Wednesday, 17 December 2008 01:00 | and posted in Jesus & the Gospels
Once in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed: Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.
Have you ever connected the first line of this Christmas carol with Bethlehem? Have you ever wondered why it’s significant that Jesus was born in a town with a link to David?
We are introduced to David in 1 Samuel 16:1-13. He is a shepherd tending his father’s flocks around his home town of Bethlehem. We then find out that God has just chosen David to be anointed (dedicated or set apart) to be the next King. He was a surprising choice - he was young and inexperienced and he didn’t look “kingly.” Neither was he a descendant of the current king, Saul.
David’s story is quite a page-turner. In places it makes the Eastender’s Christmas special look like the Teletubbies! It’s also a long story. In fact no other person in the Old Testament has as much written about them as David does. Under David, the nation flourished, prospered and grew like at no other time in Israel’s history. He was the king that established Israel, who captured Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6-7) and who made Jerusalem the focal point of Jewish worship of God.
You know how elderly people can look back and talk about the “good ol’ times?” Well, David’s reign was considered in the same light. It was the “golden time;” afterwards Jews would pause and wonder when life would be like that again… when will there again be a king like David? This feeling was given added poignancy by prophecies like in Isaiah which stated that there will come a day when a child (a descendent of David’s) will be born who will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom establishing it forever (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Jump forward a thousand years to a lowly cattle shed where a mother is laying her baby… The Israelite’s have an illegitimate king in Herod and they are ruled by the pagan and oppressive Roman Empire. They are crying out for God’s promised leader to liberate them from enemy occupation and establish the nation of Israel forever.
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem was an indicator of who he was, but like David, Jesus was an unexpected king…