"" THE rightful claimant to David's throne. "He came unto HIS OWN and his own received him not" (John i. 11). Why did they receive him not? What motive prompted the chief priests and rulers to destroy Jesus? It was not merely their hatred of righteousness. If Christ had simply been a teacher of religion, according to modern notions, doubtless they would have been among his admirers; but then he was HEIR. He was the divinely sent of God to occupy David's throne, and put down all opposing authority and power; and his assertion of this character brought him into instant collision with them, because they had the inheritance in their possession. Therefore, said they, in their insensate short-sighted jealousy— "Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.' So they plotted his destruction, and succeeded in their nefarious plans. They brought him before Pilate, who finding no fault in him, was willing to release him (Luke xxiii. 13-6). This inflamed their animosity, and developed the true nature of its origin. They cried out saying-" If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself A KING, speaketh against Cæsar" (John xix. 12). This had the desired effect: Pilate gave judgment; and Christ was crucified, and according to the Roman custom, the nature of the charge against him was specified in writing over the cross : "Jesus of Nazareth, THE KING OF THE JEWS" (John xix. 19). is an important testimony from the chief priests as to Christ's own assertion of his royalty. In fact the closing scenes of our Lord's life on earth, altogether constitute the most decisive proof that prospective Jewish royalty was the essential feature of his character as the Messiah, a feature which is entirely omitted in popular preaching. The teaching of the Apostles after our Lord's ascension was the same on this important point. We read that the Jews of Thessalonica accused them to the rulers of the city after this fashion "These that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also, whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying THAT THERE IS ANOTHER KING,-ONE JESUS" (Acts xvii, 6, 7). Paul made the same proclamation to the Athenians, in his address on Mars Hill, recorded in Acts xvii. 30, 31 "And the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge (which, in its political application, means rule) the world in righte BY THAT MAN WHOM ORDAINED, whereof He hath given all men assurance, in that He hath raised him from the dead." ousness HE HATH In fact, the great burden of the New Testament teaching concerning Jesus is, that he is "the Christ,' that is, the Anointed One foretold by the prophets as the future king of the world. If you deny to him this kingship, you deny that he is. the Christ-for the anointing refers, not only to his character as "the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world," but to his future development as God's vice-gerent on earth. His Christing" is is prospective, culminating in the glory that shall be revealed," which shall "cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." Whosoever, therefore, is ignorant of this, and denies the future manifested Christship of Jesus, cannot Scriptually or acceptably confess that he is the Christ, inasmuch as that confession is empty sound when CHRISTENDOM ASTRAY. it does not import the things signified. That Christ is the future king of the world is one of the most gladsome truths of revelation. What hope else is there for this sin-afflicted world? It has groaned under ages of mis-rule. The riches of the earth are hoarded away in the halls of a surfeited few, and the great mass of humanity are left to welter out a degraded existence of poverty, ignorance, and misery. God's goodness has been fraudulently squandered. The provision, sufficient for competence to all who breathe this mundane atmosphere, has been rapaciously plundered by the unprincipled and the strong, and stored away in accursed garners from famishing millions. This is as truein the present nineteenth century of civilisation as it was in the ruthless days of yore; only the system -venerable by its antiquity-is more respectable, has the protection of the law, and is recognised as the indispensable. institution of a wellgoverned country. And among the people themselves, what barrenness and hideousness we behold! How intellectually empty! how morally destitute! how ignoble and selfish! 183 how small and grovelling! Some say the world is getting better. It is a mistake. Intellectual acuteness is on the increase; but real character is dwarfing with the increase of years. Mankind is deteriorating with the spread of civilisation. Flimsiness and frivolity are the order of the day. Thorough-going good sense and earnestness of moral purpose are confined to a despised minority. The word of God is of light esteem, and faith hath almost vanished from the earth. Where shall we find comfort for the future? The world is incurable by human agency. It's only hope lies in the truth expressed in the title of this lecture. A great Deliverer is waiting the appointed time of blessing; Christ at God's right hand is the future king of the world; he who endured the shame of a malefactor's cross is coming to wear the honour of a universal crown ; and though dark be the clouds that usher in his august advent, and fierce the convulsions that will attend the earth's deliverance, great will be the glory of the day he will bring, and everlasting the repose that will settle on the everlasting hills. LECTURE XII. THE COVENANT MADE WITH DAVID REALISED IN THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL UNDER CHRIST. WE E have seen that "the promises made unto the fathers," in remote Old Testament times, form the ground-work of the scheme which God is developing through Christ. Of these, orthodox religion takes no cognisance. Who ever hears of them in modern sermons, or religious tuition of any kind? We now propose to consider another matter, having an equally essential reference to the scheme, and of which there is a similar entire absence in all systems of modern religion. We refer to the covenant made with David, which may be considered in the light of a clause in the greater covenant established with the fathers, settling an important matter of detail which is covered by, but expressed in, the older general promises on which the whole scheme of God's purposed goodness towards mankind rests. not The fact that God made a covenant with David, having reference to Christ, is placed beyond all doubt by the statement of Peter, on the day of Pentecost "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that GOD HAD SWORN WITH AN OATH TO HIM, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, HE WOULD RAISE UP CHRIST to sit on His throne" (Acts ii. 30). Preliminary to a consideration of the subject, we invite attention to the following further allusions to the oath referred to by Peter "I have made a covenant with my chosen ; I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations" (Psalm lxxxix. 3, 4). "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne" (Psalm cxxxii. 11). "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and HIS THRONE AS THE SUN BEFORE ME" (Psalm lxxxix. 34-36). "Of this man's (David's) seed hath God ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus" (Acts xiii. 23). "And hath raised up an horn of salvation for US IN THE HOUSE OF HIS SERVANT DAVID, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began (Luke i. 69. 