The Son of David

The fallen sukkah

Yesterday we met the son of Yosef: the Messiah who is rejected, pierced, hidden among the nations and recognized only the second time. Today we meet the son of David, the King.

Once again, Sukkot is the right place to ask. The prophet Amos gives the Messiah’s work a Sukkot name:

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11).

The word for “tabernacle” is sukkat: the sukkah of David. The Talmud turns this verse into one of the Messiah’s names:

Rav Nachman said to Rabbi Yitzchak: “Have you heard when bar nafli will come?” He asked: “Who is bar nafli?” He answered: “The Messiah.” “The Messiah is called bar nafli?” “Yes, as it is written: ‘In that day I will raise up the sukkah of David that is fallen (ha-nofelet).’” (Sanhedrin 96b)

Bar nafli means “the son of the fallen one.” The Messiah son of David comes to a house that has fallen down, and he raises it up.

When the first believers in Jerusalem met to decide whether Gentiles could join Israel’s hope, Yaakov (James) quoted this same verse: “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down… that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles” (Acts 15:16–17).

And there is one more Sukkot connection. Of the seven ushpizin, the guests we invite into the sukkah, the last is King David. He comes on the seventh night, Hoshana Rabbah, the day of “Save us.” The festival itself ends by waiting for the King.

The promise to David

Everything about the son of David begins with one promise. The prophet Natan told King David:

“I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Samuel 7:12–14).

Three things are promised here. He will come from David’s own body. He will build a House for Hashem’s name. His throne will last forever.

The prophets keep adding to the picture:

• A shoot from Yishai. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of Hashem shall rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:1–2).

• A righteous Branch. “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper… and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Hashem our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5–6).

• One shepherd. “David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd… my tabernacle also shall be with them” (Ezekiel 37:24, 27).

The ancient Aramaic translations, the Targumim, read these verses as the Messiah outright:

“The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah… until the Messiah comes, whose is the kingdom, and him shall the nations obey.” (Targum Onkelos on Genesis 49:10)

“From you [Bethlehem] shall come forth before Me the Messiah, to rule over Israel, whose name was spoken from of old, from the days of creation.” (Targum on Micah 5:1)

“Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the service of Hashem their God, and obey the Messiah son of David their king.” (Targum on Hosea 3:5)

A name with Hashem in it

Jeremiah’s verse raised a question even for the sages:

“What is the name of the King Messiah? Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Hashem is his name, as it says: ‘And this is his name whereby he shall be called: Hashem our righteousness.’” (Eicha Rabbah 1:51)

How can a man be called by Hashem’s name? The Talmud answers in another place. It lists three that are called by the name of the Holy One: the righteous, the Messiah and Jerusalem. For Jerusalem it cites “the name of the city from that day shall be, Hashem is there” (Ezekiel 48:35; Bava Batra 75b). The city is not Hashem. It carries His name because He dwells there. So too the Messiah: he bears the Name because Hashem’s authority and presence rest on him, not because he is Hashem.

“Thou art my Son”

Yesterday we saw the baraita in Sukkah 52a. Hashem says to the son of David, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). The verse before it reads, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (2:7). The Midrash reads the psalms of the King together:

“Rabbi Yudan said: All these good things are in the decree of the King of kings, which He will fulfill for the King Messiah. ‘I will declare the decree… Thou art My son’ (Psalm 2:7). ‘Sit thou at My right hand’ (Psalm 110:1).” (Midrash Tehillim 2:9)

“Son” is a royal title in the Tanakh. Hashem calls all Israel “my son, even my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). He tells David of Shlomo, “he shall be my son” (2 Samuel 7:14). The King Messiah is the Son in this Jewish sense: chosen, anointed, and seated at Hashem’s right hand to rule in His name. The throne is Hashem’s; the Son sits beside it.

What will he do?

