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From David’s Throne to Babylon’s Chains | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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For this deep dive, we're looking at a, well, a really
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pivotal period in the history of redemption.
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We are. It's the whole era, from David's
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anointing through Solomon's glory, and then, well then, the
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slide toward the Babylonian captivity.
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And it seems like this is where Providence changes tactics.
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It goes from this very broad selection of a nation to
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something much more focused. That's a good way to put it.
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It's about anchoring 3 things that are, you could say, non
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negotiable for the Messiah. OK, what are they?
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First, his specific ancestral line.
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Second, the fixed physical location of worship.
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And 3rd, the written blueprint of his mission, which comes
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through the Prophets in incredible detail.
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And what we're here to do is see how God engineered all of this,
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even using things like war and and political decay to get it
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done. So let's unpack that.
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The sources we have seem to signal a huge shift in focus.
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Before, the story was kind of held by the people of Israel in
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general, but now the whole narrative just zooms in on one
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person, David. This is the elevation of the
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ancestor and type. It's a it's a massive expression
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of sovereign election in action. I mean, think about when Samuel
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goes to Jesse's house to anoint the next king.
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He looks at the older sons. He does.
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He sees Eliab and thinks, surely the Lord's anointed is before
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him. He's looking at stature, at
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appearance. But God's response is immediate.
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He doesn't see. His man sees.
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No, he looks on the heart. And the sources really go out of
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their way to point out how, I mean how remarkable this choice
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was. It was David's, the youngest,
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the one they didn't even call in from the fields.
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He's out with the sheep. His father's household is
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described as little. Among the tribes, he's the least
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likely candidate you can imagine.
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And that's the whole point. This choice consistently goes
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against what we'd expect. It's a theme that runs through
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the whole history of redemption, isn't it?
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Oh. Absolutely.
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You see it from the very beginning.
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The choice of Seth over Cain. Noah above the whole drowned
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world. Abraham chosen out of her.
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And then, even within Abraham's own family, these critical
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distinctions keep happening. Isaac, the son of Promise,
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chosen over Ishmael. And Jacob, the younger twin over
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Esau. The younger one chosen over the
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physically stronger the first born.
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It happens again in the next generation too.
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You mean with Pherez Zara? Yes.
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Zara puts his hand out first. He gets the scarlet thread.
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He seems to be the one marked for preeminence.
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But Ferrez is the one who breaks forth first.
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He supplants him. All of this is designed to make
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one thing crystal clear. God's choice is free, it's
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sovereign, and it has nothing to do with the criteria the world
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uses. Things like age or status or
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what someone looks like, none of it.
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So David's selection coming from this, you know, this low
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starting point, it leads to a distinction that is far greater
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than Saul's. That's the critical difference.
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Saul was chosen as an individual.
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But David was chosen dynastically.
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Yes, Saul was elected to rule temporarily, mostly because the
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people wanted a king. They could see someone who
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looked the part, but David's anointing establishes the crown
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and his family forever. So it's not just about setting
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up the temporal Kingdom of Israel.
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No, not at all. It's the mechanism for
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establishing the Kingdom of the universal spiritual church, the
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one that lasts to the end of the world.
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He was planting the specific legal route for what Isaiah
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would later call the branch of righteousness.
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And that connection between David's earthly throne and
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Christ's spiritual throne, that's where the real
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theological weight is. It is.
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It's why David is called the greatest personal type of Christ
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in the Old Testament. And there are different kinds of
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types. Right, the sources layout 3
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categories. You have instituted types like
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animal sacrifices. You have providential types like
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the Exodus itself. And then personal types.
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Individuals whose lives foreshadow the Messiah, and
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David is at the very top of that list.
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Why David over, say, Moses or Joshua?
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Because of the way his roles converge directly onto Christ,
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he's a shepherd, a sufferer, a prophet, and most critically, a
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king. And Christ is called David in
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prophecy. All the time.
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Ezekiel for example says I will set up 1 shepherd over them,
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even my servant David. And of course the New Testament
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constantly calls him the son of David.
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It seals that link. Their Thrones are seen as one.
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Luke says God will give Christ the throne of his Father David.
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That's not just a historical nod.
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It's positional The spiritual Kingdom Christ rules is
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presented as the everlasting continuation of David's Kingdom.
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So David's anointing wasn't just a political event, it was a
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divine act that established the visible form of the Church's
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Kingdom moving forward. And the contrast in their
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physical appearance just deepens the whole thing.
