A Class of One by Dick Eastman

Could it be that the last great ingathering of people finding Christ will be preceded by an extraordinary movement of intercessory worship?

It is a fascinating phrase—one of the most quoted of any biblical character in the Old or New Testaments. Rare is the study of the foundations of biblical leadership that you do not hear it: a man after God’s own heart. And what follower of Jesus, man or woman, does not desire to become that?

Biblically speaking, however, those who qualified for this distinction represent a class of one. Only of David, the shepherd king who danced before the Lord with all his might, do we read this description (see 1 Sam. 13:14;  2 Sam. 6:14; Acts 13:22).

What made David, David? A look at other Old Testament characters and the space allotted to them in the Scriptures helps us see how David stands out. Fourteen Old Testament chapters tell Abraham’s story. Eleven describe the events of Jacob’s life, and some 14 relate the story of his son Joseph. Only 10 chapters are needed to detail the life of Elijah and his protégé, Elisha.

Then there is David. At least 66 chapters tell his story! There are about 1,200 references to David in Scripture, including 59 in the New Testament alone.

Kevin J. Conner, who provides the above facts in his remarkably detailed book, The Tabernacle of David, adds this insight:

If we think of a character that speaks of faith, we think of Abraham, the father of all who believe. If we think of a man of weakness, we speak of Moses. . . If we look for a man of miracles, we think of Elijah, or Elisha. But when we look for the Bible character for praise and worship, we speak of King David. He is the man after God’s heart. The psalms of David are primarily worship psalms.

A God-Saturated Life

There is, of course, the enigma surrounding David’s life: How could a man with such deep personal failure forever be described as “a man after God’s own heart?” Familiar to most Bible students, even those with a rudimentary Sunday School exposure, is David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his conspiracy to murder Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, a commander in David’s army (see 2 Sam. 11:1-17).

This same David would shortly agonize before God over the sickness of the child born of that adultery. But his fasting and prayer would be of no avail and the child would die (see 2 Sam. 12:15-19). Soon he would weep before his Lord and compose a song of agonizing contrition, pleading for a restoration of God’s joy and a pure heart. Hear his song once again—no doubt sung with tears:

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. . . Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Ps. 51:4,10-12).

This is David, and somehow David is different, in ways not always easy to understand. If there is a secret to David’s life, a key that explains his description as a man after God’s own heart, it clearly has something to do with his all-consuming passion for the Lord. Philip Yancey perhaps explains it best in his book Reaching for the Invisible God. Yancey questions:

David’s secret? The two scenes, one a buoyant high and the other a devastating low, hint at an answer. Whether cart-wheeling behind the ark or lying prostrate on the ground for six straight nights in contrition, David’s strongest instinct was to relate his life to God. In comparison, nothing else mattered at all. All his poetry makes it clear, he led a God-saturated life.³

A Picture of Praise and Power

This is the man who pitched a tent in Zion and who put within it the Ark of the Covenant. This tent would come to be known as the Tabernacle of David—a picture of praise and power, providing vital wisdom and strategic significance for the end-time church. This picture is central to a prophetic word brought by the Apostle James at a counsel of believers in Jerusalem about A.D. 50 or 51. We read: 

After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things (Acts 15:16-17, NKJV).

This passage contains incredible prophetic significance of David’s Tabernacle (or tent) being restored in the end times, and the clear patterns of Davidic worship (which we describe as intercessory worship, or worship-saturated prayer) that will be a part of this restoration.

Central to this study is the extraordinary harvest of humankind pictured in the Acts 15 promise “that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles” (v. 17, NKJV). The New Living Translation renders the passage: “that the rest of humanity might find the Lord, including the Gentiles”.

Let me pause here to include some interesting historical background regarding David’s tent that might prove helpful to understanding its significance.

J. T. Horger, writing in Fundamental Revelation in Dramatic Symbol, explains that it was approximately 1490 b.c. when Moses erected a temporary Tabernacle, which served until he built God’s prescribed Tabernacle the same year. It was built according to the pattern Jehovah had given Moses on Mount Sinai, where the Israelites were camping at the time.

This Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant within it were transported by the Israelites throughout their wilderness wanderings for 40 years, and it continued to serve as their worship center for the next 350 years in Canaan. Then, for at least 20 years, the Ark was neglected and left in a Gibeonite city in the house of Obed-edom, who may have been a Philistine! Finally, David retrieved the Ark and placed it in a temporary tent on Mount Zion, in the southwestern corner of Jerusalem.

David’s tent, of course, would have been entirely insignificant without the Ark of the Covenant inside it. Of all the furniture in Moses’ Tabernacle, the Ark was the most important. It meant to ancient Old Testament Israel what Jesus means to His New Testament Church. Mentioned 180 times in Scripture, the Ark was the very throne of God on Earth. To Israel, the Ark represented God’s presence, His glory among His people.

So, David was desperate to bring the Ark home. There even seems to be a sense of urgency in his setting up a mere tent for the Ark. We read, “They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it” (2 Sam. 6:17). He did not want to wait until he could build some glorious edifice to house the Ark which God had long before told Israel was the specific and literal place where He would dwell (see Exod. 25:22).

