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Week 13 Genesis to Jesus – Covenant with David

Part 2 – The Queen Mother and Prime Minister – Kingdom Keys

In 1st Kings chapter 2 we read about the newly anointed King Solomon prostrating himself in front of his mother Bathsheba as she enters the throne room of the royal court. Later he would command that a permanent throne on his right hand be placed there, establishing the title and position of Queen Mother that would be a part of the entire royal line of Davidic kings.

This begs the question why not the wife of the king rather than his mother, simple, he only had one mother, but he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Only one chapter of the entire Old Testament is written by a woman, and that is the 31st chapter of Proverbs, written by the Queen Mother of King Lemual, to help him find a Godly wife. Later in the Old Testament, the prophet Jerimiah is instructed to deliver “the word of the Lord to the king”, and several times the scripture includes, “and the queen mother”. That ought to give all Catholics big goose bumps, realizing this clearly is a prefiguring of the Virgin Mary, becoming the Queen Mother of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

In 1st Kings 4 we read how the king appointed a cabinet of twelve ministers, and one of them became known as the prime minister, entrusted with the keys of the kingdom. He had power to open and shut, meaning he could open relations with

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another nation, or make the decision to close trade with another nation. He served under the king, but his power to make things happen in the kingdom and to represent the king was immense. We read about this office of prime minister in Isaiah 22, Isaiah 22:20–22 (RSV2CE) 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your belt on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. Here we go again with a prefiguring of things to come, this is an amazing picture of the coming Meshiach, the Messiah, the anointed King of Kings, Jesus Son of David and Son of God, who chooses twelve ministers, disciples, and one of the them would become the prime minister with the keys of the kingdom, and the power to open and shut, our very first pope, the vicar of Christ on the earth, St. Peter. Matthew 16:18–19 (RSV2CE) 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

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There is a third feature of the Davidic Kingdom that will blow your socks off, sorry that comes from my protestant days. As we move from Sinai to Zion, from Moses to David, and from the Tabernacle to the Temple we see a change in the kind and the number of sacrifices that were offered in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, as compared to those offered in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the Tabernacle out in the wilderness there were many, many, sin offerings, offerings of atonement primarily because that was the main problem going on out there as they wandered in the wilderness.

Lots of sin meant lots of burnt sacrifices offered in the Tabernacle, atoning for all those sins. But in Leviticus 7 we read about a very different kind of sacrifice that was established as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, an offering that included a holocaust, or burnt offering, but was followed with an offering that was very different, and was voluntary. It was called the todah in Hebrew, and it was a sacrifice of thanksgiving. King David wrote several of the Psalms, 22, 40, and especially Psalm 50 that appear to be specially written songs about the todah, the “just because I want to”, sacrifice of thanksgiving. Psalm 50:8–15 (AMP) 8 I do not

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reprove you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are continually before Me. 9 I will accept no bull from your house nor he-goat out of your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills or upon the mountains where thousands are. 11 I know and am acquainted with all the birds of the mountains, and the wild animals of the field are Mine and are with Me, in My mind. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are Mine. 13 Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High, 15 And call on Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall honor and glorify Me.

We can see in this passage what kind of sacrifice God prefers, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, given of our own free will, simply because we want to thank Him. You see the three parts that precede the sacrifice, “call on Me in the day of trouble”, that’s one; “I will deliver you”, two; and “you shall honor and glorify Me”, three. Again, the Hebrew word for this powerful sacrifice is todah, and for each todah sacrifice you would invite family and friends to celebrate with you in the Temple of God, thanking God for your deliverance. But here is where we Catholics can get excited, this offering was made up of unleavened bread, and wine. Can you guess in the time of the first century of the Church what word in Greek is translated from the Hebrew word todah, the sacrifice of thanksgiving? It is the Greek word eucharistia.

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Even the rabbis of that time prophesied that when Meshiach, Messiah comes, all the animal sacrifices will come to an end, and only the sacrifice of thanksgiving will go on forever and ever, the todah will be eternal. So, the sacrifice that was so pleasing to the Lord, that both David and Solomon offered frequently to the Lord in the Holy Temple, becomes the prefiguring of that New Covenant todah, or sacrifice of thanksgiving. The todah first introduced at the Last Supper, that we voluntarily celebrate at every Mass with family and friends, is the Holy Eucharist. Doesn’t that make you want to shout hallelujah!!!

