Destined To Reign - Part 10 – The Secret of David

Dear friends,



Perhaps you noticed that in the past a couple of weeks, the articles I have been sending seemed longer than usual. I feel the need not to split the subjects in shorter form due to the impotance of the subjects. However bear with me for a while. This week will be the last long topic of the serie, and after this, I will go back to the regular style and length. Let's go deep this week. It's a long weekend, so you will have more time to read, right?



Have you ever wondered why God called David “a man after God’s own heart”? (Acts 13: 22). What was David’s secret? What is it about David that God would bless him so much , making him king over Israel? I heard people say that the reason was because David was quick to repent. However, there were other people in the Bible who were quick to repent, so this would not set David apart. In addition, God called David a man after His own heart before he committed his sin with Bathsheba, so it cannot be because of his quick repentance. There must be something unique about David that caused him to stand out. Would you like to know what his secret was? I believe that this secret is the key to the fullness of God’s blessings in your life.



Turn with me to Psalm 132, where you will find David’s secret. Psalm 132: 1-5 Lord, remember David and all his afflictions, how he swore to the Lord, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: “Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I …..” David was making a vow to God that he would neither sleep nor rest until he did something. Now, hold your horses. Before I show you what he vowed to God, I want to show you something that he himself said about how God saw him.



1 Chronicles 28: 4 Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before the house of my father to be king over Israel forever; for He hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father He liked me to make me king over all Israel.



God said. “God liked me”. Oh, I love the way the old King James version captures what he said: “God liked me to make me king over all Israel.”



What Made David A Man After God’s Own Heart?



Would you like to find out what God liked David? What made him so special? I believe that God liked David because he got hold of something that was of the greatest importance to God’s heart. He got hold of a divine thought and objective in God’s heart. Let us find out from the rest of Psalm 132: 5 – “I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” What was David talking about? To get a better picture, go a few verses down to Psalm 132: 8 “Arise, O Lord, to your resting place, You and the ark of Your Strength.” David was talking about taking the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem! This was what David was after, and because he placed such importance on taking the ark back, God considered him a man after His own heart.



Now, in the days of the old covenant, God dwelled between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the covenant. This was the throne of God. Whenever the children of Israel was in alignment with God, God would give them victory over their enemies.



Let me tell you just how important the ark of the covenant was. Erase your memory of the ark that you learned from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”. During the Old Testament days, which was the holiest country to God when He looked at the earth? It was Israel. Which was the holiest city in all of Israel? Jerusalem. Which was the holiest place in all of Jerusalem? It was the temple on the Temple Mount. In the temple precinct, there was the Outer Court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Which one was the holiest place in the temple? Obviously, it was the Holy of Holies. Inside the Holy of Holies, there was only one object – the ark of the covenant. This means that the ark of the covenant was the holiest object on the earth at that point in time. It was the centerpiece of God, at the center of the universe and in the center of God’s heart.



The Typology of The Ark Of The Covenant



The ark of the covenant was so important to God that He gave the Israelites very specific instructions on how it was to be constructed. Even though we can only skim the surface, every detail of the ark allows us to get a clearer picture of Jesus since there are no insignificant details in the Bible. The ark points to the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the centerpiece of God’s heart, and as you read on, you will fall in love with Him more and more!



Let us look more closely at some components of the ark of the covenant. The box portion of the ark is made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. Wood in the Bible speaks of humanity. Acacia wood is known in Israel as incorruptible wood, so this speaks of Jesus’ incorruptible humanity. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh as a man, but there was no sin in Him. Gold in the Bible speaks of divinity and deity. So the wood overlaid with gold speaks of the person of Jesus – He was completely human and completely God at the same time.



The lid of the box was made of solid slab of gold and it covered the box. In Hebrew, the lid is called “kapporeth”, which means “mercy seat”. Let’s see what the mercy seat was used to cover. Three items were kept in the ark of the covenant:



1. The stone tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments: The tablets speak of our rebellion and inability to keep God’s law perfectly.

2. Aaron’s rod: Aaron’s rod was not just any ordinary rod. It was placed overnight in the tabernacle and not only did it shoot forth branches, it also bore fruits and flowers. Do you know why God did it? It was because people were complaining against God’s appointment of Aaron as the high priest. Therefore, Aaron’s rod speaks of man’s rebellion against God’s appointed leadership.

3. Golden pot of manna: The Bible calls manna “angel’s food” and when the children of Israel ate it while they were in the wilderness, none of them were sick for 40 years. Yet, they called it “worthless bread”. Therefore, the golden pot of manna speaks of man’s rebellion against God’s provision.