In the Acts 15 passage cited above, and also in its Amos 9 reference, the Greek and Hebrew words for “tabernacle” suggest a simple tent. The Hebrew word used in Amos 9:11 is sookah, meaning “a tent, tabernacle, pavilion, booth or cottage” or even “a hut made of entwined boughs.” The Greek word used in Acts 15:16 for tabernacle or tent is skene, meaning “a tent or cloth hut.”

The Hebrew word used in 2 Samuel 6:17 to describe David setting up his tent is a different word from Amos 9. Here the Hebrew word ohel is used, but it similarly has the meaning of a tent, tabernacle, dwelling place, home or covering. It generally describes a covering or dwelling used by nomadic people (see Gen. 4:20; 13:5).

A Coming Covering

It is the definition of “covering” that holds interesting significance when considering the Acts 15:16-18 prophecy. These verses picture a last-days event, when the Tabernacle of David will be restored so that “the rest of humanity might find the Lord” (v. 17, NLT). As we shall see shortly, I believe that this covering relates to David’s Tabernacle and that it is most certainly a covering of intercessory worship. Bear with me as I build my case for this coming covering.

First of all, we know this tent (ohel) was not fancy because the Bible says simply that David “pitched a tent for it [the Ark] in Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 1:4). Of this same event, we read of an earlier time when “they brought the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it” (1 Chron. 16:1).

Of course, one does not pitch a building. This was, as the text says, a simple tent, even though the Hebrew word used (ohel) also can be translated “tabernacle.”

Of this word ohel, Kevin J. Conner writes in his classic work The Tabernacle of David,

“Ohel . . . is used of a covering, a dwelling place, a home, a tabernacle or tent for cattle, for man, for families or for God Himself. It has both secular and sacred uses as a dwelling place for either man or for God.”

The symbolism of David’s Tabernacle is obviously vital to God’s plan for the ages. Further, it is essential we see the significance of why Amos prophesies that it would be rebuilt, or restored, at some point in the future, which James reiterates at that critical council in Jerusalem, highlighting its purpose—“so that the rest of humanity might find the Lord” (Acts 15:17, NLT).

The Days of Old

Two additional vital, historical observations are essential to our understanding of what it is about David’s Tabernacle that God desired to be restored and why. First is the historical and biblical context for the apostle James’s referring to the future restoration of David’s fallen tent; second is the historical context of the Amos prophecy itself.

Specifically, what exactly did Amos mean when he prophesied that David’s fallen tent would be built “as it used to be” (Amos 9:11), or “as in the days of old” (NKJV)?

It is clear that the primary reason James cites the Amos prophecy is to quell the dissension surfacing at the Council of Jerusalem regarding the growing conversion of Gentiles and whether they should be circumcised (see Acts 15:1-3). By the time the events of Acts 15 occurred, the Early Church was obviously advancing, with whole cities and regions being impacted by the gospel (see Acts 13:44,49; 14:1,3,21).

Tensions clearly began to arise over issues of Gentile conversions and which aspects of Jewish law still applied to them. Thus James, obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit, refers back to the Amos prophecy to build a case for the future Gentile harvest.

James’s prompting of the Holy Spirit to cite the prophecy of Amos is critical. Although the apostle was no doubt grateful in his heart that God brought this passage to his mind, he probably did not realize its unusual future significance. He was merely trying to build a case for growing Gentile conversions.

James was most certainly familiar with the Amos prophecy, which reads,

“In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be” (Amos 9:11).

Note especially the phrase “build it as it used to be,” or as rendered in the King James Version, “as in the days of old.” 

A Collapsing Tent

The people of Amos’s day had strayed far from the practice of Davidic worship. For 200 years, the various kings in Israel had promoted the golden calf system of worship established under Jeroboam I (see 1 Kings 12:25-33). There was no doubt that the Tabernacle of David, as far as worship was concerned, had crumbled. And they knew Amos was not speaking of God raising up, or pitching, another literal tent as David did. He was speaking of something having to do with the purity and passion of the worship associated with David’s tent. That is what God would someday restore.

When did David’s tent (as a symbol of worship) actually begin to fall? We catch a glimpse when we read these instructions of the Lord to Solomon,

“As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command . . . I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father. . .  But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you . . . then I will cut off Israel . . . and will reject this temple (1 Kings 9:4-7).

Unfortunately, Solomon’s encouraging beginning (see 1 Kings 3:5-14) had a sad conclusion (see 1 Kings 11:1-13). Already during Solomon’s reign, the tent had begun its collapse. We read:

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord. . . . So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude . . . I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you” (1 Kings 11:4,6,9-11).

Such was the spiritual condition of God’s people and the beginning of the decline of Davidic worship for many generations. But, according to Amos, all that was to change, and change remarkably at some future point in history. “In that day,” God said through Amos, “I will restore David’s fallen tent” (Amos 9:11). The question is, When is “that day”?

That Day!

There is irrefutable biblical evidence that we are living in the time that Amos referred to as “that day.” The evidence is irrefutable because of the Amos prophecy itself. To fully grasp this we must read the rest of what Amos foretold:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God (Amos 9:13-15).

