BibleProject - David, the Leaping Priest-King – Priest E4

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

What will God do with the continually failing Levitical priesthood? God announces that he will elect his own faithful priest from a household that can be counted on. In this episode, join Tim and Jon as they follow the royal priesthood all the way to David, anointed priest-king of Jerusalem, fulfillment of Melchizedek’s role, and foreshadowing of the coming priest-king Jesus.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (0:00–14:30)Part two (14:30–28:00)Part three (28:00–36:30)Part four (36:30–47:00)Part five (47:00–end)Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Canary Forest” by Middle School, Aso, and AviinoShow produced by Dan Gummel. Show notes by Lindsey Ponder.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

This is John Collins at Bible Project. We are in the middle of a conversation examining the role of priests in the Bible. Now, if you're just joining us, I'd recommend that you stop this episode and just go back and listen from the beginning episode one. But if you're like, hey, no, I could hang. Great. Thanks for joining us. Here's a quick overview. In episode one, we looked at how the first priests in the Bible are Adam and Eve in the cosmic temple. They're not explicitly called priests, but the entire narrative paints them in that role, showing us that the call of humanity is to be God's priests in creation. The second episode looks at the first character explicitly called a priest, a man named Melchizedek. He's both a priest and a

king of Shalem, the city that will eventually become Jerusalem. The third episode were introduced to Aaron, the first priest of Israel, and the beginning of Israel's priestly line. And now you might expect the narratives about the origin of Israel's priesthood to paint this rosy picture, but instead what we get is a bumpy ride, ending with Aaron's two sons losing their own lives

because they misused the role of the priesthood. Today, we jump forward in the story. Israel's now in their own land. It's been ruled by tribal judges and the priestly line has continued. So you walk into the book of Samuel and you're immediately introduced to a priest from the line of Aaron.

Yes, it's first Samuel one and two, Eli. And he's got two sons who actually like run the sacrificial system And there's a whole narrative dedicated to how Eli is really this neglectful absent-minded leader His sons are stealing sacrificial offering to the people God has had it with Israel's priests and so he tells Eli that he's gonna do something different He's gonna create a new line of priests. We're gonna do a priest from a different line. I'm gonna raise up a new Facebook priest with a new family.

I'm gonna build for him a faithful house, household, new priest and a new family. And with this new line of priests comes a new wrinkle in the role. The person who is gonna be priest will also serve as the anointed one. That future coming one here in First Samuel II is called both a priest and my anointed one. Anointed one's the word Messiah, my Messiah. And then the first person who really fits the bill

of this promise is David. So today on the episode, we will look at King David and a new vision for Israel's priesthood. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Well we are making a theme video on priests in the Bible, the theme of priests in the Bible, the role in the office of the priest in the story line in the Bible, the theme of priests in the Bible, the role and the office of the priest in the story line of the Bible. It's been really great.

I've been really enjoying it. We started where we usually do in Genesis 1 to 3. We talked about how humanity as a whole is described as the image of God. We talked about that many times. The kind of layer of emphasis I wanted to really focus on that's important for understanding the role of priests in the Bible is that the word image is one of the common words described. It all statues that would get placed in temples. And so the concept is that humanity is this human embodiment of the divine glory and presence in the sacred space, which in the story of the Bible is going to be precisely what priests are and do in the

Tabernacle and Temple. They are the human image of God walking and talking around as they go around the temple. So that's where we started. Adam and Eve in the garden. First priests. The first priests in the sacred High Mountain Garden. And they aren't mediating God to anyone else because there's the only ones around. Totally.

Yeah. At least they're the only ones in the garden. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But you would imagine as they multiply and then everyone would have this to be a human in the garden is to be the image of God in a temple of sorts. Yep, that's right. So they forfeit that opportunity through folly,

misdirected desire. And so they are exiled from that heaven on earth space. They walk past the guardians of sacred space, which are these hybrid, hybrid form animal creatures that represent the creatures of the skies and the land, because they're land creatures, but they have wings. So they represent heaven and earth together. Out they go and the blessing and life and divine presence of Eden is now inaccessible,

unless God were to make it accessible. And so what we're looking for are moments and figures who bring the blessings of the Eden, heaven, honor, space out to others, or people who open up the way back into the Eden Heaven on our space even if it's just for a glimpse or for a moment a little bit and that starts to create the category of oh we talked about the Hebrew word yet we haven't talked about the Hebrew word for praise no it's the word cohen it's actually a very common Jewish family name. It's spelled with a C mostly in English. A common nowadays. For Cohen.

Oh, Cohen. Cohen, C-O-H-E-N. Cohen brothers, make movies. Oh. It's the Hebrew word priest. If your last name is Cohen, it's the word priest. So priests are these figures who then stand as human gateway figures between the life of heaven and and earthly realm. So that brought us to Abraham, because God selected him and his family

to be a gateway back into the Eden's blessing. A route back in. Yeah, a little how, but that's what God says. I'm gonna do with you and your family. And then we follow Abraham and we looked at two stories connected this theme of being a priest. One is that Abraham meets this. The first priest in the Bible.

First character in the Bible called the two as a priest. There you go. Thank you. But Kizadak. And there's a priest Anakin from like a proto-Juslim. And he kind of brings this Eden blessing to Abraham out of the Holy Mountain, which is a cool image. And then we have a story after that of Abraham

going to a mountain that is later associated with the Jerusalem as well to make a sacrifice to kind of a tone for his blowing it. Yeah. And eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad on his own terms instead of trusting God and God meets him there and actually provides a tone for Abraham so that he doesn't have to make that sacrifice. That's right. And then the narrator speaks up, pauses the story and starts talking to you, the reader,

and saying, it is a realite reader. Hey, dear reader, this is why we say Jerusalem, that what God did for Abram is what God is doing for us in the sacrificial system of the temple today. Yes, that sacrifice Abraham did on the mountain. Yeah. That God provided. That is why we're still doing this today. That's right. In other words, the biblical authors are saying they experience the sacrificial system as a gracious gift that God provided for them to get a taste of divine forgiveness, which is the way back into Eden. We'll have to involve forgiveness for human failure.

