From Shepherd Boy to Good Shepherd || Anointed Kings
You boss comes to your office and says, “You’re going to be promoted. You’ll get a raise, company car, and we’ll pay for all your meals.” Ha, sounds pretty good, except there is one condition….”This won’t happen immediately, but eventually.” This is no different than David’s story.
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Let’s learn about Hebrew and ancient Israel. Here are two Hebrew words you should know before we talk about this eventual promotion:
Nagid - “ruler”; primary purpose: military
Melek (Melech) - “king”; primary purpose: character
This seems cut and dry, however, in ancient Israel there weren’t two thrones and we aren’t 100% sure what the difference was for them. But God, sees them as they are in the Hebrew language. The long and short is God asked for a melek to be crowned, but instead Saul was crowned as a nagid. On the throne is Saul (nagid), and Saul has a son, an heir to the throne. But yet again, God (fast-forward to 1 Samuel 16) sends Samuel out to find a melek.
So here we are back at the Jesse Family Farm, the sheep stench soaked boy pulled from the field. And David was basically told by Samuel, “You’re the new king, except Saul is on the throne, soooooo…..eventually.”
David was anointed because of his character (remember - melek), but God wasn’t ready for him to take his throne. He had bigger plans for this shepard.
Ooooo, cliffhanger! While you wait for next week’s blog to find out what happened to the anointed king, let’s hop on over to Jesus in the manger.
Let’s recap the Old Testament in 5 words: the world is a mess. We left off last week with God sending Himself to save the world. Except He didn’t come down glamorously, change the world, and peace out. He came as a baby and slept in the germy manger stained with slop and cow saliva. God sent His son, the anointed King, as a helpless BABY!
If you thought it was bad that Samuel said, “Hey little dude, you’re gonna be king...eventually.”, God told His son, “Imma send you down there, Sport, to change the world, but first you’re gonna be a baby.” What a rip off, man!
But Jesus, like David, was anointed because of His character.
Not only did David have to wait to reign over Israel, but Jesus had to grow up, start a ministry, die, rise again, AND ascend back to Heaven before He could sit in his throne.
I’m not sure what stinks more, the fragrance of royalty from last week or the eventual promotions of monarchy.
Maybe you’re waiting for the “eventual” good of Romans 8:28. Maybe God has given you another “eventual” promotion or duty. But what you’ll see over the next two weeks is how these eventual promotions became world changing ministries for Him. And He’ll do the same for you too.
