David - Worshipper, Shepherd, Warrior, King
Emmanuel begins a new teaching series this Sunday based on the Old Testament character David. Most of us have grown up singing Christmas carols that mention him, with ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ often ranking highly in the ‘favourite carols’ list. If not Christmas carols, we might have learned about him in other ways; his amazing defeat of the giant Goliath with a stone shot by his sling, his exuberant worship, his beautifully anointed musicianship – perhaps even his moral failure, on that fateful night… Whichever way we approach it, David is a massive character in the story of the Bible.
As well as his amazing exploits, we soon discover that David had other unique links to Jesus. Firstly, David’s city Bethlehem was the birth place of the Messiah. We also learn that Jesus is said to be in David’s line – that he was a direct descendant. In fact Matthew begins his gospel with ‘Jesus Christ, the Son of David’ (1:1). Jesus is to be received as the Prophetic King in David’s line – the true and ultimate fulfilment of Regal Deity for the people of God. It is no wonder that Isaiah 9 foretells that:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it…
Jesus is the prophetic fulfilment of all that David prefigured. Jesus the Messiah has come to establish David’s Kingdom and seat of authority eternally – David was simply the shadow and Jesus the substance.
Studying and understanding more of the life and ministry of David inevitably draws us to understanding more of the life and ministry of Jesus; one indivisibly links to the other. Clearly David was a sinful man, limited, flawed and unable to represent all that would follow in the incarnation of the Messiah, BUT he was a prophetic signpost to what would follow, imperfect as that might have been. David was a man after God’s own heart, as Luke writes in Acts 13 “God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”
As we come to study this important Bible character, let’s offer our hearts to be as compliant and passionate as David’s!
Matt Partridge