70). in an These quotations of Scripture establish the fact-ist, that God entered into some pledge or undertaking with David, king of Israel, to uphold His kingdom unlimited future; and, 2nd, that the pledge, covenant, or oath had reference to Jesus. David's "last words" (2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7), confirm this conclusion-" HE HATH MADE WITH ME AN EVERLASTING COVENANT, ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire." The identity of this covenant with that referred to in the Scriptures quoted above, is evident from the immediate context : Then follows the declaration first quoted. was not David was an old man when he penned these words by the spirit, and it is evident that, to the mind of the Spirit, the covenant realised in the state of things prevailing at the time. Solomon, a young man of promise, was about to ascend the throne, but, although David himself recognised in this a preliminary fulfilment of the covenant, it is evident that this was not the event contemplated. The Spirit in David points forward to a period when it would be fulfilled in the rule of one who should rise upon the world, like a morning without clouds; and when "all David's salvation and all his desire "would be accomplished in connection with that great event. This did not come to pass in David's day. We have the testimony of the words immediately succeeding those quoted. David's house was not at that time in the position guaranteed by the promise: "Although my house BE NOT SO WITH GOD, yet he hath made with me an everlasting -covenant," &c. Solomon's reign was, doubtless, the meridian of Israel's glory; but it was not a morning without cloud--it was not the realisation of the covenant. Solomon sinned and led Israel astray, and ultimately dealt injustice to the nation. David's salvation was not in any sense secured in Solomon's achievements. Contrariwise, his crown was tarnished and his kingdom rent, through the perversion of a son who departed from God, multiplied wives, and turned aside to the worship of heathen gods. His very name was brought into abhorrence with the bulk of the nation, through the oppressions of one who falsified the expectations created by the commencement of his royal -career as the wisest of men. It was not to such a feature that "the last (spirit) words of David " had reference as the consummation of "the everlasting cove nant" in all David's salvation and all his desire. There was visible to the mind of the spirit, in the dim distance, far beyond the days of Solomon, the form of one whose name should endure for ever-who should descend like the gentle rain upon the new-mown grass, diffusing life and fragrance, in whom men should be blest all the world over (Psalm lxxii. 17), who, while the destroyer of the wicked, the conqueror of kings, the avenger of injustice, should be a refuge for the poor, a shadow from the heat, a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, and rivers of water in a dry place (Isaiah xxxii. 2). Let us now look at the covenant itself. We cannot do better than quote entire that passage in the history of David in which it occurs "And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said unto the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee. And it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go, and tell my servant David, thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein i have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel. saying, Why build ye not me a house of cedar? Now, theretore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be a ruler over my people, over Israel: and I was with thee wheresoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thy enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as before time; and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house. And when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever " (2 Sam. vii. 1-16). a Now, before proceeding to look narrowly at the significance of these words, it will be well to meet preliminary objection which is sometimes urged with considerable force, viz., that as they were fulfilled in the reign of Solomon, they cannot be legitimately understood of Christ. That the things affirmed had a parallel in the events of Solomon's reign cannot be denied. Both David and Solomon apply them in this way (see Kings v. 5; viii. 20; xi. 38; 1 Chron. xxii. 7; xxviii. 3). Solomon was David's son; God, in a sense, was his Father, for He took him under His special care, and endowed him with a degree of wisdom that made him famous above kings. He sat on the throne of David "before" (that is, in the presence of) David, being elevated to the crown before David's decease, by David's own instructions, and continued king after David was gathered to his fathers. He built the temple of God at Jerusalem, according to plans drawn out by David under the influence of inspiration (I Chron. xxviii. 12, 19). He was a man of peace. He committed iniquity and was chastened in the divine displeasure by means of adversaries raised up 'toward the close of his reign; but God's mercy did not depart away from him as it did from Saul, for he was allowed to reign till death removed him. To this extent, the covenant with David was verified in the days of Solomon ; but to say that this parallel was the substance of the things promised, is to go in the teeth of Scripture testimony, both Old and New. David and Solomon's application of the covenant, as recorded in the Scriptures referred to, does not interfere with this testimony. David and Solomon may be presumed not to have known its full scope. The prophets generally did not under " stand the full effect of their words (2 Peter i. 20-21). Paul applies the terms of the covenant to Christ, in Heb. i. 5; "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.' Peter, as we have already seen, expressly says that the covenant had reference to him (Acts ii. 30). Jesus applies David's language to himself: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool " (Psalm cx. 1), and furthermore, he says of himself, "I am the root and the offspring of David" (Rev. xxii. 16), and that he has the key of David for the purpose of opening that no man may shut (Rev. iii. 7). In the days of his flesh, he was known and described as "the son of David;" the whole nation of the Jews looked for a son of David to be the Messiah; all the prophets speak of him as a descendant of David, variously styling him a rod out of the stem of Jesse (father of David)" (Isaiah xi. I); a Righteous Branch raised unto David (Jer. xxiii. 5); "a child born and a son given to sit upon the throne of David and his kingdom" (Is. ix. 6), and so on. " that the It is, therefore, a vain thing for anyone to attempt to avert the application of the "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure to Jesus, David's son and Lord, the greater than Solomon, on the mere strength of a view taken by David and Solomon, which does not exclude this application, but which merely declares covenant made with reference to Jesus was incipiently fulfilled in Solomon. It may be a question for consideration how it is that a prediction can have two fulfilments, so far separated by time and the nature of the event. The fact is evidence of the comprehensiveness of the divine word, but no disproof of the fact that the prediction in its ultimate and complete bearing has reference to Jesus. This is proved in too many ways to leave room for a moment's doubt. |