It’s interesting to note when David was anointed, the narrator never went out of his way to point out the purpose was to make David King.
So it probably wasn’t apparent to those who attended the anointing ceremony, including David’s entire family, what exactly was going on.
At this stage, probably only Samuel and God Himself knew that David had just been crowned the next ruler of Israel.
Now, here’s something else interesting about David.
If you do a study of all the characters in the Bible, you’ll discover there’s only David, or DAWID in Hebrew.
Even though the experts aren’t completely sure what it means, most of them think David means “beloved.”
In the past, folks used to make a big deal that no artifacts had ever been dug up that bore David’s name.
But in recent years something called the Victory Stele was dug up in Tel Dan (in the far northern part of Israel).
The term “Victory Stele” refers to the Stele of Hammurabi, an ancient artifact from Mesopotamia created around 1754 BC.
The stele depicts Hammurabi receiving the laws directly from the Babylonian god Shamash.
What’s significant about these laws is that they represent one of the earliest and most comprehensive written legal codes in ancient history.
The code addresses pretty much every aspect of daily life, including commerce, family matters, and criminal justice, with specific punishments for different offenses.
Now here’s the thing.
Inside this code, there is a specific reference to the “house of Dawid”.
Some people tried to say it might be a different “house of Dawid,” not the one from the Bible, but that’s taking the influence of marijuana on the brain cells to a ridiculous extreme.
The stele mentions Israel, and Judah, and talks about the “house of David” as the royal family.
Therefore, I’m positive it must be referring to the Biblical King David.
If not, who else?!
So the takeaway I’m getting for today is the importance of divine timing.
The Lord may have anointed David king, but for His good reasons, He didn’t want that fact to be disclosed publically yet.
We find the same pattern with the Messiah.
Many times, Yeshua ordered his disciples to keep his messianic identity a secret.
Why?
Well, the concept of the Messiah in the first-century Jewish context was often associated with political and military expectations.
Yeshua may have been concerned that if his messianic identity had been widely known too soon, people might have misunderstood his mission and purpose, expecting a political leader rather than a spiritual savior.
Either way, the point is God operates according to a divine timetable that will reveal His chosen leaders at the most appropriate time based on the current political situation.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“‘But what about you?’
he asked.
‘Who do you say I am?’
Peter answered,
‘You are the Messiah.’
Yeshua warned them not
to tell anyone about him.”
-Mark 8:29-30
“As they were coming down the mountain,
Yeshua gave them orders not to tell anyone
what they had seen until the Son of Man
had risen from the dead.”
-Mark 9:9
“Then he ordered his disciples
not to tell anyone that
he was the Messiah.”
-Matthew 16:20
There is a problem with this Stele- if it is from 1754 BCE, then it is about 750 years BEFORE David was king!
The exodus hadn’t even happened yet, so how could something written even before the exodus mention King David?
As for the idea that Yeshua was concerned about a political agenda being forced on him, that is totally true- in fact, it was one of the reasons that most people rejected him as the Messiah because they were expecting Rambo to come save them from the Romans, but here comes this humble carpenter’s son preaching love.
Not what they wanted.
Have to edit that part about the date of the Stele.