Part 33: The Davidic Covenant and God's Grace

Introduction

Quote

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” (JFK)

So said JFK in his famous inaugural address in 1961, words that resonate with the spirit of this country.

We all want to make a difference and make an impact. We want our lives to count for something. We want to leave a legacy. We want to “do” something great: for our family, our friends, our neighbors, our country, our world.

This morning in 2 Samuel 7, King David also wants to make a difference and “do” something great for God: David wants to build a temple. But God needs to teach David a lesson first, and its a lesson for all of us.

Let’s look at our passage together.

Passage Outline

2 Samuel 7:1–3 (ESV)

1 Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,

2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”

3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

(1) David’s Plan: “I’ll build God a house” (vv. 1-3)

Explain

After bringing the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle into Jerusalem, David looked at his palace and decided that he wanted to build a palace for God: a temple. He brings his plan to a new character in our story—the court prophet Nathan — and he thinks its a great idea.

In David and Nathan’s day, one of the basic beliefs that was embedded into the way that everyone thought was that every god needed a temple in order to be legitimate. The god Baal, for example, is said in one ancient text to be angry and jealous because all the other gods had a temple except for him, even though he was the strongest in battle.

So it seemed pretty obvious to David and Nathan that God would want a temple, too. Maybe they thought that was why God had promised a temple back in the book of Deuteronomy, where God had promised that one day he would pick a place for his name to dwell.

But God had a different plan.

2 Samuel 7:4–7 (ESV)

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan,

5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in?

6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling.

7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ’

Explain

God shows up and tells Nathan to tell David: “Thanks, but no thanks!” David and Nathan had thought that it was obvious that building a temple was the next right thing to do, but God steps in and says, “Not yet.”

Application

Have you ever thought that you knew what God wanted, but then through circumstances or something else, all of sudden what was a “Yes” became a “Not yet,” or even a “No”?

“Not yet.”

Before anyone would build a temple for God, God needed his people to understand that He wasn’t going to have a temple like all the other gods. He wasn’t going to have a temple to legitimize his rule, or to boast about military victories. He wasn’t going to build a temple on the corpses of his enemies. He wasn’t going to have a temple because he needed a temple.

David needed to learn that God didn’t need a temple.

More than that, David needed to learn that God didn’t need David’s help; David needed God help.

God didn’t need David; David needed God.

And that’s a lesson that we need to learn too:

BIG IDEA: God doesn’t need us; we need God.

So in order to help David learn that lesson, God makes David a Promise.

(2) God’s Promise: “I’ll build David a house” (vv. 4-17)

God makes a covenant with David. The word for “covenant” doesn’t actually appear in our passage today, but we know its a covenant because (1) there are promises and responsibilities given to two parties in this legal arrangement, and (2) it’s specifically called a “covenant” in Psalm 89:3. So theologians call this the “Davidic Covenant,” because it is God’s covenant agreement with David.

And this covenant has two sets of promises: (A) Promises Fulled During David’s Lifetime, and (B) Promises Fulfilled After David’s Lifetime.

Let’s look at that first one:

(A) The Davidic Covenant: Promises Fulfilled During David’s Lifetime (vv. 8-11a)

2 Samuel 7:8–11a (ESV)

8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.

9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,

11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.

Through Nathan the Prophet, God reminds David of all that God had done to bring David to where he was, and he gives 3 Promises to be fulfilled during David’s lifetime: [1] A Famous Name (vv. 8-9), [2] A Fortified Place (v.10), [3] A Settled Rest (v.11a):

[1] A Famous Name (vv. 8-9)

David’s name would be great and famous just like God had promised to Abraham.

[2] A Fortified Place (v.10)

Here’s another fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. David’s people Israel would finally live in safety in the Promised Land, their new Garden of Eden.

[3] A Settled Rest (v.11a)

God’s people would finally have God’s peace in God’s place, with no more enemies to fear.

As we’ll see, 2 Sam 8-10 will show how God fulfills these promises to David during his lifetime.

But there’s another set of promises.

(B) The Davidic Covenant: Promises Fulfilled After David’s Lifetime (vv. 11b-16)

2 Samuel 7:11b–16 (ESV)

11 ...Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

12 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.

13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

14 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,

15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’

There’s 4 Promises to be fulfilled after David’s lifetime: [1] A Forever Seed, [2] A Forever Kingdom, [3] A Forever Throne, and [4] A Faithful Son.

[1] A Forever Seed (vv. 11b-12; 16)

There’s 2 words in the text that are closely related, here: (1) House, (2) Offspring (English translations use the word “seed”, which is grammatically ambiguous, since the singular and plural forms are the same word.)

