Latest / Reformed Thinking / David and the Pattern of the Coming King (1–2 Samuel) | Thomas R. Schreiner

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David and the Pattern of the Coming King (1–2 Samuel) | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed thinking.
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  Today we are getting into a huge, a really huge section of
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  Old Testament history. We're doing a deep dive into the
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  books of One and Two Samuel this.
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  Is such a pivotal part of the story.
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  It's the bridge, really, from the, you know, the chaos of the
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  judges to the establishment of God's Chazan king.
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  It sets the stage for everything that comes after.
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  So let's just set the scene for a second.
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  We have to remember where we're coming from in the biblical
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  narrative first. These two books, One and Two
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  Samuel, are really one single work.
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  That's right, they were split later for for practical reasons
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  like scrolling. And they come right after the
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  book of Judges, which has that that constant refrain.
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  There was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in
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  his. Own eyes.
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  Total anarchy. And then you have this beautiful
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  little story of Ruth, which sort of quietly sets up the family
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  line for the man who's going to change everything, David.
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  So these books cover the whole story, Samuel's rise, the
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  failure of the first king Saul, and then David's ascent.
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  And of course, the promise God makes to David about his
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  Kingdom. Right.
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  And while the human stories are just fascinating, the
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  friendships, the betrayals, all the battles, the real center
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  here is theological, isn't it? It is the main theme of Samuel
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  is Yahweh's sovereign rule. It's all about how God chooses
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  to exercise his own kingship, and he does it through a
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  mediator an. Anointed king from the line of
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  David. Exactly.
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  And that idea of a mediating king isn't just for Israel.
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  When you read this with the whole Bible in view, it becomes
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  clear that this rule, through this Davidic line is meant to
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  extend over the whole world. So it's looking forward.
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  It's absolutely looking forward. It's pointing to the King Jesus.
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  The Book of Samuel is basically drawing the map that leads to
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  his arrival. So for our deep dive, we're
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  planning to walk through the story by looking at the three
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  big characters, Samuel, Saul, and then David.
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  But to do that right, we need to understand how the author
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  himself wants us to read it. And there's this, this amazing
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  literary structure at play and, and inclusio I think it's
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  called. Yeah, think of them as bookends.
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  The whole history is framed by two songs.
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  You have Hannah's song at the very beginning and first Samuel
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  2, and then David's songs at the end, and second Samuel 22 and
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  23. And these songs aren't just, you
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  know, nice poems. Not at all.
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  They are the interpretive key. They tell you how to understand
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  all the messy history that happens in between them.
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  They reveal the secret logic of how God governs the world.
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  OK, so let's start with the first book end then.
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  Hannah's him in First Samuel too.
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  This is, I mean, it's a surprising way to open a history
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  book. It really is.
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  Hannah has just gone through this very personal trial.
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  She was barren. She was tormented by her rival,
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  Penina. And now God has given her a son,
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  Samuel. You'd expect, I don't know, a
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  quiet prayer of thanks. Right, a personal little thank
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  you note to God. But what she gives us instead is
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  this this sweeping cosmic statement about how the world
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  works. Her personal story becomes a
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  tiny picture of a much bigger reality.
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  You mean her struggle with Pennina mirrors something in
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  Israel? Precisely her struggle, the
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  barren, righteous woman versus the, you know, the fruitful but
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  arrogant one. It's a microcosm of the state of
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  the nation. It's the godly, humble remnant
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  struggling against the wicked, powerful majority who seem to be
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  winning. So her personal story
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  establishes this God centered or Theo centric view of history,
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  Yes. God isn't just a character in
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  the story, he's directing the entire thing.
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  And the main rule of this drama, as Hannah lays it out, is that
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  God's rule turns the world's values completely upside down.
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  The upside down Kingdom. That's it.
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  Yahweh vindicates the righteous, the poor, the humble, and he
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  systematically dismantles the wicked, the strong, the
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  arrogant. It's a complete reversal of how
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  the world measures success. And she gives some really
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  specific examples of this reversal.
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  Oh, she does, says things like the bows of the mighty are
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  broken, but the weak are closed with strength, the full go
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  hungry while the hungry are fed. In a world that values military
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  power and wealth and status, Hannah declares that God is
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  fundamentally opposed to those who trust in those things.
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  And his sovereignty goes even deeper than that, right down to
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  life and death itself. It's an incredible claim, she
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  says. The Lord kills and brings to
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  life. He brings down to Sheol and
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  raises up. This is a claim of absolute
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  control over history. Human kings and armies mean
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  nothing next to that kind of power.