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The sources point out that David was, you know, low of stature or
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maybe even despicable in appearance.
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Right, while Saul was literally head and shoulders above
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everyone else. It's a powerful visual metaphor.
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It is, and it carries right into the gospel.
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Saul, who looked great in imposing, was the first
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temporary king, but the Kingdom was taken from him by David, who
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looked small and insignificant. Which perfectly prefigured
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Christ. It did because Christ too, came
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in lowliness. No form nor comeliness.
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That's Isaiah 53. He appeared despicable, was
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rejected by men, he didn't have any of the outward pomp people
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expected from a king, and yet this humble figure took the
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Kingdom from the great ones of the earth.
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The established powers of the time.
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God consistently uses what looks weak, what looks lowly, what's
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unexpected to achieve his greatest ends.
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And the fact that David was the youngest son just keeps
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hammering home that pattern. Human systems are constantly
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being subverted by God's choice. It ensures the glory goes
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entirely to the one doing the choosing.
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It's a declaration that when the true Son of David finally
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arrives, he won't be a man of pride, but a humble king.
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So that high calling, that distinction, it immediately puts
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a massive target on David's back.
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If the line of promise now resides in him, then everything,
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both human and demonic, is going to seek his destruction.
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Right. Which leads us to the next
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massive theme, Divine Preservation of the Precious
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Seed. And this isn't just a series of
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exciting stories. It's a necessary theological
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point. It is the work of redemption
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itself, hung on David's survival.
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If David had been killed, the promise of the Messiah would
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have been well defeated. The visible church would have
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been snuffed out. And David's life, from the
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moment of his anointing, was just one near fatal danger after
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another. It starts even before Goliath.
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It does back when he's just a shepherd.
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The confrontation with the lion and the bear.
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Which is heavy with typological meaning.
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Incredibly so. Here's this young man, a
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stripling who conquers these massive, fierce beasts.
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He miraculously rescues the lamb they had seized.
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This wasn't just a story about being brave.
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So how does that map unto Christ?
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It's a type of Christ rescuing souls from the roaring lion.
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Satan David's victory over those literal devouring animals showed
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the kind of supernatural authority Christ would use to
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rescue his spiritual flock. Then we get to the most famous 1
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David and Goliath. The giant is threatening to tear
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Israel apart. And David steps forward, armed
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with what a staff, a sling and faith.
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And the sources really focus on how he wins.
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They do because Christ the anti type slays the spiritual
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Goliathson and death not with earthly power but through a
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totally counterintuitive weapon. David uses Goliath's own sword
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to cut off his head. He does, and the spiritual
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parallel is the cross. The cross was supposed to be the
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instrument of defeat, the enemy's weapon to destroy
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Christ. But he uses that seeming defeat
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to win the victory. He does by submitting to it.
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Christ used Goliath's own sword, you could say, to deliver his
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people. It's the ultimate example of God
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using weakness to overthrow strength.
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But the threats didn't end with wild animals or giants.
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They got well, they got political King Saul right.
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His jealousy and hatred became a sustained, systematic campaign
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to destroy David. And his schemes were relentless.
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He tries to get that David killed by the Philistines,
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demanding that dangerous dowry. When that fails, he just gives a
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direct order to his own son Jonathan to kill David.
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And here's where Providence intervenes in a really
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interesting way through Jonathan's loyalty.
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It's a key detail. Jonathan is the Crown Prince.
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David is his direct rival for the throne.
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Politically, he should have wanted David gone.
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Of course, but instead he protects David, loves him as his
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own soul, and puts his own life on the line for the man God
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anointed. It shows God's sovereignty over
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even human ambition, bending the heart of a rival to preserve the
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seed. And sometimes the intervention
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was just miraculous. Saul throwing a javelin at him
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more than once. And the incident at Niathan
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Rama, Saul sends messengers to capture David, but the Spirit of
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God comes upon them and they start prophesying.
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And it happens to group after group of messengers.
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Until Saul goes himself and the same thing happens to him.
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He lies down prophesying for a whole day and night.
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God was neutralizing every weapon, every plot, even the
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mental state of David's enemies. We also see this preservation in
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the most unlikely of places among the Philistines.
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I mean, he'd killed their champion, yet he was kept safe
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in their land twice. The first time he has to pretend
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to be insane. Brooding on his beard,
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scratching on the doors just so they'll dismiss him as harmless.
