JY: Welcome to GearTalk, a podcast on biblical theology. Today, we’re looking at Old Testament passages that portray the coming king as God. This is our second podcast on the subject of the Trinity in the Old Testament.

TK: Welcome to GearTalk, Jason and Tom together today. Jason, really good to be with you.

JD: Delight to be with you, Tom. It’s good new year.

TK: Yeah, it is. What’s our subject today?

JD: Well, today we are following up on an earlier podcast where we were speaking about the Trinity in the Old Testament. Did the Jews understand God in his multi-personhood? And today where we want to focus is on a number of examples in Jesus’ Bible where the portrayal of his coming is associated directly with the King being God himself, where the Messiah is portrayed as a divine figure akin to Yahweh, and yet embodied human, that the Old Testament saints were already anticipating that the Messiah was God in the way that he’s portrayed. So we’re going to look at a number of texts that point in that direction.

TK: Before we do, Jason, maybe you said something that I think we’ve mentioned before, but it would be worth clarifying. You said, “in Jesus’ Bible,” can you just explain what we mean by that?

JD: Yes. In Jesus’ day, there was no New Testament. Matthew wasn’t written yet, nor was Romans or Revelation. Jesus only had what we call the Old Testament, and it had the exact same books that our English Old Testaments do, but it was in a different order that started with Genesis and ended with Chronicles. As Luke 24, 44 points to, his Bible had three parts, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and a third division, the first major book of which is the Psalms, and it’s called the Writings. And so that was Jesus’ Bible. It’s the Old Testament that we love, and it pointed to him. It foretold of a king, a servant, an anointed conqueror who was nothing less than God himself.

TK: And one of the arguments we’re making is that the people who read the Scriptures carefully, knew God, loved God, they saw these things ahead of time.

JD: That’s right, that in the very predictions of the coming Messiah, the saints of old, and they were a minority group, the actual believers in the Old Covenant community were very few. The Ruths and Hannahs, the Davids and Isaiahs were a small group in the larger sea of rebellious, unbelieving Old Covenant members who rejected the prophets, Jesus said. They didn’t want to listen. Indeed, they were unable to hear God’s point. But for those who were actually seeing the Christ and anticipating his time, they were celebrating the one God was revealing.

TK: That’s really good, and we talked about that one of our very early podcasts from 1 Peter 1, that these people who, the prophets who knew and loved God’s Word as they were writing these things, so the first passage we’re going to look at this morning today is from Isaiah. But Isaiah is searching other scriptures to find out more about these things, things that have been written even before he wrote.

JD: That’s right. Isaiah had a Bible that included Moses’ initial five books. The progress of revelation, special revelation was not given all at once. It’s been given, it was given over a time. Yet now today we have, we have received the faith that was given once for all to the saints. It’s been captured in the Old and New Testaments. But Isaiah came in a period when the Old Testament was still in the process of being written. Yet Moses had spoken, and Isaiah was able to build on Moses. He was able to build on David in the Psalms. And when we read the Book of Isaiah, we see hints of this fact that he is grounded in the earlier predictions of the coming Messiah, the earlier portrayals of his substitutionary work, his triumph through tribulation. Moses already foresaw this. David already foresaw this. And prophets like Isaiah are building on what he had already seen in his Bible and displaying in even greater ways for us the suffering and ultimate sovereignty of the Christ.

TK: All right. I love it. Let’s dive in, Jason. So what’s the first scripture you would use in this look at the Old Testament portrayal of the coming King as God?

JD: Well, I have a set of scriptures here that all focus on this coming anointed King as one who embodies or reflects Yahweh himself. He embodies Yahweh or reflects Yahweh. We see this, for example, in the passage that Matthew, in Matthew 1:22-23, cites at Jesus’ birth. Matthew says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name, Emmanuel, Emmanuel, which means God with us.’ “ And there Matthew is citing Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name, God with us. In the very encounter with this child king, as revealed to Mary, as revealed to Joseph, the very son that was in Mary’s womb was God with us. It’s bound up in one of his titles, Emmanuel. And it sets the reader up for seeing this intimate relationship between the foreseen child king and God himself. Built into one of his own titles, God with us, when we encounter this child son king, we’re encountering God incarnate, God in flesh. And the gospel writers go out of their way to clarify that this is indeed who Jesus was. The very word that was with God, the word that was God, that word, John tells us in 1.14, became flesh. He dwelt among us as a tabernacling God. Who he was and where he went, God was, and God was going. So Isaiah 7.14, we see this same child king anticipated two chapters later.