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  Which is why she says there is no rock like our God.
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  Exactly. But maybe the most stunning part
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  is her prophecy. She talks about a king.
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  Before Israel even has a king. Right long before in verse 10,
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  she says the Lord will give strength to his King and exalt
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  the power of his anointed. She's forecasting the entire
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  Davidic line. She's telling us that the rise
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  of David and the failure of Saul aren't historical accidents.
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  They're part of a divine plan that's already been declared.
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  And it's not a small plan either.
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  It's not just for Israel. No, her vision is global.
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  She ends by saying the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
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  So right from page one, you're told that this Kingdom,
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  established through this anointed king is going to be
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  universal. That song is the key to
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  everything that follows. OK, so let's Fast forward all
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  the way to the other bookend to David's song at the end of Two
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  Samuel 22. This is him looking back on his
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  whole life. And it's a perfect mirror of
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  Hannah's song. It confirms everything she said.
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  What's so striking is that David, who is now one of the
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  most powerful men in the world, doesn't talk about his own
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  accomplishments. He doesn't bring up Goliath.
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  No Goliath, no military campaigns.
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  His whole focus is on his own weakness and on Yahweh's
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  strength. He calls God his rock, his
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  fortress, his deliverer. It's all about his total
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  reliance on God. And the imagery he uses is, it's
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  just incredible. It's almost apocalyptic.
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  It is. Smoke went up from his nostrils.
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  He bowed the heavens and came down.
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  He wrote on a cherub. This is not just a poetic way of
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  saying I want to battle. This is the king of the universe
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  mobilizing all of creation to save his anointed one.
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  It makes David's enemies look tiny.
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  And he directly connects his deliverance back to Hannah's
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  prophecy. He does.
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  David says the Lord thundered from heaven, which is almost a
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  direct quote from Hannah's song. It's the fulfillment through
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  David, the anointed King. God is saving the faithful and
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  judging the proud, just like she said He would.
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  OK, but here's a point that I think can be tricky for readers.
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  David says God rewarded him because he kept the ways of the
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  Lord and was blameless, right? And we all know the story of
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  Bathsheba and Uriah, so how can he say that?
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  How can he claim to be righteous?
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  That's a great question, and it gets to the heart of the book's
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  honesty. Yeah.
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  And David talks about his righteousness.
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  He's speaking contextually. He means in comparison to Saul.
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  Unlike Saul, David never lifted his hand against the Lord's
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  anointed. He refused to take his own
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  revenge. And most importantly, when he
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  was confronted with his sin, his terrible sin, he didn't make
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  excuses. He confessed.
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  He confessed immediately. His righteousness wasn't about
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  moral perfection. It was about his posture of
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  trust and his submission to God's correction.
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  So it's about covenant faithfulness, not flawlessness.
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  Yes, his life, with all its highs and lows, proves Hannah's
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  scheme. Yahweh saves the humble who
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  trust Him even when they fail, and he brings down the proud who
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  rely on themselves. But those flaws are still there,
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  and they seem to point to the need for someone better.
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  They absolutely do. David's great sin had
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  devastating consequences for his family and for the nation.
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  His very imperfection makes us look beyond him for a final,
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  perfect son of David. And the final last words of
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  David in chapter 23 kind of point to that, don't they?
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  He talks about the ideal ruler who rules in the the fear of
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  God. Right.
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  The spirit of Yahweh is speaking through him.
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  David knows the covenant with him is secure, but his own life
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  shows that Israel is still waiting for a king who can rule
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  with perfect justice and bring the full blessing promise to
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  Abraham. OK, so with that frame in mind,
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  let's go back to the beginning of the narrative.
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  We meet Samuel and he is immediately set up as the
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  contrast to the existing leadership.
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  A very sharp contrast. He's the living example of
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  Hannah's hymn. He's the humble child of
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  promise, and he set against Hofni and Phineas, the sons of
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  Eli the High priest. And they represent the arrogant,
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  wicked leaders that God is about to cast down.
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  And the Bible does not mince words about them.
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  They're called worthless men who did not know the Lord.
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  I mean, think about that. These are the sons of the high
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  priest. And their corruption was public.
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  It was right there. And how they handle the
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  sacrifice. Yes, they had complete contempt
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  for God's commands. The law was clear.
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  The fat God's portion had to be burned first.
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  But they wouldn't wait. They'd send their servants to
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  stick a fork in the pot and take whatever they wanted.
