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"And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes
and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place. But
they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused the prophets,
until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy"
(II Chron. 36: 15, 16).
The word translated "remedy" is the Hebrew marpe, which is derived from the verb
rapha, "to heal". It forms one of the Jehovah titles, namely "Jehovah-Ropheka", "The
Lord hath healeth thee" (Exod. 15: 26). Healing is a figure used in the Scriptures to set
forth salvation from sin, and the many miracles of healing found in the Gospels and the
Acts have a threefold purpose. First, the immediate healing of the body; secondly, the
setting forth in type of the greater, spiritual healing of salvation; thirdly, the exhibition of
signs and wonders constituting evidence that the Son of God had come. Thus the
cleansing of the leper, the restoration of hearing and of speech, the giving of sight to the
blind, the feeding of the hungry, and the raising of the dead, all set forth in type the great
salvation that the Lord had come to give.
Upon turning the page and opening the N.T. at the first chapter, we again meet with a
genealogy. For the immediate purpose of his gospel, Matthew had no need to trace the
Saviour's earthly line back as far as Adam; it was sufficient that he demonstrated that
this Child, whose birth at Bethlehem meant so much to His people and to the world, was
in direct descent from David and from Abraham.
It is to the companion gospel of Luke that we turn for the Saviour's unbroken line of
descent through David and Abraham to Adam. An examination of these two genealogies
cannot be made here: it falls better under the series now running through The Berean
Expositor entitled "Time and Place".
The essential contrast between the closing book of the Old and the opening book of
the New Testament may be demonstrated thus:
Old Testament failure--
Genealogy. Adam, Abraham, David to Zedekiah.
"No remedy."
The restoration proclaimed under Cyrus King of Persia.
Yet Israel was about to become lo ammi, "not My people".
New Testament Victory--
Genealogy. Adam, Abraham, David to Christ.
"Save His people from their sins."
Restoration in the Gospel proclamation, "God with us".
It is very evident therefore that both in the Gospels and in the Epistles the incarnation,
the coming into flesh of Him Who is over all, God blessed for ever, is shown to be at the
very foundation of all our hopes.