Jesus in the Old Testament #30: The Davidic Covenant

 Jesus in the Old Testament 30:

The Davidic Covenant 

2 Sam 7:1-17

Thesis: David and God both try to establish permanence and security for the other.  God, in overwhelming David’s offer with his own, creates an everlasting covenant, the promises of which survive even His own judgment. 

1. Nutshell w/kids

1. Have you ever been camping in a tent?  What’s different about that compared to living at home? 

2. David saw that he had a house while God was worshipped in a tent (tabernacle).  He wanted to fix that and build God a temple.  Why do you think he wanted to do this? 

3. David ended up not building the temple.  His son did, but God instead promised to give David a permanent kingdom.  

4. God promised David that he would never lack for an heir (a child, grand child, etc), and that his kingdom would last forever. 

5. Is there a king in Israel right now?  What happened to this promise? 

6. Jesus is the son of David who will reign forever and fulfills God’s promise to David. 

2. Deeper w/ Adults 

1. Context

2. 2 Sam 7:1-3

1. It is put upon David’s heart to build a temple for the Lord. 

2. Nathan, speaking just as a man, confirms that the Lord is with David and gives him the green light

3. Vs 4-7

1. Nathan is corrected by God and told to go to David with a different message. 

2. God has never sought a temple from any of the leaders of Israel. 

3. Wordplay between “house” and “tent.” 

1. House: בַּיִת (bayit) can mean several things: 

1. Most commonly, a regular dwelling of a common person. Usually constructed of stone and wood with a flat roof upon which one might walk. 

2. Can be a dwelling for animals, a pen or stable, or even a spider’s web. 

3. Can be a temple for a god, pagan or otherwise. 

4. Used of the abode of God in heaven (Psalm 36:8) and also of the tabernacle (Judg 18:31). 

5. Can also be used of a person’s household members, including immediate and family members, and even servants. 

6. Can be used of a kingly dynasty. 

7. All of these senses (except the animal one) are used here. 

2. Tent: 

1. The normal word for “tent” is  אֹהֶל (ʾōhel).  Used 348x in scripture.   

2. David instead diminishes the significance of the structure by using the word “curtain” as a euphemism for the tabernacle. “God is sheltered under a curtain.” יְרִיעָה yerîʿâ  54x

3. Speaks to insufficiency and inadequacy in comparison to the cedar out of which David’s house is made. 

4. When God self-references his dwelling, he calls it a “tent” in the normal sense, restoring it to its proper understanding. 

4. David wants to give permanence and stability to God’s house, but God does not need a man to grant him this stability.  

4. Vs 8-17 The Covenant: 

1. The conversation continues around the topic of permanence and stability. 

2. God reminds David of what he’s already done to provide stability for David (vs 8-9a)

1. Elevated him from shepherding sheep to shepherding my people Israel as their prince. 

2. The judges were shepherds only (vs 7), but now David is a shepherd-prince. 

3. God has allowed David to defeat his enemies all around him. 

3. God promises to continue to elevate and stabilize David’s kingdom (vs 9b-11a)

1. A great name for David

2. A planted place for the people of Israel

3. Peace on all sides

4. No more violent men

4. God now deals with David’s “house” (11b-17)

1. Up to now, his physical house is stable and strong (made of Cedar), but his dynasty is not a settled question.  

2. There is no precedent yet in Israel that a King’s son inherits the kingdom.  Only one king prior, and his son is not king now. 

3. Prophecy about David’s son finds partial immediate fulfillment in Solomon, but final and perfect fulfillment in Christ. 

4. Vs 12: A son will come after you and will inherit your Kingdom: Solomon

5. Vs 13: He will build a house for my name: 

1. Initially, Solomon, who will build the temple [2Chron 22:6-19]. 

2. However, Christ is engaged in a much grander building of the temple of God in the Church (Eph 2:20-22; Heb 3:6; 1Pet 2:5). 

6. Vs 13: I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

1. Solomon’s kingdom lasted a long time, 40 years (1Kins 11:42), but not forever. 

2. The forever reign of the Davidic monarchy is only realized in Christ. 

7. Vs 14a: The son of God. 

1. Solomon was certainly intimate with God early in his life, but he lacked the perseverance to continue in the faith and in the fear of God. 

