A Servant Receives God’s Promise

Daily Discipleship Guide ESV, Unit 11, Session 3

© 2019 LifeWay Christian Resources, Permission granted to reproduce and distribute within the license agreement with purchaser. Edited by Rev. Lex DeLong, M.A., Aug. 2022.

There are six main covenants in the Bible:

++Noahic

++Abrahamic

++Mosaic

++Palestinian (Land)

++Davidic

++New

A Covenant is an agreement between 2 parties that consists of (Davidic Covenant elements):

++A NAMING a great name (9)

++A SIGN rest (11) — cut off all your enemies...” (9)

++A DURATION “forever” — descendants to rule a kingdom (11) and a “seed” who’s rule God will establish forever (12, 13, 16)

++THE SCOPE a new Father-son relationship with the sons of David, God as their Father (14)

++THE COMMANDS individual responsibility to and accountability for compliance to obedience (14-15; 2 Chron. 7:17-22). [No 2nd party, so unilateral]

++THE PROMISE the words “house,” “kingdom,” “throne,” and “forever” (16) [the heart of this covenant]

Two types of Covenants in the Bible (and ANE culture):

++BILATERAL: conditional on both parties, that is that both parties have responsibilities in it to fulfill it — both man and God.

++Of those six covenants named in the Bible, only one is bilateral, the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-34).

++GRANT: unconditional, that is that only one party has responsibilities in it and the power to fulfill it — God

++All the other 5 covenants named in the Bible are unilateral.

Christianity is not the compiling and maintaining of a doctrinal corpus, but rather the exercising of a personal relationship with the one and only living and loving God who created you.

So you might ask, “Then what does all of this have to do with us? Let me suggest the following.

The Bilateral Mosaic Covenant demonstrated clearly that we were powerless to fulfill that doctrinal corpus and were fully dependent upon God to establish and fulfill that which we couldn’t; hence, the Grant Covenants in the Bible.

The Mosaic Covenant was to prove our futility, the Grant Covenants were to prove His Sovereignty.

The Mosaic Covenant was for us to surrender self-sufficiency, the Grant Covenants were for us to accept God-dependency.

The Mosaic Covenant was to demonstrate God’s incommunicable attributes, the Grant Covenants were to manifest God’s communicable attributes.

The Davidic Covenant is a grant-type covenant (2 Sam. 7:9-16).

Ask:

Based on what we just discussed, what is the underlying purpose for us to understand about the Davidic covenant, aside from its specific implications for Israel?

(it is futile for us to live up to God’s standard and need Him to intervene in His Sovereignty, etc.)

Like each of the Grant Covenants, The Davidic Covenant continues to build on the previous covenants (Abrahamic and Land [except for the Bilateral Mosaic]) but does not nullify them. Note the presence of the Land grant in the body of this covenant with David (vs. 10).

Individual blessings were able to be forfeited from disobedience, but not the eternal promise to David’s kingly line or throne (Psalm 89:20-37; Jer. 33:14-26). Although David was prevented from building a “house” for the Lord, God would make of David a “house” (11), a royal dynasty.

Note: Any view of eschatology has difficulty fitting the eternal nature of the Davidic dynasty into their view of the timing of Christ’s return, and the nature of the king and his rule over an earthly kingdom, other than the Premillennial view, at least when interpreting the above passages literally and normative in historical context.

End of personal worksheet

Outline:

++God promises to give His people eternal rest from their enemies (2 Sam. 7:8-11a, spiritual and eternal rest can only be found from God, God’s way).

++God promises to establish an eternal kingdom (2 Sam. 7:11b-13, belonging with God is defined and accomplished by God, alone).

++God promises to provide an eternally beloved son (2 Sam. 7:14-16, put your trust in God who provides eternally).

Session in a Sentence: God promised that He would give His people the true King they needed and fulfilled that promise in Jesus.

++Put your trust in God alone in order to find spiritual and eternal rest and a belonging with God that is defined and accomplished by Him Alone.

Main Passage: 2 Samuel 7:8-16

On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick, age 34, stepped into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island to go swimming. This was not a recreational swim but a challenge swim: She wanted to be the first woman to swim the twenty-one mile channel between Catalina Island and the California coastline. The physical challenge was daunting. The visible and invisible sea creatures, including the sharks circling her, were intimidating. But the fog hemmed her in. She could hardly see her support boats that carried her mother, her trainer, and her support staff, and though they encouraged her to keep going, the fog ended her challenge. After swimming 15 hours and 55 minutes, exhausted, she asked to be taken out of the water. Sitting in the boat, she found out she only had a half-mile left to reach her destination. Later she told a reporter: “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I know I could have made it.” 1

Sometimes our biggest struggle is not our own inability but our lack of trust in the process, God’s process. We train, we plan, we start, but we cannot see how closely God’s provision is tracking with us, just ahead of us as He clears our path.

