2 Samuel

The book of 2 Samuel.

7. The Davidic Covenant

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. 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.’”

In the short term this refers to Solomon, who built a house for God in the form of the temple at Jerusalem. But he was still marred by sin, and that temple was ultimately destroyed and that throne taken away. No matter how wise and wealthy, he couldn’t build an everlasting foundation by himself.

Ultimately, this promise refers to Jesus, David’s descendent—God has established his throne forever.

But doesn’t it say “When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men?” Did Jesus ever commit iniquity? Of course not. But we have. As our representative he took on our sins and iniquities and was punished in our place. If it wasn’t for Christ, we could have no hope of taking part in the promises God made to David. How else could we share Christ’s throne? We, too, might be persecuted and disciplined at times, but God’s love will not depart from us. Whereas the old temple was built with stones to house God, Jesus builds a house for God out of believers themselves as living stones — he himself is the cornerstone. By faith, we all get to participate in the covenant God made with David.

This was David’s response to this covenant:

2 Samuel 7:18 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, and this is instruction for mankind, 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 brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you.

These are the kind of passages that it is easy for young people’s eyes to glaze over at. So what if David had a covenant with God? But if we don’t understand this, we’ll have a hard time understanding God’s covenant with us in Christ. If you believe in God’s promises, you need to pay close attention to what those promises are.

How David responds should be our response to God’s promises. As believers we get to be part of God’s eternal household, and when we gather together that is God’s dwelling place on earth. We pray that our houses will be blessed forever as we serve him.

Now, God did in the end fulfill these promises to David. But there was a whole lot of human betrayal, sin, and destruction on the way there.

Expanded Thoughts

If appropriate, speaker should share their experiences with overbearing authorities (bosses, bureaucracies, in-laws, whoever) who were incompetent, dramatic, or malicious towards them, and how they bore that graciously or struggled to bear that appropriately.

Key Take Aways

God doesn’t always pick the people we expect.

Jesus is the heir to an eternal kingship promised a thousand years before his life.

Through faith in Christ, we are the house of God on earth.

Discussion Questions

How should we behave when we’re placed under bad leadership?

How does the promise that God made to David, looking forward to Christ, apply to us as Christians, looking backwards toward what Christ did? Is there any sense in which we are looking forwards toward a future hope?

David would have had to wait for a thousand years to see God’s promise come to its full fruition in Christ. Are we comfortable waiting a lifetime to see God at work?