The Covenant of a King

This is the final Old Testament Covenant that we will be looking at, so before we moved on I thought it would be useful to look back at the other covenants that we have studied so far, and see their progression. The first one we looked at was the promise of redemption and reconciliation offered to Adam and Eve. This covenant demonstrates God’s faithfulness, and his desire to redeem all of mankind. The second covenant we looked at was the one with Noah, where God promised safe passage for Noah and his family, and after the flood promised to all living things that he would never destroy the entire earth by flood. The third covenant was made to Abraham and his line, promising that he would cause his children to grow into a strong nation, and that through one child in particular, Isaac, that he would bring about a continuation of his covenant with Abraham, being faithful to Isaac’s descendants in particular. This began God’s selective nature in his covenant making, where the two previous were made to all of mankind, The Abrahamic covenant is tied specifically to Abraham and his descendants, so while it is not applied to the Church, what we can learn from it as believers is that God was faithful in his promises, which we see throughout the Old Testament, and furthermore that he was ultimately faithful in this covenant by bringing about the Messiah through Abraham’s line. Growing even more specific, the Mosaic covenant is made specifically to the children of Israel after he led them out of Egypt, and demonstrated what he required of those who would follow him. As Christians this demonstrates both the unattainable perfection that God has as his standard of holiness, but also his grace in providing a way that we may be seen as righteous in His son, without being required to observe all the terms and conditions of the Law.

Each of these covenants was made at a particular time and place, and to a particular people. What we can observe today as Christians is God’s faithfulness, his providence, and his concern for mankind, and to us he has demonstrated this love most directly, not through the flood, the commandments, or through governmental power, but through his son, both his ministry that he demonstrated here on earth, determining to surrender his whole life to the service of the Father, but also in being willing to lay that life down so that we may come before God in the confidence of his pardon. Each of these covenants marks a progression in God’s personal concerns with mankind, but as they become more selective, they also become more personal, revealing more of God’s compassion, mercy, and care, something we see most fully in the New Testament as each of us who have accepted Christ a Saviour have become His sons and daughters in the new Covenant. But before we look at the New Testament and it’s significance in our lives and in the fulfillment of these covenants, we have one last covenant to consider, and that is the Davidic covenant. I am sure many of us remember the story of David, the boy who was ordained by Samuel to inherit the kingship after Saul demonstrated his faithlessness. The one who waited on God’s timing before assuming the throne. The one who lusted after Bathsheba and as a result lost his son. The one who couldn’t bring himself to condemn Absalom’s rebellion despite the throne being promised to Solomon. The man who, despite the conflicts of his life, was called “a man after God’s own heart.” David, I believe, offers a sincere symbol of what God’s attention and affection looks like. He was a man who followed God, and despite his conflicts with Sin and his own will, he always came back to God. He cried out in earnest when he felt abandoned, he rejoiced in song whenever God made himself apparent. David was a model of obedience, perseverance, and service and the covenant that God made with him secured the line from which the Savior would ultimately come to redeem all mankind. So let’s take a look at the covenant that God made. We will be reading from beginning in verse 1:

“7 Now when the king was settled in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” 3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the LORD is with you.” 4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live 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 and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 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 to 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 live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers 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. 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 ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth 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 a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17 In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.”

God makes six promises to David here as a part of his covenant with him: a promise of a name 9, a place 10, rest 11, lineage 12, an everlasting kingdom 13, and adoption 14. But what is interesting to note here is that, much like God’s covenant with Abraham, David does not see all of these come to completion, nor can he imagine exactly how God will fulfill each of these passages. David now must live in faith, trusting that God will fulfill each of these, and God, has now tied his plan’s for Israel to David’s direct line. He will establish his line to rule forever, and he will not withdraw his love from David’s house as he had from Saul. But this love does not come without conditions, to be the objects of God’s love is also to be the objects of his correction and justice, to be disciplined so as to return to God and to be faithful. I am sure that many of us can understand what this special kind of attention might feel like, both in the good and the bad.

4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live 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 and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 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 to 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 live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers 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. 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 ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth 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 a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17 In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

