The central personality of Old Testament prophecy is the coming great King who will rule in God’s promised kingdom. Over and over we are told of a special individual who has the righteousness, the wisdom, the power, the authority, and the right to reign not only over Israel but over the entire earth.
This coming great King will have the power to bruise Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15), take back man’s dominion that was lost through sin, and establish at last a kingdom on earth that will extend into eternity. From Him the “scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet” (Gen. 49:10).
That could not be said of any Old Testament king, and could only apply to the coming great King. The host of other predictions that refer to a reign described by such terms as everlasting, eternal, and forever obviously could not apply to a merely human king.
The words of the Lord spoken to David through Nathan had to refer to other than David himself: “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16). David’s kingdom was shattered and divided as soon as his successor, Solomon, died—and as yet has never been reestablished.
Yet in Psalm 2 God tells us, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession’“ (vv. 6-8). David calls the coming One “the King of glory” and “the Lord of hosts” (Ps. 24:10). The coming King is spoken of in similar ways in Psalms 45, 72, 110, and others.
The prophets speak of the great King as both human and divine. Isaiah tells us that He would be born of a virgin (7:14) and that He would be despised, forsaken, stricken, pierced through, crushed, chastened, scourged, oppressed, and afflicted (53:3-7).
Daniel speaks of Him as “One like a Son of Man” (7:13). Yet Isaiah also tells us that “the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace” (9:6-7) and that He will be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23).
Through Micah, the Lord promised Bethlehem: “From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (5:2). Zephaniah tells his people that when this King comes He will be “the King of Israel, the Lord” in their midst (3:15).
Zechariah tells us that He will “be just and endowed with salvation” (9:9) and that when He reigns, every family on earth will be able to “go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts” (14:17). The coming great King would be the Man-God.