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  Raw meat. Even before the sacrifice was
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  properly made to God, they put their own appetites first.
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  And their father, Eli, the high priest, he just lets it happen.
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  He's a tragic figure, the text says.
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  His eyes were growing dim, which is a physical picture of his
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  spiritual blindness. He honored his sons more than he
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  honored God, and that leads directly to judgement.
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  A prophet comes and pronounces that judgement on his whole
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  family line, But even in that judgement, there's a promise.
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  Right there is God says that out of this mess he will raise up a
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  faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my
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  heart, and he'll build him a shore house.
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  So right away we have an expectation not just for a
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  righteous king, but also for a faithful priest.
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  A new righteous mediator. And Samuel begins to fill that
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  role. In the meantime, we're told he
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  grew in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.
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  And that phrasing is so specific, it's the same language
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  used to describe Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
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  It's a clear literary parallel. Samuel is the picture of
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  faithfulness, while the official leadership is completely corrupt
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  and that corruption leads to disaster in chapter 4.
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  The battle with the Philistines. A total catastrophe.
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  Israel, led by Hofni and Phineas, decides to treat the
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  Ark of the Covenant like AI. Don't know a lucky rabbit's
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  foot? A magic charm to guarantee
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  victory. Exactly.
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  They bring it into the camp thinking its mere presence will
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  save them. But the narrator clues us in
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  that this is going to be like the defeat at air, not the
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  victory at Jericho. Because there's sin in the camp.
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  The Akans in this story, Hofni and Phineas are the ones
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  carrying the Ark. So they're defeated, the sons
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  die, Eli dies when he hears the news, and the Ark is captured.
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  The glory has departed. It's the lowest point for
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  Israel, but it's actually the setup for one of the greatest
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  demonstrations of God's power. Right the story of the Ark in
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  the land of the Philistines. The account with their God Dagon
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  is almost. It is, but it's deadly serious
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  theologically. The Philistines put the ark in
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  Dagon's temple as if Yahweh is now a captive of their God.
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  And the next morning? Dagon is on his face before the
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  Ark, so they prop him back up. The next day he's on his face
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  again, but this time his head and his hands are broken off.
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  The parts that represent wisdom and power.
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  All severed Yahweh is forcing their God to bow down.
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  He's showing that he is sovereign over all other
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  so-called gods. He's crushing the serpent's head
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  right in their own temple. And then the plagues start.
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  Tumors panic. Wherever the Ark goes,
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  destruction follows. Yahweh is teaching them and
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  Israel that he is a holy God who must be treated as a great king.
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  And that lesson continues even when the ark comes back to
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  Israel. Some of the men look inside it
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  and they're struck dead. So everyone is forced to ask who
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  is able to stand before this holy God?
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  And the answer is only those who repent and turn back to Him,
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  which is exactly what Samuel calls them to do.
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  He leads a covenant renewal in Chapter 7.
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  They put away their foreign gods.
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  They commit to serving the Lord alone.
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  And God responds immediately. He does.
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  He thunders against the Philistines, just as Hannah's
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  song predicted, and gives Israel a great victory.
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  It proves that when they are faithful, he fights for them.
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  It's a real high point, which makes what happens next so
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  tragic. The people demand a king.
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  And the request itself wasn't necessarily wrong.
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  There were prophecies about a king coming.
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  The problem was their motive. He wanted to be like all the
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  other nations. Yes, they weren't asking for a
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  king who would lead them in obedience to Yahweh.
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  They were looking for security and a human leader, a military
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  figure. They were rejecting God's direct
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  kingship over them. And God tells Samuel they have
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  not rejected you, but they have rejected me.
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  It's a sad moment. God grants their request, but he
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  warns them what this kind of king will do.
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  He will take and take and take. It sets up the whole conflict of
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  the monarchy. Will the king obey God, or will
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  he act like the kings of the other nations?
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  Which brings us to Saul, and when we first meet him, he looks
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  like the perfect answer to their request.
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  He's everything they could want, he's described as handsome, and
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  most of all, he's tall, head and shoulders above everyone else.
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  But the author is being clever here, isn't he?
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  That word for height, gabu, is a bit of a warning sign.
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  It's a huge tell. It's the same root word used for
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  the arrogance, the gabusha, that Hannah's song condemns.
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  The narrator is winking at the reader, telling us that this
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  choice is based on outward appearance, on human pride.
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  But he starts out so well. He's humble.
