im not voutching for everything this blog says becuse ive only read this one post. but i think its worth a read.
chad.woodburn.cc/?p=35The Search for the Prince of Israel
Posted on July 16, 2012 by Chad Woodburn
Most Christians have never heard about the coming Prince of Israel. Yet, there are around 500 verses in the Bible which prophecy his birth, life, suffering, and ministry of ruling in the Messianic Empire. He is an heir to the throne of David, and although a godly man, he is by no means perfect or sinless.
Hosea 3:5 says that, after Israel has remained many days without a king or a prince, the sons of Israel will seek the Lord and the heir to the throne of David: “Afterwards return will the sons of Israel, and they will seek Yahweh their God and David their king, turning in dread to Yahweh and to His goodness in the last of the days” (CAW: my own translation). Many people assume that when it refers to David that it means the historical figure named King David. However, in so many of these prophecies when it uses the name David, it is actually referring to the heir of David. After all, his name has not yet been revealed.
It has almost been 2600 years that Judah has not had a king sitting on the throne of David (since the summer of 587 BC; July 15, 2014 will mark 2600 years on the traditional Jewish calendar since Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem; that date is known as Tzom Tammuz). But the Jewish nation has yet to begin to seek the Lord and the heir to the Davidic throne. Hosea 5:15 says, “I will go return to My place until the time when they have borne their punishment and they seek My face. In their distress they will seek Me earnestly” (CAW).
The sequence of events at the end times is significant. What I understand the prophecies (found in various places in the Bible) to say is that for a very long time Israel will suffer under the hand of the Lord’s discipline. Then the Prince would be born, and right then God would no longer be giving them up to the punishment He warned them about in Deuteronomy 28. The people would (in a sense) we under the umbrella of God’s protection because of the Prince. However, that does not mean that either they or the Prince would be free from individual suffering. But the purpose of that suffering would be different than it had been before the Prince was born. Before he was born, it was for retribution and punishment, repaying them seven times over for the sins of the nation. But after the Prince’s birth, it is primarily for disciplining and purifying them. As Daniel 11:33 says, “And those who are wise among the people will give understanding to many, but they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days” (CAW). It is at that time when the sons of Israel will especially seek the Lord and the heir to the Davidic crown.
Throughout the Psalms and elsewhere in the prophecies, David and his dynastic heirs are called God’s anointed. The Bible says that the sons of Israel will seek the Lord and His anointed in earnest during the end times. This feverish search explains (at least in part) a key prophecy Jesus made about the last days. he said, “For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the messiah,’ and will mislead many” (Mat. 24:5, CAW). Remember that the Greek word for “Christ” (Χριστός) is the translation for the Hebrew word “Messiah”, and that both mean “the anointed one” in English. Most (if not all) expositors and theologians think that Jesus was saying that many would come along claiming to be Him (Jesus). And I believe that there will be many who will claim that too. (Verses 23-27 indicate that.) But I also believe that many will come along in the name of Jesus who will respond to the feverish search for the Davidic Prince by claiming they they are the anointed heir to the throne of David known as the Prince.
What is shocking is not that a few or some would come with this claim, but that many will come in the name of the Lord asserting their right to the crown. But the genuine Prince will not be that way. David was anointed by Samuel before his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him from that day forward (1 Sam. 24:6). But David didn’t go around boasting of his position or drawing attention to himself by claiming to be the anointed one. So also, Jesus, although being in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted, but He took on the form of a servant and humbled Himself (Phil. 2:6-8). When He performed miracles, He told the people not to tell anyone. When His disciples correctly identified Him as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, He warned them that they should tell no one that He was the Messiah (Mat. 16:16, 20).
So also, the Prince will be humble and meek, and will not be asserting his hereditary position until God declares it. Instead, he will say of himself, “But I am a worm and not a man” (Ps. 22:6, CAW).
Why such humility? It is clear that at some point the Prince will be anointed by the prophet of God, even as David was by Samuel. Jesus said, “Elijah indeed comes and will reestablish everything” (Mat. 17:11, CAW). That would include both the Davidic dynasty and the Levitical service and the Aaronic priesthood. And in the Psalms the Prince is recognized as the anointed one and the king before the Lord returns. And besides the anointing which “Elijah” will give him, Psalm 40 indicates that God will open his ears to understand God’s Word, and as a result the Prince will come to realize from Scripture that he is the Prince. Psalm 40:6-7 says, “My ears You have opened for me. … [7] Thereupon I said, ‘I have come; in the scroll of the book this is written about me'” (CAW). In the spirit of wisdom and revelation from the Lord he will have an understanding from Scripture and a conviction from God of who he is.
