The Son of David

Jesus is the Son of David and heir to the Messianic Throne, the beloved Son of God, and the Servant of the Lord.

The Gospel of Matthew declares that Jesus is the Son of David, and in his ministry and sacrificial death, this same Jesus demonstrated exactly what it means to be the Messiah of Israel and the king of the nations, for he was also the Servant of the Lord who suffers for his people.

• “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” – (Matthew 1:1).

• “AND SHE WILL BRING FORTH A SON. AND YOU WILL CALL HIS NAME Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” – (Matthew 1:21. See also Isaiah 7:14).

• “Because his soul was delivered to death. And he was numbered among the transgressors, and he carried the sins of many, and he was delivered on account of their iniquities” – (Isaiah 53:12).

The tradition among the Jewish people that the Messiah would be a descendant of David was well-established by the first century, a conviction based on promises recorded in the Hebrew Bible. And the early church confirmed that Jesus was the son of David in fulfillment of Scripture. This fact was essential to the Gospel story. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Rome:

• “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who came to be from the seed of David, according to the flesh, who was marked out as Son of God in power, according to a spirit of holiness, from a resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” – (Romans 1:1-4).

In Romans 1:3-4, Paul contrasts the human ancestry of Jesus - he was a descendant of David “according to the flesh” - with his identification as the Son of God by a spirit of holiness and his bodily resurrection from the dead. As the result of his resurrection, he is now the Son of God “in power.”

[Castle - Photo by Andre Ouellet (Canada) on Unsplash]

The Son of David is more than the chief ruler of Israel. He is a savior and messiah of a radically different nature, and the kind of king that no man expected. He is the Servant of the Lord who gives his life to redeem his people from slavery to sin and death.

Scriptural citations and verbal allusions are applied in the Gospel of Matthew to establish Christ’s messianic status and royal credentials, although God had also decreed his death by crucifixion. Suffering and death precede exaltation.

After his baptism in the Jordan River, the Spirit of God descended on Jesus, and the heavenly voice identified him as the Son of God. The passage includes words from Isaiah about the Servant of the Lord who will bring good news to the nations of the Earth:

• “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED” - (Matthew 3:17).

• “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my elect one in whom My soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations” - (Isaiah 42:1. Compare Psalm 2:6-7).

When describing the events that preceded the birth of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke also links Jesus of Nazareth with God’s promise to raise up a king and deliverer from the House of David:

• “And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, YOU WILL CONCEIVE AND BRING FORTH A SON, AND YOU WILL CALL HIS NAME Jesus.  He will be great, and he 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 1:30-32. Note the verbal allusions to Isaiah 7:14 and 2 Samuel 7:12-14).

• “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people. And He has raised up a HORN OF SALVATION for us IN THE HOUSE OF HIS SERVANT DAVID” – (Luke 1:68-69. See 1 Samuel 2:10, 2 Samuel 7:26, Psalm 18:2, Psalm 89:3).

After the resurrection of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the Church continued to proclaim that Jesus was the promised king from the House of David. For example:

• “And we bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled the same for our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the Second Psalm, YOU ARE MY SON. THIS DAY, I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thusly, I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY AND SURE BLESSINGS OF DAVID. Because he declares also in another psalm, YOU WILL NOT GIVE YOUR HOLY ONE TO SEE CORRUPTION. For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption” - (Acts 13:32-37, citing Psalm 2:7, Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 55:3. Compare Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:36 [“Let all the house of Israel know that God has made him both Lord and Christ, even the same Jesus whom you crucified!”]).

The New Testament presents a Messiah who fulfills the roles of the Davidic King and the suffering servant who was “cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people” – (Isaiah 53:8).

• “Because Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” – (1 Peter 3:18).

• “Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and TO GIVE HIS LIFE A RANSOM FOR MANY” – (Matthew 20:28, alluding to Isaiah 53:12).

• “He bears our sins and is pained for us: yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and in affliction. But he was wounded on account of our sins, and was bruised because of our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his bruises we were healed” – (Isaiah 53:4-5, from the Septuagint version of Isaiah).

One role cannot be understood apart from the other. If we hope to comprehend the message and the ministry of the Nazarene, we must see both sides of the equation. Jesus is servant AND king, and service precedes exaltation. The suffering servant is the man whom God exalts to the Davidic throne.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is the lion of Judah and the descendant of David. However, he conquers his enemies as the sacrificial lamb. God exalted Christ because he gave his life to redeem Israel and the nations, and not because he killed his enemies:

• “And one of the elders said to me, Weep not! Behold, THE LION FROM THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, THE ROOT OF DAVID, has overcome to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb standing, as though it had been slain. <…> And they sing a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for you were slain, and you purchased for God with your blood men from EVERY TRIBE AND TONGUE AND PEOPLE AND NATION” – (Revelation 5:5-9. Note the verbal allusions to Genesis 49:9-10, Isaiah 11:1-10, Daniel 4:1, 6:25).

