Tuesday, August 19

GOD'S DEALINGS WITH MEN continued



GOD'S COVENANT WITH DAVID
2 Sam. 7:16


For 450 years God had ruled Israel through judges.  Israel had become tired of theocratic rule, and they wanted a king.  They anointed Saul, but he did not please God.  Later into his reign God raised up David (a man after God's heart) in his place. As time went on David brought the ark of God from Gibeah to the capital, Jerusalem.  Then later David had a desire to build a house for God, but God would not let him.  God told him that his son would build it though.  God made a covenant with David, and David said this about that covenant.  2Sa_23:5  "Verily my house is not so with God; Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, sure:  For it is all my salvation, and all my desire, Although he maketh it not to grow. "  David says, God made a covenant with him that was everlasting, ordered in all things, and that it was sure.  He claimed that covenant as his salvation.                                                       

Let us go to 2 Sam. 7:11-16 and read where God made that covenant with David.  In verse 11 He states that God will make him a house.  This word house is used in two ways.  The first is a building that David's son would build.  David's son Solomon built a magnificent temple as noted in verses 12, 13.  The word house in 2 Sam.7:11-16, however, looks ahead to more than a building (temple).  The word house is used here in the sense of a dynasty.  This dynasty would begin with Solomon :12, but Solomon is a type, and the type is fulfilled in Christ himself, which is yet future.  According to verse16 that dynasty will be everlasting.  Granted Solomon and his family are gone now, but that dynasty lives on.  With the records all destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 AD, Jesus is the only Jew alive today Who can (by using the records in the Bible) establish His rightful inheritance to the throne of Israel.  None will come after Him that can establish their right to the throne.

    In Psalm 89:3, 4 the Psalmist has God saying, "I have made a covenant with my chosen.  I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.  Selah"  The fact that his house and throne are here connected would corroborate the idea that house here means dynasty.  The throne is symbolic of his royal authority in which Jesus will have no limit.                          

    In our text he combines the house with His kingdom.  It is to be an everlasting kingdom.  A house, dynasty, and throne certainly speak of a kingdom.  The uniqueness of this kingdom is pictured in Ezekiel 37:14-26.  Ezekiel gives a parable of 2 sticks.  He gives the interpretation of the parable beginning in verse 19.  Verse 19 names the two sticks as the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Joseph.  They are said to be put together and made one stick.  Verse 21 tells of the re-gathering of Israel (ten tribes of the North), and how they will be brought together again in their own land.  These were taken captive about 700 years BC by the Assyrians and have never been known again to this day.  Verse 21 speaks of bringing them back also from among the heathen (nations) and from every side.  This is a picture of the re-gathering of Judah from among the nations.  In verse 22 he says God will make them one nation in the land of Israel, and one king will rule over them.  Ezekiel could not have been referring to the united kingdom from which they all came.  Since his prophecy, there has never been a union of the two kingdoms.  Thus this has to be speaking of a future re-gathering and uniting of the two kingdoms into one.  Verse 22 tells us also that after this they will never be divided again.

    It is interesting that verse 24 tells us that David shall be king over them.  He will be their prince :25.  Verse 26 says, "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them:  and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

    See next post for more on this subject.  What are your thoughts on this?

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