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IV. Israel’s Shepherd - Priest and King

A. The Lord’s Anointed

The Lord rejects Saul as king, although He allows his reign to play out to its bitter end. In the meantime, he dispatches Samuel to quietly anoint a successor, "a man after [the Lord’s] own heart" (see 1 Samuel 13:14) - David, son of Jesse, grandson of Ruth’s son Obed, an anonymous shepherd boy living in Bethlehem.

The Spirit of the Lord rushes upon David at his anointing (see 1 Samuel 16:13) and through a series of seeming coincidences, he winds up in Saul’s court. David is brave, but also God-fearing, as we see in the famous episode with Goliath. He knows that, as he says, "the battle is the Lord’s" and that "it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves" (see 1 Samuel 17:32-51)

As First Samuel continues, David’s humility and meekness, his faithfulness to God, stands in sharp contrast with Saul’s growing paranoia and jealousy, which causes him to hatch murderous plots against David (see 1 Samuel 18:11; 19:9-17).

Given two chances to kill his sworn enemy Saul, David refuses. Why? Because, he says, no matter what a scoundrel Saul is, Saul remains "the Lord’s anointed" king (see 1 Samuel 24, 26).

When Saul and his sons meet their shameful end at the hands of the Philistines (see 1 Samuel 31), David mourns and turns to the Lord for the guidance (see 2 Samuel 1-2:4).

After routing the remaining forces loyal to Saul, David is anointed king by all the tribes of Israel who bind themselves to him with a covenant oath: "Here we are, your bone and flesh" (see 2 Samuel 5:1).

They call him God’s chosen shepherd-king (see 2 Samuel 5:2). This is the first time this image is used in the Bible to describe Israel’s leader. It will become an important image in later prophecies and in Jesus’ own self-understanding.

B. Capitalizing Jerusalem

As shepherd and king, David is a great political and spiritual leader.

Ordering his military power and strategy to religious purposes, he routes the Jebusites to establish his capital in Jerusalem.

How did he settle on Jerusalem? The Scripture doesn’t exactly tell us. Perhaps he recalled the story of Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem, who celebrated a liturgy with bread and wine on behalf of Abraham (see Genesis 14:17-23).

Perhaps he understood Moses to be referring to Jerusalem when he commanded the building of a central sanctuary in "the place which the Lord, your God chooses as the dwelling place for His name" (see Deuteronomy 12:4-5,11). Although Moses never mentions Jerusalem by name, Rabbinic lore held that the city of God’s name was the city that Melchizedek ruled, which the Psalms of David identify as Jerusalem (see Psalm 76:3).

In any event, David calls Jerusalem Zion and the City of David. Once he has captured it, he retrieves the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord which, as he says pointedly, "in the days of Saul we did not visit" (see 1 Chronicles 13:3).

Dressed in a priest’s ephod, David leads all Israel in a joyous religious celebration of the Ark’s return, offering sacrifices, blessing the people and breaking bread (see 2 Samuel 6:13-19; 1 Chronicles 15:25-29).

With the Lord having been established - "taken up his dwelling in Jerusalem" (see 1 Chronicles 23:25) - David then restored the priesthood. He made the descendants of Aaron to be "officers of the holy place and officers of the divine presence" (see 1 Chronicles 24:3,5,19).

He established the Levitical priests "to minister before the Ark of the Lord - to celebrate, thank and praise the Lord, the God of Israel" every morning and evening, and also on feast days (see 1 Chronicles 16:4; 23:25-32).

As he is portrayed in the First Book of Chronicles, especially, David is both a holy priest and a righteous and brave king.

In fact, you should read the two books of Chronicles alongside the books of Samuel andKings. They tell the same story from two different perspectives. The Chronicles aren’t simply a rewriting of the political and personal dramas recorded in Samuel and Kings.

Beginning with Adam, the chronicler gives us a liturgical history of ancient Israel, showing us that from the start God intended His people to be a priestly people, offering praise and sacrifice and living by His decrees.

Chronicles describes David as God’s ideal leader - the priest-king, the righteous ruler who composes psalms, leads the people in worship, and is a teacher of God’s wisdom. In the Davidic Kingdom, we are given a glimpse of the world as God means it to be - a communion of the sacred and secular, of law and worship, religion and culture, Church and state.

