We must restore Yeshua to his proper context as the Son of David.

At least since the Day of Pentecost, Yeshua the risen and enthroned Son of David has been advancing an agenda for Israel that must become the context for our labors as well.  This context, this agenda, is nicely summarized for us by Ezekiel (37:21-28), who names seven aspects of God’s, and thus Messiah’s end-time agenda for the Jewish people, that people to whom we are called.

This agenda can be best grasped through viewing the illustration on the following page, which properly highlights Yeshua’s centrality.

Ezekiel reminds us that through the risen Messiah:

1. God will regather the Jewish people to the land he gave us forever.

2. God will unify us as a people. 

3. God will bring the Jewish people to repentance-renewal. 

4. God will gather us in allegiance to the Messiah.

5.     God will cause the Jewish people to live in covenant faithfulness to the statutes and ordinances God given to our ancestors.

6. God will cause us to communally experience the fullness of the Divine Presence.

7. By doing these things, God will vindicate his name in the sight of the nations.

As we restore Yeshua to his context as the Son of David, we will begin to notice how the Newer Testament underscores Yeshua’s activity in fulfilling this agenda.

One example is found in Peter’s statement on the Day of Pentecost that it was the risen Son of David who had sent forth the Spirit and his manifestations “which you see and hear.” (Ac 2:32)

This sending of the Spirit applies to at least the third and sixth items mentioned by Ezekiel: bringing the Jewish people to repentance-renewal and causing us to communally experience the fullness of the Divine Presence. Peter’s statement later, that God exalted Yeshua at his right to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, when read against the context of Ezekiel 37, also relates to the repentance-renewal of Israel.

 And certainly, Peter’s call to Israel to “repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, Yeshua, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old” (Ac 3:19-21) is pointing toward the outcomes prophesied in Ezekiel 36 and 37, sketched lightly for us in the seven steps of the New Messianic Jewish Agenda.

Those who remain unconvinced, who insist that Yeshua is not yet exercising his Davidic kingly role, cannot justify a passive wait and see attitude concerning how to respond to his allegedly currently dormant office. This is because scripture never announces future events as mere information, or to simply satisfy curiosity. Instead, future events are prophetically revealed to spur God’s people to present action.

We can see that this is so from examining 2 Peter 3:9-14, which calls us to wholehearted retooling of our lives in view of that cataclysmic end awaiting the present cosmic order.

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

Peter is calling for attentive waiting and vigorous activism geared to hasten the coming day of God. This call to zealous action is the antithesis of passivity. And if the coming end of the cosmos calls for attentiveness and activity in the now, how much more should we be attentively awaiting and hastening the coming of the Son of David who will rule and reign from Jerusalem? 

By what stretch of the imagination could any suppose the approaching footsteps of Messiah warrant nothing beyond passive agreement? On the contrary, the approach of the Son of David calls for alertness and action of the highest sort. Clearly we have work to do. But what kind of work might that be?

In his Day of Pentecost sermon, Peter refers to

 “this Yeshua (whom) God raised up . . . exalted at the right hand of God, . . . (who) having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, . . . has poured out this which you see and hear.” (Ac 5:32-33)

This is enthronement language. Peter further argues from Psalm 16 that David himself predicted

“that his descendant would be raised up from the dead incorruptible, and in this way, He would be seated upon His throne.” (Ac 2:30-31)*

Furthermore, in the same context, Peter references Psalm 110 speaking of David’s Son at God’s right hand. He argues that this was fulfilled through Yeshua’s resurrection, something that in apostolic preaching always connotes his ascension and session as well. *

Peter drives his point home forcefully:

 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ (that is, anointed King Messiah) this Yeshua whom you crucified.” (Ac 5:36)

Later, in his address to the Sanhedrin, he clearly alludes to Yeshua’s current kingly office when he says, 

“God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Ac 5:31)

If Peter had wanted to communicate that Yeshua’s reign as the Son of David lies dormant until some far off millennium, he certainly did a poor job making his point!  

This is not to deny that Peter points to a later, culminating phase of Yeshua’s kingly work, a time of consummation yet to come (Ac 3:19-21). The kingly work of Yeshua the Son of David is both/and, both now in the form of a foretaste, and later, in times of consummating fulfillment. 

This may be compared to the New Covenant, which Jeremiah reminds us is made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and of which the Newer Testament reminds us the church has been made partaker. The New Covenant is truly in effect now, but certainly not in its fullness. For example, it points toward a day when “they shall no longer say, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest” (Je 31:34). We are not there yet, but we are on the way: already and not yet. 

Perhaps the most famous spokesperson for this “already/not yet” perspective is George Eldon Ladd. The best way to more fully explore his treatment of the matter is through reading George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974).

* Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993)