It's part of the Eden blessing now, it's forgiveness. Yeah. Yeah. Then we fast forward. Abraham has a few generations of kids. That's the book of Genesis. We get to the book of Exodus. This family has grown and now they're in Egypt and our slaves in Egypt. And we're introduced to Moses, a really important character in the He is called by God to be God's like man to rescue Israel To be a priest of sorts to be the one that mediates the people to God and

To mediate what God wants to Pharaoh which would be more of a prophet I guess on the overlap of those two roles as their representative Yeah, but the prophet is more about communicating between the divine and human. Okay. The message. Communicating the divine. So it's kind of being called to be a prophet at this point. And Moses doesn't want to do it. And he keeps saying, five times, he's like,

says, I don't want to do it. And God is the first time God gets angry in the Bible. It's angry at Moses and then says, well then, I have a concession. Why don't we have your brother Aaron do it with you. You don't have to say anything. Aaron will speak on your behalf. And in the story, the detail is that it's Aaron who is a Levite. Yeah. And that detail is important because what we've just set up is we've created a model of what a priest is. Yes.

That Moses needs an intercessor to help him to fulfill what God wants him to do. Aaron will stand in the middle and mediate. That's right. And as a result of Moses' unbelief and stubbornness. Yeah. So the Moses and Aaron duo go to Pharaoh immediately. We've got glimpses that this whole idea of a priestly mediator from the Levi family, there's something not quite perfect about it. The moment Aaron steps into the narrative,

things start going wrong, not the way that they're supposed to be going. But they do get out of Egypt. They do. And they're in the wilderness, they go back to the mountain where God first commissioned Moses on this task. And on this mountain now, God wants to make all of Israel a kingdom of priests, so that they will all be mediators for the nations to the divine who God is. Awesome. Yeah. A Kingdom of priests. And so Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God. I mean, he goes up and down the mountain a lot so I get confused. Yeah. No, it's it's hard to follow seven times

He goes up and down. Yeah, but at one point he goes up for 40 days. Mm-hmm. The seventh. Seven the seventh time. The seventh time he goes up. And he waits for six days and on the seventh day. The seventh time is on the seventh day. He goes up into the clouds. He goes up into the heavens.

Yeah. And to the sky where God's power has been manifest and he's up there for 40 days. And when he's up there, he's given the blueprints for the Tabernacle, kind of recreating Eden in the Sacramento way. And he's given basically the costume design for the priests, where the ones that get to go in the Tabernacle comes back down. We just have that beautiful image of the shimmering, shining human one.

Yeah, because these is like, it's white linen. They wear white linen and all these gems and gold. And this beautiful crown. We didn't talk about that. No, I realized just now we didn't talk about the crown. It's called the nezor. The nezor. The crown.

It's this beautiful turban. Turban, they call it, it's something called things. Part of it's a cloth, turban crown, but then there's this gold, big plaque on it that says a holy one or a whole set apart for Yahweh, a holy Yahweh. But the crown's in port, it's called the nether. Actually, this will be important for some things.

We'll talk about that. So he's a priest, but he wears the regalia of a king. Got that beautiful image. Moses comes down. We, and here's Aaron now, are priest. Yes. And instead of waiting it out, he gets anxious, and he facilitates all the Israel

putting their gold together, and they make a gold calf. That's right. To represent Yahweh, which was the very first command they were given not to do. Yeah, totally. And the sad, the tragic irony is that while Moses is getting a vision of this image of God, human role instead of clothes, the Aaron is supposed to wear. Aaron had the chance, and he did get to, but he had the chance to do it without blowing it, of wearing this outfit that would make him look like Adam and Eve 2.0. And what he is doing is giving his allegiance to an image and giving Israel...

Instead of being the image. Yeah, instead of being the image of God, they end up worshiping the image of an animal. And it's this inversion of Genesis 1. Man, that kind of reminds you of Romans 1. Totally. Yeah, that's for sure what Paul is thinking about. Wow. The story in Romans 1, yeah. So this is all connected to the question, how does humanity get back into the sacred space to be connected with God and his eternal life

partnered with him to rule creation? And this is a glimpse of a way back in this mediation between by a priest, but it's just not going well at all. The one real surprising thing though is that Moses goes back up to the seed for his brother. To intercede for Aaron. And all the people. So kind of does a priestly kind of move. even though he's the one that forfeited being the priestess Aaron in the first place. Totally. And then it goes so well that he begins to glow and shine and embody what it is to be the image of God.

That's right. In this priestly way, so much so that he has to put like a veil in front of his face. Yeah, Moses is up in the heavens offering his life for the sins of his brother and of all people. And as he does that, he begins to take on the divine glory, shining his skin, shining. It's not as close that shine like Aaron the High Priest would. He starts to shine. And you're like, dude, that's an image of God who will lay down his life for the sins of the many. Yeah.

