Scripture Commentaries

David and the Messianic Hope
Irene Nowell, OSB

Originally published in God’s Word Today
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David and his son Solomon are central figures in Chronicles. Almost twenty of the sixty-five chapters are devoted to the stories of these two kings. Who is this David and what is his house, that he merits such attention (see 1 Chr 17:16)? Why is David still a symbol for the kingdom of God’s people?

At the center of David’s significance throughout Israel’s history is God’s promise to him of an everlasting kingdom (2 Sam 7:16). His story is told first in 2 Samuel. David, second king of Israel, is far more successful than his predecessor Saul. He defeats Israel’s enemies and establishes a kingdom of peace and prosperity (2 Sam 5:17-25; 8:1-14). He takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital (2 Sam 5:6-12). But this is not enough. David knows that faith in God is what unites his people. So he brings the ark of the covenant, the sign of God’s presence, to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:1-19). Jerusalem, city of David, becomes the city of God.

David wants to build a proper temple for the ark. So he confers with Nathan the prophet. At first Nathan agrees, but the next morning he brings David a message from God: “You will not build me a house [a temple], but I will build you a house [a dynasty].” Now Israel has no experience of any dynasty, but God now promises David a dynasty and kingdom that will last forever! As for the house of God, David’s son will build the Temple (2 Sam 7:1-17). This promise lies at the root of what we call the “messianic hope.” David is an anointed king and thus a “messiah.” (Our word “messiah” is based on the Hebrew word for “anointed.”) Every king after David is also a “messiah,” an anointed one.

Through the generations David’s image is idealized more and more. His reign is remembered as the golden age. No other king can measure up, although some come close. Every time a new king succeeds the old one, the hope is renewed that this will be a “king like David.” Each king is judged by David’s standard: “Abijah imitated all the sins his father had committed before him, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, like the heart of his grandfather David” (1 Kgs 15:3; see 2 Kgs 16:2). “Asa pleased the Lord like his forefather David” (1 Kgs 15:11; see 2 Kgs 22:2). But no matter how wicked some of David’s descendants might be, God was not willing to destroy Judah because of the promise to David (see 2 Kgs 8:19).

The prophets too hope for an ideal king like David. The new king will be named “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:5). Peace will permeate his kingdom to such an extent that it will affect even the wild animals: “The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid” (Isa 11:6). Psalm 72 portrays a king in whom all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed (Ps 72:17). It doesn’t get any better than this!

But in the sixth century the Babylonians come and destroy Jerusalem, burn down the Temple, blind the king, and kill his sons. We can ask the same question as the psalmist: “Where are your promises of old, Lord, the loyalty sworn to David?” (Ps 89:50). Is everything lost? No. Prophets and poets reinterpret God’s promises to fit a new time and circumstance. Jeremiah, prophesying on the brink of Exile, proclaims in hope: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land” (Jer 23:5). Ezekiel, already exiled to Babylon, envisions a restoration in which God will return the people to their land “with my servant David their prince forever” (Ezek 37:25). Others have a different view. The exilic prophet whose words are found in the middle section of Isaiah names Cyrus a messiah, an anointed (Isa 45:1). Cyrus, a Persian, does not even belong to the family! But it is Cyrus who, having defeated the Babylonians, will return the Jews to their homeland. The same prophet envisions the whole people as heirs of God’s promise to David: “I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David” (Isa 55:3).

Life is not easy, however, when the people return from Babylon. The land still suffers from the Babylonian devastation and the people are poor. Will they be able to restore the Davidic kingship, the city of Jerusalem, and God’s Temple? What will happen to the messianic hope? Almost twenty years after the first return from Babylon two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, warn the people that they will never prosper if they do not complete the rebuilding of the Temple. Their message is heard and the new Temple is dedicated in 515 B.C. Zechariah also sees two messiahs, “the two anointed who stand by the Lord” (Zech 4:14): Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel, a descendant of David. But Zerubbabel never becomes king; leadership remains in the hands of the priests. Apparently the rebuilding of Jerusalem takes even longer. The story of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls is found in the book of Nehemiah.

