CHRIST: THE NEW DAVID IN EZEKIEL’S PROPHECY
The prophet Ezekiel had many important things to say that are applicable to the believers’s life. He, of course, did not prophesy primarily to us concerning our day, but to the ancient nation of Israel as they were in bondage to the Babylonians. But He made many messianic promises that were fulfilled in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We learn much about our Lord from some of the things that Ezekiel had to say.
God, through Ezekiel, gave warnings and rebukes, as well as promises and encouragement. God was going to bless the remnant of His people. But Ezekiel looked beyond an imminent return to the physical land of Israel to a time when God would gather His people together under a new leader. This new leader was called by God, “David, my servant” (Ezekiel 34:23, 37:24).
This prophecy is unique in many ways. For one thing, David had been dead for hundreds of years. Therefore, the prophet was not speaking of literal David, as though God were going to bring him back from the dead to rule over God’s people. David is used as the example because he was a faithful king and shepherd. Someone was going to come from David’s kingly line to rule over the people of God as no one ever had before. He would be similar to David in some respects, and the people knew who David was.
But Ezekiel was talking about Jesus, not about David. The name Jesus would not have meant anything to them at the time. But David did, and his name conjured up images of faithfulness and loyalty in leading God’s people. David was a type of Christ, he pointed to Christ, and yet, Christ was the far better man. And leader.
Jesus was not going to be an earthly king like David was. Not ruling and reigning on a literal throne in the literal city of Jerusalem. Jesus, we now know, was and is a spiritual king (John 18:36). But He is the faithful leader of God’s people. He is the loving Shepherd of God’s people. And centuries before He was born, the prophet Ezekiel, by the inspiration of God, saw that Christ was coming and what He would do.
The New Testament calls Jesus the “son of David” many times (Matthew 1:1; 20:30; 21:9; 22:42; Romans 1:3), indicating that He was a descendent of King David, and therefore could fulfill the prophecies concerning one of David’s descendants ruling over God’s people (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Psalm 89:3-4; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 33:17; Luke 1:32-33). But He would rule in a much different fashion. Christ rules and reigns in the hearts and lives of His people. God is far more interested in being in a personal relationship with His people than He is in physical, material and military kingdoms.
David was a shepherd and he understood shepherding. He wrote, after all, one of the most famous passages in the Bible—the 23rd Psalm. There he said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” He knew about a personal relationship with God. He did not know as much about it as we do now, having received the revelation of God in Christ. But he loved the Lord and he was close to the Lord. And he was a type of Jesus in that Jesus Himself is the good Shepherd over the people of God (John 10:11, 14).
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. And he was the royal heir to David (Matthew 1:1, 2:1). His faithfulness to God is far more marvelous than anything David ever put together in his relationship with God. And Christ’s ability to rule over and lead God’s people could never be compared to anyone else’s rule and reign in any literal sense. There is no one like Jesus and there never has been anyone like Jesus.
Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Matthew 3:16). Just as Samuel was sent by God down to the house of Jesse to anoint David as king (1 Samuel 16:1-13), Jesus is the Christ, the real anointed one of God (“Christ” literally means anointed one). Everything concerning David’s kingship was a picture of what was coming in the future.
David was a sinner like the rest of us. He was a man of flesh, but he was also a man of faith, which points to the fact that no matter how badly we may mess up our lives, we can always repent and be faithful to Jesus and live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. God’s forgiveness is deep and real, and He uses flawed individuals who make the decision to put their faith in Him. He can do this because the one that David foreshadowed and pointed to—Jesus—was a sinless and perfect man who lived and died for us.
So while David was a faithful king over God’s people, Jesus is the eternal, perfect Shepherd-King over the spiritual kingdom of God, where He rules and reigns forever. David ruled for forty years (1 King 2:11). Christ rules until the end of time (1 Corinthians 15:24).
Christ Jesus is the “David” that Ezekiel was talking about, not only because He was from David’s kingly line, a real descendent of David physically, but mainly because He was chosen and anointed to be the one who was adored and exalted by God to reign at His right hand over God’s people (Colossians 3:1-2; Hebrews 1:1-3; 12:1-2). Jesus is ruling and reigning now in the kingdom of God. In Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2, he interpreted the prophecies concerning Jesus ruling on David’s throne as being spiritually fulfilled in His reign at God’s right hand in heaven (Acts 2:29-36).
So Ezekiel’s prophecy was far deeper and more meaningful than just a “new king.” Jesus would be a completely different KIND of king. And He would rule over a united kingdom, which David’s earthly, united kingdom only pointed to. Israel was physically and militarily united under David. But all of God’s people, both Jews and Gentiles, are united in Christ (Galatians 3:28: Ephesians 2:14-22). So what Ezekiel saw in his vision and gave in his prophecy was far more than just a new king, but an entirely new relationship with God through someone who could not only lead us as king, but represent us as priest. And transform us by His Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27; 37:26).
God accomplished something through Jesus that could never have been accomplished under an ordinary man like David. The Son of God has done what the old covenant could not do. He takes our sins away completely and makes us new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Everything is new when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior—as our “King.”
Our relationship to this new “David” is not a political or military one. We live in His spiritual kingdom, the church, the body of Christ. This is what God has been working toward since the Garden of Eden, and, properly understood, throughout eternity: a personal relationship with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