That's Isaiah 53 figure right there. But then Moses' story goes on after that high point. And he had some successes and failures and then one big failure later on the book of numbers. So now you want to take us fast forward to a whole new era of Israel with King David. That's right. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% So, coming out of the Garden of Eden, you know, the promise of the seed of a woman who will crush the head of the snake, we're looking for an image of God who will open the

way back up to Eden. It's going to be someone like Melchizedek and like Abraham was in that story. It'll be someone like Moses at that moment of offering his life, but it's not going to be actual Moses. So you keep forward reading looking. Just as a quick tour, priests come up just now and then in the stories we leave the Pentateuch and Moses Naren. So the priests and the tabernacle are cruising around with Joshua as they take possession of the land. They don't play a huge role. There's a couple of moments that we don't have time to look at. As you get into the book of Judges, it's another really negative critical portrayal of the priests.

The only priests that get portrayed, especially near the end of the book, are really corrupt money-hungry priests or sexually abusive priests. It's those really stomach-turning stories at the end of Judges. Those all have priests from the line of Levi and Aaron at the center of them. Yeah, so it's sad. The whole point is once again, negative score for the Levite priesthood in the Hebrew Bible. Yeah, it's not good PR for totally. Yeah, the Hebrew Bible is bad PR for the priestly world of Levite. So you walk into the book of Samuel and you're immediately introduced to a priest from the line of Aaron who's sitting on a throne. It's usually translated chair, but he wrote a thread. Yes, it's for Samuel 1 and 2, Eli. And he's got two sons who actually

like run the sacrificial system. And there's a whole narrative dedicated for Samuel 1 and 2 to how Eli is really this neglectful absent-minded leader. His sons are stealing sacrificial offerings from the people. There's these priestess women who watch over who comes in and out of the tabernacle, and Eli's sons are having sex with these women, in and around the temple. I mean, it's just it's bad stuff from the narrator's point of view. And Eli, he hears about it and gives the sons a little talking to, but he doesn't like stop them at all. So in for Samuel 2, we're introduced to just this figure called A Man of God, a Prophet comes with a message for Eli.

And this message is crucially important. Anticipates the whole drama that's to follow in the rest of the books of first and second Samuel. So this of 1st and 2nd Samuel. So this is in 1st Samuel 2, verse 27. A man of God came to Eli and said to him, This is what Yahweh says. Didn't I clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when you were in Egypt under Pharaoh? I chose him, your father, out of all the tribes of Israel to be a priest to me, to go up to my errand.

Alter, what's that? Is he talking about errand? Yeah, it's an interesting thing. The line of, yeah, the priesthood through the line of errand, I chose him to burn incense, to wear an effod. That's one of those shining garments in my presence. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings of the sons of Israel.

So the whole point is, listen, I gave you guys an honored spot from the beginning. Why do you scorn my sacrifices and offerings? Why, Eli, do you honor your sons more than you honor me fattening yourselves on the choice parts of the offerings of the people? This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says. In the past, I said that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever.

So God's recognizing here that, and this is some passage as we didn't have time to look at, but in the book of Numbers, there's a story about a priest named Thinius, who is zealous and faithful to God. And God says, I reward the priesthood of your line with an eternal priesthood. You're gonna be in my priest forever. And so look at what God says right here. He said, in the past, I said that the line of Aaron and the priesthood, through Levi,

would walk before me forever. But now, Yahweh says, no, that's not gonna be the case anymore. Literally in Ayr English translation, God says, far be it for me to do that thing that I thought I was going to do. And then look at this little line here, this is in verse 30 of 1 Samuel 2, those who honor me, I will honor, those who despise me, I will treat as cursed. That sounds familiar? Yeah, Joseph 12.

Exactly. We're reiterating that here. So what he said to Abram is those who bless you will be blessed. Those who treat you as cursed, I will curse. But what if you have people from that family who... It's not about whether or not they curse their own family. It's whether or not they honor or despise the God of Abraham.

And that's what God's saying about the priesthood of Israel right now. You're supposed to honor me, but in fact, you're treating me with contempt. So God says, look, the days are coming when I'm going to hack off your arm. Jesus. And the arm of the house of your father

and none in your house will reach old age. I am going to raise up for myself a faithful priest. Hmm. Hmm. That's cool. What does a faithful priest do? Well, he will do what is in my heart and in my soul, my nephage. God's nephage? Yes. Interesting.

Yeah, and what the heck does that mean? Well, it's the same idiom. I mean, God is depicted as... He's anthropomorphized a lot. Exactly. Yeah. So God's inner being. Yeah.

The priesthood of Levi and Aaron represents a priesthood that's just like any other corrupt human institution. But God is on a mission to raise up a priest who, what that priest just does is what that priest wants. Is what God wants. Is what God wants. Yeah, that's the idea. Yeah. This priest will, his marriage with God's will. The law will be written on his heart. That's right. Here's also what God says. That faithful priest, I am going to build for him a faithful house, a house that you can count on. It's house metaphorically here, it's like a family. A family, okay.

So not only a single. If you like the high priest at this point, he's like the main dude. Yes, he's the high priest. So you have a high priest and then his house is family. And God saying, I'm done with your family. Yep. Starting again.

We're gonna do a priest from a different line. Different family. I'm gonna raise up a new faithful priest with a new family. I'm going to build for him a faithful house. Yeah. Household. Yeah. New priest and a new family.

And it will walk. That is that faithful house will walk before my anointed one for all of the days. So up in verse 30, God said, you remember in the past, Eli, when I said, your house would walk before me forever, but you clearly didn't. And so I'm going, I'm canceling that promise.