TK: Can I stop you one second? So we talked about Isaiah knowing things, like he’s in progressive revelation happening, but this name, he didn’t forget the name Emmanuel, did he? In Isaiah 7.14, it’s going to be carried on further beyond this passage, just that point, that he’s going to repeat it. So it’s not like a one time use and then it’s a lost thought to Isaiah.

JD: That’s right. In the very next chapter, he’s going to portray a future period of darkness and a future enemy through the portrait of a new Assyria. And the child who will come in that day, the royal figure who will overcome that darkness, he calls Emmanuel. Again, God with us. And then it’s that figure, that Emmanuel figure, who at the beginning of chapter 9, we’re told is like light entering into the world. I’m turning there right now. It says, there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he, that is Yahweh, has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. That’s the very passage that in Matthew 4:15-16, the Gospel writer uses to mark the initiation of Jesus’ ministry in northern Galilee. In the very place that the Assyrians first overcame Israel in 723, in the very days of Isaiah, entering in from the north and taking over Zebulun and Naphtali. Into that very context is where Jesus began his ministry. The first place that encountered darkness, the darkness of judgment, is the very place where the light is dawning. And the light is dawning through this child king, whose name in chapter 8 and in chapter 7 is Immanuel.

TK: It’s Emmanuel. All right, moving forward.

JD: Yeah, we move forward, and it’s referring to the same person, this child that would be born to the virgin is now picked up again in chapter 9. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name will be called by four titles. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Wonderful Counselor points to his built into his very existence is the fact that he will oversee all things well. He is guiding purposefully all things in a wonderful way, in a miraculous way. This term for wonderful is the same term that God spoke to Abraham with respect to Sarah having a baby at age 90, that she could actually bear a child. And God said, is anything too wonderful for God? Is anything too miraculous for him to accomplish? The child king will be a wonderful counselor as he oversee and guides all reality. But not only this, to him is the very title that in chapter 10 is given to Yahweh himself. He is mighty God, the mighty God. It’s awesome that this child king is identified in chapter 10:21 that there’s this association. Yahweh is the mighty God. This child king is the mighty God. The coming king embodies Yahweh himself. He’s also the everlasting father. Yahweh is called the father in Isaiah 63:16. But here in Isaiah 9, the everlasting father, the one who has always been, I think of John the Baptist saying, the one who comes after me is before me in rank because he was before me. So he’s talking about Christ whose sandal John the Baptist is not even worthy to take off. John the Baptist is noting that Christ has priority of rank over me because temporally he was before me. Indeed, he is the everlasting one. The very Son of God is the embodiment of the Father himself. We encounter the Father through the Son, and so the Son can even be declared the everlasting Father.

TK: So Jesus’ words, when you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.

JD: That’s right.

TK: Fits right here.

JD: he bears exact identity. If God is going to have a Son, if God the Father is going to bear the Son, that Son will be in the Father’s likeness. And if the Father is God, then the Son is God, and he looks like his dad. Not only that, this One who’s coming is the Prince of Peace. We have this royal language matched by what he will bring to all who are in him, and he will do it on a cosmic scale. He will restore right order and establish peace. Of the increase of his government and of his peace, there will be no end, and he is the One who will be on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. So at the Incarnation, at Christmas, all of reality changes from that point forward. He is on the throne of David from that time forth and forevermore. This is the child king whose very name is Mighty God. I just love Isaiah when he’s envisioning the coming hope of the world. He indicates that the Anointed One, the Anointed Conqueror, the Servant, the Royal Servant, is none other than God himself come as a man.

TK: Jason, what would you say to somebody who might say Isaiah is taking things to a spot never intended and he’s coming up with something new, almost inventing this as he goes? What would your response to that be?

