When the Sages were searching the Scriptures for clues about the coming Messiah, they discovered potentially two Messiahs: Son of Joseph, The Suffering Servant and Son of David, The Conquering King. It appeared that one Messiah would come on a mission of affliction, suffer on behalf of his brothers and die as he procured Israel’s redemption. Another Messiah would complete the redemption of Israel begun by the first and usher in victory and salvation, the Messianic Age.
We have discussed the expectations of Messiah, Son of Joseph, The Suffering Servant in a previous entry. Now it’s time to look at Messiah, Son of David, The Conquering King. This is the Messiah everyone is expecting!
The mighty warrior crowned king of Israel
King David was Israel’s third king (Ishbosheth, son of Saul was king for a short period of time), but her first great and mighty king. King David was a skilled shepherd, a gifted musician, an inspired poet, a valiant warrior and a man after HaShem’s own heart. As the Sages searched for clues about the coming Messiah, they found in the narratives of David’s life a shadow of the Messiah, the Conquering King. Just like a prototype of Messiah was found in the life of Joseph, David’s life is also a prototype of Messiah. King David united the people of Israel, led them to victory in battle as he defeated their enemies, led them to worship HaShem and paved the way for the Temple to be built. Near the end of David’s life HaShem made a covenant with him through the prophet Nathan, promising to make David’s name great, to plant Israel in their land that they may dwell in peace, to provide David a dynasty and to establish forever the kingdom of Israel under David’s son who would build the Temple. King Solomon succeeded King David and reigned over Israel in a time of peace and prosperity. However, not since King Solomon has all of Israel been united or has all of Israel served HaShem. It was understood in Biblical times that a son would be like his father and generation after generation Israel has been waiting for another son of David to rise up lead Israel the way David did and that his kingdom will be established forever, hence the Messianic title “Son of David.” Israel has great faith that HaShem will keep His word and make good on His covenant with David.
Messiah, the conquering king, is who everyone has been anticipating for a very long time. When Messiah does come, what will it look like and what can we expect? Let’s take a look at what the Torah and the Prophets expected.
In Jacob’s final blessing over his sons, he blessed Judah with a blessing that hints about King Messiah. When Balaam was hired to curse Israel before they entered the Promised Land, he instead prophesied about the coming Messiah. There are many Messianic prophecies recorded in the books of the Prophets and I will list only a few. Jeremiah spoke of a shepherd king of the house of David who would rule with wisdom and righteousness. Ezekiel also spoke of a shepherd king who would care for Israel. Hosea spoke of a time when Israel would return to HaShem and to David their king.
David, the shepherd king of Israel
In the Gospels we find many references to the King of Israel. The magi came from the east looking for “he who has been born king of the Jews“, Nathanael said “You are the King of Israel!” when he first met Yeshua, the people wanted to make Him king by force at least once and later they heralded Him as King when He entered Jerusalem on a colt, and later we read that the charges brought against Him before Pilate were that He said He was Messiah, the King. You see, Messiah had come to mean King of Israel.
After Yeshua’s resurrection he spent 40 days with His disciples, teaching them further. Just before Yeshua ascended into heaven, the disciples asked Him:
“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Sometimes we think that the disciples “just didn’t get it” when it came to certain things. While in the beginning they did indeed need to reassess their expectations, by this time I am certain that they were on the same page with Yeshua. He had explained all sorts of things to them, they had experienced all kinds of things with Him, this was the end of their time with Him in His earthly ministry. They were fully prepared by Him for the next step. The disciples, along with all of Israel then and now, were waiting for the day when Messiah will come to take His rightful place on the throne of his father, King David, and rule over a glorious Israel from Jerusalem. He will bring ultimate restoration to Israel and the kingdom of Heaven will be fully realized. His coming to take up His throne will usher in the Messianic Age and oh! what a day that will be!! Earlier the disciples had to grapple with the idea that Messiah had to come first as the Suffering Servant, but now that He had risen from the dead it was time for Him to make Himself known as the Conquering King. They wanted to know how long before that time came. They were asking, “What do we do now? What’s the next step?” Already they had to re-evaluate their expectations several times. Do we need to do the same thing today?
What does it mean when they asked if it was time for Messiah to restore the kingdom to Israel?
