David and the New Dynasty  (2 Samuel 7)

After God made the covenant with Moses and he delivered it to the people, they replied, “All that God has said we will do” (Exodus 19:8). If it weren’t so tragic, their words would be laughable. 

 

It reminds me of Peter’s pompous words to Jesus, “though others deny you, I never will.” In the generation after Moses Israel continued to develop as a nation with a national identity and laws to live by. Even so, they could never consistently obey them. Earlier in the historical period we learned how the covenant mediators like Adam were called to be prophets, priests and kings. At Mount Sinai, God announced that the nation of Israel itself would become a covenant mediator, including being a “holy nation” and a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Through obedience to the covenant, the nation would have a prophetic role to the nations of the world–the law itself was a proclamation of moral obligation to the nations. Obedience would also equip them to be priests for the world, interceding between God and the nations. Calling them a “kingdom of priests” meant they were not only to be priestly mediators but kingly representatives.

 

But the people continually failed in that covenant duty. Particularly in the historical books from Joshua to Esther we see the pattern: brief seasons of repentance and revival were followed by long seasons of stubborn disobedience. From Moses to David was approximately 500 years and during this time that cycle persisted. Even after Israel survived the wilderness from Egypt back to reinhabit the land, they then began worshipping the idols of the pagan nations instead of their God, Yahweh! This part of the story is vividly described in the Book of Judges. 

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But around 1000  BC, God revealed another significant milestone in the administration of grace. The rulers called “judges” functioned somewhat like “kings” as Moses had said. But they were not actually priest-kings, and even when the people began demanding a king “like the other nations”, resulting in the coronation of Saul, the repeated failure of these men to the covenant meant God would raise up a man “after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) to begin a “new dynasty” of kings. This is when God made the Davidic Covenant. In the progressive revelation of the covenant of grace, this promise did not merely elevate the man David to be the king of Israel, more importantly as we will see, it provided another significant piece of the “jigsaw puzzle” of his eternal plan, for it would be from this kingly dynasty that the “eternal son of David”--Jesus Christ would be born. 

 

Previously I discussed the importance of “types” in God’s unfolding plan. Types are temporal events or objects that point beyond themselves to eternal truths. David was therefore a type of the coming King of kings and Lord of all lords. It is also helpful to understand another principle of interpreting them. Theologians sometimes use the phrase, “already and not yet” to describe the fulfillment of the types. As administrations of God’s covenant of grace, the five mediators called as prophets, priests and kings were “types” pointing to the fulfillment of the Final Prophet, Priest and King, God’s son. In David’s day, there was a sense in which the covenant promise was already being fulfilled. However, because David and his sons failed to obey the covenant, there was a secondary sense in which the promise was “not yet” complete. This already and not yet is especially helpful to understand the details of God’s promise of a new dynasty. 

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What did God already and not yet reveal to David in the covenant? 

 

I have described the ancient covenant structure that would have been familiar to all the covenant mediators given its predominance in the ancient world. When God gave the covenant to David we can use that ancient structure to understand how David himself would have viewed it.  As I will also describe, there was a “not yet” aspect to the covenant that would have pointed David not to his own time, but to the time yet to come. 

 

 

 

 

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The Covenant Transcendence Already Revealed

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The first promise of the covenant with David reminded him of the transcendent majesty of God himself. He did not need to have a house to live in. 

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When the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies all around, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.” 3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for Yahweh is with you.” (2 Samuel 7:1-3) 

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From the days of Moses, God lived among his people in a gold-plated chest called “the ark of the covenant” (Exodus 25:10-13). It was literally God’s throne in Israel.  Every time David thought about it, he was reminded of God’s transcendent authority. God drove that home to David in a dramatic way. After his first attempt to transport the ark to Jerusalem, he failed to do so correctly. A man named Uzzah died in the process (2 Samuel 6:3-8). 

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 The Covenant Transcendence Not Yet Revealed 

 

What was not yet revealed to David or the people was how God would one day dwell with his people, not as in the wilderness but in the coming of the chosen one to take his rightful throne over all the kingdoms of the earth.  It had always been part of God’s plan to dwell with his creatures, even as he had with Adam before the fall. We read that God would visit Adam and Eve daily to walk and fellowship together. That intimate fellowship was lost by Adam’s disobedience yet, through each of the covenant administrations God was revealing more and more how he would again “walk with man in the cool of the day.”  David could only have imagined what would one day be known about God’s transcendent glory as king of kings and lord of lords. 

