The messianic title, Son of David, takes us back to God’s promise to Israel’s greatest king–a messianic dynasty, an eternally established throne. David wants to build the temple, but through the prophet Nathan, God says to David, No. Solomon will build it. But there’s more. Nathan goes on: “And your house and kingdom shall be established forever before you.* Your throne shall be established forever” (II Sam. 7: 16, ~NKJV; Me* in the Septuagint). God through Nathan stops David cold. But in effect he’s saying: You want to build me a house? No, I’m building you a house!
This means there will always be a son of David to rule . . . even if there is no throne. It’s also clear from the genealogies–Matthew 1: 1-16 and Luke 3: 23-38–that Jesus follows in the direct line of King David, father to son, through both Mary and Joseph. In fact, an angel, speaking to Joseph in a dream, calls him “son of David” (Matt. 1: 20).
The messianic promises linked to David were known in Israel. The Wise Men asked Herod about the newborn King of the Jews (Matt. 2: 4-6), and he went to the experts, “inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. So they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea’ ” (Matt. 2: 5)–i. e., David’s hometown. About now, Herod starts to worry. They’re quoting the Bible: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, / Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, / Yet out of you shall come forth for Me / The One to be Ruler in Israel, / Whose goings forth are from of old, / From everlasting” (Mic. 5: 2).
Jesus knew the prophecies and he’d read Psalm 110. In fact, he challenged some of his opponents on this very point: “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ “
Here Jesus raises a startling question about time, David, and the Son of David. No doubt, they have to think before they answer. In the psalm, David is honoring this person as Lord. The Messiah must be meant, and no one questions the point. But the Messiah is known as the Son of David. How can the Son of David, who will come after him in a long line of fathers and sons, also be David’s Lord? Both son and Lord? Again, whose son is this?
“They said to him, ‘David’s.’ He said to them, ‘How then does David in the Spirit call him “Lord,” saying: “The LORD said to my Lord, / Sit at My right hand, / Till I make Your enemies your footstool.” If David calls him “Lord,” how is he his son?’ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dared question him anymore” (Matt. 22: 41-46; Ps. 110: 1).
Later, as Jesus is passing through Jericho, approaching Jerusalem for the last time, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus hears he’s coming and begins shouting: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd tries to shush him, but he shouts even more, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” and Jesus stops. “What do you want me to do for you?” he says. “Lord, that I may receive my sight,” Bartimaeus tells him. “Receive your sight,” Jesus says. “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 18: 35-43). Notice that, unlike the crowd, he doesn’t rebuke the man or distance himself from him. Jesus fulfills the man’s request, affirming the title he cries out: “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
A Syro-Phoenician woman also appeals to Jesus. Her daughter is oppressed by a demon, and this mother’s plea is like that of Bartimaeus: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! “(Matt. 15: 22). Though the blind beggar’s Aramaic name suggests that he’s Jewish, she’s a Gentile. The title is known in both communities, it seems.
When the title, Son of David, is given to Jesus, the moment evokes the prophesied Messiah and, more specifically, the messianic promises given to David. Does Jesus qualify? Are those who call Jesus Son of David correct in their attribution?
The qualifications involve, first, the matter of David’s succession. Though a royal throne of David was no more after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B. C., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and the kingdom itself destroyed, there was always, as the genealogies of Jesus show, a legitimate heir who could have ruled. As legal inheritor of David’s throne, Jesus is the descendant of God’s anointed king.
Second, the messianic title, Son of David, recalls the character of David, “a man after God’s own heart” (I Sam. 13: 14). In a synagogue in Antioch, Paul quotes this verse as he explains God’s rejection of Saul and choice of David: “He raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel, a Savior–Jesus–” (Acts 13: 22-23). That the Son of David gave the Father even more pleasure than David himself is affirmed in the record of David’s life and at the baptism of Jesus when the voice of God was heard, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3: 17).
Jesus qualifies.
David prophesies the rule of of the Messiah, the one he calls Lord in Psalm 110: 1, though he will follow him many generations later. The prophet Micah says his origins are “from everlasting,” and John the Baptist agrees in what could almost be taken as a paraphrase of David’s statement, “After me comes a man who is preferred before me because he was before me” (John 1: 30 ~NKJV).
The prophets in widely separated centuries–David, Micah, and John the Baptist–foresee a pre-existent Messiah. The Gospel of John opens on the same theme, giving us the big picture.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1: 1).
from The Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in South Carolina
May 14, 2019
Photo credits: Star of David by Ben Ostrower, hand by Kira auf der Heide, lion by Cassie Lafferty. All from unsplash.com
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