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  He hides from the spotlight. The Spirit of God rushes upon
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  him. He gets a new heart, he's
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  empowered for leadership, and his first big military action,
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  rescuing Jabesh Gilead, is a massive success.
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  He even shows mercy to his critics.
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  He looks like he's going to be a great king.
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  But it all falls apart pretty quickly and it comes down to a
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  simple failure to obey a direct command.
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  The incident at Gilgal in Chapter 13, it's the first Test
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  and he fails spectacularly. Samuel tells him.
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  Wait seven days, I will come and offer the sacrifices.
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  And Saul is under a lot of pressure.
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  The Philistine army is huge and his own manner starting to
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  desert. He panics.
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  Samuel is a little late, and Saul just decides he can't wait
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  any longer. He offers the sacrifices
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  himself. Which was not his role.
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  He's a king, not a priest. It's an act of presumption.
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  He's putting his own military strategy and his fear of man
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  above God's clear command. And when Samuel confronts him,
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  he doesn't repent. No, he makes excuses.
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  He blames Samuel for being late. He says I forced myself.
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  Right. He tries to wrap his
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  disobedience in a cloak of religious piety.
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  I had to do it for God. That inability to own his sin is
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  his defining flaw. And the judgment is swift and
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  total. It is, Samuel tells him right
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  then and there. Your dynasty will not continue.
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  God is seeking a man after his own heart, and Saul has just
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  proven that's not him. And from that point on, you see
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  this pattern repeat. Saul's leadership is marked by
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  fear, while his son Jonathan acts with incredible faith.
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  Jonathan is the true hero of this section.
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  He's the one who says nothing can hinder the Lord from saving
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  by many or by few. Meanwhile, Saul is paralyzed,
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  making rash, foolish commands. Like the oath forbidding the
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  soldiers from eating. Which was a terrible idea.
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  It weakens his own army and it leads them to sin by eating meat
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  with the blood and their desperation.
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  And then he's ready to execute his own son Jonathan for
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  breaking a rule he didn't even know existed.
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  He's completely lost his perspective.
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  The final Test comes in Chapter 15.
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  The war against the Amalekites and the command from God is a
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  hard one, but it's clear. A total ban.
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  The word is harem. Destroy everything and everyone.
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  It's an act of divine judgement. And Saul is selectively
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  obedient. He wins the battle, but he
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  spares the king a gag and he keeps the best of the livestock,
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  and when Samuel confronts him, he pulls out the same old
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  excuse. We save them to sacrifice to the
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  Lord your God. It's the same pattern using
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  religious language to cover up disobedience, and this is where
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  Samuel delivers that famous to obey is better than sacrifice.
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  And he tells Saul that his rebellion is like the sin of
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  witchcraft and idolatry. Because he has rejected the word
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  of the Lord, and so the Lord has rejected him as king.
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  And then Saul finally admits the real reason for his failure.
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  He says I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
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  And that's it. That's the core of his sin.
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  He feared man more than he feared God.
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  Saul's story proves that just having a king isn't the
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  solution. If the king does what is right
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  in his own eyes, the nation is still lost.
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  His rejection then opens the door for David, and David's
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  anointing in chapter 16 is a perfect illustration of the
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  principle from Hannah's song. It's a beautiful scene.
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  Samuel goes to Jesse's house and he sees the oldest son, Elie AB,
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  who's tall and impressive and Samuel thinks surely this is the
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  one. But God corrects him.
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  With that amazing line, the Lord sees not as man sees.
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  Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks
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  on the heart. And so they call for the
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  youngest son, David, the shepherd boy who wasn't even
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  considered important enough to be at the meal.
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  He's the humble 1, chosen out of obscurity, and as soon as he is
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  anointed, the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, and at that
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  same moment the Spirit leaves Saul.
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  It's a direct, visible transfer of God's favor it.
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  Is and Davidde first public act The confrontation with Goliath
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  immediately shows everyone why God made this choice.
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  Because while King Saul, the tallest man in Israel, is hiding
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  in his tent. David, the shepherd boy steps
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  forward, and his confidence isn't in himself or in armor.
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  His confidence is in the name of Yahweh.
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  He's outraged that this uncircumcised Philistine would
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  defy the armies of the living God.
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  He wants to prove that the battle is the Lord's.
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  And he does it with a sling and a stone, the weakest possible
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  weapons to show that God saves, not with sword or spear.
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  It's another perfect fulfillment of Hannah's hymn, and the
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  imagery of him beheading this serpent like giant is powerful.
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  He's acting like the Promise sees from Genesis 3.