JD: To speak in that way is to deny the claims of Scripture itself. Jesus himself viewed the Bible as authoritative, as pointing to him as something that cannot be broken. Isaiah’s words are truth. They’re part of Scripture. And the New Testament authors affirm Isaiah’s portrait of Christ. And they indicate that the one we know of as Jesus of Nazareth was none other than the child king, Isaiah himself was foretelling. So to deny Isaiah would also require that we deny Christ and the apostles their rightful claim to the authenticity of Isaiah.

TK: Right, right.

JD: Isaiah is speaking the very Word of God, and I believe we need to recognize that he’s right in all that he is affirming. Would you add anything, Tom?

TK: I would have said all of that, that thinking that we can’t pick, that Scripture affirms Scripture, and it takes it as a whole, so it doesn’t allow us to say, well, I will affirm the words of this prophet, but not this prophet. But it would require throwing out the words of Jesus and the apostles. And Isaiah is also, he has been searching carefully, and we’re going to see he’s been building on things he’s already been seeing.

JD:  That’s right. That’s right. He sees it in the Psalms. He sees it throughout the Pentateuch. He sees it in books like Samuel, as we’re going to see. The anticipation of this royal figure who will certainly be human in the line of David and yet sit on the very throne of Yahweh.

TK: Jason, let’s look at one more from Isaiah.

JD: Isaiah 11:2. This very figure that we’re told would sit on the throne of David. This very one is then described at the beginning of chapter 11, “there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.” So he is an offspring of Jesse, who was David’s father, the first David. So he will be an overflow of David. This is fulfillment of the Davidic promise. He shall come like a shoot, beginning a new garden, as it were, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. But then it describes him, the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. What this means is that the very spirit of God, the very presence of God, would rest on him as if he were a temple, such that wherever this child king goes, God is. And that’s exactly in John chapter 1, the language that the word who becomes flesh tabernacles dwells among us, like the very presence of God in our midst. And then later in that chapter, Jesus says, destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up. And John tells us he was speaking about the temple of his body. Jesus was God’s movable temple. He was replacing the temple on earth and the destruction of that temple in 70 AD shows us that. It proves that a massive change has come in the story of redemption, such that the temple is no longer localized in a building, in a single place on the planet, but has now gone global. By the Spirit presence of Christ, he was the temple and then in his ascension, he was able to disperse his Spirit upon his body. He is church such that we become the temple. And wherever we are located, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, now the presence of God is being realized. And missions is happening, because a passage like Isaiah 11:2 is true. The very spirit of God rested upon Christ as if he were the very temple presence of God.

TK: It goes straight back to that thought of the increase of his government. There will be no end. That thought of he does not have a limited sphere, just what you’re talking about, because his spirit goes with his people everywhere.

JD: That’s right. That is right.

TK: All authority, Matthew 28, all authority in heaven on Earth has been given to him.

JD: Amen. And that passage right there, Matthew 28, is actually an allusion back to our next passage, which is Daniel chapter 7:13-14, where Daniel sees, he says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. Right after, we’re told that the fourth kingdom, this beastly kingdom, unlike a worse beast than any other, this ultimate depiction of all that is against God and his ways, after that kingdom is overcome, this son of man is brought before one called the Ancient of Days, presented before him, and given, we’re told, dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. In chapter 2, this kingdom that will be like a small stone taken from a heavenly mountain and will destroy the kingdoms of earth and then fill all in all like a giant mountain. Back in chapter 2, this kingdom is the kingdom of God. But now in chapter 7, it is the kingdom of the son of man. Somehow the son of man is able to bear all authority and receive all glory in a way that is not idolatrous, in a way that takes nothing away from Yahweh as the Ancient of Days. And the only way that can be is that there is a high level of identity between the son of man and Yahweh himself. Yahweh can bestow all authority on the son of man because in doing so, he is taking away no glory from himself. The son of man is God, and he is representing God, reflecting God. He embodies God himself, and in his reign and in his rule, he is displaying the glory of God. His kingdom is God’s kingdom. And that is something to celebrate and to stand in awe of. And Daniel himself foresaw such a reality.

