to him: ‘You are my son; I, today, I have become your father.’ Just as he says also in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.’”—Heb. 5:5, 6.

So, having proved his faithfulness, Jesus, by his death and resurrection to the heavens, was shown to be worthy of both a priesthood and a kingship far superior and far grander in scope than those exercised by the Levitical priests and the Judean kings. These heavenly functions of Jesus are embodied in the covenant for a kingly priesthood.—Heb. 7:4-17.

With Christ in the heavens, the Scriptures show, there will be associated 144,000 associate rulers taken from among mankind. To his apostles, who were the first ones of that group to cherish such an upward calling, he said on the evening before his death: “I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom.” (Luke 22:29, 30) These 144,000 Kingdom heirs are not direct descendants of King David and so not natural heirs to his throne. They are not taken into the covenant made with David for a kingdom. However, as David ruled over the twelve tribes of natural Israel, they will share with Christ in ruling over those pictured by the “twelve tribes of Israel,” namely, all the world of mankind that will live on earth during their thousand-year reign.

These joint heirs with Christ become kings and priests, not by reason of natural inheritance, but because of God’s choosing and anointing of them. They become, as the apostle Peter said, “a royal priesthood.” (1 Pet. 2:9) With Christ they become ruling priests, such as are described in the covenant for the kingly priesthood. Of them it is written: “They will be priests of God and of the Christ, and will rule as kings with him for the thousand years.”—Rev. 20:6.

What, then, of the Davidic covenant for the earthly kingdom? Has it come to an end? Not at all! As foretold through the angel Gabriel, Christ rules “as king over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of his kingdom.” But that kingship is exercised from the heavens and by one who is also designated by God as priestly ruler, by virtue of the provisions of the covenant for the kingly priesthood. And for how long? He is “a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.” So the covenant for the Davidic kingdom and the covenant for the heavenly kingly priesthood work together to ensure a new system of things for the benefit of mankind that will far excel anything that man has yet experienced.

Questions From Readers

● Does the scripture at Isaiah 61:1, 2 constitute the ordination of the “other sheep”?—L. H., U.S.A.

Isaiah 61:1, 2 reads: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of good will on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God; to comfort all the mourning ones.”

Note here that the prophet says that he has been anointed by Jehovah’s spirit. Jesus applied this prophecy to himself but only after he had been anointed by God’s holy spirit at the Jordan at the time of his baptism. (Luke 3:21, 22; 4:17-21)