The clearest legal description of the son of David comes from the Rambam:

“The King Messiah will arise and restore the kingdom of David to its former rule. He will build the Sanctuary and gather the dispersed of Israel.” (Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 11:1)

The Rambam also warns us not to expect every detail the way we imagine it:

“Let no one think that in the days of the Messiah anything of the natural order will be cancelled… No one knows how these things will be until they happen.” (Hilchot Melachim 12:1–2)

The prophets tell us what the world looks like when he reigns. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares… neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Hashem, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). And at the very end, “Hashem shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Hashem, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9).

The son of Yosef suffers. The son of David finishes the work.

Clouds or a donkey?

Now to the questions you asked. First: will he come in the clouds? Scripture gives two pictures that seem to contradict each other.

“One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days… And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:13–14).

“Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass” (Zechariah 9:9).

The Talmud noticed the contradiction:

“Rabbi Alexandri said: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi pointed out a contradiction. It is written, ‘with the clouds of heaven,’ and it is written, ‘lowly and riding upon a donkey.’ If they merit, he comes with the clouds of heaven. If they do not merit, he comes lowly, riding on a donkey.” (Sanhedrin 98a)

The same page has a story. The Persian king Shapur mocked the sage Shmuel: “You say your Messiah comes on a donkey? I will send him one of my fine horses!” Shmuel answered: “Do you have a horse of a hundred colors?” In other words, the Messiah’s donkey is not what you think it is.

Other sages see no contradiction at all. Rav Saadia Gaon explains that the Messiah comes humbly, on a donkey, and that the clouds of heaven, which are the angels, accompany him. The Targum on Chronicles gives one of David’s descendants the name Anani, “the cloud man,” and says: “Anani is the King Messiah, who is to be revealed” (Targum on 1 Chronicles 3:24).

We believe both pictures are true, one for each coming. Yeshua rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the crowds cried out Psalm 118, the Sukkot psalm: “Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9). When he left, “a cloud received him out of their sight,” and the messengers said he will “so come in like manner” (Acts 1:9–11). “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him” (Revelation 1:7).

The donkey was the first coming, when we were not ready. The clouds are the second.

Born of a virgin?

Next question: will he be born of a virgin?

Isaiah said: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The Hebrew word is almah, a young woman. Matthew and Luke tell us that Miriam conceived Yeshua before she knew a man (Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38).

Rabbinic literature does not expect a virgin birth. It does expect something unusual about the Messiah’s origin. The Midrash says it twice:

“‘For God hath appointed me another seed’ (Genesis 4:25). Seed that comes from another place. And who is this? The King Messiah.” (Bereishit Rabbah 23:5)

“‘That we may preserve seed of our father’ (Genesis 19:32). It does not say ‘a son’ but ‘seed’: seed that comes from another place. And who is this? The King Messiah.” (Bereishit Rabbah 51:8)

The Messiah’s family line runs through strange and surprising births: Tamar and Yehudah, Rut the Moabite, Batsheva. Matthew names exactly these women in Yeshua’s genealogy (Matthew 1:3–6). Hashem’s hand is in the line of the King in ways no one expects.

There is also a real question here, and we should say it plainly. The promise was that the King would come “out of thy bowels” (2 Samuel 7:12), “of the fruit of thy body” (Psalm 132:11), and tribe in Israel passes through the father. Matthew and Luke both trace Yeshua’s line through Yosef. So how is he David’s physical seed? Teachers answer in different ways. Some say the line passes through Miriam, who was also of David. Kabbalistic sources describe Hashem placing the father’s seed in the mother’s womb by an angel. What everyone agrees on is this: the King must be truly of David, and his coming is Hashem’s work, not man’s.

Will he be married?

Scripture never says the Messiah will be single. It says quite a lot that points the other way.

• Psalm 45 is a royal wedding song. The Targum translates its opening, “Thou art fairer than the children of men,” as: “Your beauty, O King Messiah, is greater than the sons of men.”

• Isaiah says of the suffering servant, “he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days” (Isaiah 53:10).

• Ezekiel’s prince in the future Temple gives gifts “unto any of his sons” (Ezekiel 46:16).