And what I'm gonna do is raise up a faithful priest and a faithful house that will walk before me, walk before my anointed one forever. So God's going to raise up a priest. What's his anointed one referring to? Exactly. This is a kind of a famous little puzzle in this verse. Is the faithful priest the same as my anointed one? Right. It doesn't seem like it. Or is the faithful priest alongside my anointed one as a? So some people think what's being predicted here is the rise of a future priest who will serve alongside a king. It could also be that the faithful priest is the

anointed one, and so God's going to raise up an anointed priest, and also a faithful house that will be faithful to the vision of the faithful priest. Either way, what this promise does is it sets you on reading into the book to say, okay, well, I'm looking for a faithful priest and a faithful anointed one that is somebody that God is going to build a house for. Does this person ever get a name when the person that came to Eli? He's just the man of God.

Yeah, he's just like a nameless prophet. Totally. Yeah, there's a handful of these anonymous. It's a way to highlight their message who it was, didn't matter. What mattered was the message that they bore. So as you go on, so you're just now, you're on a hunt as a reader to look for this one.

The next figure who gets raised up is Samuel, and he's awesome. He's like sleeps in and around the temple. His mom makes room this beautiful little priestly robe. Every year that he gets bigger, he talks with God, you know. And you're like, oh, Samuel, he's awesome. Maybe he's the one. Turns out it's not Samuel. Samuel anoints Saul to because I'm the first king of Israel. Oh, maybe it's Saul. You read through his story, definitely not Saul.

But when Saul finally disqualifies himself in 1 Samuel 15, the next narrative God says to Samuel, hey, go to Bethlehem to this guy's house named Jesse. And among one of his sons is the one whom I will make my anointed one. Okay, so going all the way back to that first chapter in Samuel, or chapter two, the raising up

of a house, let's talk about David. I think the narrative is every line points that this is an anticipation of David. What's fascinating, that future coming one here in first Samuel two is called both a priest and my anointed one. Anointed one is the word Messiah, my Messiah. Messiah is a way of spelling English the Hebrew word underneath this, which is Mishia. And then the first person who really fits the bill of this promise is David. One of the sons of Jesse.

One of the sons of Jesse. So in first Samuel 16. The Scroneast of him. Totally. Yeah, it's an epic story, which we had time to read that. But it culminates in David being brought in from the field as the youngest son and Samuel takes out this horn, an animal horn hauled it out carrying oil and he pours it on David's head and it's the word Messiah as a verb. He anoints him, he messiahs him. And then right when the oil's pouring on him, he's empowered, we're told, the spirit of Yahweh

also came upon him. And we're starting to think like, wow, this guy. Wow, we're getting pretty excited. So the David narrative, oh man, so awesome. I've learned so much about the David story in the last year. We'll have to do something in some video somewhere. The next story, after he has anointed,

is he goes and confronts Goliath. And... The Nephilim. Totally. And he defeats Goliath by a head wound. He crushes the head. The story is so interested in Goliath's head. Hmm.

And how David... What David does... And then chops off his head. And he chops off the head. This is the snake crusher motif. Totally. For sure. With without a doubt.

Where is... Oh,her motif. Totally. For sure. Without a doubt. Where's it at home? I just, I'm recently read a great study of the serpent Genesis 315 motif in the book of Samuel, related to the David story. It's called The Serpent in Samuel by Brian Varrett. So good. It's like a theme study of snake design patterns, the Genesis 3 design pattern at work in the book of Samuel, pretty legit. And so David is set up as being the seed of the woman figure. We're like, great, let's see what happens with this guy.

The culmination of his story, because it reaches its high point, is in the book of second Samuel, chapters five through eight. And we don't have time to look at this whole section. But one of the key moments is when he takes the city of Jerusalem, he goes to Canaanite, it's called Yebus. It's that city where Melchizedek came from. And where he was the priest king, when Abraham met.

That was Shalam. It was called Shalam. Shalam. When the Canaanites came in full possession of it, after Melchizedek called it Yeam. Shalam. When the Canaanites came in full possession of it, after Mokizadev they called it Yebus. Okay. Yebus. And so David took possession of that city, and he makes it the capital of all the tribes. Because it's right on the boundary between Judah and the South and then the tribes in the North.

Yeah, protected in the hills. Totally. Then what he does is he decides to move the tabernacle and the arc. Up to it. Up to the highest point of the city. And that's the story we're going to read right here. Is the story where he dances? Uh, totally. Yeah, yeah. So since 2nd Samuel 6, verse 12, from following. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc And David went and they brought up the ark of God From the house of Obed Edom into the city

of David with gladness, this is really clunky translation. Oh, this is my translation. It's, no, it's super clunky English, but it's great Hebrew and English. Okay, so David went and they brought up the ark of God. From the house of Obed Edom into the city of David with gladness. And so it was when the bearers of the Ark of Yahweh had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.

Oh yeah, this is the like, this is the parade. The really slow parade. Totally. Every six paces they sacrificed. So stop, think about that. Every six, one, two, sacrifice. So stop, think about that. Every six, one, two, three, four, five, six sacrifice. One, two, three, four, five, six sacrifice.

This is a great example of the creative use of the number seven. Every seventh they stop and surrender and offering up to God. So good. And David was dancing before Yahweh with all his might. And David was wearing a linen, how did you pronounce it? I always say E-Fod. I always say E-Fod.

In Hebrew it's pronounced F-Od. F-Od. Yeah, F-Od. He was wearing a linen E-Fod. I'm gonna say E-Fod that's fine. That's fine, that's fine. Now okay, I'll do it right. No, no, say it the way you would say it.

Now David and all the House of Israel were bringing up the Ark of Yahweh with shouting in the sound of the trumpet. And it happened as the Ark of Yahweh came into the city of David that Michael, no McCall. Yeah, McCall. Yeah. The daughter of Saul looked out the window and she saw King David leaping and dancing before Yahweh and she despised him in her heart.

