Messianic Perspectives

Announcer: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctively first-century Jewish point of view. Today, our Bible teacher, Stephen Ger, continues his five-part series on Messianic Prophecy in the Writings. This is Chris Rodriguez. Please stay tuned after the message for some important information you won't want to miss. And now, with today's teaching, here is Stephen Ger.

Stephen Ger: Shalom. This is Stephen Ger. Welcome to our discussion today of the Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. What we are looking at and focusing in on in this, our second episode on the subject, is the Davidic covenant.

We are looking at the salient passages which we deconstructed last time. The corresponding parallel passages in which the Davidic covenant is contained are 2 Samuel 7:11-16 and 1 Chronicles 17:10-14. These roughly parallel each other. They overlap. There are a few various different nuances and emphases that one has that the other may not have, but more or less they are parallel and corresponding passages.

What we did was we broke down these passages which contain the Davidic covenant, the covenant that God made with David, into three basic promises. There are three basic promises that God gives, and these are an unconditional set of promises. There are three of them: a perpetual dynasty, an unshakable kingdom, and an eternal throne.

When we drill down, we see that the covenant itself consists of eight related components. The first component is that while David wanted to build a house for the Lord, the Lord himself will build a house for David instead—a house in the sense of a dynasty, not a temple. So a dynasty will be established by God through David.

Second, David's successor will reign securely. That was Solomon. Third, the immediate heir of David, Solomon, would be the one permitted to build a temple for the Lord, which indeed happened. Fourth component: the throne of this son's kingdom is established forever. This is a dynasty that has not just an enduring nature that will go on a long time, but an eternal nature. It will never end. Furthermore, only the Davidic dynasty possesses the authority to rule over the nation of Israel, according to God.

Fifth component: God would make David's name great, renowned, respected, and so on. Sixth: God pronounces that at some unspecified future time, Israel is going to experience an unprecedented era of permanent tranquility, peace, security, and justice. This is the Messianic Age. So the sixth component is that there will be a Messianic Age, an era of permanent tranquility, peace, security, and justice.

Seventh: God will never remove his loving loyalty, his love, his hesed, from the dynasty like he had done with Saul. The dynasty will continue in perpetuity. The eighth and final component of the Davidic covenant is the promise of a unique future descendant. What's unique about him? He's an undying son. He will be established forever.

Quoting 1 Chronicles 17:14: "I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever." Basically, the only way you're going to be able to guarantee this dynasty, kingdom, and throne promise is to have an undying individual who, by very nature of never dying and going on forever, will guarantee the perpetual dynasty, the unshakable kingdom, and the eternal throne.

Now, how about the Jewish view of this Davidic covenant? What is the Jewish expectation of Messiah based upon this covenant? Through the establishment of the Davidic covenant, God had indeed prepared Israel for the Messiah's coming, and that is reflected even today within the daily liturgy of the synagogue.

The 15th of the 18 benedictions that are contained in this complex of blessings, of benedictions, is called the Amidah. The Amidah is a prayer that's corporately recited by the Jewish congregation in the service three times daily. The Amidah explicitly prays for the coming of this Messianic figure in benediction number 15.

Don't take my word for it. Let me read it for you. The 15th benediction of the Amidah reads as follows: "Speedily cause the branch of your servant David to flourish. Exalt his horn by your salvation." You'll remember this is language that actually comes right from 1 Samuel 2:10, Hannah's song of praise, the first time we actually see the term Messiah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

It uses the same imagery: "Exalt his horn by your salvation." I want to remind you that salvation in Hebrew is Yeshua. That is Jesus' Hebrew name. "Because we hope for your salvation all the day. Blessed are you, O Lord, who causes the horn of salvation to flourish." Three times daily, observant Jews within the congregation are reciting a prayer to exalt the horn of the branch of God's servant David because we hope for your Yeshua all the day. Blessed are you, O Lord, who causes the horn of Yeshua of salvation to flourish.

What about the New Testament? Well, the New Testament is studded throughout with references to Jesus being the royal fulfillment, the living embodiment of the Davidic covenant. You don't need to be a theological genius to connect what's happening in the Gospels and in the New Testament to the Davidic covenant because it's quite obvious.

It begins with the very opening statement of Matthew's Gospel. Any piece of literature begins and ends with what the author thinks is very important for the reader to understand. Here, certainly, not only the opening of Matthew's Gospel but the opening of the New Testament identifies Jesus directly as Son of David.

Look at verse 1 from chapter 1 of Matthew's Gospel. What does he want his reader to know first of all, of first primary importance? "The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach, the son of David, Ben David, the son of Abraham, Ben Avraham." We can make the same point with Luke's record of the angelic announcement that happens right in chapter 1 of Luke.

That was made to inform Mary—and who was Mary? She was David's direct descendant through his son Nathan—that she would soon give birth to the Messiah, the long-anticipated Davidic heir. Please don't think that the Davidic covenant and these concepts were relegated to some dusty, dry tome and completely unfamiliar to the general population of Israel.

The population of Israel was informed by the Davidic covenant, and the Davidic covenant informed their Messianic expectation. That is why the language of the angel in announcing the pregnancy references the Davidic covenant in very specific, unmistakable, and unambiguous royal covenantal terminology.

Look at what the angel says just 32 verses into chapter 1 of Luke. This is for a 13- or 14-year-old girl, Mary, to understand: "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

What is it that you think a young lady, 13 or 14 years of age, would have understood with that language? You think it would have been over her head? Of course not. This is ABC stuff. This is theological primer material: that the son who is going to be born through Mary will be great and will be called Son of the Highest, the Son of God, the very language that's given in the Davidic covenant.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. They had been expecting, the people of Israel had been expecting, this ultimate descendant, this ultimate son of David and Son of God to provide this perpetual dynasty, this unshakable kingdom, this eternal throne—not this Roman occupation, before that the Greek occupation, and in between this anomalous Maccabean kingdom where the Levites get to be the priests and the kings together, which lasted 100 years.

But then when the angel says to Mary that he, this child, will reign over the house of Jacob forever... Who's Jacob? That's just a poetic way of saying Israel. And what is "forever"? It's a poetic way of saying forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. That's just in case somebody doesn't understand the phrase "forever." Of his kingdom, there will be no end. Perpetual dynasty, unshakable kingdom, eternal throne. Finally, at last, it's going to come through the child whom Mary will give birth to.

The next time you receive a Christmas card that has this quotation on it, I want you to remember very clearly that the house of Jacob is not the Church. This is not the Church that's speaking here. Every time you receive a Christmas card with the annunciation on it, every time you see this annunciation in Christmas literature, understand that that is a proclamation that God will indeed be faithful to his Davidic covenant. He made promises, and he doesn't make promises and not keep them.

He's faithful and just to fulfill that which he promised: that the son of David would indeed come, and when he came, he would be the Son of God as well, and of his kingdom, there will be no end. We'll wrap up our discussion of the Davidic covenant in our next session. I hope you find the Davidic covenant as compelling and as fascinating as I do. Certainly, we can all agree that it is foundational to our understanding of any subsequent Messianic prophecy and certainly foundational to our understanding of Jesus as presented in the Gospels. Until next time, shalom.

Announcer: Thank you, Stephen. If you missed part of this series or would like to share it with a friend, you'll be glad to know that it's available on one convenient compact disc for the suggested gift of just $6. Just point your web browser to our online store at messianicspecialties.com and search for "Writings" and place your order with our secure server.

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This is Chris Rodriguez. Join us tomorrow for another edition of Messianic Prophecy in the Writings, right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the free-will contribution of our listeners in this area.