After Shem and Abram, King David has the only other Old Testament explicit declaration of filling the position of Melchizedek. David’s proclamation of “Death to the enemies of God’s people!” is consistent with the first documented mention of Melchizedek by name honoring Abram for the “slaughter of the kings”. As detailed in previous post, he is a Man of War. He brings peace the only way possible when evil rules – by fighting back.
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts / armies, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be
- ruler over my people, over Israel:
- And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest,
- and have cut off all thine 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…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 beforetime…
- 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….and I will stablish 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. (II Samuel 7:8-16)
There are too many contextual specifics to claim that this is “foreshadowing” Jesus the Christ. This appointment in the lineage of the Seed of the Woman is conferred on David himself. Jesus Christ never herded sheep, nor yet has become the ruler of the nation of Israel. This is confirmed in the psalm written by and about David publicizing this appointment, quoted in application to Jesus Christ by the author of the letter to the Hebrews,
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
- until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
- The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of (Mount) Zion:
- rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek [through his genetics and epigenetics passed down through his seed]
- The LORD at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
- He shall judge among the heathen,
- he shall fill the places with the dead bodies;
- he shall wound the heads over many countries.” (Psalm 110)
“I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him…my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted…
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn / heir, higher than the kings of the earth…His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. ” (Psalm 89:20-37)
The following excerpt from James M. Gibbs, Ph.D.’s doctoral dissertation on the meaning of “son of God” is very enlightening.
When the king is spoken of as Yahweh’s son (as in Ps 2.7, a favourite text with NT writers), it is in terms of adoption by God for obedient service rather than in terms of divinization…it has its own distinctive emphasis on the obedient subordination of the king as son…we never find in Israel any expression of a ‘metaphysical’ conception of the king’s divinity and his relation to Yahweh. It is clear that the king is regarded as Yahweh’s son by adoption, When, in Ps. 2.7, Yahweh says to the king on the day of his anointing and installation, ‘You are My son; I have begotten you today’, He is using the ordinary formula of adoption, indicating that the sonship rests on Yahweh’s adoption of the king…. Yahweh has ‘called’ and ‘chosen’ the king, made him His son, anointed and endowed him with His spirit…The king performs the will of Yahweh, and through him Yahweh’s blessing to land and people is transmitted; he represents Yahweh before the people…This is consistent with the notion of ‘son’ as basically designating a role or function rather than being an ascription of honor…But gradually the main emphasis came to be placed upon him as the representative of Israel before God, as a representative man from the chosen people. In this he was seen as the chief priest of the people…”
But David wasn’t a priest! you protest.
Not in the Levitical system, true.
That proves the point! As did all the Anti-Christ kings in that era, all the pagan gods adopted their human rulers as their sons as well as appointed them their representative priest-kings.
Take David’s heir to the throne of Judah, Ahaz. When he rejected the God of Israel he became both the son and the priest of the pagan god.
“Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me…
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus…
and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. “ (II Ki 16:1-16)
King David’s position in the higher level Melchizedekian order is evident in the record that he, like Moses, exercised authority over the Aaronic priesthood and was the anointed ruler over not just Israel, but the whole earth.
- “And David…prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent [functioning exactly like Moses]…
- And David called for…the priests, and for the Levites…And said unto them…sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it…
- And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and…David also had upon him an ephod of linen…
- So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it…
- And when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of [as the representative of] the LORD. And he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine.
- And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel…
Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the LORD into the hand of Asaph and his brethren…
- [speaking in his role as Melchizedek to the whole earth]
- Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.
- Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations…
- Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
- Fear before him, all the earth:
- the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and
- let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth.“ (I Chronicles 15-16)
Further proof of David’s Melchizedekian role is found in other psalms in which there isn’t anything that can’t be attributed to David’s personal experiences. Surely that is how the audience of his day understood them.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree:
the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten / permanently accepted as mine. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son [of God, the ruler], lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” (Psalm 2)
Kissing the Son / vicar of God is a common expression of publicly submitting to a ruler’s authority.
“And the LORD said unto [Elijah]…I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.“ (I Ki 19:13-18)
“Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?” (I Sam 10:1)
What we may have missed in the history lessons is that even Christian kings claimed to be priests of the Christian God. The divine right of kings existed under the Medieval popes but even after the Reformation became more entrenched with the king’s full assumption of spiritual power as head of the state church.
In England it is not without significance that the sacerdotal vestments, generally discarded by the clergy – dalmatia, alb and stole – continued to be among the insignia of the sovereign.” King James of KJV fame based his arguments for his right to absolute power in part on the biblical record that kings are “God’s lieutenants upon earth”, although he stretched the point when he claimed that “Kings are justly called Gods, for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth.
Kingdom Come 