Reading the Old Testament in the New: The Gospel of Matthew

Lesson Six:
David's Son, David's Lord

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Lesson Outline:

I. Review and Overview
 a. Reading the Last Book
 b. Promised of Old 
 c. The New Son of David 

II. To the City of David
 a. The Blind See the Son of David 
 b. Making a King's Entrance
 c. Enemies in the Temple

III. The Son's Identity Revealed
 a. The Lord of His Lord 
 b. The Son of God 
 c. Gathered Against the Anointed 
 d. The Nations Are His Inheritance

V. Study Questions

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I. Review and Overview

a. Reading the Last Book

In this final lesson, we're going to be looking at the last of the "five books" of Matthew's Gospel (see Matthew 19-25) and what we identified as the Gospel's "epilogue" - Matthew's narrative of Jesus' Passion, death and Resurrection (see Matthew 26-28).

In these sections, Matthew uses his literary skill and his deep and nuanced understanding of the Old Testament to bring together a number of the themes he has sounded throughout the Gospel.

We're going to focus on one of those themes: Matthew's use of Old Testament traditions and expectations concerning the Davidic covenant.

b. Promised of Old

This is a them we pointed out in our first lesson and reintroduced in our last lesson. To review: God's "everlasting covenant" with David (see 2 Samuel 23:5; Psalm 89:4-29; 132:12), marked the pinnacle of the Old Testament.

In promising to establish David's son as His own son and to give him an everlasting kingdom that would extend over all nations (see 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 1 Chronicles 17:7-14), God declared the Son of David to be the one who would fulfill His promise to Abraham.

God's covenant with Abraham was that he would be the father of many nations and that through his son Isaac, all the nation's of the world would be blessed of descendants (see Genesis 17:4-8; 22:15-18).

It was to honor that covenant with Abraham that God raised up Moses to deliver Israel, the nation born of the children of Isaac, from Egypt (see Exodus 2:24; 6:5). And it was for "my people Israel" that God established His covenant with David (see 2 Samuel 7:8,10,11; 1 Chronicles 16:14-18).

As we noted in our first lesson, and as Matthew notices in the very first lines of his Gospel, at the time of Jesus' birth God's promise to David seemed to have been left unfulfilled.

The kingdom established by David's son had been destroyed. First it was divided in two by a civil war. Next both rival kingdoms were conquered and the peoples swept off into exile.

Through the prophets, God had foretold the coming of a Messiah, a righteous offshoot, a son of David (see Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12). Like David, he would be a shepherd for God's people and would be the sign of a new covenant between God and His people (see Ezekiel 34:23-25; 37:24-27).

This shepherd king (see Jeremiah 23:3-7; Hosea 3:5) would gather up the exiled people, restore the kingdom of David and would reign forever (see Isaiah 9:5-6; Jeremiah 33:15-18). 

c. The New Son of David

These are dominant themes, as we have noted, in Matthew's Gospel.

Nine times Jesus is called "son of David" in Matthew (as compared to twice in Mark and Luke and none in John).

Jesus' birthplace, Bethlehem, is recalled as "the city of David" (see Matthew 2:1; 1 Samuel 20:6). Like the Davidic Messiah, Jesus is called God's "beloved son" at His baptism (see Matthew 3:17; Psalm 2:7).

Jesus first announces "the kingdom" in Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy that the rebuilding of David's kingdom would begin precisely in the region where the kingdom's destruction began (see Matthew 4:12-17; Isaiah 9:1-2).

The beginning of the end of the kingdom was the Assyrian invasion of these regions (see 2 Kings 15:29). Isaiah had seen the kingdom being renewed in the "Galilee of the Gentiles," with the birth of a king who would sit upon David's throne (see Isaiah 9:7). 

II. To the City of David
 
a. The Blind See the Son of David

We begin our study of Matthew's last book on the road to Jerusalem, as Jesus stops to heal two blind men who have been following Him (see Matthew 20:29-34).

The scene is very similar to one we saw earlier, at the beginning of Jesus' public career - in which two blind men identify Jesus as "Son of David" and beg that He restore their sight (see Matthew 9:27-31).

Here again, Matthew is drawing on the tradition that associated the Messiah, the anointed Son of David, with powers of exorcism and healing, especially related to the "blind and the lame."

Jesus' healing of a demon-possessed blind mute earlier provoked the crowds to question aloud: "Could this perhaps be the Son of David?" (see Matthew 12:22-23). And throughout this Gospel, Jesus' healings are frequently associated with the title "Son of David" (see Matthew 15:22).

We see this tradition in the other Gospels. In fact, apart from Matthew, the only other places in the New Testament where Jesus is called "Son of David" are in scenes of miraculous healings (see Mark 10:47-48; Luke 18:38-39).

Devout Jews expected the Davidic Messiah to cast out demons and heal the blind, the deaf and the mute (see Isaiah 29:18; 35:5-6; 42:7,16).

