In response to Yahda's challenge "what about the curse of Jeconiah?" in relationship to the claim of Jesus Christ as the awaited Messiah, I was given information from Mr. Blah which convincingly deals with the arguments surrounding this curse in the lineage of Christ.
Those who wrestle with the issue of Jesus Christ as Messiah argue that due to the curse of King Jeconiah by God, Jesus cannot be the Christ.
Here is an excerpt from an article countering this view:
The Problem of the Curse on Jeconiah in Relation to the Genealogy of Jesus
The problem can be laid out in this way:
According to the genealogy in Matthew 1:12, Jesus is a descendant of Jeconiah. But Jeconiah was cursed in Jeremiah 22:24 and 22:30:
As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
This is what the LORD says:
“Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule any more in Judah.”
Since no descendant of Jeconiah could ever sit on the throne, if Jesus is a descendant of this cursed king, he is disqualified from being the Messiah.
If true, then what is Jeconiah doing in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel? And how can Jesus qualify to be the Messiah? First of all, we have to wonder why Matthew would ever have included Jeconiah among the ancestors of Jesus if this so obviously disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah. In fact, the Scripture shows that the curse was only short-term, if not altogether reversed by God.
There are three parts to the curse on Jeconiah (who is also called Jehoiachin or Coniah):
- that he would be childless (this is how the Hebrew text literally reads)
- that he would not prosper in his lifetime
- that none of his descendants would rule in Judah
The Scripture shows that in fact none of these took place.
- Though the Hebrew literally reads, “Record this man childless,” Jeconiah in fact had children.
The descendants of Jehoiachin the captive: Shealtiel his son, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah
— 1 Chronicles 3:17-18
- He did prosper in his day.
In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honour higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
— 2 Kings 25:27-28
- His grandson Zerubbabel prospered and ruled. In fact the same words God used in rejecting Jeconiah were deliberately used in establishing Zerubbabel.
“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
— Jeremiah 22:24
“‘On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
— Haggai 2:23
Though Zerubbabel did not sit on the throne as king, the fact that Haggai 2:23 uses the same terminology as Jeremiah 22:24 shows that Haggai intended to indicate a reversal of the curse.
We have to conclude that in Jeremiah 22:30, “in his lifetime” qualifies the following phrases, and “for” explains that no descendant of his will prosper and rule during his lifetime.
We find rabbinic sources which also agree that God reversed the curse on Jeconiah, which they attribute to repentance on Jeconiah’s part. We even find the idea that the Messiah will descend from Jeconiah–exactly the opposite of what some say is impossible!
Some of these sources are as follows:
Sanhedrin 37b-38a, –Soncino Talmud edition, with selected footnotes; Pesikta de-Rab Kahana (5th c.), –Yale Judaica edition translated by William G. Braude and Israel J. Kapstein (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1975), pp. 376-77. Bracketed portions are Braude. For more sources:
https://jewsforjesus.org/answers/the-problem-of-the-curse-on-jeconiah-in-relation-to-the-genealogy-of-jesus-issues-prophecy/
(Thank you, Mr. Blah, wherever you are!)