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It shows that God's protection was absolute, no matter how
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hostile the territory was. And then you have those years in
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the wilderness being hunted by stall.
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Those moments are unforgettable. In The Cave at In Yeti, David
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has a perfect opportunity to kill Saul.
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But he spares him. He just cuts off a piece of his
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robe. And that act of mercy, of
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restraint, it says so much about David's faith.
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He was relying on God's timing, not his own.
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And David clearly understood the significance of all these narrow
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escapes. Oh, absolutely.
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The Psalms are filled with it. You can hear him reflecting on
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this period over and over. He knew that every near miss,
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every sudden turn of events was direct divine interference.
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He sings about the great salvation that kept him safe.
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Confirming this preservation was meticulous and rooted in the
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covenant. So David is preserved.
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The physical line is secure. The next logical step, then, for
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Providence is to formalize the entire structure around him.
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Yes. Which brings us to the Fifth
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Covenant and the Holy City. Once the person of the king was
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secure, God moved to secure the constitution of the Kingdom.
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We've seen four previous solemn establishments of the Covenant
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of Grace. With Adam Noah, the patriarchs.
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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then Moses.
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This is the 5th and it's renewed specifically with David.
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It happens when David says he wants to build a permanent house
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for God, a temple. Right.
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He feels uncomfortable living in a House of cedar while the Ark
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of the Covenant is still in a tent.
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And God's response through the prophet Nathan is one of the
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most significant Messianic prophecies in the whole Old
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Testament. It is.
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David offers to build God a house, a physical temple.
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But God says no, I'm going to build you a house, a dynasty,
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and a Kingdom. And the promise is just
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staggering. Thy house and thy Kingdom shall
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be established forever. Thy throne shall be established
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forever. And that just can't be talking
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about Solomon or the earthly kings of Judah.
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That Kingdom vanished centuries ago.
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So it has to be fulfilled in Christ.
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Entirely, it's a promise that secured the future spiritual
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foundation of the Church. And David himself, the sources
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say he understood the incredible weight of this.
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He did. Immediately he understood that
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this covenant promise was greater than any other blessing.
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In his very last words, He calls it all my salvation and all my
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desire. It became the central hope for
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the future Kingdom. And this is what the later
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prophets keep referring back to. Isaiah talks about the sure
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mercies of David. Those sure mercies are the
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guarantee of an everlasting Kingdom and an everlasting king.
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By coming to Christ, the true Son of David, we get an interest
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in the benefits of that eternally established covenant.
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So while God is establishing this spiritual throne, He's also
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establishing the physical location for worship Jerusalem.
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Which is a huge structural change from the Law of Moses.
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How? So.
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The Law of Moses kept saying that sacrifices should be
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brought to the place he would choose, but it never actually
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named the place the. Tabernacle was movable.
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It reflected the temporary rendering state of the people,
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but choosing Jerusalem as a fixed point signaled a new level
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of establishment and rest. But first, David had to conquer
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it. The Jebusites still held the
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stronghold of Zion. It was a task that Joshua, for
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all his success, hadn't fully completed.
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So David the captain, had to redeem that city to make it
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God's holy city. Which makes Jerusalem itself a
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great type of the church. It does redeemed by Christ, the
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captain of our salvation from the control of spiritual
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enemies, the devils who are typified by those Jebusites.
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And its future role was locked in from that moment.
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Absolutely. It was appointed as the place
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for the first gathering of the Christian Church after the
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resurrection. It's where the Spirit was poured
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out at Pentecost and where the gospel started to go out to the
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world just as Isaiah prophesied. So the location is fixed, the
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covenant is secure, and then David also delivers on the
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physical promise about the land itself.
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This is a point that's often overlooked, but it's crucial.
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Joshua started the work of possessing the land, but he left
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a lot unfinished. There were still Canaanite
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remnants. The Jebusites, The Philistines,
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others. David completed the task.
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He subjected all the nations of Canaan to Israelite rule.
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But he did more than that, didn't he?
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He extended the borders. He did.
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He pushed them out to the full maximum limits that were
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promised to Abraham way back in Genesis, that massive area
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stretching from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.
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So Joshua's possession was partial, but David's was
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complete? It was.
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And that full dominion under David and Solomon?
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It must have been an incredible visual for the people.
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It gave them a tangible, even if temporary, picture of the
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massive universal scope of Christ's spiritual Kingdom.
