David and Mission – Part 2, The Davidic covenant
David believed that God’s promise to establish David’s family forever on the throne of Israel was part of the fulfillment of the promises with Abraham and the Israelites. David was selected as God’s chosen king, as the Israelites were selected as God’s chosen people. Through this kingship, God would protect and bless them forever. He would use Israel to demonstrate to the other nations his love, holiness, and sovereignty so that all people would know and worship him.
Chernovtsy, Ukraine – The children’s faces light up each time the young volunteers come to visit them at the Aquila Foundation ministry to children with disabilities. In Chernovtsy, in the southwest of Ukraine, half an hour from the border with Romania, is the town where Vera Kushner, a Nazarene whose heart and ministry is for people with disabilities, started the Aquila Foundation nearly nine years ago.
After Saul failed to worship God alone and attempted to control God’s mission, God chose a new king for Israel. This time it was someone after God’s own heart. In the Hebrew understanding, the heart was the seat of the will; therefore, God’s will was David’s will. David understood that God’s will was for all of creation to know and worship him (1 Chronicles 16:23-36). David served God and relied on the daily strength the Lord gave him, not his own. Recorded in the scriptures are descriptions of his righteousness, justice, faithfulness, obedience, and his conversations and intimacy with God.
The period of the judges includes many instances of Israel’s failure to worship and serve God alone, as his holy people in a witness to the nations. The culmination of their failure is found in 1 Samuel in their request for a human king to lead their people in order to be like the other nations around them. Even though Israel rejected God as their king, God’s love for all people and his intent to use the Israelites to fulfill his mission of redeeming, reconciling, and restoring creation did not change. 
Haidar Hallasa, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Kerak, Jordan, was elected the principal of the Eastern Mediterranean Nazarene Bible College (EMNBC) by its Board of Governors on June 21.