This expectation appears to have begun with the power of David's harp playing to exorcise the demons plaguing King Saul (see I Samuel 16:14-23). In traditions attested both in and outside the Bible (see Wisdom 7:20), David's son, Solomon, also received power over demons and infirmities (see Josephus, The Antitquities of the Jews, Book 8, Chapter 2, no. 5).

Matthew, in effect, frames the ministry of Jesus around two miraculous healings of blind men who are able to "see" that He is the Messiah, the Son of David. In the first instance, He sharply commands those He heals: "See that know one knows about this."

Here, He imposes no such restrictions. Indeed, they follow Him into Jerusalem and become part of the crowd that proclaims Him the Savior, the Son of David who comes in the name of the Lord (see Matthew 21:9).

In fact, in the Greek text there are strong connections between the healing story and the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem - in both we see:

- "great" or "very large" "crowds" (compare 20:29,30 and 21:8,9,11);

- "following" (compare 20:29,34 and 21:9);

- "on the road[side]" (compare 20:29 and 21:8); and

- people "crying out" (compare 20:30 and 21:9) for Jesus as

- the "son of David" (compare 20:30,31 and 21:9).


b. Making a King's Entrance

Matthew depicts Jesus entering Jerusalem like a king (see Matthew 21:1-11).

He uses a "formula citation" to announce that Jesus is "fulfilling" Old Testament prophecy.

Actually, Matthew brings together two distinct but related prophecies. The first is from Isaiah, who foresaw Israel's "savior" coming down a "highway" to make to take "daughter Zion" as His "bride" (see Isaiah 62:4,10-11). The second is from Zechariah, who also saw the "savior" coming to "daughter Zion" - as a king riding atop a colt and an ass to fulfill "the blood of [God's] covenant" with Israel (see Zechariah 9:9-11; compare Exodus 24:8).

These prophetic expectations perhaps explain why Jesus, upon entering Jerusalem, delivers a parable about a king who calls a wedding feast for his son (see Matthew 22:1-14) and uses the words, "my blood of the covenant" at His last supper (see Matthew 26:28).

The stage for this royal wedding covenant feast is being set by Matthew with his description of Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem.

The scene seems deliberately drawn to evoke the anointing and crowning of Solomon as king (see 1 Kings 1). Jesus is proclaimed "Son of David" (see Matthew 21:9,15) as Samuel was (see Proverbs 1:1).

As Samuel rode King David's mule to Gihon to be anointed by Zadok the priest (see 1 Kings 1:38, 44), Jesus rides a mule into town (see Matthew 21:7). The crowd greets Jesus with an Old Testament gesture of submission to a king - spreading their cloaks on the road before Him (see Matthew 21:8; 2 Kings 9:13).

The coming of Samuel as king caused a tumult of shouting and rejoicing that nearly "split open the earth" (see 1 Kings 1:39-41,45). In Jerusalem, the crowd "kept crying out and...the whole city was shaken" (see Matthew 21:9-10).

Finally, the commotion in Jerusalem provokes questions about who Jesus is (see Matthew 21:10), just as people in Solomon's case asked: "What does this uproar in the city mean?" (see 1 Kings 1:41,45).

Matthew uses this Old Testament memory to communicate to his readers that Jesus is the new Son of David, the new King of Israel.

This is further dramatized by the cries of the crowd (see Matthew 21:9,15). Not only do they proclaim Him the "Son of David," they cry out the lines from Psalm 118 - a familiar hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord as savior of Israel.

The word Hosanna means, "O Lord, grant salvation" (see Psalm 118:25-26) and Matthew's reference to the Psalm here reinforces his earlier allusion to Zechariah and Isaiah and their prophecies of Israel's coming "savior."

Jesus is the Son of David, the King of the Jews - He is also the Lord, the Savior of Israel (see Psalm 188:14). 

c. Enemies in the Temple

Jesus, as King, takes possession of His capital peacefully, as Solomon did. His first action is to reclaim the sanctuary, the Temple, and to call Israel's religious leaders back to their original sacred purpose (see Matthew 21:12-16).

We see here another echo of David's career. After establishing Jerusalem as "the City of David," the new king's first act was to return the Ark of the Covenant, the vessel of God's presence, and to restore the sacred order of the Levitical priests (see 2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 15-16).

There is a further Davidic note in Jesus' cleansing of the Temple. Notice the curious detail: the blind and lame approach Him in the temple area and He cures them (see Matthew 21:14). These are His last cures in Matthew's Gospel.

But Matthew here too seems to be invoking deep Old Testament memories.

He hearkens back to David's anointing as king of all Israel. Following his anointing, his first action was to attack Jerusalem in order to make it the capital of his kingdom.

The Jebusites, who occupied the city, mocked David, telling him that even the blind and the lame could his army away. David, for some unexplained reason, pronounced the blind and lame to be "personal enemies" and forbid them to enter the temple (see 2 Samuel 5:6-9).

Although his exact meaning isn't clear, Matthew here seems to be depicting a new conquest of "the city of David" by David's heir - not by military might but by meekness (see Matthew 21:5). In this new "capture" of Jerusalem, David's curse on the blind and lame is annulled in a miraculous sign that all will be welcome in the Temple of the new king.

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