David’s rascal heirs did not follow in his spirit-filled footsteps as they reigned on the throne of Israel. The kingdom of David was getting smaller and smaller, and was ultimately defeated and led into exile. What did God do during this 400-year period of decline? Did God do anything to reverse the course of decline? Yes, He did!
Golden Age of Israel’s Prophets
The period of the decline of the Davidic kingdom was really the golden age of the prophets of Israel. It’s the time when the great prophets were sent to the people of Israel, including the more famous like Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but also many others.[1] The prophets called the people and their kings to turn away from sin and to come back to God’s covenant so they could be restored to blessing. We can summarize their message as basically a “Bad News/Good News” message.
The Coming of a New Covenant
All of the prophets, sent by God, first presented bad news to the people of Israel, telling them that they were under judgment for their failure to obey the Mosaic covenant. But then the prophets would share good news. Among that good news was the message a new covenant is coming — a new covenant that will restore all the blessings of the Davidic covenant. It will bring a new king, of David’s line; a new temple; and God’s Spirit is going to rest upon not only the king but all the people as well. Even more, in this new covenant there will be peace like that of Eden. All the blessings not only of the Davidic covenant but even of the earlier covenants, will be restored.
Where is this prophesied? Here are some key verses. Jeremiah 31:31 is the only verse in the Old Testament that uses the exact phrase “new covenant.” There, the prophet says, “The days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah and the house of Israel. Not like the covenant which I made with them when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, my covenant which they broke.” There, Jeremiah is prophesying the coming of a new covenant that will not be like the covenant with Moses. What was wrong with the covenant with Moses? The people sinned, broke it, and God added in all those penitential laws. The new covenant, however, will not be like that.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of the new covenant when he says, “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me. Hear, that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast sure love for David.”[2] There, the prophet, speaking on behalf of God, is inviting all the poor people of the earth to heed God’s voice and come to God. God is offering them a free meal that will induct them into an everlasting covenant. The free meal will be the Eucharist, and the covenant really no different than the covenant relationship once extended to David.
The prophet Ezekiel says that in the future, “David, my servant, shall be their prince forever and I’ll make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will bless them and multiply them, and I’ll set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.”[3] In the language of a covenant of peace, blessing and multiplying, we hear the echoes of Eden. In this, Ezekiel is suggesting that the new covenant will be kind of a return to Eden. This prophecy, too, is truly fulfilled in Christ.
Indeed, while the kingdom of David was declining, God was very active declaring the good news through His prophets. They predicted a new son of David was coming with a new covenant. The new covenant was going to be more perfect than any covenant God’s people had experienced up until that point.
Relation to Evangelization
The relevance to evangelization of the prophesied new covenant is obvious. Once again, Christianity is not an invented religion by a religious leader who comes with illusions of grandeur and concocts a holy book. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is grounded in actual history, in the history of the people of Israel. These prophetic documents from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the others are historical documents written in ancient times by these saints of Israel. In them are predicted the contours of what Jesus really did and is doing through His Church. The kingdom of David is indeed expanding over the whole earth — from the gospels to the Book of Acts until today. All of this was predicted centuries before.
Furthermore, though all of the older covenants were broken, the prophets predicted that this new one was going to be everlasting. The new covenant is not going to be replaced by some other, superior form of communion with God. This assures us that with Jesus Christ, we have the fullness of Revelation and have no need to look for some other religious leader; not Joseph Smith, not Mohammed, not Guru Nanak, not anyone. The fullness has been fulfilled now in this new and eternal covenant in Jesus Christ. This is the way back to God for the rest of time, until human history ends.
[1] Also included among the prophets of this time are Amos, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Habakkuk, and (possibly) Joel.
[2] Isaiah 55:1-3.
[3] Cf. Ezekiel 37:25-26.