The Covenant King
The covenant that God made with David promised that one son, both God's Son and David's son, would reign as king forever. This Son would build God's kingdom, God's "house" for him. Reciprocally, without any jeopardy to his sovereignty, God would equally establish his Son's kingdom and throne. So locked-in together are Father and Son in equality of essence and nature as well as dominion and mission that each one's kingdom is the kingdom of the other without threatening the supremacy of either. So shared is their rule that we can say there is one rule, one dominion, one kingdom, one King. The biblical doctrine of the Trinity is the only way this stands. God's Son is equally God. The Sovereign's Son is equally Sovereign. Additionally, however, the king promised by the covenant must also be fully human, descended from David, without sin. The King of the covenant is God's perfect Son and David's perfect son, therefore his kingdom will never end.
"'When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever'" (1 Ch. 17:11-14).
But as you trace the line of succession down through the Old Testament narrative, not one of the kings in David's line lasts forever. Two of the kings don't even last more than 3 months. Manasseh, the longest reigning king, governed Judah for 55 years, but I presume few, if any, wanted his reign to endure a moment longer let alone forever. "Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel" (2 Ch. 33:9). The covenant with David promised everlasting dominion yet the dynasty of David was unrelentingly plagued with death. Generation after generation, the covenant remained unfulfilled. One by one, every king died.
The King on His Throne
Eleven royal funeral processions later, when one more of the kings of Judah died, the prophet Isaiah saw a vision of the King whom God had promised in his covenant with David. "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple" (Is. 6:1). Isaiah saw the King, God's Son, "the Lord," in his brilliance; he saw him in his royal majesty; he saw him as exalted deity, "high and lifted up." The Apostle John tells us plainly that Isaiah saw Christ's glory in that vision and spoke of him (Jn. 12:41).
And this King whom Isaiah saw was not alone. A privileged rank of angels, the seraphim (which literally means burning ones), were attending him. Even these angels, as dignified as they were, were not able to look upon the King in his glory. Instead, they covered their faces with their wings in his presence. And Isaiah heard one of them say to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory (6:3)!" Isaiah had just stepped foot into the heavenly holy of holies, into the presence of the King of Glory, holy, incomparable. This King was not like any of the kings of Judah. His righteousness radiated out of himself, spotless in splendor, perfect in purity. His holiness separated him from all others—every man and every god. In contrast to these other gods, worthless idols, the true Sovereign asks, "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? . . . To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One . . . To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike" (Is. 40:18, 25; 46:5)?
As a sinner, to be transported through this heavenly portal into the holy King's presence, thrust before his throne, was terrifying. Isaiah lamented, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts (6:5)!" If the Lord is "of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong" (Hb. 1:13), the reverse is also true: We are too sinful to look upon Christ the King in his purity. Isaiah was a sinner in the presence of the sinless King. He deserved to die.
Why would anyone be excluded from enjoying the presence of Christ? Because of his sin. Why would anyone die? Because of her sin. Why did all the kings of Judah die? Because of their sin. The kings of Judah sat on David's throne, some for months, some for decades. But they all returned to the earth; Sheol's mouth was open wide. "For the wages of sin is death" (Ro. 6:23a).
The kingdom that God promised would be established by David's son could only last forever so long as the King himself remained forever without sin. Yahweh is King, spotless deity, ruling forever; "the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice" (Ps. 9:7). But what about a son of David? Where was the sinless Son of David as well as the sinless Son of God? The King of Heaven must come to earth as a man.
The King in His Cradle
In the chapter following Isaiah's vision of the Lord, God the King on his throne, sovereign in glory and power, the prophet was given a glimpse of the King in his cradle, delicate and dependent, "holy infant, so tender and mild."1 The incarnation of Jesus Christ, Immanuel, conceived by the virgin—a sign originally given by Isaiah to King Ahaz, the sin-laden leader of the house of David—is God's answer to the need for a sinless Son of David.
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us)." (Mt. 1:23; Is. 7:14).
As King, the government would be placed upon the shoulder of this little child (Is. 9:6). As the sinless son of God and David, his kingdom would be perfectly filled with justice and righteousness, therefore, it would never end. "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this" (Is. 9:7). God would fulfill his covenant by gifting us with his Son, wrapped in flesh, descended from David, unstained by sin, Lord at his birth, and Lord forevermore.
Silent night, holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.2
1 Silent Night, Holy Night, by Joseph Mohr
2 ibid.
