And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
Acts 13:22-24
God specifically selected David to replace Saul as the king of Israel. He protected the shepherd boy against the dangerous wild animals who tried to kill the sheep. He gave the courageous young man victory over Goliath. He protected the fugitive king in waiting from the attempts of Saul to kill his rival. And when David was established as king over the whole nation, just as Samuel had prophesied many years before, God made a covenant with him for the future. The prophet Nathan delivered this message from the Lord to David: “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16).
When the nation of Judah was conquered by Babylon some four hundred years later, and the kingly line was ended, it must have seemed to the people who experienced that defeat that God’s promise had been broken. But all of God’s promises are faithful and true, and though the earthly kingdom had been destroyed and the people scattered, the plan of God was not altered.
In the fullness of time Jesus came, descended from David both on his mother’s side and on his adopted father’s side of the family. He is the ruler who, though He has not yet taken the throne, will establish the kingdom that will never end just as God said. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44).