TK: Going back to that thought about missions and all the earth, it says right here, dominion and glory and the kingdom, that all people’s nations and languages should serve him. The thought of this is not a, for instance, somebody might say a Jewish faith, a Western faith, a whatever faith you’d say, is no, the dominion of this one who is God himself is everything.

JD: And that’s where the entire Old Testament is pointing. It’s not pointing to a single people. It’s pointing to a global curse being overcome by a global king. Jesus as a Jewish Messiah whose mission was to bring blessings to all nations and to do so as the ultimate God-man.

TK: Jason, we started and we mentioned that in Jesus’ Bible, this was clear that the coming king is God. So we looked at Isaiah, and that’s in the section called The Prophets. Daniel’s in the writings. Our next one’s also in the writings as well. So we’re seeing that this is a theme in not just random places, in the Old Testament, but whole sections of the Old Testament.

JD: That’s right. There’s a unified profession, a unified anticipation of who this coming king was. Psalm 45 is really a resting passage. It on the surface looks as though it’s celebrating an earthly king of Jerusalem’s wedding. And yet what we read about this earthly king is far beyond any of the earthly kings of the Old Testament period. In Psalm 45:6, we read, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. And what’s amazing then, right after saying that, it says, Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you. So the psalmist is speaking to one who’s seated on the throne and who has been anointed by God himself. And yet the one seated on the throne, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. He calls him God. He calls the one seated on the throne whose God is Yahweh, he calls the one seated on the throne God himself. That’s just astounding. And just to confirm that we’re reading this passage rightly, the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 1:8, says, But of the Son, that is Jesus, but of the Son, God says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. It cites Psalm 45:6, and directly applies it to this eschatological Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Psalm 45 is celebrating an earthly king who rules on God’s earthly throne under submission to Yahweh himself, who is himself God.

TK: And this for us is just a joy. We’ll talk about this more later, but reading a psalm like this, I don’t have to wonder, oh, is this a celebration of Solomon, for instance? Something like that. I can say, this is my Lord, my King, a celebration. And I find then that this story is directly, this Psalm is directly applying to me and my life, the Church. Also, something I love here is we, so we read about it in my Bible there exactly across from each other, but it says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And then the very next chapter, so the columns in my Bible are right next to each other, is a celebration of God. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And so we could say, well, that’s not talking about the Messiah, but I’ve just been given permission in chapter 45 to read it this way, that the arrangement of the Psalter is saying you should be seeing him as your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

JD: That’s exactly right. And when in Psalm 46 we read that the nations are raging and the kingdoms totter, that this God utters his voice and the earth melts, we should be recalling Psalm 2, where it is Yahweh and his anointed, and it is the nations who are standing against Yahweh and his anointed, and it is the anointed one, the anointed king, who is the agent that brings all the nations underneath his authority. And so, yes, you’re right, that the Psalmist, the structure of the Psalter, is inviting us to recognize that the very God in whom we find refuge is the Messiah himself. The Old Testament saints already had a vision of what we now, in an even more mature way, understand as the Trinity. The triumphant Son of God from Psalm 2 is the one who takes a bride in Psalm 45 and in whom we find refuge in Psalm 46.

TK: I love the end of 46:11. It says, The Lord of hosts, and it’s like the language of Isaiah, is with us. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

JD: I love it. Now, there’s another set of texts I want to draw attention to, and we’ll get through these last two sections I anticipate quicker. The coming anointed king himself is God’s son. And we’ve already referred to this. Tom, why don’t you pick up and just reflect on the Old Testament text, and then how the New Testament text builds on it.