King David entering Jerusalem
We know that Messiah will come to the Mount of Olives and enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. Jewish tradition has told us this for a very long time and the Apostolic Writings allude to it as well. We know that there will be battles that King Messiah will fight on behalf of Israel and that the King will conquer the enemy and rule over the nations. This Conquering King will not be one you want to mess with, He’s one tough and serious warrior! After the final battle there will be a great feast, a celebration, a wedding feast. The Messianic Age will be upon us and Israel, both the people and the land, will be abundantly blessed. The produce of the land will be tremendous, enough that a colt could be tethered to a grapevine and it would be sufficient to restrain the energetic young animal wishing to run free instead. The people will be blessed with favor and glory, primarily due to the King who reigns in righteousness, forever. The nations will bend their knee in honor to the King, bring tribute to Jerusalem and keep the festivals with joy. King Messiah will teach us from G-d’s holy hill and set everything right, it will be a restoration of tremendous proportions!
How does this jive with the concepts you may have grown up with or the expectation you may have? Are you expecting Messiah to come and whisk His followers away to some far-away place where we will live lives of leisure? If King Messiah comes in our lifetime, will we have to re-evaluate our expectations like the disciples did? If we don’t recognize the Messiah that comes because it’s not what we are expecting, will we reject Him? He is coming to sit on David’s throne and reign over Israel, from Jerusalem, and Israel will be the center of the world – not just spiritually but politically as well. If we are grafted into Israel by our faith in Messiah, then we will have a share in His kingdom. Whatever that share will be is up to Him to determine. I’ll be thrilled just to mop floors somewhere in His kingdom. But if we reject the Messiah that comes because we are expecting someone else, where will we find ourselves?
I am certain that Messiah knows who is His. HaShem knows too. When Messiah comes He will set everything right and He will teach us. If it is in our hearts to learn, we will. It would benefit us to begin to learn today, in preparation. Messiah means King of Israel, the real physical Israel – the people and the place. That’s what the Bible tells us. We must begin to prepare ourselves for Messiah’s coming – prepare our hearts, prepare the works of our hands, work toward the restoration of Israel – the people and the land – and work toward a restoration of our hearts to our G-d. Yeshua’s message was the same message that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Immerser, the disciples and others had: do teshuvah (repent) for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There is much work yet to be done, but if we tackle bits and pieces every day, together, there is much work that can be accomplished. When King Messiah comes, let Him find us paying attention and busy doing the work assigned to each of us.
The King is coming. He is coming soon! It’s time to prepare.
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MOST EXCELLENT !!! THANK YOU for that scholarly review with heart !
COME QUICKLY YESHUA HaMASHIACH!!
Thank you for your kind words and
YES,
Please, HaShem, send us Yeshua our Messiah a second time for Your Name’s sake.
Great post, Lisa. We’ve linked to this post in the latest weekly bracha.
Todah!
I’ve got a follow-up to this and the Suffering Servant entry in my head, waiting for time to let it out of my fingers. It’ll tie together these two entries and the Israel trip updates (I hope, anyway).
What I don’t understand is if christians don’t believe in reincarnation how does yeshua come back as messiah ben david?
Hello Sara ~
The thing here to understand is the difference between resurrection and reincarnation. Resurrection is that the one who has died is brought back to life. This person is not a new person but the same person as when they were living. Yeshua did die, but he was resurrected and not through a prophet’s prayers either. He is the firstfruits of the dead to rise and this shows that His ministry was accepted by HaShem, and validated by Him again. When He was resurrected He was the same person, but He did appear different in form in a way that He was recognizable yet He wasn’t. I don’t know what about Him looked different, but there was something about Him that was different. However, He did still have the marks of the crucifiction on His body and He showed them to His disciples so in that way, His body was the same.
Reincarnation is the belief that we are re-made into something wholly new and unlike what we were before. This believes that one might be a dog in one life, an ant in another and a human in another. There is no memory of these past lives and no evidence of these past lives (I believe this is because it is not true). Reincarnation and resurrection are very different.
When Messiah returns He is the same man He was before. Just like Elijah was taken up to heaven and it is not difficult to consider that he has returned at times to help the Jewish people, and it is taught in the Bible that Elijah will return again to lead us back to the Truth, so will Messiah return. He will not need to be born as an infant again, but will return leading an army in a battle to defend His brothers (the Jewish people) as they are attacked by their enemies. Just like Elijah is understood to be waiting in heaven with HaShem to complete his task, so is Messiah.
What do you think?