• “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says he who is holy, he who is true, HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, WHO OPENS AND NO MAN CLOSES, WHO CLOSES AND NO MAN OPENS” – (Revelation 3:7. Compare Isaiah 11:22).

• “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am THE ROOT AND THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID, THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR” – (Revelation 22:16. Compare Numbers 24:17 and Isaiah 11:1).

THE ROYAL ROAD

The Second Psalm is applied by the writers of the New Testament to Jesus in his present role, the Lord and Messiah who reigns from God’s throne. The Book of Isaiah clarifies that God enthroned Jesus because of his self-sacrificial death for his people, and this understanding became part of the preaching of the early Church:

• “Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today, I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” – (Psalm 2:6-8).

• “For to which of the angels did he ever say, YOU ARE MY SON. THIS DAY, I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU? and again, I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM, AND HE WILL BE A SON TO ME?” – (Hebrews 1:5, citing Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14).

• “HE POURED HIMSELF OUT, taking the form of a servant, having come to be in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, BECOMING OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, indeed, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God HIGHLY EXALTED HIM AND GAVE HIM A NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME” – (Philippians 2:7-9. Note Paul’s allusions to Isaiah 53:12 [“because he poured out his soul unto death…”]. Compare Psalm 89:27 and Isaiah 49:6-8).

Christ endured the conspiracy to overthrow God’s son as prophesied in the Second Psalm, and this occurred when the religious leaders of Israel plotted to destroy Jesus, even conspiring with the Roman authorities to do so. Nevertheless, God vindicated the Nazarene by raising him from the dead and exalting him to reign on the messianic throne (“The chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus that they might put him to death.” - Psalm 2:1-6, Matthew 26:59, 27:1):

• “And they, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, O Lord, you who made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them is, who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant, said, WHY DID THE NATIONS RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES IMAGINE VAIN THINGS?  THE KINGS OF THE EARTH SET THEMSELVES IN ARRAY, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST. For of a truth in this city against YOUR HOLY SERVANT, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your council determined beforehand to come to pass” – (Acts 4:24-28. Compare Isaiah 42:1, “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my elect”).

• “This Jesus did God raise up, of whom we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this that you see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, THE LORD SAID UNTO MY LORD, SIT ON MY RIGHT HAND UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL. Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” – (Acts 2:32-36. Note the quotation from Psalm 110:1).

This is how the early church interpreted and applied the prophecies about a future king of the House of David and the Suffering Servant who would ransom his people, and applied them to Jesus.

In Acts 4:24-28, Peter combines the images of the suffering servant and the Davidic king. It was not just the pagan nations that raged against God’s anointed, but also the religious leaders of Israel. And they succeeded in ending Christ’s life. Nevertheless, God raised His Son from the dead because of “his obedience unto death,” and exalted him to reign over the Universe.

The Servant of the Lord is the king who sits on the divine throne, and his sovereignty includes the realm of the dead. All this, because he endured an unjust death for humanity.

• “I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST, and the Living one. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES” - (Revelation 1:17-18. Compare Isaiah 22:22, 44:6, 48:12).

The final act of the Gospel of Matthew is the “commissioning” of the apostles and the Church. The picture is not of a world conqueror sending his armies to destroy his opponents, but of an already ruling monarch who dispatches his heralds to announce his victory over sin and death.

• “All authority, in heaven and on earth, has been given to me. Therefore, go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” – (Matthew 28:18-20).

Jesus is the heir of David. But before he became king, he suffered and “gave his life as a ransom for many.” The road to Mount Zion passes first through the Hill of Golgotha.

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[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

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SEE ALSO:

• The Salvation of the Lord - ('Jesus’ means “Yahweh saves.” In the man of Nazareth, the salvation promised by the God of Abraham has arrived)

• Christ is King! - (The reign of Jesus Christ from the Messianic Throne began following his Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation – Psalms 110:1)

• The Forerunner - (John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah, the herald of the Kingdom of God, and the one who baptizes in the Spirit – Mark 1:4-8)

• The Son of Abraham - (Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the heir of the promises, and the Messiah who implements the inheritance for his people)