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So when the Psalmist writes about the Messiah's dominion
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being from sea to sea, they had a real historical image in their
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minds. They did.
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The temporary fulfillment prepared them to grasp the scale
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of the eternal 1. OK, so the place is fixed, the
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land is subdued. Now the internal life of the
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church. It's worship that also has to be
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refined and fixed to prepare for the temple.
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Right, and this is where we see the perfection of worship and
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the rise of the temple. This just underscores David's
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unique position. He's not just the personal type
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of Christ who finishes Joshua's work.
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He also perfects the instituted worship that Moses began.
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He didn't just maintain the mosaic system, he added to it.
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Yes, and these new institutions were treated as having equal
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parallel validity with the Law of Moses.
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He organized the Levites into new roll singers, poured
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treasurers. He divided the priests into 24
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courses. And those 24 courses were not
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just a temporary administrative change.
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No, they were enduring ecclesiastical law.
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They lasted for centuries, all the way until the whole system
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was abolished. You know Zacharias, John the
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Baptist father. He still belonged to the chorus
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of Abijah, one of David's original divisions.
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But the change that has the deepest theological meaning is
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David partially abolishing part of Moses's law.
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This is a really critical point. The Law of Moses in Numbers laid
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out very specific duties for the Levites about carrying the
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Tabernacle vessels. And David, by divine revelation,
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changed that. He abolished those tasks.
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He did. And the reason that's so
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significant is that it provides the theological precedent oh so
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well, if David, who is just a type of the Messiah, had the
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authority from God to set aside a part of the ceremonial law
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given by Moses. Then it stands to reason that
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the Messiah himself, the anti type, could and would abolish
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the whole system when he came. Exactly.
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It prove the ceremonial law was never meant to be perpetual, it
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was mutable. And this leads right to the
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ultimate replacement structure, the temple.
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David sets aside Moses's movable Tabernacle to make way for a
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fixed, permanent temple. The Tabernacle was a tent for a
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people on the move, the temple was a magnificent fixed
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structure for a people at rest in the Promised Land, and this
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replacement foreshadowed Christ, the Son of David, abolishing the
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movable temporary Jewish constitution to set up the
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spiritual Gospel temple. Which is far more glorious and
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last forever. And the design for this temple
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wasn't just left to human creativity.
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No, David received the pattern for it by the Spirit, just like
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Moses received the pattern for the Tabernacle on Sinai.
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He had all the plans and passed them to Solomon to execute.
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So the temple itself was a precise God-given type.
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It was it was a type of three things.
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First, of Christ's human nature. Destroy this temple and in three
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days I will raise it up. Second of the church.
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The habitation of God through the Spirit.
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And 3rd, It was a type of heaven in its glorified state, the
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ultimate dwelling place of God. It was the physical place where
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God dwelt on earth until Christ came to dwell in human nature.
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And the high point of all this external visible glory was
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reached during Solomon's reign. The sources call this the full
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moon stage of the Jewish Church. Yes, we've seen the light of
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redemption getting brighter and brighter since Abraham.
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Now halfway between Abraham and Christ, the external church was
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at its absolute peak. The Kingdom was established in
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the Wright family. They had the full promised Land.
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They were at peace. And the prosperity was
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legendary. Silver was as stones.
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It was and this happy, prosperous state was deeply
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symbolic David, the man of war and suffering.
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He typified Christ in humiliation while.
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Solomon, the man of peace, shadowed Christ, exalted and
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reigning. And that earthly peace gave them
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a vivid type of two greater realities.
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First, the glorious latter ages of the Church on earth, the days
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of peace that are prophesied. And second, the heavenly Canaan.
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The ultimate rest in peace that awaits the Church after all the
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conflicts are over. It's a powerful peak, but what
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happens right after is the great paradox of this whole era.
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It's followed not by more glory, but by a gradual, deliberate
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decline. It is.
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Which brings us to decline preservation of the line and the
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prophets. After Solomon, the visible glory
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of the Jewish church starts to wane like the moon heading
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toward conjunction with the sun, Solomon's idolatry, the Kingdom
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splitting into the massive loss of life in civil wars.
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It is an immediate and staggering reduction in the
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strength of the nation. But this decline wasn't just a
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random tragedy. No, it was a managed
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preparation. This gradual diminishing of the
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external glory serves some crucial purposes, all aimed at
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preparing the ground for the superior spiritual glory of the
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gospel. OK, So what was the first
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purpose? It was simply to make way for
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the spiritual dispensation itself.