When I was younger, I had a voracious sweet tooth, as I am sure that many of you did, and when it comes to candy, there are few holidays that are as lucrative for a child as Halloween. Walking up and down the streets stopping door to door and at each stop watching as all different kinds of candy were dropped into my bag, skittles, Hershey kisses, M&M’s, Reese's. But when I got home, I had to put it all in a Tupperware container, even though it was all given to me, my parents controlled how much I was able to have at one time. Now while they did this for my own good, I couldn’t see it that way, all I saw was that they took what was mine, and that if one piece tasted so good, then so would twenty right? So I decided one night, to sneak downstairs and take the entire container of candy back to my room, and I ate them all. In the course of a few days I ate every last piece. But it wasn’t long before my parents noticed the container missing, and who do you think they suspected? Well we didn’t have a dog at the time, and my sister was too young to be blameworthy, so of course it had to be me. And at this point my parents had a decision to make. Of course they loved me, but that love also meant that they tried to do what was good for me, which meant that I needed to be disciplined. But they didn’t do that simply because I was unable to do it myself, rather, that I was inexperienced, young, naive. Their hope was that either by obedience to their rules, or by learning from my disobedience I would someday be mature enough to do what was good by my own will. Now for anyone who has ever had children or was a child themselves, they know that this doesn’t always stick, sometimes we need to learn a lesson a few times before it sticks with us, and this is no different with David’s line. David and his descendents were in a land flowing with milk and honey, yet God had placed limitations on how they ought to go about enjoying it, and the nations around them often lead them into a idolatrous celebration of their blessings instead of worshipping the true God.

Beginning with David himself and continuing all down the line, we see his whole family struggling with dishonesty, lust, greed, and faithfulness to God, but it is because God made his covenant with David’s line that he disciplined them and the nation when they faltered in their commitments, it is out of the same love that lead him to establish David in the first place, that he punished him when he strayed from God's path. It was like being under the direct care of the FBI, sure some things might be easier, but there are no holding back secrets. But God does not abandon them to their fate, no more than our own parents abandon us when we are suffering, even if we caused it ourselves. God has determined that he will see them through.

2. Promise of place: “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” ( ESV).

But what I think is remarkable, and what truly demonstrates why David is a “man after God’s heart, is shown in how he responds to God’s promises, so looking back at 2 Samuel chapter 7, let us begin with verse 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. May this be instruction for the people, 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 wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 Who is like your people, like Israel? Is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people, and to make a name for himself, doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out before his people nations and their gods? 24 And you established your people Israel for yourself to be your people forever; and you, O LORD, became their God. 25 And now, O LORD God, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, confirm it forever; do as you have promised. 26 Thus your name will be magnified forever in the 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.”

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), .

3. Promise of rest: “I will give you rest from all your enemies” ( ESV).

4. Promise of dynasty of offspring: “The Lord will make you a house.… 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” ( ESV).

David responds with prayer, sitting before the Lord GOD he pours out his wonder that God would care for him so deeply, would show such favor to his line. Even establishing David as King of Israel, the result of years of patience and effort in David’s life was a small thing compared to God’s promises for what was to come. So David praises God for his faithfulness, knowing that he will remain still faithful in what he has promised now even though it is unfulfilled. David has faith in God, and it is this same faith that drove him his entire life. This was why he didn’t take Saul’s life, this was why he could be so close to Johnathan despite that anyone else would have seen him as a rival, and this was why David could write all those psalms bearing his heart to God, because he believed that his God, the God of Israel, was the same faithful God that he had always served. He would wait on his timing, meditate on his commands, and praise him each and every step of the way.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), .

Despite the fact that God’s covenantal promises made here are not inherited by the church, we can learn from the extreme faithfulness that David demonstrates here, that praise of God is ringing from his mouth even before God’s promises have begun to be fulfilled, and how just as God established David and his line for a particular purpose, each one of us is exactly where God would have for us. Our friends, our family, and our work are all a result of God’s providence, and he is asking us to be faithful, even if we don’t see how it will all work out just yet. He is asking us to do his will, and he has promised that he will be with us. But how do we know what his will is, and how do we know what that looks like? Let me answer that with a story, Bill Quigley, a professor of mine at Malone has been involved in ministry since the seventies. I don’t think there is a single ministry in Ohio that he doesn’t have connections to, and he has been in charge of the internship program at Malone since he started there nearly twenty years ago. In that Time he has had conversations with student after student about how to know what God’s will is for them, should I go to Kenya, should I work at a hospital, should I accept a youth Ministry position here, should I go there? All of these students come to him full of worry that they will miss God’s will and his answer for them is that God’s will in their lives is a 2x4. God’s will is that they live to God, by God and for God, and that they teach other’s to do the same. They can live as fully for God in a hospital as they can at a summer camp, and they can grow closer to God in a youth group as they can as a worship leader, and that they will be equipped for all of these things by God. He doesn’t encourage foolishness, if you need to learn a language, you need to learn it, if you need a degree or training go get it, but he encourages faithfulness, knowing that God has been ever faithful to us, and that his will, his love, is in our best interest. So as Sandusky approaches a crossroads, a decision of what God’s will is, may we remember that he has always been faithful to us, he is still deserving of our praise, and that we will proceed to God, by God, and for God, whether together in one local church, or as a part of the church universal. With that let us close in prayer.

5. Promise of eternal kingdom: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever … And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (, ESV).

6. Promise of adoption as a royal son of God: “I [Yahweh] will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” ( ESV).

Gregory R. Lanier, “Davidic Covenant,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).