GOD’S MYSTERIOUS PROMISE TO DAVID

You’ve probably heard about the principle that “Scripture interprets Scripture.” This means that in order to interpret any single verse correctly, we need the rest of the Scriptures to shed light on it. Here is a simple example – “Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). However, if you try to interpret this verse alone without the commentary of the rest of the Bible, you might wrongly conclude that the Bible is teaching pacifism or is against capital punishment. However, an overall knowledge of the Scriptures provides us with a fuller picture, which includes the nuances and exceptions. We need these to correctly interpret “Thou shall not kill.”

Some Bible teachings are more challenging. Let’s look at the Davidic Covenant, the promise that God had made to King David. David had been planning to build a temple for his God. However, God informed David, through the Prophet Nathan, that his offspring would build the temple”

·       “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. 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. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-16)

However, this prophecy is puzzling. It seems to point to the fact that David’s son Solomon would both build the Jerusalem Temple, which he did, and also an everlasting kingdom. Instead, we find that after the passing of Solomon, Israel had been divided in two. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyria, 721 BC and the Southern Kingdom was utterly destroyed by Babylonia in 586 BC, ending the reign of the Davidic Kings, seemingly contradicting God’s promise to David (see Psalm 89).

How do we resolve this paradox? By comparing Scripture with Scripture! While it might seem that God’s promise to David had been unconditional, David and Solomon didn’t understand it in this way. Instead, they understood that the promise depended upon the obedience of the Davidic Kings, especially Solomon’s obedience:

·       [God] “said to me [David], ‘It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever IF he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules, as he is today’… And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but IF you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. (1 Chronicles 28:6-9; 1 Kings 2:4; Psalm 132:11)

King Solomon also understood that God’s promise about him and the future Davidic Kings depended upon their obedience:

·       “Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, IF only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’” (1 Kings 8:25)

However, the Davidic Kings were not obedient and the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed. Was this the end of God’s promise to David about his offspring establishing an everlasting kingdom? The archangel Gabriel assured Mary that God would fulfill His promise through her:

·       He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33; Acts 2:29-31)

Do the Hebrew Scriptures acknowledge that the promise to David also contained some unconditional aspects? Amos had even prophesied the destruction of the Davidic Kingdom of Judah but also its resurgence:

·       “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the LORD who does this. (Amos 9:11-12; Acts 15:16)

God’s promise to David remained in place. Isaiah prophesied about a coming Davidic King:

·       “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7; 11)

In the wake of the devastation of Jerusalem and Judah, Jeremiah prophesied about a Messianic Branch from the lineage of David, proving that God’s promise to David would yet be fulfilled:

·       “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD [“Yahweh”] is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

Against all expectations, this divine Branch would become our gift of righteousness.

Long after the destruction of Judah, when it seemed that there was little possibility for the fulfillment of God’s promise to David, Zechariah prophesied about the coming of a Branch from the lineage of David, who would be the Source of forgiveness “of this land in a single day”:

·       Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. (Zechariah 3:8-9)

The Branch of David would also be a Priest and King:

·       And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ (Zechariah 6:12-13; Psalm 110)

The Branch would also “build the temple of the Lord,” but which temple? The physical temple had just been completed under of oversight of the Prophet Zechariah. Perhaps, we are given a secret portrait of the incarnated Christ living among us in His Messianic Kingdom (Ezekiel 37:26-27, John 2:18-19)

TO CONCLUDE – Prophecy can be challenging. It can give us two perspectives separated by thousands of years (Genesis 12:1-3). It can present elements that depend upon our human obedience and others that do not. While the Davidic Kings had to be faithful, but were not, One Davidic King would, through His faithfulness, succeed in establishing an Everlasting Kingdom where the others could not. This is one reason why the Apostle Paul wrote:

·       For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)