Messiah comes from the Hebrew word mashiach meaning “anointed.”  So, to be the Messiah, is to be “the anointed one of God.” 

     To be anointed, literally, is to have sacred oil poured on one’s head, denoting that God has chosen this person for a special task. Priests and kings were anointed, and occasionally prophets. Kings were anointed during their coronation rather than receiving a crown.

        The biblical imagery of the word “Messiah” is that of a king chosen by God. Often in the Old Testament, God would tell a prophet to go anoint someone and proclaim him king. The act of anointing with sacred oil emphasized that this person was divinely ordained .

    The Messiah was to be a king, not a spiritual leader.

     Throughout the Old Testament, there are indications that God wad going to send a great king to rule over Israel to return it to the greatness it once had under kings David and Solomon.

     In Genesis 49:10, when Jacob blesses each of his sons and foretells their future, he says of Judah: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom  it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

     This is the first hint that they were expecting a great king to arise out of the tribe of Judah who would be king over the whole earth.

     The clearest prophecy about the future messianic king comes from King David’s time, when God promised he would build a “house” for David, meaning that God would establish his family line after him. He further promised that from David’s family would come a king whose kingdom will have no end: When your days are over and you  go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed  you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever. (1 Chronicles 17:11-14)

     This prophecy has been understood as having a double fulfillment. It is first fulfilled in Solomon, who built the temple, but goes on to prophecy that a “Son of David” would come, who would have a kingdom without end. This, in fact, is the seedbed of all of the messianic prophecies that speak of the “son of David” as the coming messianic king.