The Divine Covenants
The Davidic Covenant (Part 2)
But God had other plans and David was not going to be allowed to build the temple and the reason is found in 1 Chron. 22:8-9.
· 1 Chron. 22:8-9 But this word of the LORD came to me: 'You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.
It was at this point that we see the covenant that God made with David, though there is no express mention of “covenant”. However, that it was a true covenant is evident from the frequent mention of it as a covenant in other passages.
I want to now look at a portion of 2 Samuel chapter 7 and in a few minutes I want us to look at the full 7th chapter.
· 2 Sam 7:11-16, "'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'"
And further evidence is the word of God Himself in 2 Chron 7:17-18,
· 2 Chron 7:17-18, "As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.'
Like all the other covenants that we have examined, the Davidic Covenant has certain typical aspects which picture higher spiritual blessings. For instance, He was assured that the temple would be built by his successor, and that his family was destined to hold a prominent place in the history of Israel, and that the regal dignity conferred on him would be perpetuated. Those temporal promises were the ground on which the covenant rested, and were the elements which foreshadowed the great spiritual blessings of the distant future. It is with these higher aspects of the Davidic Covenant that we are mainly concerned.
The substance of what this covenant conveyed had reference to the kingdom, and the glory of the Messiah. There was a hint of this in Gen. 49:10.
· Gen. 49:10 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.
Who was Judah? He was one of the sons of Jacob and therefore one of the tribes of Israel. Now the next question is: Who is known as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah?” The answer, of course, is Jesus. Now as we rear the Genesis passage it makes more prophetic sense; “until He comes to whom it (the scepter) belongs and the obedience of the nations is His.”
But this was imperfectly understood, if at all, even by the most spiritual minded people in earlier days. But here there is far greater clarity through the Davidic Covenant.
But when we come to the actual interpretation of the promises made to David we run into some difficulties. As we now read 2 Samuel 7, there are some questions I want you to think about, even though this is a long reading.
· 2 Sam 7:1-29 After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent." 3 Nathan replied to the king, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you." 4 That night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying: 5 "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. 7 Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" ' 8 "Now then, tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning 11 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. "'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'" 17 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. 18 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign LORD? 20 "What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign LORD. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. 22 "How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel-the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, O LORD, have become their God. 25 "And now, LORD God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great forever. Then men will say, 'The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!' And the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you.' So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. 28 O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever."
Looking back over our study so far we see that the matter of the appearance of the Messiah and the ancestry from which He would come has been constantly narrowed. The first prediction was in the Garden of Eden where the defeater of the serpent would assume human form was hinted at.
Next, at the destruction of the old world, the promise was renewed to Noah, and the intimation that it would be through Seth, one of Noah’s sons, that the promise would be fulfilled.
A further identification of the line came when Abraham was chosen as the one through whom the whole world would be blessed. His descendants through Isaac were so numerous that no definite conclusion could be drawn at that point. So then the tribe of Judah was suggested, but again this was one of the biggest tribes of the Israelites and therefore the indefiniteness, though to a lesser degree, still left some uncertainty.
Time went on and now the family of David was selected as the line through whom the promise would be fulfilled. So through a succession of steps God has revealed the course through which His gracious promise would come about.
Now I want us to look carefully at 2 Samuel 7, and as we do that, be aware that in this passage we must make some distinctions as to types. On some occasions the passage will be speaking of one person, David. On other occasions it will be speaking of another person, Jesus. And throughout the passage we must be alert to the intent of the Holy Spirit to be requiring us to see a double interpretation, that is speaking of David and Jesus at the same time.
Notice here that God speaks to Nathan and He has a message for Nathan to deliver to David. God starts by mentioning that He has traveled with the Israelites since leaving Egypt and has dwelt in a tent all that time. God says that during all this time He has cut off the enemies of the Israelites and He will make David’s name great.
Now let’s interpret verse 10. First, we have said earlier in this study that in many instances in the Bible, the reference to Israel is broader that just the nation Israel. Or to say it another way, sometimes the reference is to the literal nation Israel and at other times it is a reference to those who are believing descendants of Abraham, the true Israel. Here in the 10th verse logic requires that we interpret “Israel” as the body of true believers because of the wording itself. If God’s people “Israel” are to have a home where they are no longer disturbed and that wicked people do not oppress them, then clearly this cannot be a reference to the literal nation Israel because history, past and present, denies such an interpretation. Therefore, this must be a reference to our eternal home where the promise will be literally true.
The same is true of verse 11 and notice that the message from God to David shifts from David providing a house for God, to God providing a house for Israel. Verse 12 is one of those cases where there is to be a double fulfillment of the promise. Here we are told that after David dies one of his children will be king and that he is the one who will build a house for God, the temple. Further, God will establish his (Solomon’s) kingdom. But a much higher interpretation, and type is that one of David’s descendants, Jesus, will succeed him and that He is the One who will build a house for My name. This house is the church and the throne of the kingdom that will last forever is the kingdom of Jesus. It cannot be an earthly kingdom because no earthly kingdom lasts forever! This promise is repeated in the 16th verse. We can be reasonably sure that David understood the the depth of what he was being told here. Verse 19 seems to clearly tell us that he understands that God is speaking of the future “House of David”.
And what was God’s purpose in revealing these things to David? It was a further revealing of God’s Everlasting Covenant and notice that David understands it was “for the sake of your Word and according to your will! Here is the clearest, though still not explicit, revealing of the One referred to in Genesis as the one who would defeat the serpent.
Finally in verse 25 and 29 we see David speaking of his “house” and in both cases he uses the word “forever”. We must conclude that this house is the house built by the Lord Jesus that will house His true believers forever!