The problem with promises is they depend on the promise maker to keep them. In our world, that’s no certain thing. People make promises and vows, but they break them. Countries make promises, but a new year and a new ruler bends or breaks the promise. The best of intentions run into the reality of sin and the ravages of time.
But not all promises. God keeps his promises. God made promises in the Garden. God made promises after The Flood. God made promises to an old man on a starry night. God made promises at Mount Sinai. And God made promises in Jerusalem. All of those promises are called “covenants” and they are God’s promises to his people. Not just the individual who received the promise, but for all who believe (and in the case of Noah, all who don’t as well!)
Our passage this week brings us to the Davidic Covenant. This covenant proclaims God’s goodness and mercy to David and his House. To David and His People. It helps fill in the Old Testament dots to the New Testament reality of the Messiah, Jesus. The Saviour and Everlasting King, the true Son of God, whose body is the Temple of God.
David wanted to build a house for God to live in. He thought it odd that he had a nice palace, and yet the King of All Creation lived in a tent. While Nathan’s initial words to David were to encourage him, God had other ideas. God wanted to establish David’s House before he received his own house (vv.1-11).
So if David was not to build a house for God, who would? God answered that with a promise. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (vv.12-13).
What a promise. Death cannot destroy this promise. An offspring of David would inherit the kingdom, and he would build a temple. His throne would be established forever. Abraham’s child inherited the land, David’s child inherited the kingdom. Thus the “offspring” refers not just to his son, but his son’s sons after him.
Secondly, sin will not affect this promise. “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you” (vv.14-15).
Looking down the mists of time and of God’s providential hand, David’s descendants would not keep to the straight and narrow. They would sin against God, and God would bring punishment on them. But God’s covenant love would not end like it did with Saul and his house.
Thirdly, not even time could end the promise. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (v.16). The forever promise of verse thirteen is repeated twice here. Forever means forever.
As long as God has a People, David’s line will rule over it. Forever and ever.
Death will knock on the door. Sin will rear its ugly head. The sands of time will continue sinking. But God’s promise to David will not end. There will always be a king descended from David to rule over God’s People.
But who is that king? As we read further into God’s Word, we read of Solomon building a Temple. So there is an immediate fulfilment there. And God did indeed keep his promise to uphold David’s line; while the northern tribes later split off and did their own thing (and suffered several “regime changes”), the line of David always ruled over the Kingdom of Judah. And after the exile, David’s descendants had prominent places in leadership over God’s People resettled in the Land.
But the Old Testament ends on a bit of a hanging note. The story has not ended. And indeed, it hadn’t. At the right time, Jesus came. Son of David (v.12; Matt. 1:1). The true Temple of God (v.13; John 2:21). Son of God (v.14; Luke 3:38, etc). Sinless and not needing correction (v.14; Mark 1:11, Hebrews 9:14). The eternal recipient and source of God’s covenant love (v.15; Hebrews 10:12-18). The Eternal King (v.16; Luke 1:33, Revelation 11:15).
Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of God’s covenant promise to David. Just as Jesus fulfils God’s promises to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to Moses. And to us.
What did David do to deserve this great promise? Nothing. What have we done to deserve God’s great promises fulfilled to us in Jesus? Nothing! This promise is all about God. God promising. God delivering.
Praise Jesus, the Everlasting King who fulfils God’s Davidic Covenant.