David’s Plan was “I’ll build God a house (meaning: temple),” but God turns around and says “I’ll build you a house (meaning: family)

And that first promise is [1] A Forever Seed.

Here’s v.12,

2 Samuel 7:12 (ESV)

12 ...I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body...

And v. 16,

16 And your house... shall be made sure forever before me...

God promises that he will build David into a permanent and forever kind of family, but there’s a bit of ambiguity about this promise. Is it a promise about one descendant or many descendants?

[2] A Forever Kingdom (vv. 12; 16)

Verse 12,

2 Samuel 7:12 (ESV)

12 I will raise up your offspring after you...and I will establish his kingdom.

And again, v.16,

2 Samuel 7:16 (ESV)

16 …and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me...

After David’s life, his Offspring will rule over a Kingdom forever, a Kingdom that will never end. Unlike Saul’s kingdom, which began and then tragically ended, this kingdom would have no end.

[3] A Forever Throne (vv. 13; 16)

Verse 13,

2 Samuel 7:13 (ESV)

13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

And again, v.16,

2 Samuel 7:16 (ESV)

16 ...Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

After David’s life, his offspring would build God’s house and would rule over this kingdom, with no one to usurp the throne.

Another way of saying this is that God was promising David a Forever Dynasty, a royal family that would rule over this forever kingdom.

Lastly,

[4] A Faithful Son (vv. 14-15)

Covenants in the Bible have both promises and responsibilities. So in that sense, they are both unconditional (because God makes promises that He will certainly keep) and conditional (because the way God will keep His promises is through a faithful covenant partner). We see this tension all over the Bible. And we see it here in the Davidic Covenant, too: that the way that God will keep his promises is through a Faithful Son.

Listen to verses 14-15:

2 Samuel 7:14–15 ESV

14 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, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

In the ancient world, kings were called often “sons” of their gods because they represented them and their rule in the world. In a similar way, David’s offspring would represent God by obeying God. Just as Deuteronomy 17 had explained long ago, if the King was faithful to write the Law, and read the Law, and love the Law, and keep the Law, his people would prosper and flourish. As goes the King, so goes the nation.

Saul had not obeyed God, and look at the chaos that came as a result.

So, God promised that one day, David’s offspring would be faithful to God, loving God and obeying God perfectly. And if one of David’s sons wasn’t faithful, God would discipline him, but He wouldn’t give up on David’s family. One day, a faithful Son would come, represent the nation in himself, and bring God’s promises to fulfillment.

So, in God’s covenant with David, there are 3 Promises to be fulfilled during David’s lifetime: [1] A Famous Name, [2] A Fortified Place, [3] A Settled Rest,

And there are 4 Promises to be fulfilled after David’s lifetime: [1] A Forever Seed, [2] A Forever Kingdom, [3] A Forever Throne, and [4] A Faithful Son.

Recap

(1) David’s Plan: “I’ll make God a house”

(2) God’s Promise: “I’ll make David a house”

(3) David’s Prayer: “Amen” (vv. 18-29)

In light of God’s gracious Promises, the only thing David can do is worship through Prayer. In this prayer we see both (A) Praise and (B) Petition: Praise for who God is and what God has promised, and Petition for God to do what He promised to the praise of His glory.

(A) David’s Praise (vv. 18-24)

2 Samuel 7:18–24 ESV

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God.

(B) David’s Petition (vv. 25-29)

2 Samuel 7:25–29 ESV

25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”

BIG IDEA: God doesn’t need us; we need God!

The word that I think sums up and captures the essence of what’s happening here in 2 Samuel 7 is that David needs to learn about God’s Grace. I think this chapter gives us some incredible insight into God’s Grace that we all desperately need to internalize. This is the core truth of the Christian faith.

8 Lessons the Davidic Covenant Teaches us about God’s Grace

(1) God’s Grace Dominates the Story of the Bible

The Bible is not a self-help book. It’s not a story of the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve earning their way back into God’s favor. It’s not a story of Abraham deserving to be chosen. It’s not a story of Israel being so godly and consistent. And its not a story of David earning or deserving the position of king.

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s Story is a Story of God’s Grace. If humanity is going to be brought back into God’s presence in God’s place with God’s peace, it will have to be God who brings that about, not humanity.

And so after Adam and Eve’s sin, God in his grace promises that the offspring of the woman would one day bruise the Serpent’s head through self-sacrifice.

After Abraham’s early life of paganism, God in his grace promises that the offspring of Abraham would one day bring God’s blessing to the whole world and would reverse the curse.

After Israel’s bondage in Egypt, God in his grace delivers them from slavery and promises that they will be a kingdom of priests, that ones through whom God’s blessings will flow.