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The legal dispensation, even at its most opulent under Solomon,
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was still an inferior glory compared to Christ's.
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Paul calls the Old Testament pomp weak and beggarly elements.
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So that glory had to fade. It did.
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It's like the stars disappearing when the sun rises.
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God didn't want the people to be so dazzled by the external show
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that they'd refused to exchange it for the spiritual glory of a
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despised Jesus. He had to dim the lights on the
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Old Testament stage so the New Testament spotlight would be
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effective. That's a good way of thinking
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about it. The second purpose was to
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prevent human pride. The decline weakened the Jewish
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state, so they couldn't boast in their own strength when
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salvation finally came. The analogy of Gideon's army
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comes to mind. It's a perfect parallel.
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God told Gideon his army was too large, so Israel wouldn't say my
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own hand has saved me. He whittled them down to just
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300 men. And God did the same with
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Israel. He did.
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He let the Kingdom split, He allowed the captivity so that
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when Christ came and conquered the world with a tiny band of
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despised disciples, the victory would be seen as God's work
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alone, achieved by spiritual means.
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And the third purpose? The low stage of the Jewish
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church at Christ's coming just made their salvation more
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visible. They were rescued not just from
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spiritual corruption, but also from temporal bondage under the
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Romans. Their redemption felt so much
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greater because their starting point was so desperately low.
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So amidst all this external decay, God maintained this laser
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focus on one specific thing, preserving the kingly line in
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Judah. This is the historical miracle
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of the period. The crown of the northern 10
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tribes was constantly changing hands.
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Assassinations, coups, 9 different dynasties.
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But the crown of Judah. The southern Kingdom where the
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true religion was upheld. It was kept in David's family
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almost without interruption, right down the direct legal line
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Matthew gives for Christ's genealogy.
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That's stability compared to the chaos in the north.
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It's just undeniable proof of Providence keeping the covenant.
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And this was true even when the kings of Judah were incredibly
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wicked. A has Manasseh.
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God didn't take the crown away, and the reason is given
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explicitly. He remember the everlasting
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covenant with David. For David's sake.
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Yes, for David's sake he kept a lamp burning in Jerusalem.
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The faithfulness of the covenant was guaranteed regardless of the
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faithlessness of the current king.
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And we see this Providence at work right after David's death,
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when Adonaija tries to seize the throne.
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And his whole conspiracy just evaporates.
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Provenance works suddenly to establish Solomon, the legal
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covenanted ancestor. But the biggest threat to the
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line came during the reign of wicked King Ahaz.
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It did. This was a crisis.
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The kings of Syria and Israel conspired not just to defeat
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Judah, but to depose Ahaz and install a non Davidic ruler, the
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son of Tabil. If they had succeeded, the line
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would have been broken. Forever Ahaz and the people were
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terrified, and this fear is what prompts one of the most famous
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prophecies of all. The sign of Emanuel.
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God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him the plan will fail and gives
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him the sign in Isaiah Chapter 7.
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Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call
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his name Emmanuel. And that promise did two things
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at once. It did.
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It guaranteed the future Redeemer, but it also assured
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the terrified king in the present.
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It was a confirmation that the House of David could not be
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destroyed because the Messiah, Emmanuel, had to come from that
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specific legal seed. The Covenant was an unbreakable
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shield. And the physical protection of
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Judah against these massive armies is just as dramatic.
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They were always on the brink of being wiped out.
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The odds were impossible, possible.
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You have Shishak of Egypt, Jeroboam's army of 800,000 men,
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Zara the Ethiopian with a million troops.
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In every case, the deliverance was miraculous and God's work,
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not Judah's strength. And the ultimate example of this
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has to be Sinatra. The head of the Assyrian
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monarchy, he seemed unstoppable. He had swallowed up everything
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around Jerusalem, reducing Judah to a single city.
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And his general was openly mocking them.
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Telling them they were doomed. But God gives Hezekiah a sign.
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The remnant would take root downward and bear fruit upward.
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It's this image of the church being cut down, hidden, but
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guaranteed to revive and flourish again.
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And then the Angel slays 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp
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overnight. A spectacular, undeniable act of
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sovereignty, it preserved the line and the city of the
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covenant, keeping the foundation secure for Christ's coming.
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And running right alongside this physical preservation of the
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line was the systematic augmentation of the written
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prophecy. The Canon just keeps growing,
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providing more and more clarity about the Redeemer.