Why then such humility and secrecy? Precisely because such humility is necessary for receiving the prize. Jesus said, “But the greatest among you shall be your servant. [12] But whoever exalts himself will be humiliated, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mat. 23:11-12). Not only is humility and loving service necessary for receiving the crown, but until the kingdom actually begins there is a real danger of losing the reward. If he is faithful in his service, then when the Master returns he will be put in charge of all his Master’s possessions (Mat. 24:45-47). But if he follows the way of pride and becomes self-indugent and abusive, then when the Master returns he will be severely scourged and will be assigned a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mat. 24:48-51).
Well then, if the Prince does not assert himself, but intentionally keeps quiet about his real identity, then what is the point of having the sons of Israel seek him? There are two good reasons. First, by searching for the real prince, they will not be deceived by the many pretenders to the throne. The temptation to be mislead by them will be extremely great. Indeed, these false princes will mislead many (Mat. 24:5). As Matthew 24:24 says, “For arise will many false anointed ones and false prophets and will provide great signs and omens so as to mislead if possible even the elect” (CAW).
There is a second reason for seeking for the real Prince. And that is that they will actually find him. They will find him in much the same way that the Prince himself will come to know his own identity: through the Scripture and through God opening his ears (giving him special illumination). This is much the same way that Peter came to see that Jesus was the Messiah. “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father, the one in the heavens” (Mat. 16:17, CAW). But as difficult as it might be for them to find him, they will. Hosea 1:11 speaks of this when it says, “And gathered together the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be, and they will appoint for themselves one head” (CAW).
After speaking of Jacob (that is, the sons of Israel) and of the Prince, the Davidic heir whom God will raise up for them (Jer. 30:9-10), God says, “And his [Jacob’s] majestic one from him will be and his reigning one will from his midst come forth, and I will bring him near and he will approach Me. For who is he — this one who would exchange his life daring to approach Me?” (Jer. 30:21, CAW). Then after revealing all these things, God says, “In the latter days you will gain understanding in this” (Jer. 30:24).
The purpose of studying about the Prince is to help us gain understanding in the Biblical prophecies, especially so that we be not misled by the pseudo-anointed ones. But apart from a heart that is also genuinely seeking the Lord, such a study can only be meaningless at best, and a distortion of the truth at worst. But studying these prophecies can help clarify and reinforce our understanding of those virtues which God rewards and which the Prince will exemplify.
Jesus taught, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided to you” (Mat. 6:33, CAW). This command is overflowing with meaning that impacts much of the topic of this study. Seeking the kingdom of God involves in it fullest sense seeking the Lord and the Davidic king, the Prince.
Many at the present time consider the topic of the Prince to be irrelevant for the Church at best, and impossible and absurd at worst. To them the Aaronic priesthood has been abolished by God due to the cross. To them God does not need or want Levitical priests “to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually” (Jer. 33:18). For that was under the Law and the Law (according to them) has been done away with, even though Jesus said that until heaven and earth would pass away, not one iota or one serif would pass from the Law (Mat. 5:18). And to them, not only is the Levitical priesthood obsolete, but so is the earthly Davidic dynasty. To them, even as the cross of Christ has abolished the Levitical priesthood, so also has the crown of Christ abolished the Davidic Empire, even though the Bible continues to promise us that the saints will rule and reign with Christ (Mat. 19:28, 2 Tim. 2:12, Rev. 2:2-27, 3:21, 20:4). And indeed, the rule of the Davidic Prince will be part of that fulfillment of ruling and reigning with Christ.
But God Himself rebukes those who deny the continued significance of these two family lines. In Jeremiah 33:24 God says, “Have you not seen what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which Yahweh did choose, He is against them, and He has rejected them.’ Thus My people have despised from being any longer a nation before their faces.”
This issue of our attitude toward Israel is so important that Paul warns the Gentile believers of being arrogant toward the unbelieving Jews who have been cut off for a time (Rom. 11:17-32). Paul tells them that thinking that God is done with His people as a nation is arrogant (v. 18), conceited (v. 20), and a case of being wise in your own estimation (v. 25). But after reaffirming that God is not through with them but explaining that God will restore them, Paul presents a doxology of worship in Romans 11:33-36: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (v. 33, CAW).
God has said through Jeremiah that, when people dismiss the promised future of the earthly Davidic line, they are denying that Israel is a nation in God’s eyes. And Paul says that such views are arrogant and conceited. But he also shows that when a proper view of the people of Israel is held, the end result is the exalted worship and praise of God.
So while the search for the Prince in Scripture may seem like a trivial pursuit to the uninformed, God’s Word shows that it will lead down a path that culminates in what the Prince will excel in, as he says, “My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your glory all day long. … I will praise You yet more and more” (Ps. 71:8, 14).