And now, in the Davidic Covenant, God in his grace promises that the blessings promised to Abraham and Israel, the blessing of God’s presence in God’s place with God’s peace — would one day flow through the offspring of David.

Listen to 2 Samuel 7:18-19 again:

2 Samuel 7:18–19 (ESV)

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?

19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God!

David understands that this covenant is not just about himself and the nation of Israel: it is a covenant that has as its ultimate fulfillment a kingdom that encompasses the entire human race and the entire world. This isn’t just a promise for the Kingdom of David’s day — this a promise of a Kingdom that will encompass the entire Created order: a New Garden of Eden; a New Creation that will last forever.

Psalm 2:8 ESV

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

Psalm 72:8 ESV

8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!

In God’s covenant with David, we see all of God’s gracious promises made to Adam, Abraham, and Israel all funneled into a single person through whom all the blessings will come: a King from David’s line.

(2) God’s Grace Demands A Perfect Son

God always keeps His promises. But what we saw from verses 14 and 15 is that the way God would fulfill those promises would be through a Perfect Son. If one of David’s sons wasn’t faithful to obey God, God would discipline him, but He wouldn’t give up on David’s family.

The history of Israel shows us the fulfillment of this promise. David’s son, Solomon, is the singular “offspring” that will end up building God the temple that was prophesied in Deuteronomy. He was a man of peace, not of war, and in his day the territory and influence of the Kingdom of Israel reached its Abrahamic climax. It encompassed all of the territory that was promised to Israel. Through Solomon’s reign, it might have looked like the end had finally come.

But Solomon broke God’s law. Every command given in Deuteronomy 17, the Law of the King, Solomon broke. Nevertheless, despite Solomon’s unfaithfulness, God did not remove the kingdom from Solomon like He had done with Saul. Instead, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became the king of Israel.

So went the history of the Davidic Line. After Israel and Judah split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Judah continued to recognize the legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty. Some were faithful, but most were not. In the end, Judah is sent into exile just as Israel and Adam and Eve before them.

God’s promise of a forever king and a forever kingdom looked like it had failed. The Jewish people wrestled with this question for hundreds of years, many of them concluding that since God must keep his promises, that the fulfillment of God’s promises to David must still be in the future. A king from David’s Line, an new Anointed One — a Messiah — must come.

And so it is that we come to Matthew 1:1

Matthew 1:1 ESV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Mark 1:1 ESV

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In Jesus of Nazareth — the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God — the King over God’s Forever Kingdom had come.

And Jesus would not be a king like any of the other sons of David before Him — He would be perfectly faithful and would live forever.

Acts 2:29–32 ESV

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

Instead of the promise being fulfilled by a new son of David in each generation, the promise would be fulfilled by the ultimate Son of David who would rise from the dead and never die again! The resurrection was the fulfillment of the promise that David’s Son would be a Forever King over a Forever Kingdom.

Acts 13:22–23 (ESV)

22 And when he had removed [Saul], he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

Just as David had been a man after God’s own heart, one who did God’s will, so Jesus was the perfect man after God’s own heart, one who always did God’s will, never sinning, never straying; always loving, always obeying.

This is so important for all of us. God demands a perfect Son, someone who can perfectly love God and perfectly love others. And if we are going to experience peace with God, we need someone else to be perfect for us in our place, because we stand guilty before God. We stand under God’s curse.

Galatians 3:10 (ESV)

10 ...“Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

God’s grace doesn’t require a good son, it requires a perfect Son.

Now, here’s the GOOD NEWS of Jesus

(3) God’s Grace Demonstrates God’s Glory

(4) God’s Grace Destroys Our Boasting (vv. 18, 20, 23)

These next two points really go together.

Just look at David’s response to this incredible grace that God is promising to him and to the world:

2 Samuel 7:22 (ESV)

22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

2 Samuel 7:26 ESV

26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you.

David hears these promises and falls to the ground in worship and in praise for how GREAT God is.

God’s Grace Demonstrates God’s Glory and Destroys Our Boasting

Application

Did you know God shows you his grace in the Gospel so that you would see His glory more clearly?

Illustration

When I was a broke college student not a terribly long time ago, I would travel back and forth from Phoenix to Charlotte, and then from Charlotte to Lynchburg, and I would stay with one of my best friend’s family who lived in Charlotte. And they were so kind and gracious to me and gave me a room to stay in and made me all kinds of food and were just really generous. Well the first time I stayed with them I really wanted to say “Thank you” but I didn’t have a lot of money, so I very sneakily placed a $20 bill on top of the pillow as a “thank you.” Well, not too long after that my friend handed me a $20 bill and said that it was from his parents, they thought I had dropped it on my way out. When I insisted that they keep it, my friend told me that it wasn’t going to happen, so I reluctantly took back the $20 bill.