The expression “The days are coming” here refers to the same biblical context that Amos talked about two verses earlier when he prophesied, “In that day” (v. 11).

Robert Stearns, teaching on this theme of David’s Tabernacle ultimately being restored, comments on these three significant words,

“God doesn’t say some day. He doesn’t say one day. He doesn’t say occasionally. God says in that day. He pinpoints a specific day in human history and says ‘in that day’ He intends to do certain things.”¹⁸

Of course, the certain things God intends to do involve all that we read of in the entire Amos prophecy. Thus, David’s fallen tent (a covering of global intercessory worship) will be restored when (and only when) the exiled people of Israel are brought back from being scattered everywhere and planted forever in their own land.

Who could dispute the fact that May 14, 1948, is the clearest possibility (if not the only possibility) for the beginning of this ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy of Amos? This was the day it was announced publicly that a new nation of Israel (the fifty-ninth in the United Nations) was established.

Today, most of us see that special day in 1948 simply as a remarkable historical fact and easily miss the totality of the miracle. Robert Stearns explains,

“If you were to talk to an anthropologist or historian who studies history, cultures and societies, you’d find that in thousands of years of recorded human history, there is one anthropological anomaly. There is one unprecedented thing that has happened throughout all of recorded human history. It is the regathering of Israel into her land.”¹⁹

Believing the Unbelievable

Think of how unbelievable this 1948 miracle would have seemed to historians just a century ago. I thought of this recently when I came across an English edition of a unique book titled Science and Faith: A Letter to Intellectual Friends, originally published a few years ago in Chinese.

Written by Dr. Edward W. Li, a gifted Chinese scientist who had come to faith in Christ, Science and Faith was originally a lengthy and comprehensive letter explaining to his unbelieving intellectual friends in China how he had come to believe the Bible and accept Christ as his personal Savior.

At length, Li explained how accurate the Bible is, particularly its many prophecies. He especially highlighted Israel becoming a new nation. Of this fact, Li wrote:

There is no other nation that can compare with the Jews in the tribulation and disasters they have suffered. Besides the distresses of war caused by Assyria, Babylon and the Roman Empire, the persecutions that they suffered at the hands of European nations were almost as relentless.

Li points out how in 1881 the czar of Russia was assassinated and 1 million Jews were slain in retaliation. Later, during World War I, the then czar of Russia compelled the Jews to leave and anyone refusing was slain by machine gun or grenade. Then, of course, came the massacre of Jews by Hitler during World War II. Of the 9 million Jews under Hitler’s influence, 6 million of them were killed.

Dr. Li provides this conclusion:

Israel, as a nation that suffered tremendous calamities, was diminished in population, scattered to many different countries, stripped of its own land and nation, yet was never assimilated or destroyed. It . . . survived as a peculiar tribe preserving its special national tradition. This is a marvel in all of human history. Commonly in history, once a nation was conquered by others, it would not last over five hundred years. Powerful countries in history such as Babylon, Egypt and Rome, could not escape this fate. So, why was this weak and small country of Judea an exception? Historians cannot give an explanation.^”

Biblically, however, we do have an explanation. God had set aside a particular day to do it. And we have the extraordinary privilege to be living in “that day.”

Having said all this, I want to emphasize the totality of the Amos prophecy that James later cites during the Council of Jerusalem. Central to it is the restoration of David’s Tabernacle so that “the rest of humanity might find the Lord, including the Gentiles” (Acts 15:17, NLT).

This means that just as the prophecy of Israel’s return from exile has been fulfilled, so will the part about David’s Tabernacle being restored be fulfilled. Further, this restoration will involve an unprecedented harvest of souls being brought into the Kingdom.

And that is why I have shared such detail regarding the whole of this prophecy regarding David’s fallen tent. Could it be that the last great ingathering of people finding Christ will be preceded by an extraordinary movement of intercessory worship in the very spirit of passionate Davidic worship?

Could it be that the ultimate restoration of the Tabernacle of David (see Acts 15:16-18) actually refers to a supernatural tent, or covering, of worship and intercession that will be raised up by the Church in our generation over every tribe, tongue, people and nation on Earth? (see Rev. 5:8-10; 7:9-12).

I believe God has already begun this movement and its growing in amazing ways. He is inviting us to join Him in seeing it advance globally until we see the literal fulfillment of Habakkuk’s declaration: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14, NKJV).

Biography for Dick Eastman:

Dick Eastman is President Emeritus of Every Home for Christ, having served as its international president from 1988 to 2022. He is the author of 24 books with more than 10 million copies in print, including Intercessory Worship (Chosen Books, 2011) from which the above article was adapted. His Change the World School of Prayer seminar has equipped more than 3 million believers in some 150 nations globally to make prayer a central discipline in their daily lives.  Dick is also a founding member and president of the National Prayer Committee, a group of respected leaders from throughout Christ’s Body, responsible for giving leadership to the planning of America’s National Day of Prayer which by law is celebrated the first Thursday of May annually. Dick and his wife Dee live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have two grown daughters, eight grandchildren, and will celebrate their 60^th wedding anniversary this year.