David
The storyline of the Bible continues to unfold God’s promises of redemption despite man’s failure to trust & obey. It was into this chaos–man and his sinful heart–that God still makes promises to redeem mankind. What began with a promise of a Seed unfolded in a promise to Abraham, then to Judah, which was followed by the Law given through Moses to govern humanity, and now God’s promise that the Messiah (Seed of Woman) would come through the house of a king after His own heart.
The king was David, and he was raised up by God to be the type of how the King of kings will reign. David’s heart was after God’s heart, and as a result of this he received God’s promise that God would redeem humanity and establish His rule over humanity through someone within his family line. David was born in the tribe of Judah, and thus God’s promise to David is a continuation of God’s promise to the tribe of Judah—that the scepter (right to rule) would not depart from this tribe. As with all humans, David died, and the kingdom of Israel was split, thus signifying that the King of kings had not arrived. Sin still reigned—as seen in the presence of death, the family of Abraham was now divided, and so God used the prophets to write and to charge each new king over the split kingdom’s of Abraham’s family to be faithful to the Law given by God through Moses. As with Adam and all the rest of humanity, there was rebellion and disobedience to the Law of God, and their hearts were turned away from the God who brought them from slavery into blessing. There were times when some of the kings ruling God’s chosen people had moments of faith, but they still died. Sin was yet to be conquered, because death was still present.
And so, the chosen people–the family of Abraham–had to live with the hope that God would one day redeem His people through sin’s defeat by the Seed of Woman. Thus, the prophets wrote of the One who would come and make right all that sin had caused upon the earth. This was a hope that was from the Seed of Woman, through the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, the Prophet greater than Moses, and the house of David. The hope for all of humanity was that God would finally deal with the sin that riddles every human fiber, and that God would deal with it entirely. The only way for sin to be dealt with is to deal with death–conquering it once and for all. The only way for death to be dealt with is for a perfect sacrifice to be acceptable as a payment for sin–life exchanged for life–blood for blood. God will not wink at sin. And so, since man is not perfect, he could not offer his life or the life of another on his behalf. An animal would work, but only temporarily, because an animal is not of equal substance as mankind. Thus, an animal sacrifice is not sufficient to pay for mankind’s sin once and for all. It could only abate sin–push it off until next year–but not eradicate it ultimately. Thus, the only way for God to deal with the sin of the pinnacle of His creation–mankind–is to become the pinnacle of His creation, to live a sinless life, and then to face death, and conquer it through an eternal resurrection. The only one who could do this is the very Son of God. He will become the God-man and sacrificial Lamb to offer His life for the sins of His people. This is Jesus Christ, the Lord of all creation, which we will see on the next installment of Hearts on Fire…
— June 9, 2017