In this chapter we listen to the prophets and kings of the Old Testament as they proclaim who God is. They were unveiling His attributes—many of which would be seen with fresh clarity only after He came in the flesh, when Jesus came. As we read, notice how often their words describe the very character we have been tracing through this book: a God of mercy, righteousness, nearness, and fatherly love.
King David, the Prophet
Let us begin with King David, who was also a prophet, for he foresaw and spoke of many things that Jesus Christ would fulfill.213 Hear how he blesses the God he knows so intimately:
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name…. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies…. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy…. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust…. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all (Psalm 103:1–19).
What a portrait! God forgives, heals, redeems, and crowns His people with lovingkindness. He does not deal with us according to our sins; He removes our transgressions as far as the east is from the west; He pities us as a tender father pities his children, remembering that we are but dust. And notice—when David says the LORD is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy,” he is echoing God’s own words from Exodus 34. Israel treasured that self-revelation and sang it back to God.214
David lifts the same song again in another psalm:
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable…. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy…. The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them (Psalm 145:3–19).
Great, gracious, compassionate, righteous, holy—and near: “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him.” That nearness, longed for across the Old Testament, would one day put on flesh and dwell among us.215
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah
Hear now the prophets. Through Ezekiel, God reveals His zeal for the holiness of His own name—that He acts not because His people deserve it, but for the honor of who He is:
And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD (Ezekiel 20:44).
I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake…. And I will sanctify my great name… and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD… when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes (Ezekiel 36:22–23).
God’s holiness and the honor of His name stand at the very heart of His purpose to redeem—and He saves “for his name’s sake,” by sheer grace, not because we have earned it.217
Through Jeremiah, God lays bare His fatherly heart—His longing to be called “Father” by a people He loves like a dear child:
How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me…. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child?… my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD (Jeremiah 3:19; 31:20).
This yearning to be called “Father” is answered at last in the gospel, where through Christ we receive “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). The God who longed for sons and daughters made a way to bring us home.218
And through Isaiah, God is proclaimed as the all-wise Sovereign whose counsel is perfect: “This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working” (Isaiah 28:29). And then Isaiah lifts the veil on the coming Redeemer in words we have already treasured in this book:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6–7).
So the prophets and kings of old proclaimed His attributes—a sovereign God, wonderful, a wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is our God, and He is our Father. Every one of these titles, spoken from a distance in the Old Testament, would come near and take a face and a name in the New. To that coming—the Word made flesh—we now turn.219
Notes
- 213. David is called a prophet in Scripture (Acts 2:29–31), for in the Psalms he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ. Many of the Psalms are quoted in the New Testament as prophecies fulfilled in Jesus (e.g., Ps. 16; 22; 110). Scripture quotations in this chapter follow the King James Version unless otherwise noted. ↩
- 214. Psalm 103, traditionally ascribed to David, gathers up the great attributes of God: He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns with lovingkindness, and executes righteousness. Verse 8 deliberately echoes God’s self-revelation in Exodus 34:6, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy”—showing how deeply that proclamation shaped Israel’s worship. ↩
- 215. Psalm 145:8 again echoes Exodus 34:6. The psalm celebrates the greatness, goodness, righteousness, and nearness of God: “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him” (v. 18)—a nearness fully realized when God came in the flesh. ↩
- 217. Through Ezekiel, God repeatedly declares that He acts “for my name’s sake” and “for the sake of my holy name” (Ezek. 20:44; 36:22–23, 32), so that the nations “shall know that I am the LORD.” His holiness and the honor of His name are central to His purposes in redemption. ↩
- 218. Jeremiah 3:19 unveils the fatherly heart of God: “How shall I put thee among the children… and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father.” This longing to be called “Father” by His people is answered in the gospel, where through Christ we receive “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). ↩
- 219. Isaiah 9:6–7 gives the coming Messiah divine titles—“Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God (El Gibbor), The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”—fulfilled in Jesus Christ. See John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 245–252. As noted in an earlier chapter, “Wonderful” echoes the “wonderful” name of the Angel of the LORD in Judges 13:18. ↩