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The first wave comes under Solomon.
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Right Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.
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And while Proverbs is about wisdom, the Song of Songs is
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entirely focused on Christ and his Church, that union, that
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love between the Redeemer and the redeemed.
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That alone gave a whole new level of intimate spiritual
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insight. It did.
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But the real explosion in prophecy starts around Uzziah's
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time, when God raises up this new class of writing prophets.
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Hosea, Isaiah. Amos, Micah.
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Before this, prophets like Samuel and Nathan were mostly
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writing history. Now the focus shifts.
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Almost entirely to prophecy itself.
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And this is a monumental advance because the main business of
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these prophets was to give specific, focused, and greatly
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increased testimony to Jesus Christ.
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The light of the gospel just got exceedingly brighter.
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It did. They were preparing the way by
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showing the glory that would follow Christ's suffering.
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And no one did that with more clarity than Isaiah, the
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evangelical prophet. Hall says Isaiah was very bold.
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Meaning he was very plain, very explicit in his speech about
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redemption. Think about Isaiah 53.
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It's stunningly accurate. It's not vague imagery.
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It describes the substitutionary suffering, the sacrifice, the
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burial, the benefits of Christ almost as plainly as a New
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Testament does. He was wounded for our
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transgressions. With his stripes we are healed.
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That is the language of substitutionary atonement,
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written centuries before the fact.
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And Isaiah saw Christ in a vision, which John's Gospel
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confirms. So this era committed this
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immense treasure of specific detail to the Church.
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It provided comfort for the people then and confirmation for
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all the ages to come. And we can't overlook the care
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that was taken to preserve the foundation of all of this, the
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Law of Moses itself. Right during that terrible
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apostasy under Manasseh and Amon, when idolatry was rampant,
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the Book of the Law was actually lost.
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Lost inside the temple. Buried in the rubbish from
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decades of neglect. And it's only rediscovered
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during Josiah's repairs. And when it's found, it sparks
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an immediate dramatic revival. Josiah hears the words.
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He rents his clothes. He realizes how far they've
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fallen. It shows that even in the
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deepest spiritual darkness, God sovereignly protected the
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written Word. It seems like that highlights
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the main principle of this whole era.
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Even as the visible church was sinking toward captivity, God
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was protecting the necessary components, the written word and
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the ancestral line. He was The entire period is a
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study and purposeful decline paired with structural
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establishment. The temporary structures were
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allowed to decay, while the eternal ones were meticulously
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reinforced. So if we pull all this together,
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the period from David to the captivity was less about steady
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growth and more about strategic, even difficult structural
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establishment, all happening amidst external decay.
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Exactly. We saw the everlasting covenant
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secured in David's line, the place of worship fixed in
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Jerusalem, the land promised completely fulfilled to set a
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type of Christ's Kingdom, the system of worship refined and
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the written word dramatically expanded.
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All of this was necessary preparation for the spiritual
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Kingdom of Christ. And that external decay of the
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Jewish state, that waning of the moon, it wasn't a failure.
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Not at all. It was a deliberate act of
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Providence to make sure that when the full glory of Christ
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arrived, it would be seen as infinitely securior to all the
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temporary earthly pomp it replaced.
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The entire Mosaic system, even at its peak under Solomon, was
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designed to decline to welcome Christ's spiritual authority.
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It teaches us that God frequently removes the temporary
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scaffolding to reveal the finished eternal building.
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And that deliberate pattern of well, of letting things fade.
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It raises a thought for us to consider looking at the church
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today. We've seen God allowing the
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external glory of the Old Covenant, its centralized power,
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its physical Kingdom, its temple, to fade away, to prepare
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for something better, something purely spiritual.
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It does make you wonder what systems, what institutions, or
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what forms of glory within the visible church today, structures
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that might seem magnificent to us?
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What might God be diminishing or allowing to fade?
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In order to prepare his people for a clearer, more direct
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apprehension of the glory of the Redeemer alone.
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Dissolving the types to reveal the anti type.
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It's just that sometimes true fidelity to the covenant might
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mean accepting the loss of external glory.
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That's the ultimate lesson of this period.
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We have to constantly consider what we're clinging to versus
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what God is actively moving us toward.
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Which is always and only the fullness of Christ.
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A truly compelling note to end on.
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Thank you for walking us through this essential period in such
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detail. My pleasure.
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You've been listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We'll see you for the next deemed dive.