TK: Well, what we have written down here is Psalm 2, and Jason just referred to it, Psalm 2:7. We started in Psalm 2. It says, Why do the nations rage, the peoples plot in vain, the kings of the earth set themselves rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And then we read in verse 7, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten of you. Ask of me, I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession. This passage is reflecting on the promises to David in 2 Samuel 7. It spills over, all over the New Testament. See it in Acts 4, but I think a good place to go, Jason, would be Acts 13. So Paul’s words in Acts 13. I don’t know if you can hear this. My Bible, when I turn the pages in this Bible, it makes a lot of noise because I fell in the snow and the pages are so crinkly because it fell with it open. So this is Paul talking. He says in verse 32, We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. This promise here that he is God’s son shows that he is not identical to God the Father, and yet the language used of him is language used of deity at the same time. It’s used in different ways all over, but one of the things it means is as son, he has the rights of the firstborn son, which is his inheritance is the entire, everything that’s been created, everything. So as Son, Jesus, who is God with us, possesses and holds everything. He also as God’s Son takes the mantle that Adam could not bear. So Adam was called God’s son. Adam could not bear that title. Mortal man fell. And Israel was called God’s firstborn son. Israel could not bear that title. So we’re wondering as scripture builds, “will there ever be a son of God who will fulfill God’s mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth? And what we see here is Jesus is that one. He is the one who has been designated as this is my Son. And so Psalm 2 is reflected in Jesus’ baptism. It’s reflected at the transfiguration. What else would you add about him as Son, Jason? Obviously, there’s way more we could say.

JD: Well, all I would want to stress right now is, is there is a clear identity. You were right to point to Genesis chapter 5, where it says God made man in his likeness, and then Adam produced a son in his likeness. And so we’re supposed to see that as Seth is to Adam, so Adam is to God. And it’s not strange then that Luke in Luke chapter 3 takes the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Seth the son of Adam, Adam the son of God. And Jesus is the greater son. The last Adam, and you’re right, he does what the first Adam failed to do. And in doing so, he claims the cosmos. Whereas Adam was supposed to rule and subdue and have dominion on a global scale, he failed. Satan became the ruler of this world. And what Christ does is enable, he reclaims, he overcomes the strong man. And he is in the process of retaking, reclaiming what Adam and Eve let go in the garden. And in that future day, as it says in Revelation, the kingdoms of our Lord will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. That’s where we’re headed. And it is extremely hopeful. The last section that we’ll cover today is the coming anointed king will sit on Yahweh’s throne. I have a whole series of texts that point in this direction, but they’re just amazing. And so many interpreters don’t even account for it as you read their commentaries or read the study notes and study Bibles. But it seems to me so apparent, growing out of 1 Samuel 2:10 and 35, we have Hannah, the prophetess, who looks ahead and notes the great reversals that God will bring in history. He will elevate the poor and put down the rich. He will elevate the weak and put down the strong. Those who claim to be high like Goliaths or Saul’s or even David’s oldest brother, Eliab, those are the three people in all of scripture whose height is mentioned. And all of them stand as a foil to David, who himself is a foreshadow of the coming Messiah. All those who are high, God will put down. And in this book, what it stresses in 1 Samuel, as I’m sure Brian Verrett and his podcast is going to unpack for us, that what Hannah was envisioning is that the one whom God would use to reverse, do the great reversals of history, was none other than his anointed, that is Messianic, king. This is what we read. The adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. How? How will he do it? he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his Messiah, his anointed one. Now, what’s most striking to me is that later in that chapter, the man of God comes to Eli, who is the high priest. He and his sons have been doing wickedness. They were supposed to be going in and out before Yahweh’s throne in the presence of God unto forever. And yet, God declares judgment on the priestly house, and then he declares that he’s going to raise up a new priest. And I translate the text this way, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my soul. And I will build him a sure house.” And then the ESV and NIV say, he, that is the priest, will go in and out before my anointed forever. But that pronoun, the most nearest referent is the sure house. That the house that God will build for his priest will go in and out before the priest, who is God’s anointed figure, who is the king mentioned in verse 10. That there is a sure house, a sure kingdom, a sure people, that are associated with a promised new priest, who is none other than the anointed king, whom God foretells through Hannah’s prophecy. That there is an anointed king, an anointed priest, who are one in the same. And this anointed king and priest will have a sure house. Zechariah builds on this prophecy in Zechariah chapter 6, when God declares, thus says Yahweh of hosts, Behold, the man whose name is the branch. That’s a title for the Messiah. And it’s associated with a new creation, with he’s the one who’s going to ignite the new Eden that we already saw mentioned in Isaiah chapter 11. The man who is the branch, he shall branch out from this place, and that Messiah figure will build the temple of Yahweh. Now the temple is none other than God’s palace. It’s the exact same word in Hebrew. It’s the location where he reigns on earth. And a new temple, a new palace for Yahweh is going to be built by this Messianic figure. It is he who shall build the palace or temple of Yahweh, and it is he who shall bear royal honor. So now this new creational branch, whose messianic figure is himself going to be a king, and he shall sit and rule on his throne, that is, on Yahweh’s throne. In the very palace of Yahweh, the anointed branch figure, who is a royal figure, will sit on the very throne of God, and there will be a priest on his throne. So the royal figure is now called a priest, who is going to be sitting on the very throne of God, identifying with God. Or as it’s going to say in Psalm 110, he’s going to sit at the very right hand of Yahweh himself, on the very throne of God, this priest and king. Zechariah envisions that there will be this priest on God’s throne, who is also a royal figure, bearing royal honor, and the council of peace will be between him and God himself. That’s just astounding, that on the very throne of God sits a figure, a human figure who bears God’s throne, who bears royal honor, who is a priest, and who sits on the very throne of God. It’s just amazing.

