In the last issue we looked at Abraham, the friend of God. Time has moved on, and Abraham’s family has grown into a group of about 70 people. Because of a severe famine in Canaan they all moved down south-west into Egypt, where Joseph, one of Abraham’s great -grandsons, had been made the important governor. After Joseph’s death the new king of Egypt became worried about the family’s ever growing numbers, and made the nation of Israel slaves. Eventually God chose an Israelite man called Moses to become their leader, and he brought them out of Egypt.
God gave Moses a new system of laws to ensure Israel worshipped God in the correct way, and after 40 years they crossed the River Jordan and entered their “Promised Land”. This was Canaan—the country where Abraham had settled after his massive journey from Ur in Mesopotamia. Joshua had succeeded Moses as leader, and he was followed by several Judges who repelled enemies and acted as God-given saviours in different parts of the country over a period of some 300 years.
A King
Samuel was the last Judge. The people came to him and demanded a king, to be like other nations—which did not please either Samuel or God. Saul was appointed, but proved to be a disappointment. God then chose David to be king, and his descendants reigned for over 400 years until the capture of the nation by the Babylonians.
David began as a shepherd boy who both protected his sheep, and composed Psalms or hymns to praise God. He was recommended to King Saul because of his musical ability, but proved to be a very capable soldier after he had killed the Philistine giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Sadly King Saul became very jealous of David, and spent many years trying to kill him. However at Saul’s death David was anointed as king over Judah, the southern part of Israel, and seven years later was made the ruler over the whole country. He reigned for a total of 40 years (1 Kings 2:11).
King David was a godly man—the only one in the whole Bible to be described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). He was blessed by God, Who enabled him to really consolidate the kingdom to Israel, and to organise the nation’s worship. He very much wanted to build God a temple, to replace the tabernacle—the tent which was made during the 40 years’ journey to the Promised Land, and which had been the centre of Jewish worship since. God would not permit this, saying David had been a man of war (2 Samuel 7), but David’s son Solomon was directed to build it. David spent much time and money in collecting costly building materials for Solomon to use.
David’s Mistake
Despite the fact that David wrote many hymns of praise to God, and tried to serve and obey Him, he made one massive mistake which could well have brought the death sentence on him. He had a liaison with a married woman called Bathsheba while her husband was away in the army. When he was told that she was expecting his baby, he recalled her husband from the front line and tried to persuade him to go home and sleep with his wife. He refused to do that, and so David sent him back to the war, instructing his commander to arrange for his death.
God was very displeased with David. To show his regret and remorse David wrote Psalm 51, which includes these words: ‘Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me’ (vs. 9–10). God punished David by allowing the baby to die, and David also suffered from severe family problems several times in his life.
The Promise
The most important time of David’s life was when God made far-reaching promises to him about his family. David had wanted to build a house (temple) for God, but in reply God said that He would build David a house—that is, a family. ‘Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever’ (2 Samuel 7:16). This promise became the basis upon which David’s descendants reigned over Israel until the time of the Babylonian captivity, and even more importantly was part of the promise God made to Mary the mother of Jesus.
About a thousand years after David had started to reign, God’s angel Gabriel was sent to a young woman in northern Israel, and brought the awesome news that she had been chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. He said, ‘He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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’ (Luke 1:32–33). Mary was a descendant of King David, and therefore her son would be the result of God’s promise to David.
The Promised Descendant
The amazing miracle happened that God’s power, the Holy Spirit, started the baby to grow, and so God was his Father, and Mary his mother. Jesus referred to himself as ‘Son of Man’, which helped the people to understand that he was one of them. Jesus was not a king during his time on earth, but when he returns to earth he will inherit the throne of David (as Gabriel said), and reign not only over David’s land of Israel, but over the whole world.
Jesus never sinned, and so his dreadful death was the means of sinful people like us being forgiven. ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we are baptised into Jesus to wash away our sins, and live faithful lives in obedience to God, then His wonderful promises to both Abraham and King David will be ours, and we will benefit from a place in God’s Kingdom.
David Simpson