1-9 The Promise To David
David, like Abraham and many
other recipients of God’s promises, did not have an easy life. He grew
up as the youngest son in a large family which, in the Israel of 1000
B.C., meant looking after the sheep and running errands for his older
brothers (1 Sam. 15-17). During this time he learnt a level of faith in
God which few men have since approached.
The
day came when Israel were faced with the ultimate challenge from their
aggressive neighbours, the Philistines; they were challenged to let one
of their men fight the giant Goliath, the Philistine champion, on the
understanding that whoever won that fight would rule over the losers.
With God’s help David defeated Goliath by using a sling, which earned
him even greater popularity than their king (Saul). “Jealousy is cruel
as the grave” (Song 8:6), words which were proved true by Saul’s
persecution of David chasing him around the wilderness of southern
Israel.
Eventually
David became king, and to show his appreciation of God’s love toward
him during the wilderness of his life, he decided to build God a
temple. The reply from God was that David’s son, Solomon, would build
the temple and that God wanted to build David a house (2 Sam.
7:4-13). Then followed a detailed promise which repeats much of what
was told Abraham, and which also filled in some other details.
“And
when your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I
will set up your descendant after you, which shall proceed out of your
body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my
name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be
his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children
of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from
Saul, whom I put away before you. And your house and your kingdom shall
be established forever before you: your throne shall be established
forever” (v.12-16).
From
our previous studies we would expect the “descendant” to be Jesus. His
description as the Son of God (2 Sam. 7:14) confirms this, as do many
other references in other parts of the Bible.
- “I am the...offspring of David”, Jesus said (Rev. 22:16).
- “(Jesus), made of the family [AV “seed”] of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3).
- “Of
this man’s descendants (David’s) has God, according to His promise,
raised unto Israel a saviour, Jesus” (Acts 13:23).
- The
angel told the virgin Mary concerning her son, Jesus: “The Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father (ancestor) David...and of
his Kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk. 1:32,33). This is applying the
promise of David’s descendant, in 2 Sam. 7:13, to Jesus.
With the descendant firmly identified as Jesus, a number of details now become significant.
1. The descendant
“Your
descendant...which shall proceed out of your body...I will be his
father, and he shall be my son.” “...of the fruit of your body will I
set upon your throne” (2 Sam. 7:12,14; Ps. 132:10,11). Jesus, the
descendant, was to be a literal, bodily descendant of David, and yet
have God as his Father. This could only be achieved by the virgin birth
as described in the New Testament; Jesus’ mother was Mary, a descendant
of David (Lk. 1:32), but he had no human father. God acted miraculously
upon Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit in order to make her conceive
Jesus, and so the Angel commented: “Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35).
The “virgin birth” was the only way in which this promise to David
could be properly fulfilled.
2. The house
“He
shall build an house for my name” (2 Sam. 7:13) shows that Jesus will
build a temple for God. God’s “house” is where He is willing to live,
and Is. 66:1,2 tells us that He will come to live in the hearts of men
who are humble to His word. Jesus is therefore building a spiritual
temple for God to dwell in, made up of the true believers. Descriptions
of Jesus as the foundation stone of God’s temple (1 Pet. 2:4-8) and of
Christians as the temple stones (1 Pet. 2:5) now slot into place.
3. The throne
“I
will stablish the throne of his (Christ’s) kingdom for ever... your
(David’s) house and your kingdom... your throne shall be established
for ever” (2 Sam. 7:13,16 cf. Is. 9:6,7). Christ’s kingdom will
therefore be based on David’s kingdom of Israel; this means that the
coming kingdom of God will be a re-establishment of the kingdom of
Israel - see Study 5.3 for more on this. To fulfil this promise, Christ
must reign on David’s “throne”, or place of rulership. This was
literally in Jerusalem. This is another proof that the kingdom must be
established here on earth in order to fulfil these promises.
4. The kingdom
“Your
house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you”
(2 Sam. 7:16) suggests that David would witness the establishment of
Christ’s eternal kingdom. This was therefore an indirect promise that
he would be resurrected at Christ’s return so that he could see with
his own eyes the kingdom being set up world-wide, with Jesus reigning
from Jerusalem.
These
things which were promised to David are absolutely vital to understand.
David joyfully spoke of these things as “an everlasting covenant...
this is all my salvation and all my desire” (2 Sam. 23:5). These things
relate to our salvation too; rejoicing in them should likewise be all
our desire. As with the promises to Abraham, if we are in Christ, all
that is true of the promised descendant of David is in some way true of
us if we are in Christ (Is. 55:3 cf. Acts 13:34). So again the point is
made that these doctrines are so important. It is a tragedy that parts
of Christendom have adopted doctrines which flatly contradict these
marvellous truths.
- If
Jesus physically “pre-existed”, i.e. he existed as a person before he
was born, then this makes nonsense of these promises that Jesus would
be David’s descendant.
- If
the kingdom of God will be in heaven, then Jesus cannot re-establish
David’s kingdom of Israel, nor can he reign from David’s “throne” or
place of rulership. These things were literally on the earth, and so
their re-establishment must be in the same place.
Fulfilment In Solomon?
David’s
son, Solomon, fulfilled some part of the promises to David. He built a
temple for God (1 Kings 5-8), and he had a very prosperous kingdom.
Nations from all around sent representatives to pay respect to Solomon
(1 Kings 10), and there was great spiritual blessing from the use of
the temple. Solomon’s reign therefore pointed forward to the much
greater fulfilment of the promises to David which will be seen in the
kingdom of Christ.
Some
have claimed that the promises to David were completely fulfilled in
Solomon, but this is disallowed by the following.
- Abundant New Testament evidence shows that the “descendant” was Christ, not Solomon.
- David seems to have connected the promises God made to him with those to Abraham (1 Chron. 17:27 = Gen. 22:17,18).
- The kingdom of the “descendant” was to be everlasting - which Solomon’s was not.
- David
recognised that the promises were concerning eternal life, which
precluded any reference to his immediate family: “Although my house be
not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant” (2
Sam. 23:5).
- The
descendant of David is the Messiah, the Saviour from sin (Is. 9:6,7;
22:22; Jer. 33:5,6,15; Jn. 7:42). But Solomon later turned away from
God (1 Kings 11:1-13; Neh. 13:26) due to his marriage with those
outside the hope of Israel.
As a footnote, it's
interesting that the genealogy of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 1 frames
Him as the product of 42 generations, divided into three groups of 14.
The numerical value of 'David' is 14 [D = 4; w = 6; d = 4]. The
emphasis is therefore on the fact that Jesus was so very intrinsically
a descendant of David- and not, therefore, a pre-existent being.
