The Davidic Covenant

This morning we have yet another covenant. Remember, covenants include a promise and they help us to further understand God’s plan for redeeming all of us.

We have done this each Sunday, but here’s your brief recap.

Adamic covenant, God promises a descendant of Eve’s would crush the head of the serpent and that same descendant’s heal would be bruised. Already, God shows His cards to eliminate evil and restore humanity, though no other details were given at that time other than the command to have children and subdue the earth.

Generations down from Adam and Eve it would appear that God’s covenant with Adam and Eve would be in jeopardy because of the depths of humanity’s evil. Spoiler, God’s covenant was never in danger of being broken. God doesn’t break His promises. All of humanity deserved to be destroyed because of their sin, but there was one family who still clung to God. God flooded the whole earth, preserving this family and 2 of each kind of animal on a massive boat called the ark.

Later on, in the book of Genesis, we read about Abraham. God called him out of idolatry and made a covenant with him promising three things: that Abraham would have many descendants, so many that they formed the Israelite nation. Next, God promised Abraham’s descendants would have a land to call their own. And finally, God promised Abraham that through him the earth would be blessed.

So far these covenants have been unconditional, meaning there is nothing required on humanity’s part. God is simply promising to make these things happen.

Also, we see a glimpse of God’s plan. God promised to send a person who would eliminate evil, and this same person would descend from Abraham and would bless the entire world. God promises not to destroy the earth to allow these covenants to manifest and come to fruition.

Then to Moses God made a conditional covenant with the entire people group after rescuing them from the hands of the Egyptians. He said they would be His people, and He would be their God. They agreed. Now the people are given laws by which they are supposed to live. We see that in the ten commandments and other laws in the books of the law which are the first five books of the Old Testament. Another part of this covenant is that the Israelites were shown just what would have to happen if they ever sinned by breaking God’s law. They would have to sacrifice an animal who would bear the burden of their guilt. They had to do this regularly, each year.

We’re seeing more added to the story of redemption. Not only would this one deliverer crush the head of Satan and bless the entire world, but somehow the law and sacrifice are going to be included in this plan of redemption as well.

Israelites Want A King

But this next part of God’s plan takes place between Him and His servant David. Let’s learn a bit about David’s story and also catch up on the life and times of the Israelites. The story starts all the way back in 1 Samuel 8:4-9

1 Samuel 8:4–9 (ESV)

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

Before this point in Israel’s history, one of the major differences between them and other nations was their lack of a king.

You see, as God says in this passage, God has been their king.

Can you remember another time in the Bible when the people rejected God as their king and Lord and wanted to choose for themselves how they should be ruled? Adam and Eve.

They had a golden situation. They didn’t need a king. God would be their king. In God’s words from 1 Samuel 8:11-19, He tells the people through Samuel that a king means taxes. A king means your young men will fight the king’s wars and will take the best of your vineyards, fields, crop and cattle for himself. Finally, when you cannot take the abuse of a king any longer,

1 Samuel 8:18–20 (ESV)

you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

God also tells the Israelites how a king should behave in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. To summarize, he says

A King Should...

1. Your king should never be a foreigner, only an Israelite should be king. (v. 15)

The Israelites are still God’s chosen people.

2. He must not acquire many horses for himself and should never buy horses from Egypt. (v. 16)

This means not having a strong military because it will still be the Lord who protects and provides.

3. He shall not acquire many wives. (v. 17)

4. He shall not acquire excessive gold or silver (v.17)

This speaks to the level of taxes placed on the people, it was not to be excessive.

5. He shall read the laws of the bible every day in order to learn the fear of the Lord. (v. 18-19)

He needed to have a personal commitment to God and a relationship with Him.

6. He shall keep all the laws and commandments (v.20)

The People Were Given Saul.

At first, Saul is a decent king. He seems to be doing the right things, but it isn’t long before Saul goes haywire. What do you think he does? He starts breaking these rules God set forth for a king. He establishes a large military, taxes his people a lot, has many wives, and does not maintain a daily walk with the Lord.

