Part 1: Is David important?
Over the next few months, we’re going to have eight studies on David, the shepherd who became king. We could easily give David much more time than that – he’s such an important person in the Bible, but we can’t fit in more than eight studies between now and December when we start to think about Christmas.
As we work our way through these studies, we’ll look at different points in David’s life. We’ll look at David the anointed one and then the refugee. David the man of prayer. David the musician. David the warrior. David the king. David the judge. And finally, David, the religious leader.
But I don’t want to dive straight in. In this first study I want to say something about just HOW IMPORTANT David is in the Bible story and WHY he is so important. My goal is very limited! There won’t be a lot of immediate takeaways from this talk. But if, at the end of it, you have a sense of how important David is, and why he is so important, and as a result, you want to dig in and discover more about him, then that will be a great result.
I’m splitting today’s talk into two parts. In the first part I’m going to ask the question, is David important? In the second part, I’ll ask the question, why is he so important?
Is David important? Yes! One reason to believe he’s important is the amount the Bible contains about David. It’s a huge amount! The second half of 1 Samuel and the whole of 2 Samuel are about David. That’s 40 chapters. The second half of 1 Chronicles and a couple of chapters in 1 Kings are also about David. In all, about 61 chapters in the Old Testament are about David. For comparison, the four gospels, which are about Jesus, are 89 chapters. But in addition, David wrote about 75 of the psalms!
The Bible has more narrative about David than anyone except Jesus. Just because there’s a lot of material about someone doesn’t mean he’s important. But we believe that God inspired the Bible. God would certainly give more weight to subjects that are important. The sheer amount of material the Bible contains about David means that he MUST be important.
But there’s another reason to think that David is important.
Many years ago, when I was a student, I attended a church in London. I remember the minister there saying that to understand the Old Testament we should go to the New Testament. The New Testament helps us to understand the Old Testament. What does the New Testament have to say about Jesus? Does the New Testament think that David is important? It certainly does!
The very first verse in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, mentions David: ‘This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…’ [N.B., this is NIV, it has 'Jesus the Messiah.' The Greek is actually 'Jesus Christ'. But perhaps the NIV does well to use the word Messiah as it brings out the significance of what Matthew is saying.]
At the very start of his gospel, Matthew connects Jesus to David. Why? There was a time when God told David, ‘I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever’ [2 Samuel 7:12-13]. Who could this be, whose throne would last forever? For hundreds of years, Jews had been expecting God to send a Messiah, a Christ – and he would be someone in David’s line. As Matthew starts to introduce Jesus, the first thing he writes is ‘This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David.’ Matthew is saying, ‘Jesus is the one! He’s the Messiah, the son of David whom God promised, whom we’ve all been waiting for!’ This Jesus is ‘the divinely anointed Saviour, the fulfilment of prophecy and the rightful heir to the throne of David’ [Hendriksen].
Let’s go now to the end of the New Testament. Five verses from the end, we read this: ‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star’ [Revelation 22:16]. This is Jesus speaking. These are Jesus’ very last words in the Bible! Now, in Jesus’ last words in the Bible, he says ‘I am the Root and the Offspring of David.’ This is important! In identifying who he is, Jesus is saying that he, God, had fulfilled what God had promised: to send a Messiah in the line of David.
So, David comes right at the beginning and right at the end of the New Testament. And David comes all the way through. For example, people often addressed Jesus as ‘Son of David.’
One reason we can be sure David is important is the sheer amount of material about him in the Bible.
A second reason we can be sure David is important is the close connection between David and Jesus.
We see David is important. But why he David so important? I believe we need to have some idea about this if we’re going to learn the important lessons from David’s life.
Part 2: Why David is so important
We can suggest quite a few reasons why David is important.
David is important in history. George Washington was the first president of the United States. Mao Zedong was the founder of the People’s Republic of China. Mahatma Gandhi was never president of India but many Indians think of him as the father of the Indian nation. David was the second king of Israel but he was unquestionably the king who established Israel as a nation. David took over from Saul at a time when Israel had been defeated by the Philistines. During David’s forty-year rule Israel defeated the nations of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, among others, and became the strongest nation in that region. So, David is important as the king who established Israel as a nation. That’s one reason why David is important. But it isn’t the main reason.
David was an extraordinary warrior. His military exploits line up with other famous military leaders such as Napoleon or Alxander the Great. But that isn’t the main reason why David is important.
David was an amazing poet. He wrote at least half of the psalms in the Book of Psalms. But that isn’t the main reason why David is important either.
I believe the main reason why David is so important is because he’s a ‘type’ for Jesus.
I’ll first explain what that means and then say why THIS is the reason David is so important.
