David's kin

After God’s rejection of king Saul, the Lord says to Samuel “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” 1 Samuel 16:1

God uses this text, written at least 930 years before Jesus was born, as a defining moment in prophecy. Through David’s genealogy, God pinpoints the family line of the promised Messiah.  God chooses Jesse’s son David as the next king of Israel successfully establishing the Davidic covenant.   In Psalm 89 verses 3-4 “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.”

The fact that Jesse’s son David is chosen to be king might seem to be a nebulous fact but actually pinpoints several specific Messianic requirements that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled. Psalm 89:19-37,  speaks of the future Messiah, “He shall cry out to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of kings of the earth. My mercy I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall stand firm with him. His seed also I will make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven.”

David’s father Jesse was from the tribe of Judah. The banner they raised during the desert wanderings had the image of a lion. Found in the book of Genesis 49:8-10, we discover that God promises that Israel’s future kings shall come from the tribe of Judah. Through this line would come of the King of kings, Lord of all whose kingdom and throne would last forever. Verse 10 says that “The scepter shall not depart from Judah.”

There is another seemingly small fact mentioned in the Samuel 16:1 passage that is quite remarkable. Jesse is a Bethlehemite from a small village five miles from Jerusalem. Many of us remember the verse from Micah 5:1-4 from Christmas cards, if you’re old enough to remember when we use to send them out. “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From Everlasting.”

So let’s put it together. God, by choosing David as king, sets in motion several prophecies that are all fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One or Messiah. The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah but of all the thousands of clans within Judah the Messiah would be from the tiny clan of Ephratah. What usually send chills up my spine is to realize that the genealogies of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, the step-father of Jesus, are both included in the New Testament gospels allowing Jesus proof of His credentials fulfilling all Messianic requirements.

I don’t want to jump too far ahead in the story of David but he will end up in the middle of several very sinful acts. Just as Saul was disqualified from his throne, David will be disqualified from being able to build the house of God, the Temple. And so it goes that God’s grace to mankind, His mercy is what always save us. It is never how righteous we see ourselves or we think we are that accounts for our salvation but only God’s grace that He bestowed on us in the form of his perfect Son, Jesus Christ.

God pointed out in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 that He prefers our obedience to our sacrifices. Many run around in church circles zealous for sinless living  but it’s only until we acknowledge and face the fact that we are cleansed through believing in what God’s Son Jesus did for us, that we begin to take our first steps of obedience.  Surrendering to God, putting other’s needs above your own and then humbly living for Christ is the way of the Master.

Rich Mullins was a successful Christian songwriter during the 1990’s. Although he sold countless records he gave away all but an extremely average salary to charity. In a line from one of his songs about God’s grace and our inability to save ourselves he wrote “If I stand, let me stand on the promise that You will pull me through and if I can’t let me fall on the grace that first brought me to You!” If you have not yet taken the time to ask God to forgive you, then why don’t you ask Him now?