God’s Covenant With David
God’s Covenant with David known as the Davidic Covenant is written about in 2 Samuel 7:1-17, 23:5, 1 Kings 8:23-26, 1 Chronicles 17:1-15, Psalm 89:3-4, 89:26-37, 132:11, 132:17-18, Isaiah 55:3-4, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:21, Ezekiel 34:23-24 and 37:24-25. The key elements of the Davidic Covenant are recorded in the Words God spoke through the prophet Nathan to David as recorded in 2 Samuel 7:12-16: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will 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 his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” Here God promised:
· David would have a son who would succeed him to his throne and establish his kingdom (verse 12). (Solomon fulfilled this in a limited earthly sense, but Jesus fulfilled it in a fuller sense.)
· David’s son would build a house for God (verse 13). (This was fulfilled in an earthly sense by Solomon when he built the temple in Jerusalem. Refer to 1 Chronicles 28:1-21. This prophecy was fulfilled in a deeper sense by David’s descendant – the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Ephesians 2:20-22 and 1 Peter 2:5.)
· The throne of David and his son Solomon would be established by God forever (verses 13 and 16). This promise did not mean there would always be a descendant of David on the earthly throne of Israel. From the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 586B.C., there was no descendant of David ruling Israel. These promises referred to the fact one of David’s descendants would sit on God’s throne forever. Jesus Christ fulfilled this as Luke 1:26-33, Romans 1:3, Revelation 3:7, 5:5 and 22:16 reveal.
Luke 1:32-33 records the prophetic words of the angel Gabriel: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give 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.” The genealogies of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 show Christ was a descendant of David.
· God would discipline Solomon because of his sins (verse 14). God promised to use humans to do this disciplining (verse 14). (These prophecies were fulfilled in 1 Kings 11:1-40.)
· not to remove Solomon from his throne (verse 15).
Other features of the Davidic Covenant
In 1 Kings 8:23, Solomon revealed God’s Covenant with David was linked to His undeserved mercy. God’s covenant with David was primarily an unconditional covenant in the sense God promised to fulfil it regardless of the response of humans.
One conditional feature of this covenant was God said He would discipline Solomon if he sinned (see 1 Samuel 7:14). Also, 1 Kings 2:4 and 9:4-5 relate to the individual descendants of David cutting themselves off from the benefits of the Davidic Covenant.
But in Psalm 89:19-37, God declared that despite the sins of some of David’s descendants, He would still unconditionally fulfil all of the promises of this wonderful covenant.
John 7:42 reveals many of the people of Judah in Jesus’ time were aware of the Davidic Covenant: “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
The problem for many Jews was they were expecting the Son of David to re-establish David’s Kingdom here on Earth in a totally physical sense during their time. But observe Jesus knew this was not God’s will, as John 6:15 shows: “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.”
Bible Study Questions
1. What did God promise in 2 Samuel 7:12-16?
2. Describe the other features of the Davidic Covenant.