Yeah. And they brought in the Ark of Yahweh and they set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh and David finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering and he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of hosts. And he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, both to men and women, a cake of bread, and one of dates and one of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed each to his house, and David returned to bless his house.

Yeah. The story actually continues into the next scene, but this is the scene. This is the high point, where David declares that the high point in Jerusalem is now the new Eden spot. And so isn't it interesting that this story brings together a whole network of what by now in the Hebrew Bible, you know, where many books in, is all of these images that are design pattern motifs based on Genesis 1, 1 through 3. So they go up to the high place. The phrase arc of God and arc of Yahweh each appear seven times in this chapter. Yeah, yeah. They go every seven step they offer sacrifice. David is dressed like the high priest. He's dressed like a priest, yeah. The linen a-fod is

the garment of the priest. Yeah, when that Moses was told about next to this. Yeah, totally. Now, there's a group of people that are just called the carriers of the arch of Yahweh. Now, those are Levites. But they're not called Levites here. It's as if somebody doesn't want us to be distracted with the line of Levi right now. Yeah, there's something new happening. There's something new happening where the king of all of the tribes are coming together in unity to recreate Eden on the high place of Jerusalem. I create Eden on the high place of Jerusalem. And David takes up the role of Israel's priest and king in Jerusalem. And he's going for it.

I mean, he is leaping. Why is it just the tension that is just on the ark? Are they bringing the whole tabernacle up? Not just the... Yeah, you know, it says they set it inside the tent, which David pitched. So it's like already there. Yeah, David is they set it inside the tent, which David pitched. So it's like already there. Yeah, David is set up and prepared the tent. Yeah, this has to do with the role of the arc in Joshua,

specifically, and then in the book of Samuel, where it becomes kind of the icon of the whole thing, where it's this box that represents the whole tabernacle package. But yeah, but David's having a great time. He's having a great time. One of David's wives thinks he's making a fool of himself. And that's actually what, after you stopped reading,

then very next to him is. Oh, that's one of David's wives, I didn't know. There's the argument that he has, yeah. Which is a whole fascinating thing. But I'm just trying to focus on the happy stuff here. Yeah. So also, once they bring the arc of Yahweh and put it, install it on the high place,

he does what Noah did when he got off the arc. He does what Abraham did when he first got into the land and went up to a high place called Moriah. Oh, near the oaks of Moriah. Is he offers offerings? Then he blesses the people. Blessing. And then he gives them a feast.

Yes. And I love the detail here. Little cakes of bread, but then date cakes and raisins, sweet. Sweetness. This is all design pattern stuff of Eden, of abundant food, blessing, worship, humans with God, and one particular royal priest who's connecting the people to the blessings of Eden on the high place in Jerusalem, like Moses up there, like interceding, giving his life for the sins of the people, he starts glowing and that's his high point. This is David's high point right here. We're stoked, we're like maybe this guy is gonna. He's gonna bring us all back into God's presence,

and then the nation of Israel can bring all the nations. Totally, yeah. Let's get that kingdom of priests thing rolling here. And here's a king who is the priest. And in the story of Israel, this is the first person like this. No one's brought together these roles.

The only other person we've met like this was also a king priest in the same exact city. That's interesting. Oh, Melchizedek. Melchizedek, yes. In other words, David is adopting a Melchizedek like role. He's rejoining the office of priest and king. Yeah, he's doing the thing that generations before, before this was in Israelite city,

before there was an Israel, there was a man who was a priest king from this place who came Abraham and provided a feast and blessing. Yes, totally. He did exactly what David is doing here. Yeah. Yeah. It says if Melchizedek and who he was and what he did was like a script waiting to be played out here in the same city. Like a foreshadow. And David intentionally picks up the script and begins acting the Melchizedek role.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It is cool. So what does God think about David's behavior? There are some people who see David's behavior as inappropriate, because they assume that that division between King and Priest was like something God wanted. Does that bear the question, what does God think about David becoming the royal priest? And God's response to it is in the next chapter,

which is a watershed moment in the Hebrew Bible. Second Samuel 7. What Genesis 12 is, like Grand Central Station to the whole story, Second Samuel 7 is. Yes. Because that whole blessing of Abraham is now going to get channeled in to David and his seed. See. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc So, second sandwich seven is awesome and we don't have time to go into it in detail. I just have a little chart here on in the notes. If you just go through what God says to David in this chapter and you recall all of the times God spoke to Abraham, it's like what God says to David is the greatest hits of what he said to Abraham, but then with some even more awesome stuff added in. The remix. So this real quick, what God says to David, I'm going to make your name great. That's what he said to Abraham. I'm going to make a place for my people and plant them and they will dwell in their place. That's Eden book. I'm going to make your name great. That's what he said, Abraham. I'm gonna make a place for my people and plant them and they will dwell in their place.

That's Eden, book, everywhere. Yep, Eden. God planted Eden. But now the people are the garden. God's gonna plant people in the new Eden spot. The David just set up. There will be no more trouble and evil people won't oppress them anymore.

I'm going to give you rest from all your enemies. Remember what Melchizedek said to Abram? He said, blessed be Yahweh, God of Abram, who delivered your enemies into your hands. So part of God's blessing is to bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you to protect them. That's this.