Eventually, the Lord picks a new man to be king and anoints him. That would be David. In typical God fashion, David was not by human standards the most likely candidate for the position. By human standards, Saul was. He was tall, handsome, and strong. David was the youngest of 12 sons, part of the least important family of the least significant clan in the smallest tribe of Israel. (Chapter 16).

Here’s the fact of the matter. David is an absolute improvement over Saul, but he’s still a sinner in need of forgiveness. We will look closer at that next week.

David starts building an incredible track record. He beats the giant Goliath and the Lord uses him to singlehandedly push back the Philistine invaders. He served Saul well. He was a talented musician and lyricist. He was so successful in war that the Bible records the response of the people to him in 1 Samuel 18:6-7

1 Samuel 18:6–7 (ESV)

As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

You can probably imagine Saul becoming jealous of David over this. In fact, multiple times throughout the remainder of Saul’s life, he attempted to kill David, but was never successful. David on the other hand had multiple opportunities to kill Saul, but never followed through, fearing the Lord and out of love for the king.

When Saul died in battle to the Philistines, David lamented. He still loved the man. The story picks up in 2 Samuel 1:19-27 with David’s words of grief. We will read only the first and last verses,

“Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!... “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”

God Covenants with David

The covenant that God makes with David is recorded in 2 Samuel 7, but Jeremiah 33:17-21 presents a good summary,

Jeremiah 33:17-21 says

Jeremiah 33:17–21 (ESV)

“For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.”

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers.

All of the covenants work together to reveal God’s plan for redemption. What is promised here is that there will always be a descendant of David on the throne. The word “always” is used, and God means always. So let’s add this covenant to the bigger picture.

God will send a person who will crush satan, this person will come from the Israelites and will bless the whole world, offer sacrifice for the sins of the world and keep the law of God perfectly. And now, this person will be a descendant of David who rules as a king forever.

Are we starting to see how this person would be Jesus? We have until December to talk about the birth of Jesus and how He fulfilled the prophecies, and covenants, and offers a new covenant, but I don’t want to mince words at all. We are absolutely being given the portrait of our savior before His earthly ministry ever begins.

Transformational Points

1. God has always planned on redeeming us, and he was always planning on offering sacrifice on our behalf.

2. God uses us, sinners incapable of accomplishing holy things on our own, to bring out His holy plan and will.

3. We are grateful to be used as tools in this way, and we must choose obedience to our creator and God.

Throughout his time on earth, King David goes on to win countless victories over Israel’s enemies. God prospers the kingdom under David’s rule. The Lord used David’s reign as the time to start building the first temple. The temple is a big deal. It’s the place where God’s presence would be manifest, it would be His house on earth, so to speak. Before David, the house of God was only a temporary tent. But God blessed David by tasking him with the preparation for the construction of the temple. Construction would not finish during David’s life, but he was blessed to be the instrument used by God to begin the process. David laid the groundwork for his son Solomon to finish the construction of the holy place.

Before we conclude, I have a brief word for you about the temple. The temple is not only a physical place where the priests were to sacrifice to the Lord, but the idea of the temple is a recurring theme that appears in the Bible from the very beginning. The temple is an idea of a holy place where God dwells and physically interacts with mankind. The temple theme begins in Genesis and is last discussed in the book of Revelation. Having a place where God dwells is important. We see it in the Garden of Eden, where God walked with Adam and Eve and it served the purpose of “divine residence” (21). The tabernacle is the tent that the Israelites carried around with them as a “portable residence” for the Lord (31).

(Eden to the New Jerusalem, by T. Desmond Alexander)

Eventually, God plans that the whole earth will be made new and it will be His dwelling, and all who live there will be in the presence of the Lord always. The New Testament describes the individual believer as the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning we are a place where the Lord takes residence.

This concept of the temple is important because it’s about God and His closeness to creation and it shows that His desire is to be close to us in a relationship once again. That is, after all, why God is doing all that He is.

All these wonderful things that the Lord used David to accomplish, and yet David is still a sinner. Not only does he fudge, but he makes a deeply painful, disgusting decision. And yet, the Lord redeems him and uses the grossest, most vile, human-induced situations to show His grace and mercy to His children. More on that next week.