So now we see the Queen Mother, the twelve minsters to the king, and the one prime minister with the keys of the kingdom, and now the sacrifice of thanksgiving, the Eucharist, concealed in the Old Covenant and powerfully revealed in the New Covenant. This ought to make every non-Catholic want to become Catholic, and every fallen away Catholic want to come home. But, we need slow down just a bit, and realize there is a pattern of divine providence that makes things difficult to see how God is going accomplish all that He promised. Once again, this pattern of lost dreams, and seemingly impossible prophecies becomes front and center. God promised Abraham a son of promise, Isaac, but God waited till Abraham was 99 years old, and Sarah was well beyond child bearing years, to make good on His promise. Impossible, not to God. We see this pattern over and over. The reign of King David is 40 years, and his son Solomon also 40 years, good long reigns for both. But here comes the death of a dream, all the kings that follow Solomon and sit on the throne of David are a mess.

Eventually the mighty Davidic kingdom is dismantled and the dream of an eternal throne of David seems impossible to God’s people. God has a pattern of tough love and often He allows dreams to go through a death process. When His people realize their sin and disobedience they will repent and cry out to Him, and by faith begin to believe that He will take the impossible and make it possible again.

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The kingdom is only unified for 80 years, following King Solomon, the kingdom is split with 10 tribes in the north and the other two tribes and their new disastrous king in the south. The northern kingdom chooses their king but over time succumbs to idolatry and eventually is conquered by the Assyrians. Those ten tribes are taken captive and are scattered for well over 700 years. The southern kingdom, now just the tribe of Judah and the tiny tribe of Benjamin, has a similar fate and is carried off by the Babylonians. It was in the year 587 BC that Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem is destroyed by the invading armies of Babylonia. It would be 70 years later that the dispersed Jews could rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, but it is a mere shadow of its former glory. The people of God are basically ruled by the high priest under a hierarchy of priests, still captives of the Babylonian king. The throne if David is eventually abandoned, and family tree of David becomes nothing more than a dead stump for almost 500 years. The cry for Messiah to come and conquer their captors and restore the abandoned throne of David reached a fevered pitch by the time of birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

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Many Jews held on to an ancient prophecy spoken by the prophet Isaiah that claimed a new green shoot would sprout out of the stump of Jesse, David’s father. They did not know that way up in Nazareth in the region of Galilee a carpenter, an obscure descendant of King David, was betrothed to a young virgin, who was with child by God the Holy Spirit. The marriage of Mary to Joseph was the key to fulfilling God’s covenant vow of King David’s eternal throne. The blood of David’s descendants was royal but the throne was long gone, and the seed of David’s line was impure due to sin going all the way back to Adam.

How was God going to bring His Only Begotten Son into the world with God’s blood in His veins, and at the same time have the birthright to ascend the throne of David. All it would take is an immaculate conception of the New Eve our Blessed Mother, having no sin and pure blood, and then a virgin birth by the overshadowing God the Holy Spirit. But how about the right to David’s throne?

Enter that forgotten carpenter from Nazareth, Joseph, a son of David who was forced by Roman authorities to travel to the City of David, a tiny village known as Bethlehem, with his wife Mary, to be registered for the census.

The earthly kingdom, the Davidic kingdom lasted for 400 years, the longest line of kings in history. But now the Meshiach, the true Messiah, Christos, the Christ with a capitol “C”, was coming to establish His kingdom on earth and in heaven, that will last forever. His name is great among the nations, He is Son of David and Son of God, Jesus Christ. At this very moment He rules and reigns from His father David’s eternal throne. And around the world today, our deliverance from the

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crushing oppression of sin will be celebrated with a todah, a pure offering of bread and wine that will become His body and His blood, the Holy Eucharist.

We will gather with family and friends, and during this sacrifice of thanksgiving, the Mass, He will feed us with Himself and the people of God will celebrate from sun up to sun throughout the whole earth. Jesus Himself is the New Temple, destroyed on the cross, and restored in three days, now seated on the eternal throne of David. We are His Living Holy Temple on earth, until He comes again to take us to the Holy City of God, to join the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and feast for all eternity. Makes me want to sit down and write some new Psalms of praise and thanksgiving, to sing a new song to the Lord for all that He has done. Hallelujah!