David was the King of the Jews; now, Yeshua is. What does that mean for those who trust in the Son of God?
Look what it meant for the gentile believers who were coming to faith in the Jewish Messiah at the very beginning of the Gospel:
14Shimon Kefa has told you how Elohim, from the beginning, chose a people from the Goyim for His Name. 15And with this the words of the Nevi’im agree, as it is written, 16‘After this I will return, and I will set up again the Sukka of David which has fallen down; and I will repair what has fallen from it, and I will set it up, 17so that a remnant of the sons of Man may seek after יהוה , and also all the Goyim upon whom My Name is called; so said יהוה , who does all these things.’
This was the very first time the leaders of the congregations got together over doctrine. And the doctrine they had to dispel was: Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the Torah of Moses to be saved.
First, that is not the Torah of Moses. That was, and still is, a Pharisee doctrine, particularly of the “House of Shammai”, whom the House of Hillel called “The Synagogue of Satan”. Not all Pharisees believed it. Second, the notion was that Gentiles had to become Jewish by going through the conversion process of Pharisees, and the final sign of it was circumcision. And remember, they were holding this out as the foundation of Salvation. A human litmus test. That was the error, not keeping the Torah itself.
And the proof is, Ya’akov, Jacob, Yeshua’s brother [James] gets up and quotes Amos. And that is why I write today, as that is one of our scheduled readings for this week. Amos had said, “I will set up again the Sukka of David, and repair what is fallen from it”…
David is Jewish. He is of the tribe of Judah, from which the Messianic King was prophesied to come. David himself was an archetype of Messiah. Yeshua is directly descended from Him.
The “Sukka” of David was a temporary tent or ‘booth’ that he set up for the Ark of the Covenant, until he could build a Temple for God’s Ark.
David also set up the priestly orders, dividing the Levites into 8 sections/families, and scheduling them to come up to Jerusalem for worship.
David wrote most of the “Psalms”, or “Tehillim”, which are “Praises”, the liturgical music for the Levites to play and sing in the Temple.
David kept the Sabbath, and the feasts.
The Jewish congregation in Jerusalem said they were REBUILDING Jewish order and attitude of worship.
Yeshua lived under the auspices of that worship, and honored it, by being in the Synagogues, all of which were little temporary ‘temples’ for the various Jewish communities around Israel.
And the careful reader of Acts, and of all the NT scriptures will see that the Apostles and all the Gentiles who came to faith worshipped in them, on the Sabbath. Nowhere did anyone change the day of worship!
Look how Ya’akov/James, under the power of God’s breath, concluded his speech, after laying about six chapters, and possibly close to 100 verses of behavioral guidance on the new gentile believers:
21For Moshe, since early generations, has those who declare him in the Synagogues in every city who read him on every Sabbath Day.”
What is the implication of this?
Read the two previous chapters, Acts 13-14. Paul had just started preaching through Galatia. Every city he went into shows him going only into the synagogues to preach, and there were Gentiles there who had already left paganism to worship the ONE God and Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with Jews, on the Sabbath. These gentiles were already in the habit of meeting in the assembly, on the Sabbath [saturday mornings] in little temporary temples, like David’s. Shortly thereafter, [Acts 15:1] false brethren claiming to be sent by James, the very man that settled the issue, were going into the Synagogues to tell new Gentile believers that their salvation isn’t complete unless they add Jewish law to it.
Setting up the fallen tent of David is a return to true and pure worship of God, not a return to Pharisee Judaism, manmade faith, hoops that people hold over others to grant salvation to them. The Torah has always declared that Salvation is by TRUST in God. “Abraham believed/trusted in God, and God accounted it toward him as ‘righteousness’.” [Gen 15:6] That is the very definition of Salvation. And yes, after Abraham believed, he followed the Torah, since God Himself testified to Isaac about Abraham: 5because that Avraham hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge, My Commandments, My Statutes, and My instructions [torah plural].” [Gen 26].
Keeping the Torah has never been about Salvation: it has always been about loving God and living life the way He says is best for us. That is the fallen Sukka of David. Men are constantly tearing down God’s law and putting their own laws in its place: Every religion has done it! Gentiles don’t understand that about the first century Jews, and today’s Jews: they do not live God’s Torah! And, they don’t understand that their leaders have likewise destroyed the Tent of David, by destroying the Sabbath, and all the feasts, the times God said He would meet with His congregation. Does God still love christians? Absolutely! But, He is saying “Come out of her my people”. “Come out from among them and be separate”. The ‘her’ and the ‘them’ in those statements are: worshiping people led by those who do not know God’s truth. They have a form of godliness, but they are far from Him. Yeshua warns that MOST people would fall in that category, and face fearful rejection on judgment day. “Depart from me, you ‘worker of iniquity’ [defined in Scripture as those who break the Torah]; I did not know you.”