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  He is. He's the Lord's anointed,
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  crushing the enemy's head. But this victory, of course,
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  just fuels Saul's jealousy, and the rest of First Samuel is
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  basically Saul's long, slow, paranoid descent into madness.
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  He tries to kill David over and over.
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  Spears with political plots, but he tries to get him killed by
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  the Philistines by demanding a bride price of 100 foreskins,
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  but every single plot backfire it.
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  Just makes David more. Famous and it brings him into
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  the royal family. The whole story confirms the
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  theme. God is exalting the humble David
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  and bringing down the proud Saul.
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  Even Saul's own children, Jonathan and McCall, side with
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  David. And David's true character is
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  revealed and how he responds to this persecution.
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  Twice he has the chance to kill Saul.
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  And his men are telling him, this is it.
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  God has delivered him into your hand.
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  It's the logical, worldly thing to do.
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  But he refuses. He refuses to lift his hand
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  against the Lord's anointed. He understands that vengeance
• 18:40
  belongs to God. He trusts God's timing and God's
• 18:43
  justice. That trust is the fundamental
• 18:45
  difference between him and Saul. And Saul even recognizes it.
• 18:49
  He admits that David is more righteous than I.
• 18:51
  He does. In those moments of clarity,
• 18:53
  Saul knows David is the legitimate king, but he can't
• 18:57
  stop himself. There's another test of David's
• 18:59
  character in chapter 25 of the story of Nabal and Abigail.
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  Yes, and here David almost fails Nabal.
• 19:06
  This rich, arrogant man insults David and his men, and David
• 19:10
  flies into a rage. He's about to go slaughter every
• 19:13
  male in Nabal's household. He's about to take vengeance
• 19:15
  into his own hands. Exactly.
• 19:17
  But Nabal's wife, Abigail, intervenes.
• 19:19
  She comes to him with wisdom and humility and reminds him of
• 19:23
  God's promise to build him a shore house.
• 19:25
  She tells him not to have on his conscience the guilt of shedding
• 19:28
  innocent blood. And David's response is what's
• 19:31
  so telling. He listens.
• 19:32
  Unlike Saul, who rejected prophetic correction, David
• 19:35
  accepts it. He sees that God sent Abigail to
• 19:38
  stop him from sinning. It's a beautiful picture of a
• 19:40
  heart that is submissive to God. So Saul's story ends in tragedy
• 19:44
  at the Battle of Mount Gilboa, and to Samuel opens with David
• 19:48
  becoming king. And his first act is to execute
• 19:51
  the man who claims to have killed Saul.
• 19:53
  Showing his commitment to justice, he slowly consolidated
• 19:56
  his power and eventually he's anointed king over all of
• 20:00
  Israel. He captures Jerusalem and makes
• 20:02
  it his capital, which is a brilliant move both politically
• 20:05
  and spiritually, and then he decides to bring the Ark of the
• 20:07
  Covenant. There, it's a high point.
• 20:09
  David is functioning as a priest king.
• 20:11
  He's dancing before the Lord with all his might, offering
• 20:14
  sacrifices, blessing the people. He's centering his entire
• 20:17
  Kingdom on the presence of Yahweh.
• 20:19
  But there's that tragic moment with Ouza, who touches the Ark
• 20:22
  and is struck dead. A sobering reminder of God's
• 20:26
  holiness. Even with good intentions, you
• 20:28
  cannot approach a holy God on your own terms.
• 20:31
  You have to follow His commands. And David's joy is contrasted
• 20:34
  with the disgust of his wife Michael, Saul's daughter.
• 20:38
  She despises his public display of worship.
• 20:41
  She thinks it's undignified for a king, and for her pride, she's
• 20:45
  humbled. She remains barren, cut off from
• 20:48
  the future of the dynasty. It's Hannah's song playing out
• 20:51
  yet again. And David's desire to honor God
• 20:54
  culminates in Chapter 7, when he wants to build a house, a temple
• 20:58
  for God. And this is the turning point of
• 21:00
  the whole book, maybe the whole Old Testament, because God comes
• 21:03
  to him through the prophet Nathan and essentially says
• 21:06
  you're not going to build me a house.
• 21:08
  I'm going to build you a house. Exactly.
• 21:10
  A house meaning a dynasty. God makes an unconditional
• 21:14
  promise, a covenant with David. He promises that David's son
• 21:18
  will build the temple, but more than that, that David's throne
• 21:21
  and his Kingdom will be established forever.
• 21:23
  And this covenant is unbreakable.