Ask:

Why might it be difficult to fix our eyes on eternal things instead of what is immediately before us?

Point 1: God promises to give His people eternal rest from their enemies (2 Sam. 7:8-11a, spiritual and eternal rest can only be found from God, God’s way).

David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, but it remained in a tent. David wanted to build a house for the Lord (2 Sam. 7:1-2), but the Lord said no on account of his years as a warrior-king (1 Kings 5:3-5) and because the Lord had not commanded that to be done (2 Sam. 7:4-7). Yet the Lord had more to say, so through the prophet Nathan, God said He would make a house—a dynasty for David. The foundation of this house was God’s promise to give Israel what she had longed for—rest.

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

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt centuries before, God promised that He would take them out of a land of slavery to a land that had rest on every side. Now, generations later, the Lord brought rest to the battle-scarred, blood-soaked land through King David (v. 1). But as we see in God’s promise to David, God had something much more profound in mind for His people. The rest that they were experiencing was incomplete. It was a shadow of the substance that was yet to come. The rest was found in their context, but not spiritually in their hearts. The work of completing His rest in their hearts was still left to be accomplished over time.

Through Moses, God’s people were brought out of slavery, but they had not yet entered their promised rest. So the promise was reiterated time and again for forty years (e.g. Deut. 12:8-14). Through Joshua, God brought His people into the land and gave them victory over their enemies, leading to a limited rest in the land (Josh. 11:23; 23:1), but the Lord allowed some nations to remain to test them, tests that they failed (Judg. 2:20-23). Through the judges, God preserved His people and disciplined them so that they might turn from their evil ways and pursue Him alone (2:11-19).

God had shown them partial rest in their context, but had not yet taught them spiritual rest in their hearts.

Ask:

How can we be at rest physically but still spiritually restless?

(we can enjoy being in our sin; we can settle for satisfaction and fulfillment in anything other than God; we can find ourselves coasting through life without regard for spiritual matters)

Taking God’s promises to David here as a whole, otherwise known as the Davidic covenant, we see that rest would come through someone in David’s lineage, but supplied by God Himself. This “rest” would begin in this life and reverberate into the next (2 Sam. 7:13).

We know that the descendant who would provide this rest is Jesus Christ, the son of David (Matt. 1:1), the one to reign physically over His earthly kingdom and after — for eternity. And we know that Jesus did not come just to provide this rest for the nation of Israel but for all who trust in Him as Savior and King.

• Jesus referred to Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-5), the day of the Lord’s rest in creation, and in doing so, He declared that the rest that God promised, the rest that we need, is found in Him.

• As the Lord of all rest, Jesus provided the rest that we long for and need by dying in our place to redeem us from all that enslaves us in this world. On the cross, Jesus uttered something very important regarding this rest: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Not I am finished, not even you are finished—it is finished. Jesus was speaking of the work that the Father had given Him to do. So with His final breath on the cross, Jesus declared that He had completed all the work necessary. There is nothing left for Him to do, and surely nothing for us to do. This absence of work—rest—comes through Christ’s completed work on the cross. Just as God rested on the seventh day after He completed the work of creation, so Jesus rested after He accomplished the work of redemption.

• What is more, one day Jesus will return to make all things new, to wipe away every tear, and to bring us to a place where we will never feel restless again.

Ask:

What are some ways we attempt to work for eternal salvation as if Christ’s work on the cross were incomplete, even now as believers?

(we do good works to try to earn God’s favor; we punish ourselves for our sin when He has already paid for it; we view our good works and evil works on a scale and try to maximize our good ones and make His blessing contingent upon us doing so; we try to build something for God to make God value us)

Voices from Church History

“Awake, you everlasting spirit, out of your dream of worldly happiness! Did not God create you for Himself? Then you cannot rest till you rest in Him.” 2 –John Wesley (1703-1791)

Point 2: God promises to establish an eternal kingdom (2 Sam. 7:11b-13, belonging with God is defined and accomplished by God, alone).

11b 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.