 

The Kingdom Representatives and History Already Revealed

 

In ancient covenant structure, the second section was a historical summary of the king’s story with his people. Frequently it was a story of the kingdom order–the system of representatives and noblemen who represented him. When God replied to David’s request to build a temple, it began with a brief summary of his dwelling places from the time of Egypt to the present.

 

4 That same night, Yahweh’s word came to Nathan, saying, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Yahweh says, “Should you build me a house for me to dwell in? 6 For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7 In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’ 8 Now therefore tell my servant David this, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth (2 Samuel 7:4-9)

 

Though the text sounds as if God was rebuking David for his desire, in fact, God used this moment to reveal a new development in the plan for his kingdom order: The kingdom order was already present: David himself, as God’s mediator on earth, would be elevated with a “great name, like the name of the great ones who are on the earth.” As the ruler of a new dynasty, David and his sons would represent Yahweh to the world. 

 

The Kingdom Story Not Yet Revealed

 

There was much about God’s kingdom order  that was yet to be fulfilled, however. Even the temple that David and his son Solomon would build was just a sign pointing to the heavenly temple. David did not see it, though later in Old Testament history, prophets like Ezekiel were given visions of that eternal kingdom order and its central focus: the throne of the triune God (see Ezekiel 47:1,2 and Revelation 22). 

 

The Kingdom Blessing Already Revealed

 

In conventional covenant treaties, the next section was usually where the requirements were detailed. When God revealed his covenant to David, he reversed the third and fourth section, next revealing the blessings of this new kingdom era for David and his people.

 

10 I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not afflict them any more, as at the first, 11 and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover Yahweh tells you that Yahweh will make you a house. (2 Samuel 7:10-11)

  

Since Abraham, God had promised his people a land. In David’s day, God would “appoint a place for my people…I will cause you to rest from all your enemies.” In the days of his son, Solomon, the peace would extend even further. 

 

The Kingdom Blessings Not Yet Revealed

 

Not yet revealed, however,  was that David’s geographical kingdom in the Middle Eastern land of Israel was but a sign pointing to the new heaven and new earth. We saw something similar with the covenant made to Abraham. In Hebrews we are told that though Abraham searched out the boundaries of the desert, not yet revealed to him was the “city with foundations whose maker is God” (Hebrews 11:8-11).

 

The Kingdom Requirements Already Revealed

 

God’s promised blessing of peace to David’s sons also included the new requirement for the Davidic covenant. God assured David that his sons would be kings forever. However, “if he commits iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men.” Though God was giving David a new dynasty, his sons were required to be faithful mediators of the Davidic covenant. 

 

12 When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He 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. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; 15 but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you (2 Samuel 7:12-14)

 

Recall that covenant sanctions include blessings for obedience but also curses for disobedience. The words revealed to David suggest that the king's own faithfulness to the covenant would determine the blessings or curses going forward. Leaders have always had great responsibility in God’s plan to lead. However, in the Davidic covenant, his son's actions would determine the blessings and curses for them but also for the nation. 

 

The Kingdom Requirements Not Yet Revealed

 

David did not see the tragic fulfillment of God’s warning about his sons. It is possible he had some hints when his oldest son, Absalom, abandoned the covenant and tried to steal the throne from David. However, it did not take long for even his faithful son, Solomon to break the covenant. Solomon was granted more peace and prosperity than any king before him, arguably becoming the greatest in history. 

 

However, at the pinnacle of his greatness, Solomon and his sons rejected the covenant with David. This is how we should understand the warning, 

 

I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.

 

These words pointed to the not yet revealed truth of judgment upon the house of David. After Solomon’s failure, his son Rehoboam would bring about a civil war in Israel, splitting the nation in two. Though there would be a few of David’s sons who were faithful to the covenant, from the time of Davidd (approximately 1000 BC) to the judgment captivity in Babylon (about 500 BC),  David’s sons would be “chastened with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men.” 

 

The Everlasting Kingdom Already Revealed

 

The fifth section of covenant structure described the long term succession or continuity of the covenant. As we just read, in the near term, God promised to continue the David Dynasty: “I will be his father and he will be my son.” Unless broken, this would begin the promised everlasting kingdom and fulfill all the ancient promises made before. 

 

…my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:15,16).

 

The Everlasting Kingdom Not Yet Revealed

 

The promise that my loving kindness will not depart from him would be fulfilled. However the timeframe was not yet revealed. It would be a thousand years later after every one of David’s mortal sons had broken the covenant.  

 

Even so, there would come a day when the Greatest Son of David would ascend the throne: greatest because in every way he perfectly fulfilled the covenant demands, not only made to David, but even those made to Adam at the beginning. As the Apostle Paul described it, he would be the “last Adam” and upon his ascent, he would reign forever and ever.