From a Reformed Baptist (1689) and amillennial perspective, the kingdom of God is not a future political program waiting to be inaugurated on earth. It is the present reign of the risen Christ, who already sits at the Father’s right hand, exercises genuine authority, and has transferred believers into his kingdom (Col 1:13–14). Yet this reign awaits its public, universal consummation when every enemy is finally put under his feet and death itself is abolished (1 Cor 15:25–27; Heb 2:8–9). One of the richest Old Testament patterns that illuminates this structure is the story of David between his anointing and his full enthronement.

The central correspondence is not that Saul represents Satan in every detail. It is that David is the divinely appointed king before his reign is publicly and universally established. Between anointing and enthronement he experiences opposition, suffering, exile, and apparent weakness—yet God’s kingdom purpose is already certain. This narrative pattern supplies a fruitful typological avenue for understanding the Messiah’s kingdom.

David Is King by Divine Appointment

The Lord tells Samuel that he has rejected Saul and has provided a king from among Jesse’s sons. David is anointed, and “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (1 Sam 16:1, 12–13). The text carefully distinguishes between Saul’s continuing public position and David’s new divine status. Mark Boda notes that David’s initial anointing is followed by a prolonged interval before his public confirmation. The delay contrasts with Saul’s rapid rise and demonstrates that David’s kingship rests on God’s choice rather than immediate political possession (After God’s Own Heart, 32–33).

This gives us a crucial “already.” David is not merely a future king. He is already the Lord’s chosen and anointed king, already empowered by the Spirit, and already acting in ways that reveal the character of his coming reign. In Reformed Baptist covenant theology, this anticipates the way Christ is publicly declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection (Rom 1:4) and is installed as Lord and Christ at the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:32–36). The New Covenant does not begin with a mere promise of a future king; it begins with a reigning King who has already received the Spirit without measure and poured him out on his people.

The Old Ruler Remains in Power

Saul continues to occupy the throne, command the army, and exercise political authority. Yet his own words reveal that David’s rise threatens the existing order: “What more can he have but the kingdom?” (1 Sam 18:6–8). The tension is therefore not between a king and a private individual. It is between the rejected ruler and the Lord’s chosen ruler. David possesses the promise, but Saul still possesses the throne.

This is a useful parallel to the New Testament’s presentation of Christ. Jesus announces that the kingdom has arrived in his ministry—particularly through the defeat of demonic power—yet the final defeat of every enemy remains future (Matt 12:28–29). Paul can therefore say both that Christ “must reign” and that death is still the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor 15:25–27). From an amillennial standpoint, the “old order” of sin, death, and the present evil age continues under divine permission while the true King already reigns from heaven. The 1689 Confession’s emphasis on the mediatorial reign of Christ (chap. 8) and the present spiritual nature of the church (chap. 26) coheres with this: the kingdom is real and advancing, even while its visible, universal manifestation is still future.

David’s Suffering Does Not Disprove His Kingship

Jonathan finds David in the wilderness and strengthens him by affirming, “You shall be king over Israel,” even though David is at that moment being hunted by Saul (1 Sam 23:14–18). Peter Leithart interprets this period as David’s humiliation before exaltation: David is already the anointed crown prince, but he undergoes years of danger, wandering, persecution, and outlawry before ascending the throne (A House for My Name, 141–142, 144).

This guards against a common mistake: treating present suffering or apparent weakness as evidence that the kingdom is absent. In the Davidic pattern, suffering occurs precisely because the kingdom has been divinely granted but has not yet reached its public fullness. For the church under the New Covenant, this means that the opposition, persecution, and seeming weakness of the people of God do not call Christ’s present kingship into question. Rather, they belong to the pattern of the King who first suffered and then entered into his glory (Luke 24:26; Heb 2:10). Amillennial eschatology refuses both the triumphalism that expects the church’s present cultural dominance and the despair that concludes the kingdom has failed because the world remains hostile.

David Refuses to Seize the Kingdom

The most important ethical and theological feature of the narrative is David’s refusal to establish his reign by murdering Saul. In the cave, David has the opportunity to kill Saul, but he refuses to strike “the LORD’s anointed.” He leaves judgment and enthronement in the Lord’s hands. Saul himself eventually recognizes the implication: David will certainly become king, and the kingdom will be established in his hand (1 Sam 24:4–7, 16–22). The same pattern occurs again in 1 Samuel 26. David rejects Abishai’s claim that God has given Saul into his hand. God’s providential delivery of Saul does not authorize David to seize the throne. David expects God to act in God’s own time.

Leithart draws the connection directly: David does not seize the kingdom by force but entrusts himself to God, who will raise him in due time, anticipating the pattern of Jesus. The parallel should not be pressed into an exact identification of Saul with Satan. A better correspondence is simply this:

Saul is the rejected ruler who still exercises temporary authority.
David is the chosen king who suffers before public enthronement.
David refuses to take the kingdom through sinful violence.
God himself removes the old ruler and establishes the new king.
Christ likewise did not seize the kingdom by political intrigue or military force. He entrusted himself to the Father, who raised him and exalted him in due time (Phil 2:6–11; 1 Pet 2:23). From a 1689 Baptist perspective, this reinforces that the church’s advance is not through grasping after earthly power by ungodly means, but through the proclamation of the gospel, the administration of the ordinances, and the patient endurance of the saints under the already-reigning Christ (cf. 1689 Confession, chaps. 24, 26).

The Stages of David’s Enthronement

David’s public reign unfolds in stages rather than all at once. After Saul’s death, Judah anoints David king over Judah. Later, all Israel comes to Hebron and anoints him king over the whole nation (2 Sam 5:1–5). That staged development supports an amillennial distinction between:

David’s private anointing: divine appointment and identity.
David’s effective but partial rule: faithful activity while Saul remains in power.
David’s rule over Judah: a real but limited public reign.
David’s rule over all Israel: broader public recognition and consummation of the promise.
The analogy to Christ should be made at the level of theological pattern, not chronology. Acts 2 presents Jesus as raised, exalted to the Father’s right hand, and publicly constituted as Lord and Christ. Yet Hebrews says that, although everything has been subjected to him in principle, “at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Heb 2:8–9). That is almost a textual definition of the already/not-yet tension: Christ reigns now, but the visible and universal manifestation of that reign awaits the consummation.

Christ the Greater David

The David story must not be used to suggest that Christ’s present reign is merely potential, symbolic, or postponed. David’s anointing already changed his status, and the Spirit’s presence already marked him as the coming king. Likewise, Christ is already exalted and reigns now; believers have already been transferred into his kingdom (Col 1:13–14). The “not yet” concerns not the uncertainty of Christ’s kingship but the incompleteness of its public manifestation. The Davidic pattern therefore fits an amillennial structure well: the King is enthroned, the kingdom is active, the old order is being judged, opposition remains, and the final abolition of death awaits Christ’s return.

In the 1689 Baptist tradition, this coheres with a robust doctrine of the New Covenant: Christ is the Mediator who has already inaugurated the better covenant by his blood (Heb 8–10), and the church is the present expression of his kingdom people, gathered under his Word and ordinances while we wait for the resurrection and the new creation. The story of David between anointing and enthronement therefore does more than illustrate a point. It trains the church to live faithfully under an already-reigning King whose final public glory is certain, even while we still sojourn in the wilderness.

The pattern is clear: anointing, opposition, wilderness suffering, refusal to seize power, staged enthronement—and then the New Testament’s presentation of Christ as the greater David whose reign is already present but not yet consummated. In that tension the church is called to hope, endurance, and faithful witness.