The promise made here first came to fruition through David’s son Solomon, but only partially. Solomon would be the one to build the temple that David wanted to build (1 Kings 6–8), but Solomon’s throne was not forever. Besides the fact that Solomon died, his kingdom was torn in two on account of his disobedience, yet his son would reign after him over part of the kingdom because of God’s promise to David. A greater king was needed to bring about perfect peace and establish the eternal kingdom God spoke of. This promise could only be fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

Solomon’s name may have meant “peace,” but he would not be the one to bring it. Jesus, however, is the Prince of peace who brought lasting peace with God. Jesus is the King of kings who has planted His kingdom on earth, a kingdom that will have no end (Isa. 9:1-7). Jesus is the sinless Savior who unites all those who trust in Him—people of every tribe, tongue, and nation—as one redeemed people, the family of God. And Jesus is the Son of David to build the greater fulfillment of the temple: first, His body raised from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion for sinners (John 2:18-22), followed second by the body of Christ, the church (Eph. 2:19-22).

Ask:

What are some Old Testament prophecies we have already studied that find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ Jesus?

(the son of the woman to crush the head of the serpent; Abraham’s blessing to the whole world; God would raise up a prophet like Moses)

God promised He would build an eternal kingdom. This kingdom began with David in Israel, but it is being completed by Jesus through His church. While the church is not the kingdom, the church is an expression of the kingdom and evidence that the kingdom of God has come near. Through the church, the body of believers, God’s name is honored, Jesus is worshiped, and His gospel is proclaimed. Wherever these happen, God’s kingdom is present and moving in the name of our King Jesus and in the power of His Holy Spirit.

Fill in the blanks (DDG p. 59)

Church and Kingdom: The church and the kingdom of God are closely related, though not identical. When the Bible speaks of the kingdom of God, it is referring to the reign of God in the world. The church is the people of God who live under His loving rule now, anticipating the full manifestation of God’s kingdom in the future. The church’s mission is to witness to God’s kingdom, proclaiming God’s message of salvation through Christ and demonstrating the power of the gospel through good works so that others may be brought to live under God’s reign.

Point 3: God promises to provide an eternally beloved son (2 Sam. 7:14-16, put your trust in God who provides eternally).

“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.’ ”

Again, Solomon is the first person in mind here, the builder of the Lord’s temple. Imagine the blessing of being described as God’s child with an everlasting love. (Do you have to imagine?) Solomon did turn aside from following the Lord and was disciplined as the Lord said (1 Kings 11–12). Yet Solomon remained in God’s love as a son while he suffered the consequences. And one day the greater and perfect Son of David, the unique Son of God, would come to be disciplined, not for His wrongdoing but for ours.

• Though Solomon’s kingdom was split in two and his descendants ruled on a limited throne, God was still faithful to His promises to David. For God was speaking about Solomon, but He was not only speaking about Solomon. He was also speaking about Someone much greater than Solomon.

• Jesus spoke about Himself in this way: “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt. 12:42).

• As great as David was, as great as Solomon was, no king, prophet, or leader who came before measured up to God’s promises because they all were sinful men and women in need of a Savior themselves. There has never been one like Jesus, nor will there ever be another like Him.

Ask:

Why might we view discipline from God as a lack or loss of love from our heavenly Father?

(because we don’t have a faith relationship with Him through Jesus, the Son; because human parents can struggle to discipline their children in love; because we don’t view our sin in the same way as God, as serious and needing correction; because we struggle to equate the pain of discipline as something good from our loving Father’s hand)

Record in the table in their DDG (p. 60) some ways Jesus revealed that He is the unique Son of David, the Son of God, the King with the everlasting throne promised to David.

• Matthew 26:64: “But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

—Jesus Is … Enthroned at the Right Hand of God

• Mark 2:5-7: “And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ ”

—Jesus … Can Forgive Sins

• John 8:57-58: “So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ ”

—Jesus Was … Preexistent

• John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ”

—Jesus Is … The Way, the Truth, and the Life

God didn’t just send us information or steps to follow to find salvation. God sent us a Person—His own Son. And He didn’t send His Son merely as a messenger but as the message Himself. Through Jesus’ sinless life, sacrificial death, and resurrection, the Father has provided all we need to believe and experience forgiveness of sin and have eternal life with Him in the eternal kingdom He promised to David in Jesus Christ.

Voices from Church History

“If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, his arm over us, his ear open to our prayer; his grace sufficient, his promise unchangeable.” 3 –John Newton (1725-1807)

My Mission

Session in a Sentence: God promised that He would give His people the true King they needed and fulfilled that promise in Jesus.

++Put your trust in God alone in order to find spiritual and eternal rest and a belonging with God that is defined and accomplished by Him Alone.

References

1. Channel Swimming Association, “Florence Chadwick 1953-1964,” Queen of the Channel, November 16, 2018, http://www.queenofthechannel.com/florence-chadwick.

2. John Wesley, “Awake, Thou That Sleepest,” in The Essential Works of John Wesley, ed. Alice Russie (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour, 2011), 163.

3. John Newton, in The Works of the Rev. John Newton, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, PA: Uriah Hunt, 1839), 272.