TK: It makes me think of people like Simeon when Jesus’ parents Joseph and Mary bring him to the temple, and he is so excited, or Anna, because these are texts that he would have been soaking in, and he’s feeling like, seeing him, he is seeing way more than a baby. He is seeing the entire future of God’s people right there.

JD: That’s exactly right. Malachi, at the very end of the Old Testament, after Zechariah, he just sets the stage for what you’re exactly talking about. He says, Behold, this is Yahweh talking through Malachi, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. That’s amazing. We’re talking about John the Baptist preparing the way before me. That’s God talking. John the Baptist will prepare the way before Yahweh comes. But then he says this, And the Lord whom you seek, that is the Lord, the sovereign one, whom you seek. That’s people like Zechariah, Simeon, Hannah, who were seeking the Messiah. The very Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. His temple. And the messenger of the covenant, that’s a messianic image, in whom you delight, behold, he’s coming, sends Yahweh of hosts. Behold, who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? The day of the Lord is being equated with the day of the messenger of the covenant, the day of the Messiah, who will come to his temple. Is that Yahweh’s temple? Or Yahweh’s palace? Or is it his palace? And it seems to be one and the same. Because, as Zechariah said, this very figure is going to sit on the throne of God. It’s so clear, as I said in Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And Jesus cites that passage in Matthew 22, saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And the Pharisees respond to him, well, he’s the son of David. And Jesus says, how is it then that David, the author of Psalm 110, in the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. If then David calls him Lord, how is he David’s son? And from that point on, no one was able to answer Jesus a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. The very one seated on the throne is David’s Lord, and he’s seated on the very throne of Yahweh himself. And he’s the priest king that was anticipated in Samuel, and that was reinforced by Zechariah and by Malachi.

TK: I think the statement the Lord says to my Lord is really stunning. David wrote this, and what it means is David had a king in mind who was over him. Obviously that leads to whole questions about the writing of the content of the book of Psalms, which we’ll get to, but this thought of David living his life with an understanding that there is a king over me and knowing who this king is, that this king actually is God himself.

JD: Yeah, it’s beautiful. This really brings to end my discussion for the day. I think it is clear, so clear, that the Old Testament saints envisioned God as a man. And this supports the view that the seedbed for our doctrine of the Trinity is well grounded already in the hopes and anticipations of the Old Testament saints.

TK: Jason, would you say people like, you see this statement appearing, that so-and-so was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem or the consolation of Jerusalem or the redemption of Israel. Joseph of Arimathea, for instance, that is said of him. Would you say that statement includes the idea of, if they’re waiting expectantly, they have a whole theology of what it looks like as far as passages like this?

JD: I think that’s exactly right. They have a developed theology. And again, this is just the remnant. This is a small group. But that remnant group searched and inquired carefully and knew something about the suffering of the Messiah, the time of his coming, and the glories that would follow.

TK: Amen. May God help us honor our King as he deserves.

JD: Amen. Thanks, Tom.

TK: All right. Talk to you next time.

JY: Thanks for joining us for GearTalk. If you have any questions about Biblical Theology you’d like us to address on future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Also, check out handstotheplow.org for resources designed to help you understand the Bible and its teachings.