This is key. Next promise. Yahweh is going to build a house for you, David. Do you remember the man of God's speech was, I'm going to raise up a faithful priest and a faithful house. Yeah. Here it is. David is our faithful king priest and now God is promising to build that house. So what is the house? It's not a building, it's seed descendants. I'm going to raise up your seed after you. One who will come from your loins and I will establish that seed's kingdom. That seed will build a house for my name. And I will establish the throne of that seed's kingdom forever. I will be a father to that seed

and that seed will be to me as a son. That's a good stuff, man. Yeah. It doesn't get much better than this. So, think, remember back the Father, Son, connection to the image of God? We talked about this few conversations ago. You have a son, your son is your image. Yeah, and Genesis 5, Seth, the Son of Adam

is called the image of Adam, the image and likeness of Adam. So, Father, Son language becomes another way of saying that someone is the image and likeness of Adam. So Father, Son language becomes another way of saying that someone is the image. So when God says this seed will be the Son, it's another way of saying this seed will be an image of God. Now if that seed does evil, then God's going to bring punishment on that one. With a human rod or the rod of humans, and with human strikes. So what this setting us up, this is always fun to do in a classroom setting because if you stop right before here, everyone in the room is like, oh Jesus, right? You can see it of David. Yeah. Wait, but if he does evil, right? God will

wait on that. That can't be Jesus. Yeah. So from the narrative perspective, this is setting us up for the whole story of the line of David that is to follow in the book of kings. And there's going to be almost 20 generations. And every one of them is going to strike out. And so that's what this whole primus is setting us up for. Because look at what God says. When someone over your line does evil,

then they're going to get what's coming to them. But God says, my loyal love will not be removed from the seed. Your house, faithful will be your house. Remember, that was the promise. I'll build you a faithful house. And your kingdom will remain forever before me. Your throne will be firm forever.

So any generation of David's seed can either rise up to the occasion and fill the role that God has destined for the seed of David, or they can disqualify themselves, in which case they'll get what's coming to them, and the promise will pass on as an opportunity for the next generation. That's the logic here. Is it also hinting at Solomon in the temple a little bit here too? Yeah, Solomon becomes the first seed of David. And he builds a house. And he builds a house.

So it raises the whole question of, oh, well, is Solomon the fulfillment of it? Yeah. Actually, in the moment when Solomon is inaugurated as king, he says that he's the fulfillment of the promise. He quotes this promise. Actually, in there's a moment when Solomon is inaugurated as King, he says that he's the fulfillment of the prompt. He quotes this prompt. Oh, yeah. It says it's me. But then you go on to read his story. That is definitely not him. Yeah. He's like a new Pharaoh. Yeah. Builds this cool looking building that's like the tabernacle, you know, times 100. But he fills it with treasures. And then the rest of the book of King.

In Egyptian horses. In Egyptian horses. And all kinds of stuff that seems really not, like maybe what God asked for, his lion throne, you know, he puts his house right next to the temple, but bigger. What was the one detail?

It was so much swagger. It was like all, like, just all this, like, it was the lion throne. The lion throne? Yes. Ten steps going up to this throne flanked by it. Twelve. Oh yeah. Big carved lions. Yeah. That's legit. So and then what you watch the Book of Kings is dedicated to telling the story of how that house, that temple that you built, just gets slowly vandalized, degraded, and destroyed, and eventually burned up.

But my loyal love will not be removed. From your seat. From your seat. Yeah. And your house will be faithful. Yeah. And the throne will be firm for you. Yeah.

So, the narrative is already telling us that David's seed is going to blow it. It's preparing us. Yeah. Because, you know, in terms of the narrative design, the story's already been told from the narrative's perspective. Not from you, the reader. You're still just going on the journey. But from the narrative's point of view, he's already got the exiled of Babylon in mind. And so we know from the perspective of the Hebrew Bible that no one of David's line ever fulfilled

this promise, and that the temple in Jerusalem was not the ultimate house that God wanted to have built for him. But there will be a faithful house connected to the seed of David, and all the way back to the beginning of Samuel, he's the king, but he's also a priest. You're saying this was written after the destruction of the temple? Oh, yeah. The final shape of Samuel flows right into kings. Yeah.

And the last event in kings is about the destruction of the temple. And so this story is being written from the vantage point of somebody who's- No, the temple is going to be destroyed. Correct. No, is that there's going to be exile. That's right. But still wants you to know that despite all that,

God's going to be faithful. This house will be faithful, and God's will love will not be there. So let's put all the pieces together. We know that Melchizedek was important. David is intentionally taking up that Melchizedek. And biting him. Yep. And also remember the whole story of Moses and Aaron

was telling us that the line of Aaron and that priesthood was a failed project from the beginning. So we were already looking for a priest or a royal priest from some other place. And we are both surprised, but not surprised when it ends up to be the shepherd kid out in the field from Jesse's house. The surprise, it's this no name shepherd who ends up being elevated as the faithful royal priest. This is the high point. This promise right here becomes the high point. And even though it's about a future king, it's about a future king priest, because that's what David has just taken on for himself.

And the whole thing of the building of a house means the building of a temple. This king will be the architect of a true temple. The Breast Abishment of a true temple. The Breast Abishment of Eden. Totally. That's exactly right. So all of this is crucial for setting up what will become a major theme in the prophets and in the Psalms. As you read on from 2nd Sam 7, that's the high point. It immediately starts going downhill.

But a few chapters later, David has his Genesis 3 moment when he sees and desires Bashiba on the roof. And on the high place, he's up on a roof. Oh yeah, the word roof, if you spell it in Hebrew, it's the word gogg, and that letter Gimol looks exactly like another Hebrew letter, which is the letter noon. So if you squint at it. If you squint at it, what you also see is the word gone, which is the Hebrew word for garden.

Come on. It's too good. David is on the gogg. This is the literary art kind of thing. Totally, yeah. Which is like always details. Totally. To say he's on the roof, but if you squint at the word roof, it turns into the word garden. Yeah.