2. This relationship is reserved in its fulfillment for Christ. 

8. Vs 14b-15. The son will sin and be disciplined, but he will not be forsaken; only Solomon.  Christ was sinless. 

9. Vs 16: permanent throne, house, kingdom. 

1. Only in Christ is this realized.  David’s dynasty was eventually interrupted (below).  

2. Only in Christ’s rule as heaven’s king now and as the early millennial potentate is this promise fulfilled. 

3. The culmination of the permanence dialogue. 

5. David’s recap in the Psalms (Psalm 89)

1. Vs 3-4 recap the general thrust of the covenant.  The term “covenant” is not used in 2Sam 7, but it is here. 

2. Vs 25-29 recap the promises of the permanence and preeminence of David’s dynasty in poetic language. 

3. Notice that the offspring, the throne, and the throne are the critical enduring features of the promise in both vs 4, 29, and 36.

6. Did God break his covenant with David when the Davidic line ended with the Babylonian Exile? 

1. Solomon last king of the united kingdom. 

2. 10 tribes left to serve Jereboam.  All wicked all the time. 

3. God warned Judah and the Davidic Kings to stay true to the law both in the context of the covenant (2 Sam 7:14-15 and Psalm 89:30-37) and numerous times through prophetic warnings (Obediah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel)

4. King Jehoram, about half-way through the Davidic dynasty, almost lost it all, but the Lord remembered his promise to David and extended more time to repent (2 Chron 21:7).

5. While the kings of Judah as a whole did better in obeying the Lord than the kings of Israel, ultimately, the curses also included in the law came to fruit in the line of David. 

6. Josiah was the last godly king. 

7. Jeremiah 22: The end of the royal dynasty. 

1. Vs 1-5.  One more appeal to repentance. 

2. Vs 6-9 A prophecy about the future testimony of the destruction of the palace to the sovereignty and judgment of God against idolatry. 

3. Vs 10-12 a prophecy against Shallum the son of Josiah who had ruled wickedly in Jerusalem. 

4. Vs 13-23 a final passing of judgment against the Davidic line in the person of Jehoiakim.  

1. 13-15: David dwelt in a house that God had made secure.  God derides Jehoiakim for trying to make his own house secure apart from a relationship with God. 

2. 15-17: Josiah enjoyed wealth and prosperity as a result of his love for the Lord and righteous life. Jehoiakim is attempting to have the benefits without the relationship. 

3. 18-23:  Judgment is passed.  Jehoiakim will be killed outside the city gates and left to rot.  Nobody will mourn for him (fulfilled in 2 Kings 24). 

5. Vs 24-30. Judgment against Jehoiakim’s posterity. 

1. His son, Coniah, will be led into captivity and live in obscurity.  

2. No child of Jehoiakim will ever sit on Davids Trone.  The end of the dynasty. 

8. Psalm 89 was written in the times after the destruction of the dynasty and echoes the phrases of the covenant back to God, asking the question, “Did you change your mind?”

1. Focus on discipline much magnified vs 2Sam 7

2. Long post-script asking God to remember his faithfulness (vs 39-52)

9. Matthew and Luke’s genealogies help us answer this question. 

1. Matthew records Jesus’ ancestry through Solomon’s line to Joseph.  Kingly line, right to rule but cursed. 

2. Luke records Jesus’ ancestry through Nathan’s line to Mary.  Bloodline, David’s heir, not the throne, but not cursed. 

3. In Jesus, the right to rule was re-united with an uncursed Davidic bloodline.  

10. God promised to preserve forever David’s offspring and his throne.  Even when there was no offspring on the throne, he preserved them separately.  Nathan’s line preserved the offspring (bloodline), and Joseph’s preserved the throne (the cursed right-to-rule). 

7. The Application to us: 

1. God’s promises can always be trusted. Not only his discipline and judgment can force God to abandon his promises. 

2. God provided, 400 years before he needed it, for a way to still bring a Messianic King to David’s throne even after cursing the royal bloodline. 

3. God’s sovereignty and love intersect in ways that overwhelm the attempts of the enemy to thwart the redemptive plans of God. 