The Old Testament contains lots of PROPHECIES about Jesus. Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, people would cast lots for his clothes, and so on. You’re familiar with prophecies like these. The Old Testament also contains ‘TYPES’ for Jesus. In many ways, types are similar to prophecies. Some people think of types as foreshadowings of Jesus. They give us a glimpse of Jesus before the event.
For example, Abraham was going to sacrifice his only son Jacob! This is a foreshadowing of God giving up HIS only son, Jesus. A second example is Moses, leading the people out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land. Moses’ life foreshadows Jesus leading us out of slavery to sin into God’s kingdom. A third example is Jonah. He was swallowed by a great fish. After three days, the fish spewed him out. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death and resurrection. A type for Jesus is an advance hint of what Jesus would be or do.
David was a type for Jesus in multiple ways. He was anointed. The Holy Spirit came on him. He went out into the wilderness where he was tested. He had a close friend, Jonathan, who had a premature death. The Holy Spirit directed Zechariah and Elizabeth to call their son, John. David’s friend Jonathan had a premature death, and so did John the Baptist. David was rejected. He left Jerusalem and went up the Mount of Olives. So, there are multiple points of connection between David and Jesus.
But the key, the biggest point of connection, was that David was king over God’s people. And he wasn’t just any king, he was a king after God’s heart.
We can see foreshadowings of Jesus in David, but above all, we see in David a foreshadowing of Jesus AS KING.
Other famous people in the Bible were types for Jesus but none of them were types for Jesus AS KING, as a king ruling over Israel expressing the heart of God. This is above all, how David was a type for Jesus.
Am I just imagining that or is that how the New Testament sees him?
When the New Testament talks about David, it doesn’t mention him as a great statesman or a great military commander or a great poet. Over and over again, the New Testament speaks of David IN RELATION TO JESUS. Jesus is the Son of David.
As we’re studying David we need to keep this in mind. David had lots of admirable qualities and some not-so-admirable ones and we can learn from both. But the biggest reason to learn about David is because he was the type or prototype of the perfect king who would come, and he is the only person in the Old Testament who has this role.
Was David up to such a task? He certainly wasn’t perfect! But the Bible tells us that David was a man after God’s heart and HE IS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE BIBLE WHO IS DESCRIBED THAT WAY.
In the New Testament, there was a time when Paul was preaching. He was talking about the time when God chose David. He says that God ‘raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, “I HAVE FOUND IN DAVID THE SON OF JESSE A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all my will”’ [Acts13:22].
As I mentioned, David is the ONLY person in the Bible who is described that way! It’s true that David wasn’t perfect. But he could still be a type for Jesus and especially, a type for Jesus as king.
I hope you’re with me so far and are sensing that David is hugely important and why he’s so important. But I haven’t quite finished. There’s something which makes David EVEN more important!
David is a type for Jesus as king. And we need that BECAUSE WE HAVEN’T YET SEEN JESUS AS KING CLEARLY. You’re no doubt thinking, What?! We have the four gospels! They show us Jesus! Jesus was born king of the Jews! Yes, Jesus is king. But Jesus has not yet come into his kingdom. He hasn’t yet taken up his rule.
Let me explain. Jesus told a parable. It starts like this: ‘A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return...’ [Luke 19:12].
The nobleman goes off, he’s made king and then he returns. After he returns, he takes up his kingship. The nobleman in the story is Jesus. Jesus came into our world 2000 years ago. At that time, he came as a suffering servant to redeem humankind. But a day will come when Jesus returns as king. THEN we will see Jesus as we haven’t seen him before.
But David, as a type for JESUS AS KING gives us a picture of what Jesus will be like when he comes again and takes up his kingship. In David, we see a man after God’s heart reigning as king over God’s people.
What are the takeaways?
I believe the key takeaway is that we grasp something of HOW important David is and WHY he is so important. That then prepares us to study him.
We could approach David as a great statesman or a great military commander or a great poet. But that isn’t how we should approach him.
We should approach David as someone who had God’s heart. When we see into David’s heart, we’ll see something of the heart of God.
We’ll approach him as a type for Jesus, and especially, a type for Jesus as king. When we look at David, we’ll see a side of Jesus which Jesus didn’t fully express when he entered our world 2000 years ago.
I hope you’re excited to discover more about David in this series!
In our next talk I’ll look at how God chose David and how, within a very short time, David is forced to flee from Saul. Would you like to know what was going on in David’s heart when he did? If you would, then why not read Psalm 57 during the week? It’s very short. In this psalm, David tells us what he was thinking when he fled. I think he was expressing God’s heart, and there are many good things to learn from it.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 18th August 2024, 10.30 a.m. service