• The Rambam writes: “The Messiah will die, and his son and his grandson will reign after him” (Commentary on the Mishnah, introduction to Perek Chelek).

• The Zohar teaches that the Messiah will have a wife, and some teachers, like Palvanov, count this as a requirement.

At the same time, Scripture’s clearest bride of the Messiah is a people and a city. “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isaiah 62:5). “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). “The holy city, new Jerusalem… prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).

Could the Messiah have a wife and children? Nothing in the Torah forbids it, and nothing in our faith depends on it being otherwise. What Scripture makes certain is the other marriage: the King and his people.

Could he be a she?

The Torah says “thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee” (Deuteronomy 17:15). The sages read it closely:

“‘A king,’ and not a queen.” (Sifrei Devarim 157; Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 1:5)

The prophets agree: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6).

But the redemption is full of women. Devorah judged Israel and led it to victory. Esther saved her people. In the old Jewish book Sefer Zerubbabel, the Messiah’s mother, named Hephzibah, is given a staff and fights the enemy kings before her son is revealed. Isaiah gives that same name, Hephzibah, “my delight is in her,” to Zion (Isaiah 62:4). And Isaiah pictures Zion herself giving birth: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child” (Isaiah 66:7). In Revelation, “a woman clothed with the sun” brings forth “a man child, who was to rule all nations” (Revelation 12:1, 5).The King is a son. The people who carry him, give birth to him and are married to him are a mother and a bride.

How will we know?

The last question was the hardest: legally speaking, how do we prove or disprove a Messiah? The Rambam gives the test:

“If a king arises from the House of David, who studies Torah and occupies himself with the commandments like David his father, according to the Written and Oral Torah, and compels all Israel to walk in it and to strengthen its breaches, and fights the wars of Hashem, he is presumed to be the Messiah. If he did this and succeeded, and built the Sanctuary in its place and gathered the dispersed of Israel, he is certainly the Messiah.” (Hilchot Melachim 11:4)

Notice the two levels. A man can be presumed to be the Messiah while he is working. He is certain only when the job is done.

The Torah adds its own tests for anyone who claims to speak for Hashem. Signs and wonders are not enough if he leads you away from Hashem and His commandments (Deuteronomy 13:1–5). His word must come true (Deuteronomy 18:21–22). The Talmud tells how the sages tested Bar Koziba, who claimed to be the Messiah, by the words of Isaiah: “he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes” (Isaiah 11:3). He failed, and history proved them right (Sanhedrin 93b).

And before the King comes, Eliyahu comes. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Hashem” (Malachi 4:5). The Mishnah says Eliyahu comes to make peace in the world (Eduyot 8:7).

Yeshua gave his own warning: “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not… For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:23, 27). The real King will not need to be advertised. Everyone will see him.

So how do we put the Rambam’s test and our faith together? We agree with the Rambam that the son of David is known by what he does: the kingdom restored, the House built, the exiles home, the world at peace. We believe Yeshua has begun that work as the son of Yosef and will finish it as the son of David. Until then, we do not chase anyone who says “here he is.” We keep the commandments, we study Torah, and we watch for the day when the whole world will see.

Raising the sukkah

On the seventh day of Sukkot, the priests circled the altar with willows, crying “Ana Hashem hoshia na”: “Save now, we beseech thee, O Hashem” (Psalm 118:25; Mishnah Sukkah 4:5). The next verse of that psalm is “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of Hashem” (118:26). That is what the crowd shouted when Yeshua rode in on the donkey: “Hosanna to the son of David.”

Zechariah tells us where the story ends. After the King comes, “every one that is left of all the nations… shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, Hashem of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16). The whole world will sit in the sukkah.

The sukkah of David has fallen. Its roof has holes, and we can see the stars through it. But Hashem promised to raise it up, and when He does, “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3).

This week we have been sitting in small, temporary booths, inviting David in as our guest. One day the son of David will invite us into his.

Chag sameach.