• 21:25
  It is, God says, that even if David's descendants sin and
• 21:28
  require discipline, his steadfast love will never be
• 21:31
  taken away from them the way it was from Saul.
• 21:33
  The throne is secure forever. This is the promise that
• 21:37
  structures all future hope for Israel.
• 21:39
  The Messiah must come from this line.
• 21:41
  He must be a son of David and he must reign on this eternal
• 21:45
  throne. It's the gospel promise being
• 21:47
  narrowed down and focused through this one family line.
• 21:50
  It's an incredible moment of grace.
• 21:53
  But then almost immediately after this high point, we get to
• 21:56
  Chapter 11, David's great sin. It's a.
• 21:59
  Brutal, tragic story. David stays home from battle
• 22:02
  when he should be leading his men, and his idleness leads to
• 22:06
  lust, adultery with Bathsheba and then a cold calculated cover
• 22:10
  up that ends in the murder of her husband Uriah.
• 22:13
  And the contrast between David's treachery and Uriah's integrity
• 22:16
  is just gut wrenching. It is, but when Nathan the
• 22:19
  prophet confronts him, we see that core difference between
• 22:22
  David and Saul one last time. No excuses?
• 22:24
  No. Excuses.
• 22:25
  Just a simple, profound confession.
• 22:27
  I have sinned against the Lord and He is forgiven, but the
• 22:31
  consequences are severe. The sword will never depart from
• 22:34
  His house. And the rest of the book is the
• 22:36
  tragic playing out of those consequences.
• 22:38
  Incest, murder, rebellion led by his own son Absalom.
• 22:41
  It's a heartbreaking story, but even in the middle of that
• 22:44
  judgment, you see God's grace. The child born from the adultery
• 22:49
  dies as Nathan predicted, but the next son born to David in
• 22:52
  Bathsheba is Solomon, and the text says the Lord loved him.
• 22:57
  So the covenant promise holds even through the sin of the
• 22:59
  king. It holds because it's based on
• 23:01
  God's faithfulness, not David's. The book ends on a strange note
• 23:06
  with David's sin of taking a census.
• 23:08
  It feels a bit like Saul's sin, trusting in numbers and military
• 23:12
  strengths. It is.
• 23:13
  He's trusting in his army instead of in Yahweh, and it
• 23:16
  brings a plague on the nation. But in his repentance, David
• 23:19
  does something amazing. He offers himself as a
• 23:21
  substitute. He tells God, Please let your
• 23:24
  hand be against me and against my father's house, not against
• 23:27
  the people. He's trying to be a mediator,
• 23:30
  but it shows his limits. It does because he himself is a
• 23:33
  Sinner. He can't truly atone for the
• 23:35
  people. He points forward to the need
• 23:37
  for a perfect mediator, a better substitute.
• 23:40
  The story ends with him buying the threshing floor where the
• 23:42
  temple will be built, the place where sacrifice and atonement
• 23:45
  will be made. So when we pull back and look at
• 23:47
  the whole story, what's the final picture?
• 23:49
  The pattern is relentless. Saul fails because he trusts
• 23:53
  himself and fears people. David succeeds even with his
• 23:56
  massive sins because his fundamental posture is one of
• 24:00
  trust in Yahweh and submission to his correction.
• 24:03
  The whole history just screams the theme of Hannah's song from
• 24:07
  beginning to end. And the ultimate take away seems
• 24:09
  to be the security of that Davidic covenant.
• 24:12
  God's plan is not derailed by human failure.
• 24:16
  His grace and His promises are what drive history forward.
• 24:20
  Absolutely. The story isn't about human
• 24:22
  achievement, it's about a divine promise being fulfilled.
• 24:25
  And if you read this as a Christian with the whole Canon
• 24:28
  and view, you see that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything
• 24:31
  these books set up. He is the true son of David, but
• 24:34
  he's also something else. A faithful priest.
• 24:36
  He's the faithful priest that was promised way back in First
• 24:39
  Samuel 2. He's the one who perfectly
• 24:41
  combines the offices of King and Priest.
• 24:43
  And so for you. Listening.
• 24:44
  Think about what that means. The promised, the rule of God
• 24:46
  over the whole world, is exercised through this one
• 24:49
  person, this one mediator. He's both the righteous king who
• 24:51
  governs all things, and the sinless, faithful priest who
• 24:54
  provides the only perfect atonement for sin.
• 24:56
  That reality, that person, is what the entire history of
• 24:59
  wanted to, where Samuel was pointing toward all along.