The Davidic Covenant
God continued to move his saving plan forward by making a covenant with David, and so we learn that the promised deliverer would be a Son of Eve, a Son of Abraham, and a Son of David.
8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you 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 on 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 ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, 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 a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 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, 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, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign LORD, is for a mere human! 20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, 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, 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, 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 people will say, ‘The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight. 27 “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 pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your covenant is 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, Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
—2 Samuel 7:8-29
What does God demand from David and his sons in this covenant?
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What does David's response tell us about who David trusts in to bring all of this about?
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David wanted to build a house for God. Instead, God promised to build David an unending dynasty. And so, we learn that God's eternal kingdom would come through an eternal king from David’s line. However, we must notice that even this covenant required obedience from David’s son. We see a tension here between God’s promise: "I will establish his kingdom...my love will never be taken away from him" and the need for David’s son to obey.
The Davidic covenant was a major step forward in God’s plan, but, like the Abrahamic covenant, it largely made promises that depended on God to fulfill.
(1) Like the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant provided a firm foundation for a new covenant. God promised to establish the kingdom of David’s son. The Davidic covenant also promised a coming new covenant head, who would reign as God's own eternal king. But also like the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant promised but did not provide. We see this in David's reply. He worships and then looks to God to provide what he promised.
And now, LORD God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever!
2 Samuel 7:25
(2) The Davidic covenant still required a covenant head who would perfectly obey and love God faithfully as a son loves his father. But we know that David's line on its own failed to provide this: Solomon abandoned the LORD by disobeying his Law. His sons mostly excelled at outdoing the covenant unfaithfulness of their fathers. Along the way though, there are two glimpses of hope:
(a) From time to time we get pictures of the coming, obedient son of David in the lives of kings like King Josiah;
(b) Even through the failure and exile of the Davidic line, we see God faithfully keeping his promise to sustain David's house in faithful, covenant love.
(3) The Davidic covenant hints that David's promised sons would be punished "with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands" (2 Sam 7:14). Indeed, we see the house of David punished for disobedience, especially in the Babylonian conquest. In light of Jesus though, we can now see that David's son would come and suffer for the sins of his people. The promised Son of David would rescue God's people from the curse of death and the guilt of Adam’s sin.
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all!
Isaiah 53:5-6 (NLT)
As we keep reading the OT, this promise of a coming Son of David to rule over God’s Kingdom becomes the great hope of the Prophets. Even as David’s dynasty fails because of his sin and the sin of his sons, Isaiah looked forward in hope to another Son of David, a faithful and obedient Son who would overcome the curse, deliver God’s people from exile, and bless the nations.
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.
—Isaiah 11:1-11 NIV
But where would this Son of David come from? Anyone who has read the OT ought to realize by the end that humanity is completely unable to produce such a son. We see this most clearly within the Davidic dynasty, where David and his own sons rape, murder, rebel, and worship idols. Once again,
(1) We need a new covenant head, but David and his sons are just like Adam.
(2) We need him to perfectly obey, but David and his sons sin.
(3) We also need him to rescue us the curse of death and the guilt of Adam’s sin, but David and his sons prove utterly unable.
So, how would the LORD keep his promise? The LORD himself would have to provide the faithful, loyal, obedient Son of David. The promise depended on the LORD.
Matthew reflects this joyous and wondrous truth by opening his gospel with "the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). We ought to read this genealogy worshiping the Lord as we see his faithful, covenant love work out through generations of human sin and failure.
I hope you are beginning to see the way the OT shows us our need for a unique savior, who is fully human and also fully God. We needed David’s son to deliver us, but we needed someone who was more than just David’s son. We needed the LORD himself to deliver us.