Audela

Zerubbabel

The governor who rebuilt the temple after the exile

Also written: Zorobabel (Greek form, Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27)

Place in the genealogy

  • Matthew · name 31 · Abraham forward to JesusFrom the exile to Christ: the returnThe governor who rebuilt the temple. Both genealogies pass through him.
  • Luke · name 21 · Jesus back to AdamFrom Jesus back to ZerubbabelWhere the two genealogies touch for the last time before Joseph.

Where Scripture records this person

  • He sets up the altar and lays the temple foundation.
  • He begins building again with Haggai and Zechariah beside him.
  • Called to build while the people say the time is not come.
  • I will make you like a signet ring: for I have chosen you.
  • Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.

Who this person is in Scripture

Zerubbabel leads the first return from Babylon, restarts the , and begins the second in the face of opposition and discouragement. Two prophets are sent to stand with him, and the promises spoken over him are unusually personal: he is called God's chosen signet.

He is the last man in the royal line whose work Scripture describes. After him, both genealogies pass through names about which the Bible says nothing at all.

Family, as Scripture gives it

Father
Shealtiel,
Children
Abiud in , Rhesa in

Promises and covenants this life carries

  • The signet promise of falls on the grandson of the Jeremiah had written off. Both stand in the same list.

What this teaches

  • Zechariah's word to him is for anyone starting a work too large for them: not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit.

Read in the Bible

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