Discussion Questions. 

1. David wanted to bless the Lord.  Instead, the Lord blessed David more than he could imagine.  How have you seen this happen in your life? 

2. What does it mean to you that God’s blessing was not unhitched from his discipline? 

3. What does it show you about God that He preserved David’s throne separate from his heir? 

4. How have you seen God keep His promises in surprising ways in your life?

Jesus in the Old Testament 10: Jesus and Judah's Scepter

Jesus in the Old Testament 10:

Jesus and Judah’s Scepter

Thesis: God promises through Jacob’s blessing of his children that the Messiah-King, promised initially in Genesis 3 and again to Abraham (Gen 22), Isaac (Gen 26), and Jacob (Gen 28) will come through the line of Judah.  That promise will be realized and can be counted on, despite the many failings of the men in that line. 

1. Nutshell with Kids (<5 min):
1. Tell me about a time when you made a promise to someone.  Did you do what you promised? 
2. Is it ever hard to keep your promises? Why?
3. Do you ever doubt that someone will keep their promises to you?  Why?
4. When you think about God, do you trust Him to keep his promises? Why?
5. God promised one of Jacob’s sons, Judah, that His family would always rule God’s people. 
1. King David came from his family. Jesus came from his family.
2. Lots of kings came from Him, but many of them disobeyed God, and God judged the nation and let them be conquered by foreign powers.
3. There has been no Jewish king in Israel since then.
6. Did God break his promise?  No.  Jesus came and fulfilled the promise of God. 
7. Jesus is reigning as King in heaven now.

2. Deeper with Adults:
1. Review of the promises of “the He” in Genesis in whom all the earth will be blessed
1. Genesis 3:14-15
2. Genesis 22:17-19
3. Genesis 26:1-5
4. Genesis 28:13-15
2. Now we know that the promised one of God is to be born to a descendant of Jacob, but which one?
1. Prophetic blessings
2. Looks at the past of each son as an indicator of what God will do with them in the future.
3. Jacob, the man who had lived so much of his life in the place of the “unblessed son,” makes sure to fulfill that need in his children before his death.
4. Longest poem in the OT.
3. Gen 49:
1. Ruben, Simeon, and Levi have all disqualified themselves (vs 1-7)

a)     Joseph receives the double portion of Jacob’s inheritance, but the rulership is given to Judah 1Chron 5:2 

b)     Odd, since Joseph is #2 in Egypt at this time.

c)      God rarely, if ever, chooses the first-born (Ishmael, Esau, David’s brothers, etc.).

d)     1 Sam 16:7

2. Vs 8: Confers upon Judah the rights of the first-born

a)     Judah’s name means, “Praise”

(1)   Gen 29:31-35. Finally, Leah gave up on pleasing men and decided to worship God in her life circumstances.

(a)  Ps 46:1-3

(b)  Prov 18:10

(2)  Judges 1:1-2.  “Praise” goes up before the enemies and victory will come.

b)     From 43:3 on, Judah is the spokesman for the group

3. Vs 9: Lion imagery

a)     Mic 5:8 (Judah)

b)     Num 24:8-9 (Israel)

c)      Rev 5:5 (Jesus)

4. Vs 10: Difficult to translate

New International Version

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

New Living Translation

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor.

English Standard Version

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

New American Standard Bible

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

King James Bible

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The scepter will not depart from Judah or the staff from between his feet until He whose right it is comes and the obedience of the peoples belongs to Him.

International Standard Version

The scepter will never depart from Judah, nor a ruler's staff from between his feet, until the One comes, who owns them both, and to him will belong the allegiance of nations.

NET Bible

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.

JPS Tanakh 1917

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, As long as men come to Shiloh; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

a)     Scepter and Rulers staff: The right to rule shall be Judah’s, but dormant (between his feet as opposed to in his hand).

(1)   Ps 2:6-9

(2)  Ps 60:7

(3)  Ps 108:8

b)     Until “Shiloh” comes.

