Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon.

The time is around 3,000 years ago as we come to the record of King David anointing his son Solomon to be king of all of Israel. It almost did not happen this way for another son of David, Adonijah had plotted to seize the kingdom from his stepbrother Solomon when their father, King David, learned of the plan and had Bathsheba call a member of the King’s staff to his death bed to make certain Solomon was crowned King. Bathsheba brought Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet to anoint Solomon King of Israel.

It is interesting to note that this prophet Nathan is the same prophet that told King David that he would not be allowed to build the temple, but that the Temple would be built by David’s son, Solomon. Nathan also is key in the giving of the Davidic Covenant, II Samuel 7, to David. It was Nathan who helped select Solomon to be the third king of Israel and one of the ones to anoint Solomon.

God had promised David that one of his seed would rule on the throne and also play a key role in the building of the permanent “worship center” of the Lord, the Temple. That promise will ultimately be fulfilled by Jesus Christ who will return to earth and build His Temple, Messiah's Temple, Zechariah 6:12. The Lord Jesus will also reign from that Temple as the King, Zechariah 6:13.

Thus we have seen the first step in the long journey over the centuries to Jesus through the Davidic line. But, I want you to notice something else in this passage. Nathan the prophet and Zadok were to bring Solomon to the Gihon River, which is located in the city of David, the original site for Jerusalem. It was at the Gihon that these men would anoint Solomon to be king over Israel.

Maybe you remember where you have heard of that river, the Gihon, before. If not, look back to Genesis 2. The Gihon is one of the rivers mentioned in the reference to the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2:13. In fact, the Gihon is the river, the one river, that flowed out of the Garden of Eden and became four rivers somewhere outside of the Garden, Genesis 2:10. This text is telling us that, as Jewish scholarship has believed for almost 6,000 years, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the original site of the Garden of Eden. (See my audio series, Return to Eden)

One of David's seed will rule from a Temple in the original Garden of Eden one day. That one from David’s seed is Jesus Christ, who is coming soon.

PRAYER THOT: Help me to be pure and productive as I await His return.