As I was thinking about that, I came to realize that what was at play there was a really innocent and good-willed version of what David is learning here. God is the most generous and wealthy benefactor in the whole world, and He lavishes his blessings on us. But as soon as we try to pay him back, it’s like pulling out a $20 bill to try and repay the cost of putting us up in a 5 star hotel for a month. The difference between the debt and the amount we are repaying is so vast that the only thing we can do is accept the gift. If we try to repay, we devalue the gift.

In the Gospel, and in the Davidic Covenant, God’s Grace Demonstrates God’s Glory — His worth and value and excellence — and Destroys Our Boasting by proving to the whole world that He is a generous Giver to a needy and dependent people. And that to try and “repay” God with the wrong motive or reasoning — whether by trying to build a temple or by trying to do good works — is something that devalues the Giver.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

(5) God’s Grace Delights Our Hearts

When we recognize that God’s Grace means that God doesn’t need us, but that we need God, and that God has freely chosen to reach down into our sinful condition and bring us back to Himself, that unlocks true joy.

A God who owes you something is a God that you instinctively believe is like you.

A God who owes you nothing but who gives you everything for free in Jesus Christ is a God who is inherently worthy of worship and joy.

(6) God’s Grace Deepens Our Love and Assurance

When we learn that God doesn’t need us, but that we need God, and that God has graciously provided everything we need, it Deepens our Love and Assurance. We don’t have to be afraid of disappointing God or not measuring up. God knew exactly what he was doing when He chose Abraham. He knew exactly what He was doing when He chose David. And He knew exactly what He was doing when He chose you. And rather than being disgusted by your sinfulness, God is so committed to your eternal happiness that He sent Jesus to redeem you from your sinfulness, and nothing and no one can ever separate you from His love.

(7) God’s Grace Drives Our Obedience

This amazing grace frees us and liberates us from the tyranny of having to measure up and earn our way to God, and instead gives us joyful, loving confidence of God’s goodness to me, which is the fuel for God-centered obedience.

“The freer [the Gospel] is, the better it is. . . Never does the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation, as when, under the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness.” (Thomas Chalmers)

Application

What is driving your obedience? Is your obedience fueled by the fear that God won’t love you if you mess up? Is it fueled by guilt and shame? Or is it fueled with the confidence that you stand forgiven in the Risen Christ, and you are free in Him to love God and others?

When we are free from the bondage of self-righteousness, secure in who we are in Christ, then we can pray and ask God to “Take my life and let it be consecrated all for Thee.”

(8) God’s Grace Determines Our Destiny

God’s promises to David have as their ultimate fulfillment a kingdom that will encompass the whole world and will last forever, and that kingdom started with the first coming of Christ. He ascended to his throne in heaven and is ruling even now spiritually in the church

Colossians 1:13 ESV

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

But one day, this kingdom will come down from heaven, when Jesus comes again to make every wrong right, and the entire world will one day be filled with the glory of God, as it was in the beginning and shall ever be, world without end.

And how can we be a part of such a wonderful, glorious, global and forever kingdom?

John 3:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

We must be born again.

We need something to happen to us. We can’t do anything.

Illustration

What does a baby do to be born? Nothing! He is entirely and completely passive, utterly dependent on another.

Application

So it is with those who would be born again. Those who would enter the Forever Kingdom must acknowledge, at the core of their being, and the deepest level of their hearts, that God doesn’t need me; I need God! That all of my goodness isn’t enough to grant me entrance into God’s presence. That the life I’ve been living is a life for myself, not for my King, but that by simply trusting in Jesus My King to do for me what I could never do for myself and to bear in his own death on the cross the punishment for my wrongdoing and to rise again from the dead to demonstrate that He is the Seed of David who will live forever and bring in all of God’s wonderful promises to me, then and only then, when I have abandoned all hope of self-actualization and self-righteousness, then I can receive the hope and assurance of entrance into that glorious kingdom, forever in the presence of the Glorious King, Jesus the Son of David.

Big Idea (with Gospel Call): God doesn’t need us; we need God! —> [and in Christ, the Seed of David, we can have him]

Conclusion

If anything from this message has resonated with you, or if you are new to Christianity or would not consider yourself a Christian and have some feedback or questions for me about this message or anything I’ve said or if you would like to talk to me about some ways that you think God is asking you to respond to Him, I’ll be down here at the front of the church immediately after the last song, and I’d really love to talk to you and process some of this with you.

This morning maybe the most appropriate thing we can do is lay down our desire to do something for God, and simply receive what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, His Son.

"Ask not what you can do for God, ask what God has done for you.” (JFK)

Big Idea: God doesn’t need us; we need God!

Let’s pray.