In this context we read Chronicles, a reinterpretation of the people’s history and hopes after the Exile. Nathan’s promise to David is retold in 1 Chronicles 17, but there are some differences. In 2 Samuel God promised David: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Sam 7:16). In 1 Chronicles God’s promise focuses on David’s son Solomon: “I will maintain him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be firmly established forever” (1 Chr 17:14). It has become very clear that the future of David’s kingdom is dependent on God’s kingdom.

The attention given to the Temple -- David’s preparations and Solomon’s building -- must certainly be seen as an encouragement to the people of the Chronicler’s time to care for the newly rebuilt Temple and its liturgy. The organization of all the ministerial offices from priests to gatekeepers is now attributed to David (1 Chronicles 23-26; see 2 Chr 23:18; 29:25). In fact, this is a description of the Temple liturgy in the fourth century B.C., but the Chronicler roots it in David’s time in order to keep alive the hope in God’s promises.

In Chronicles too kings are judged by David’s standard. Rehoboam “walked in the way of David and Solomon three years” (2 Chr 11:17). Ahaz “did not please the Lord as his forefather David had done” (2 Chr 28:1). God’s fidelity to David inspires action in his descendants. Abijah is confident of victory over Jeroboam because “the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingdom of Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, by a covenant made in salt” [and therefore lasting] (2 Chr 13:5)? A century later the priest Jehoida deposes Athaliah (the only non-Davidide to hold the throne in Jerusalem before the Exile) and claims the kingship for young Joash, saying, “Here is the king’s son who must reign, as the Lord promised concerning the sons of David” (2 Chr 23:3).

The universality of the vision in Isaiah 55, where the promises to David are fulfilled in the whole people, is also seen in Chronicles. Forty-one times the Chronicler refers to “all Israel.” “All Israel gathered about David in Hebron (1 Chr 11:1) and “all Israel” brought the ark to Jerusalem (1 Chr 13:5-8). “All Israel” obeyed Solomon (1 Chr 29:23) and he and “all the people” dedicated the Temple (2 Chr 7:6). “All Israel” contributes money for the restoration of the Temple under Joash (2 Chr 24:5).

It is in the stories of three kings that the influence of David and the messianic hope is most clearly seen: Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah. Hezekiah “pleased the Lord just as his forefather David had done” (2 Chr 29:2). He repaired the Temple and reformed its liturgy (2 Chr 29:3), organizing the ministers and their music according to David’s instructions and singing David’s psalms (2 Chr 29:25-30). He attempted to reunite the people, calling “all Israel” to the celebration of Passover (2 Chr 30:1), and “there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, there had not been the like in the city” (2 Chr 30:26). He rebuilt the walls of the city and strengthened its defenses, foreshadowing the rebuilding in the Chronicler’s own time (2 Chr 32:5). Like Solomon he possessed wealth and built cities (2 Chr 32:27-29). “All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death” (2 Chr 32:33).

Manasseh’s kingship began badly. He built altars to other gods in the Lord’s Temple and “placed an idol that he had carved in the house of God” (2 Chr 33:4-7). But after his conversion he built a new outer wall for the City of David and cleansed the Temple, restoring the Lord’s altar (2 Chr 33:14-16).

Josiah “pleased the Lord, following the path of his ancestor David” and seeking “after the God of his forefather David” (2 Chr 34:2-3). He too restored the Temple, renewed the covenant, and called “all Israel” to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover (2 Chr 34:8-35:6). He instructed the Levites to arrange themselves according to David’s instructions (2 Chr 35:4) and the singers were positioned as David prescribed (2 Chr 35:15). “No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the time of the prophet Samuel, nor had any king of Israel kept a Passover like that of Josiah, the priests and Levites, all of Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (2 Chr 36:18).

The Chronicler keeps God’s promises to David in the forefront, encouraging his readers to continue to hope in their fulfillment. His work ends with the return to Jerusalem and Cyrus’s command to rebuild the Temple. Christians have reinterpreted the story of David yet again. In Jesus, son of David, we see the Messiah (in Greek the word is Christ) who is himself the Temple, sign of God’s presence. He announces the arrival of God’s kingdom and brings us all together into one. In him we become one body, the temple of God (Rom 11:5; 1 Cor 3:16).