OFFSPRING OF DAVID

The Lord Jesus bears the title ‘the Root of David’ in chapter 5, and for a study of this the reader should refer to an earlier meditation. Today, we will simply recall that ‘the Root of David’ signifies the pre-existence and deity of the Lord Jesus whilst, as ‘the offspring of David’, He must come after, and out of, that great man and therefore be truly human.

As David’s Maker, the Lord gave him authority to sit on the throne of Israel, and, as his descendant, the Lord has entitlement to occupy that throne in a day to come. Just as David suffered years of rejection before he ascended the throne that was rightfully his, so the Lord Jesus is today the king in rejection, waiting for the day when He will return in glory to establish His millennial kingdom. But the authority of the Lord Jesus in the glory of the millennium is not only national but universal, so the national throne of the restored kingdom of Israel will be given again to David who will reign, in the land, as vice-regent. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak of David occupying the national throne in the millennium, Ezekiel stating very clearly, ‘And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd ... and my servant David shall be their prince for ever’, Ezek. 37. 24-25. In relation to the administration of the nation, David will act as their king. In relation to authority over the kingdom, however, David will be their prince, one who is subject to the absolute Sovereign.

Isaiah spoke of a ‘rod out of the stem of Jesse and a Branch ... out of his roots’, Isa. 11.1. So the Saviour grew up before the Lord ‘as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground’, Isa. 53. 2, drawing all His sustenance from His unbroken communion with God. ‘And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene’, Matt. 2. 23. He was ‘the Nazarene’, a word whose Hebrew origins may signify ‘a sprout’ or ‘shoot’. But the lowly man of Nazareth, so despised, is the offspring of David and will soon ascend the throne of universal dominion. ‘Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH ... he shall bear the glory’, Zech. 6.12-13.