Can you see that every item in the ark speaks of our sins and rebellion against God? But what did God do with our sins and rebellion? He put them all into the ark and covered them with the mercy seat where the blood of the animal sacrifices was placed once a year on the day of the atonement. By doing this, God was saying that He did not want to see man’s sins and rebellion. When He looks down, He cannot see man’s sins and rebellion because they are covered by the blood on the mercy seat! He saw only the blood on the mercy seat!





Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment



There is more. The mercy seat also speaks of the person of Jesus Christ. The blood of the animal sacrifices speaks of His blood. The Bible says that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sin (1 John 2: 2)”. This means that Jesus became our sacrifice to divert God’s wrath meant for us to Himself. “Propitiation” is a beautiful word. On the cross, Jesus became the propitiation for our sins. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word “propitiation” is also the same word for “mercy seat”. So when Apostle John said that Jesus is our propitiation, he was saying that Jesus is our mercy seat. The mercy seat was made of one solid slab of gold that was beaten into shape. In the same way, Jesus had to be brutally beaten and scourged, so that by His stripes, we are healed.



You will also see the crown on the mercy seat. This crown typifies Jesus’ majesty, glory and kingship. He was the only King who came not to be served, but to serve.



So the ark of the covenant is a shadow o our Lord Jesus Christ, His person, and His work. Because of His blood, all our sins have been cleansed. That’s why it was dangerous for anyone back then to lift the mercy seat to uncover the sins and rebellion that God covered. The mercy seat was not to be lifted at any time, and the consequences for doing so were severe. The Bible records that when people in the village called Beth Shemesh lifted the mercy seat to look inside the ark, many of them were destroyed (1 Samuel 6: 19). Notice that the mercy seat is placed over the law. This tells that God’s mercy triumphs over judgment! God’s grace is above God’s law.



Bring Back The Ark Of The Covenant



Let’s go back what David vowed to do – bring back the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. For more than 20 years, the ark had been in a hilly area called Kirjath Jearim. David had heard about the ark since his young age. Growing up, he must have wondered why nobody made a move to bring the ark back to Jerusalem where it belonged. Saul was king at that time, but he never had the heart desire to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. So David made it his passion to bring the ark back to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, for the Lord had chosen Zion as His dwelling place. God himself said, “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” (Psalm 132: 14) Do you know why God chose Mount Zion and not Mount Sinai? This is because Mount Zion represents His grace, while Mount Sinai represents His law. On the first Pentecost, 50 days after the first Passover, God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and 3000 people died. On the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus, God gave the Holy Spirit at Mount Zion, and 3000 people were saved and the new covenant church was born.



When you understand the typology of the ark of the covenant, you will see that bringing back the ark is the same as bringing back Jesus Christ into a place of prominence and making Him and His finished work the center of all our teaching and preaching. God wants us to bring Jesus back to the church, His place of prominence. It saddens me that in many churched today, you hardly hear the name of Jesus being mentioned. Instead you hear psychology being taught. You hear motivational teaching, like the Christian’s version Oprah’s or Dr. Phil’s programs. You hear “doing, doing, doing”, or “vision, vision, vision”, or “calling, calling, calling”. You hear very little of Jesus Christ and His finished work being taught. Is this what Christianity is all about? Your doing, your vision, your calling?



Let me explain to you what it means to bring back Jesus to Mount Zion. Bringing back Jesus to Mount Zion is to bring back Jesus to the place of grace. Have you heard sermons where they preached about Jesus, but the sermons are very hard? The preacher said, “Jesus Himself said that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. If the Pharisees had this standard, then we must even higher standards than they did.” I would feel condemned. What hope was there for me, since I did not even measure up to the standard of the Pharisees? Though that preacher was preaching from Jesus’ words, he never brought Jesus into the context of grace. He made Jesus appear hard and legalistic. Now, let’s interpret what Jesus was really saying. He was saying that the only way to enter heaven is to have HIS righteousness that exceeds all other standards of righteousness. His righteousness is far above the self-righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees! And guess what? His righteousness is a gift freely received! It is yours today!



Be A Man After God’s Own Heart



This is the secret to David’s blessings. He pursued the ark of the covenant and God called him the man after God’s own heart. You too can be the man or woman after God’s own heart. Pursue Jesus and bring him back into the center of your life. Make Jesus the centerpiece of every aspect of your life. Make him the center of your marriage, family, career and finances, and allow the fullness of His blessings to flow into your life today!