2 Kings - Chapter 24

We now reach a major event in the history of God's people.  The northern house of Israel has already been removed from the land.  And now the southern house of Judah is conquered by Babylon and the people are exiled.

The final kings are mentioned in this chapter and we see King Jehoiakim.  With his death we read about his son King Jehoiachin; and we read more about this king in Jeremiah 22, where God curses him:

"Thus says the Lord: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.’ ”

And with this curse there is an apparent problem;  the royal line of David is recorded in Matthew 1, leading, through Jehoiachin, to King Jesus, who is destined to sit on David's throne.  And yet God has said that none of this bloodline will sit on the throne.  The answer to this problem lies in the virgin birth of Jesus.  David's line leads down to Joseph, the legal but not the bloodline father of Jesus.  And through the different  genealogy in Luke 3 we can trace a bloodline from David to Mary, through a different child of David.