So David is up on his high place, and he sees and desires and takes a woman. And then that leads to the downfall of the house. And so you as the reader are like, oh, well, he's not the one, but whenever the one comes, he's gonna need to be that royal priest, Melchizedek, David, type of figure. And so the book of Psalms is all about this. The book of Psalms is one of the biggest compositions in the Hebrew Bible, and it's an elaborate set

of poetic meditations on the core themes at work in the rest of the Hebrew Bible, and this whole theme of the royal priest from the line of David is front and center for us. And it just so happens that this all rushes together in one particular song that is the most quoted and alluded to poem in by Jesus in the Apostles. And it also happens to be the only other place where Melchizedek is named in the Hebrew Bible. We call it Psalm 110.

Okay. Shall we? Yeah. Some 110. It's short and dense. Like Hebrew. Like everything in the Bible. Do you want to read it? It's kind of bizarre.

I think you'll enjoy it. It comes in two halves. It has two symmetrical sequences. Yeah, two paired triads. A lot like the design of Genesis 1, actually. But Oh, right, right, yeah, two main triads. Yeah, following it. Yeah. Psalm 110 related to David a song, an utterance of Yahweh to my Lord. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Your strong scepter may Yahweh send forth from Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people are noble in the day of your power and holy array from the womb of the dawn. That's a cool thing. How's that usually translated?

What's that? The womb of the dawn? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you'll get, uh, some will translate it. It's literally the womb of the dawn, which is a metaphor for sunrise. Yeah. Well, actually, yeah. Well, just, I don't remember. I just never heard that phrase. It's a beautiful phrase.

It's awesome. And, um, it must be translated differently. Ah. The womb of the dawn. The American Standard English Standard Version. The womb of the morning, the American standard English standard version. The womb of the morning. New international version from the dew of the morning's womb. Oh.

Yeah. So it's there. It's it's there. Well, just one second. I want to look up a couple others. Oh, even NRSV. Yeah. It's been all the main translations.

There it is. The womb of the morning. The womb of the dawn. So this is an utterance of Yahweh to quote, my Lord, said it's related to David. Yeah, so in other words, you just read the first half of the poem and it's as if David is speaking to us, the reader of the poem.

And the first thing David says is, Hey, let me tell you something that I overheard. Yahweh say to my Lord. Yeah. So you're like, well, who'sard. Yahweh say to my Lord. Yeah. So you're like, well, who's that? Who's David calling his Lord? Yeah. Jesus to this.

It's not Yahweh, because you always talk to him. Exactly right. So David has some way of talking about someone who he sees as his authority that's other than Yahweh, but you overheard this conversation. And the last line of this first half is the do as yours I have begotten you. Yes. Yeah. It's one whom God has declared his son. So what David overheard of Yahweh saying to his Lord is the quote right here, come sit at my right hand. Yeah. Share my throne.

Share in my divine rule over the nations. And God says, I'll make your enemies a footstool. Dude, this is the image of God in Genesis 1, subdued and rule. The image of God is one who embodies and shares in God's divine rule over anything that's hostile to God's purposes. Yeah. Then David speaks up and he says of this Lord, he gives him like well-wishings here.

Is this the second part? Yep. Your strong scepter may always send forth from Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. It's as if David is saying, yes, my Lord. Now, may that be true of you. Rule from Zion, rule in your enemies. But then we're told that this Lord of David has a people who are coming in the day of his power dressed like priests in holy garments. Oh, that's what that means. In holy

array, in holy clothing. So now we have the king of priests. Yeah, Lord of David, who comes alongside this king, and they're all dressed like priests. And this is like a new, it's a new morning, it's a new creation. Yes, it's the sunrise. And the image of the dew of the morning is this important biblical poetic image of new creation, of this magical water that just appears to water the land,

who knows where it comes from, where it goes. Yeah. And just like the morning, the birth, new birth of life, so God is declaring that this Lord of David is the divine Son. So we've got an image of God who shares in God's rule and with him is the kingdom of priests. Yeah. That is ushering in new creation. Come on. Yeah. You can see why Jesus and the apostles are into of priests. Yeah. That is ushering a new creation. Come on. Yeah.

You can see why Jesus and the apostles are into this pond. Yeah. Yeah. This is legit. Oh, okay, I'll read the second half. Okay. Okay. And it repeats.

It begins with another thing that Yahweh said, except this time it's what we read as Yahweh, swore a note, and he will not go back on that oath. You're like, oh yeah, I remember when... He went back on an oath? No, no. For Samuel II kind of did.

Yeah, that's true. I was thinking more when Yahweh swore an oath to David, made this promise to David. Oh, yes. So here's the promise, the oath that God won't go back on. And here it is, you addressing this Lord of David, you are a priest forever. Eternal priest.

On account of Melchizedek. What does that mean? We'll talk about it. Then, David speaks up again to talk about his Lord. Yahweh is at your right hand. I thought he was at your right hand. Yep, but now Yahweh is at his right hand. They're at each other's right hand.

So the Lord of David sits at Yahweh's right hand. But now Yahweh is at David's Lord's right hand when he's out on the battlefield confronting his enemies. You remember Yahweh said, I'll make your enemies a footstool. So it's as if we're in the throne room. The Lord of David sits at Yahweh's right hand. But when they're out confronting the enemies, Yahweh is with him at his right hand. Okay. Shattering kings in the day of his anger, judging the nations, filling up with corpses, he shatters the head over a mighty land. The head shattering.