(1)   Him whose it is

(2)  Pacifier, one who brings peace

(3)  Like the ISV: The one who owns them both

c)      Balaam’s prophecy similar: Num 24:15-19

d)     Parallels the promise to David in 2Sam 7:8-17. Initially fulfilled in David, but ultimately in Christ.

e)     David was respected by other nations because of his military might.  Solomon was respected by other nations because of his wisdom, but Israel was never a world-dominating empire where the world’s rulers brought tribute

f)       Deportation to Babylon and Dissolution of the Davidic dynasty does not negate the promise of God. 

(1)   Ezek 21:25-27 To Zedekiah, the last Davidic king, God declares that there will never again be a son of David sitting on the throne (Jer 22:30), but this prophecy is referenced even in that curse.

(2)  After the restoration from captivity, Hagai referenced the incoming tribute to a future King in Hag 2:6-9. Obviously, this is after the entire Davidic Dynasty has been disposed.

g)     God did not promise an unbroken monarchy but an unbroken line of descendants from David who would be qualified to sit on that throne when it was reestablished. David’s line would not fail before the righteous Branch came to claim His throne (cf. Luke 1:31-33). The genealogies of Matthew and Luke show that this promise was fulfilled as Christ was able to trace both His legal line through Joseph and His physical line through Mary back to David (Matthew 1:1-16; Luke 3:23-31).

h)   During the exile, Jehoiachin was allowed some freedom in the later years of his life and ate with the King of Babylon (Jer 52:31-33).

i)       The governors of Judah during the exile and the post-exilic period were from the tribe of Judah right up to the reign of King Herod, who was an Edomite (descendant of Esau), during whose reign Jesus was born.

j)       The “ruler’s staff” may not be purely poetic repetition.  The power of capital punishment was left with the Jews by all of their foreign conquerors until Rome took it away in 7 AD.  Jesus was already born (probably 12 years old), so the ruler’s staff remained until he came.

k)     Paul identifies the blessing of all nations, promised in the Abrahamic covenant and implied here in the blessing to Judah, as being the kingship of Jesus in His church Rom 15:8-13

5. Vs 11-12

a)     Imagery of plenty and provision: vines, grapes, livestock, and milk.  Similar to images of the Holy land “flowing with milk and honey,” with clusters of grapes that need two people to carry them.

(1)   Num 13:21-27

(2)  Deut 8:7-8

b)     Abundance: Who would tie up a donkey to a choice vine unless there was so much you don’t worry about what the donkey will eat? Amos 9:11-15

c)      Christological images here as well:

(1)   Donkey tied up: Matt 21:1-3

(2)  Clothes dipped in blood, treading out the winepress of God’s wrath. Isa 63:1-6; Rev 19:11-16

6. Joseph’s blessing, vs 24

a)     From God comes a Shepherd and a Stone.  Not from Joseph.

b)     Shepherd: John 10:11-18

c)      Stone: Psalm 118:20-23; Eph 2:19-22

4.  Our Place in this: Gentile 21st century Christians.
1. God has promised, unilaterally, that the rule of government will remain in Judah until Messiah, but then when it comes about in 2Sam 7, he puts conditions of obedience on it, which results in the “failure” of the line. 
2. In order for God to fulfill his unconditional promise despite the failings of men to uphold their part of the relationship, Christ has to step in and do it himself: Isa 9:6-7. 
3. The same thing happens in our lives. 

a)     Our salvation is based on faith, apart from works: Eph 2:1-20

b)     God promises that those whom He saves will not fail to be saved John 10:28-30; Romans 8:29-30

c)      God says that His judgment is based on works Matt 25:31-46; 2Cor 5:10; 1Pet 1:17

d)     In order for our faith to save us in light of a judgment of works, Christ has to be the one at work in us, whose works will be examined, not our own: Phil 2:13; 2Cor 5:21; Gal 2:19-21

4. Rejoice in the work of Christ in and through you.  He is fulfilling your part of the deal so that His unconditional promise will stand.

Discussion Questions

1. What promises of God are you waiting for him to fulfill in your life? 
2. Are there things in your life that are getting in the way of God’s promises being fully realized in you or your family?
3. Spend some time as a family talking about things that you, as a family, might need to repent of and do differently in order to be able to receive the blessings that God intends to bring you.
4. Then, spend a few minutes in prayer, asking Jesus to work in your lives individually and as a family unit, to do the work that only He can do.