throne of King David. (Matthew 1:1 through 2:6) In harmony with this, immediately after Jesus was baptized in water at the age of thirty years, Jehovah God anointed him with holy spirit to be future King over Israel, the house of Jacob. God also begot him to be a spiritual Son of God and acknowledged him as such.Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 1:32, 33; 3:21-23; Acts 10:38. Jesus Christ died as a martyr for preaching the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens. He died in the flesh, as a perfect human sacrifice; but, says the apostle Peter, Christ died once for all time concernin g sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18) Israel, the house of Jacob, was therefore to have a heavenly king over it, an invisibl e spirit king, namely, the resurrected Jesus Christ, immortal in the heavens. (Romans 1:3, 4) Thus the resurrected Jesus Christ is the Permanent Heir or Kingly Heir of David, and his kingdom is an everlasting one. This Messianic kingdom is the one that is cut out of the mountain of Jehovahs sovereignty without help of human hands.
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