The way Judaism views David is interesting.
They tend to ignore his human failures and elevate him to a perfection that simply doesn’t jive with what the Scripture says about the man.
Ironically, they make David out to be very close to who the real Messiah is.
This blindness has partly kept Israel from recognizing Yeshua of Nazareth as their true Messiah.
However, when it comes to an incorrect portrayal of the Messiah, the Christian church wins the gold medal hands down!
Many Christians will admit David is a model of the Messiah.
Yet they view their “Jesus” as only a gentle shepherd who kissed the babies and would never hurt a fly.
They believe the God who ordered the genocidal wars in the “Old” Testament is different than the loving and merciful Jesus they worship in their churches.
This is a problem.
And here’s a quick and easy way to correct it.
Whenever you encounter a Christian who espouses the crazy idea that the God of the “Old” Testament is different than the God of the New Testament…
Or if they promote some maple-syrupy Yeshua who would never hurt a fly…
All you gotta do is ask them these three questions:
“Who is gonna lead the final battle at Armageddon?”
“Who will have a sharp sword coming out of his mouth to slaughter the gentile nations who come against Israel?”
“Who’s gonna cause the blood of God’s enemies to fill the Jezreel Valley up to the height of a horse’s bridle?”
That’s it.
All you gotta do is ask them these three questions and then sit back and watch them stumble around like a blind man trying to find the answer.
See, here’s what’s gonna happen.
After the reality of these questions sinks into their thick skulls…
They’re gonna be forced to admit Yeshua is a shepherd who leads Israel to salvation…
AND a warrior who’s gonna fight the war to end all wars.
Like David, they’re gonna have to admit that Messiah is BOTH a shepherd and a warrior.
I believe we’re gonna see this again soon.
While David may have been a type and illustration of the Messiah, the bottom line is He was not the Messiah.
He was NOT “God in human flesh” to quote a phrase Christians love to banter around.
So because this was the case, David struggled to balance the attributes of a shepherd and warrior.
These two sides pulled him in different directions.
As he was making his way to Carmel, the warrior side had taken over, which would have led to his downfall.
But God intervened via a righteous woman named Abigail.
We’ll continue the next time we meet.
See ya all next time.
Gold medal for this one.
When you say “won’t even hurt a fly”, all I can picture in my mind is Norman Bates, at the end of the movie “Psycho”, with that frightening smile on his face.
But you are correct, as usual, when you say Christianity has not got the right idea of who Yeshua is.
It has always semed to me that the reason so many churches are so popular is because they sell salvation as a “come as you are party”, and all you need is the password “I believe in Jesus” to get in.
Everything after that is rose-colored glasses, PollyAnna-happy life, with all your loved ones waiting for you in heaven.
Get real, people! The truth is that most everyone you know will NOT be waiting for you in heaven, and probably won’t get to be there after facing Judgement Day.
In fact, you may not make it, yourself, if you buy into that Christian “All you need is love” ideology. It’s a great song, but doesn’t hold water when it comes to being the only requirement for salvation.
What we need is love, AND repentance, AND T’shuvah (turning from sin), AND obedience to Torah- at least, as best as we can obey.
I feel so sad for all those people who think they are doing what God wants from them, but in truth, they aren’t: they are only doing what their man-made religion says they should.
Interesting explanation about the non-existence of the word “church.” Yeah, that word church always rubbed me the wrong way.
Well, for the folks who want the Rambo version of the Messiah, that’s the version that’s gonna be coming back soon.
Be blessed brother