C. An Everlasting Covenant

God makes His final covenant of the Old Testament with David. He promises to establish David’s kingdom as an eternal and everlasting dynasty, promises that David’s heirs will sit on his royal throne forever. He promises, too, that He will regard David’s heir as His own son.

Be sure to spend some time reading over this covenant oath (see 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 1 Chronicles 17:7-14). These are among the most important verses in all the Bible.

God’s promises here will give shape and direction, hope and drama of the remainder of the biblical narrative - all the way through the end of the New Testament.

If that sounds hard to believe, look ahead to the last page of the Bible. There you’ll hear Jesus talking about this covenant, saying that He himself is the fulfillment of that covenant: "I am the root and offspring of David" (see Revelation 22:16).

Why do we call it a "covenant" when God doesn’t use the word? Because David himself will later say that God here was swearing an "eternal covenant" with him (see 2 Samuel 23:5). David’s "covenant" is also celebrated in the Psalms of David (see Psalm 89:4-29; 132:12).

Let’s pull apart the several promises of this covenant, and review them in order:

1. The Lord will establish a house for you: "House" means royal dynasty, so this means that David’s kingdom will be a dynasty.

2. I will raise up your heir…and make his kingdom firm: David’s son will rule over his kingdom.

3. He shall build a house for my name: David’s son will build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant.

4. I will be a Father to him and he shall be a son to Me: The son of David will be adopted as God’s own son. This is the first time that the idea of divine sonship is applied to one individual. While God had referred to Israel as His first-born son, no one as yet in the Bible has been called "son of God."

5. If he does wrong, I will correct him…with human chastisements, but I will not withdraw my favor from him: If David’s son breaks His Law, God will send punishments but will never disown him as He disowned Saul.

6. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever: David’s dynasty will never end. There will always be an heir of David seated upon his throne.

D. Abraham's Covenant Remembered

This covenant isn’t simply a reward to David for his faithful service.

We have to understand this as the final in the line of covenants that God has been making with His people throughout the salvation history recorded in the Bible. In effect, it is a covenant enacted to fulfill the covenant God made with Abraham.

Remember why God liberated the Israelites from Egypt? For the sake of His covenant with Abraham (see Exodus 2:24; 6:5).

God promised to make Abraham the father of a host of nations, and promised further that kings would stem from Abraham’s line of descendants. He promised that He would be their God and that they would be His people for all time, and that all the nations of the world would find blessing through his descendants (see Genesis 17:4-8; 22:15-18).

The Mosaic covenant, the covenant God made with Moses at Sinai, marked what we might describe as "the first stage" of God’s plan to fulfill His covenant with Abraham (see Exodus 33:1; Numbers 32:11; Deuteronomy 1:8; 9:5; 30:20).

The covenant with David furthers God’s covenant plan by which all the world would be made children of Abraham, blessed and beloved sons and daughters of God (see 2 Kings 13:23; Psalm 102:23; Jeremiah 33:25-26).

Notice the reasons that God gives for the covenant with David. It is not for David’s sake but - as the Lord repeats three times- for the sake of "My people Israel" (see 2 Samuel 7:8,10,11).

This recalls the language God used throughout the story of Israel’s liberation from Egypt (see Exodus 3:7,10; 5:1; 6:7; 7:17, 9:1; Leviticus 26:12).

Listen carefully also to David’s prayer in response to the Lord’s oracle. This is his vow of allegiance to God’s covenant.

It’s filled with echoes and quotations from Moses - all stressing that, as David says: "You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Yours forever and You, Lord, have become their God" (compare 2 Samuel 7:22-25; Exodus 15:11-13,16-17; Deuteronomy 4:7,34; 7:6; 26:17-18; 29:12).

The covenant with David is a continuation of the great redemptive work of the Exodus, the establishment of God’s holy people Israel - a saving work undertaken in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham.

As David says: "He remembers forever His covenant which He made binding for a thousand generations - which He established for Jacob by statute, for Israel as an everlasting covenant" (see 1 Chronicles 16:14-18).

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