BY GREG CRUM

“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…And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:5, 9-10

There is a great future ahead for God’s children. Why? Because the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed and has redeemed us to God and made us kings and priests that will reign on the earth.

Revelation 5, and really the book as a whole, speaks to the great future in store for believers. While some see Revelation as a report of doom for humanity, it is a message of victory in Jesus for Christians. Really, the last book in our Bibles can be summed up in five letters—JESUS. In fact, in some Bibles, the title of this book is not just “Revelation,” but “The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.” It is a perfect endcap to God’s Word to us in this age we are living in—hope for the future in a time when the outcome for humanity seems the bleakest.

With all that said, I appreciate Revelation for the wonderful details it conveys about our Savior. I know we learn much about him in the four Gospels, but Revelation gives us another picture of him, this time not as the suffering sacrifice, but as the soon-coming King.

Case in point, Revelation Chapter 5. There we read that Jesus has prevailed to open the book and loose the seven seals. His sacrifice opened the door for our redemption and elevation in the future kingdom of God here on this earth. We see Jesus as the Champion of Christians around the world, but right in the middle of these proclamations we see a couple of important reminders of our Savior’s lineage, truths about Jesus that are being overlooked by whole groups of believers today.

What truths? That Jesus is, was, and always will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David. The tribe of who? Judah. The Root of who? David. These are references to his natural, human ancestry.

You have read your Old Testament, right? Judah was a real person and so was David.

Of what ethnicity were these two men? They were Jews. They were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). I know this challenges the collective hivemind of YouTube conspiracy theorists and Facebook prophets/influencers, but whether they like it or not, whether any of us like it or not, Jesus, our Savior, was, is, and will always be a Jew by natural descent.

Honestly, I never thought we would have to address this in my generation, but there is a lot of false information going around about Jesus’ human ancestry and God’s heart toward Israel today. The sad thing is, it seems that many Christians are falling for the deception. They are choosing to believe popular conservative voices instead of what the Bible plainly declares. Brothers and sisters, let us not fall for this deception. Let us know what the Bible says about our Lord and his natural family.

So, what does the Scripture say? Quite a few things, but first and foremost, that Jesus, the man, is a Jew. Hebrews 7:14 states, “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood.” It is “evident.” That’s pretty straightforward, right? If that was not enough, in Luke Chapter 1 we have a detailed family tree, a DNA trail, if you will. Elisabeth and her husband were from the tribe of Levi, one of Israel’s sons. Mary, Jesus’ mother, who he got his human DNA from, was a natural relative of Elisabeth. Conclusion? Jesus most definitely has Jewish DNA in his natural body.

Why does this matter? Well, we come from an area of the country where family matters a lot, right? Would you “be cool” with someone that says they love you but despises your family? Are you going to hang out with someone that thinks your family is the scum of the earth and the reason for all the ills in the world? Yeah, probably not.

Now, Jesus is much more welcoming and forgiving than any of us, but when we propose that his people are the bane of the world, do we realize that we are speaking of his people, of his clan, of his family of old? How do you think that makes him feel? Something to ponder on until next week.

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.