Yeah. And then the last poem, he, this is the Lord of David, will drink from the stream on the path, then he will lift up his head. And that's how the poem ends. This is the Lord drinking from the stream of the path, and I think a bit of it. The Lord of David, yeah. So it's an image that this royal priest, let's start again back up here, you're a priest forever. Yeah. This king is a male chisedeck like priest because of male chisedeck.

Yeah, on account of... On account of male chisedeck. So male chisedeck like priest because of Melchizedek. Yeah, on account of. On account of Melchizedek. So Melchizedek did something that is now bearing fruit, that the lion of David is now being declared a royal priestly line. Can I think of any stories where a guy named Melchizedek did something? Well, there we want. There's one. And it's a story about how he blessed Abraham. And do you remember we, this was many episodes ago. Why is there a whole story about this guy

who's the first one to bless Abram after God says the one who blesses you? I'm going to give blessing to. Why? Why what? Why? you asked me why, I don't know. Oh, God it got it. Well, so I think because that narrative is setting us up for the seed of Abraham, who is David, who's going to come later in the narrative to become this royal priest, that God is going to bless David's line as being the source of this true image of God, royal priest, who will do the Melchizedek saying in Jerusalem, which is to be the king and the priest. Yeah. So most translations translate this according not to the Hebrew, but according to the Septuagint translation,

which reads, you're a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, which amounts to the same thing. And Hebrew, what it says is because of Melchizedek, as if Melchizedek did something that now is bearing fruit. And so the rest of the poem goes on to talk about this Melchizedek royal priest, seed of David, will be the snake crusher. And then the last line is this little narrative of he's out on the battlefield and he's thirsty. And so he kneels down by a stream, like drinks the water and then lifts up his head. I think this is riffing off of the story of Gideon.

Okay. When God tests his army, it takes it down to three hours. How are they going to drink? And it's all about if they drink with their heads raised up at the stream, refreshing themselves as they fight the Midianites. So, you know, this is a dense, obviously it's a dense, all the Psalms are like this.

They're all just hyperlinked. But, you know, you can see this poem is drawing together themes from Genesis 1, from the Abraham story, from the David's story. And remind me how does Jesus use this? Because he quotes this. Jesus quotes this two times in Jerusalem. I thought we could actually look at it later.

Okay, well, we come back to it. But Jesus at two crucial moments starts a conversation with the leaders of the Jerusalem temple about the significance of this poem. And the net effect of where we're going with this is that Jesus saw himself as the Lord as David's Lord. And Jesus saw himself as a priest king who's coming to assert his authority over Jerusalem. The image of God fully realized, bringing new creation. Bring new creation as a new Melchizedek, new David figure,

coming to do what David actually never ended up being able to fully do, or any of the seed of David, which is to build a true house for God on the high place. Why does it have to get so macabre to hear about? Totally. Corpse is filling up. Yeah. I think it's connected to this motif of the snake crusher, the crushing of the head. Yeah.

Because so much of the snake crushing motif is carried forward through the narrative. It's not only is it the snake, but there's a seed of the snake. There's the seed of the snake, that's right. Which is what some canonites and some of the enemies of David are depicted as being. But sometimes Israelites are the seed of the snake, depending on their choices.

So Jesus saw himself playing out the script that is all brought together here in Psalm 110. And I know this is complicated. Yeah. I know this. Maybe we can do an explainer. I think we have to do an explainer. If there was a simpler way to tell the story of the priesthood, I would want to do it.

But this is how the Bible tells the story. And Jesus clearly cared about all this Melchizedek David stuff. It was really important because it's so front and center and it's a big deal in the letter to the Hebrews. So I feel like if we really want to honor the story of the priesthood, we have to find a way to do this. I think we can do it. I think we can't do it. We covered a lot of ground. Yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. Next week we'll continue this series looking at priests in the Bible.

Peter says to Jesus, Rabbi, man, so glad we're here right now. Could we make three tabernacles? You'll get your own. You'll have a special tabernacle, just for you. But you know Moses and Elijah, they should also have a tabernacle. And then Mark, I love this mark, steps outside the story and he tells the reader,

he didn't know what he was saying. They were terrified. So good. And then, so what's interesting is all of a sudden, then next verse, all at once, they looked around and it's all done. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders, strict orders.

Don't tell anyone what they saw until the Son of Man rises from the dead. So there's something that they just witness that won't make sense to anybody. Until his death then that is vindication from death. Then the story will make sense. And so what else is this, but another one of these rich, dense stories painting Jesus as the human image of God and the royal priest who will give up his life. We're taking questions for our upcoming question and response episode at the end of a series. So if you have a question on this topic of priests we'd love to hear from you.

Record yourself asking the question, let us know your name, where you're from, try to keep the recording to about 20 or 30 seconds and then email that to info at BibleProject.com. In your email please write out your question as well that saves us a ton of time as we compile all the questions. The deadline is the end of the day Monday April 5th 2021. We'd love to hear from you again the email is info at BibleProject.com. Today's show is produced by Dan Gummel. Our show notes are by Lindsay Ponder and the theme music from the band Tents. Vivalproject is a crowdfunded nonprofit in Portland, Oregon.

We make free resources to experience the Bible as one unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything we have is free because of the generosity of many people all around the world. Thank you for being a part of this with us. Hi, this is Daniela Marina Veracruz and I am from Mozambique in Southeast Africa. I first heard about Bible project in the youth sessions. I use Bible project for in-depth and detailed explanation about most books in the Bible. My favorite thing about Bible project is the way they explain in greater detail the books

of the Bible and I can really understand and is very simplified. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus, where a crowd-funded project by people like me find free videos, study notes, podcasts, classes and more at BibleProject.com.