Covenant with David

Let's begin now and return to the scripture and read part of the prayer of David in 2nd Samuel 7 Note how David in the way picks up phrases That had that you will find in scripture that was given written prior to this time Beginning at verse 22 how great you are O sovereign Lord. There is no one like you Moses had sung that way And there is no God but you as we have heard with their own ears and who was like your people Israel the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself and to make a name for himself and to perform great and awesome Wonders and there he refers to the Exodus and the Sinaiic Covenant by driving out nations and their gods from before your people whom you Redeemed from Egypt and there we refers to Joshua and the taking of the land and Joshua's covenantal renewals You have established your people Israel is your very own forever and you O Lord have become their God and I've become their God the promise that was so explicitly stated to Abram Isaac and Jacob But your people as your very own remember the Sinaiic covenant and I brought you to myself and you were my precious possession David realized that what God was doing when God spoke through Nathan that he was repeating expanding applying and personally involving David in that one covenant that God had made and that he was confirming expanding applying More firmly establishing making more meaningful as time went on and as the time for the mediator The two and complete mediator the covenant was to come the Christ Let us pray Lord as we turn to your revelation Concerning the role of David the great prince of the Old Testament We pray that we may look to you and See what you can do and what you did do through one person a sinner a Concentric and man At times but a submissive man a man after your own heart Lord instead of concentrating on the man Which in a way we can't avoid either because of the way you work through him may we see you and What you've done through him to bring your son as a reigning Lord through the nativity God bless us here to gather keep sin from us. Give us joy in our work for Jesus sake. Amen as I mentioned Already in my introductory comment as I reflected on that passage in 2nd Samuel 7 this covenant that God Made with David was by no means a covenant that was something new and different and that Has to be seen as something completely on its own during the mosaic epoch there had been renewals The Deuronomi renewal of the Sinaiic the Sinaiic was in a sense the renewal of the patriarchal and

These renewals and In the Sinaiic or the mosaic epoch basically We're leaders too what God does now with the Devedic covenant Now I want you to know class that there is an awful lot of discussion about the different types of covenants Distinctions between covenants John Brighton a few others have made a big distinction between a covenant of promise and a covenant of That's a little bit more legal a treaty bound by laws or a grant the Abrahamic and Devedic covenant and are considered grants promises without necessary condition and That there are others that are far more conditional This discussion goes on and on recently in the Catholic biblical quarterly John D. Levinson wrote an article the Devedic covenant and its modern interpreters He rejects what he calls the integrationists Those that see a continuity and that the covenants are integrated and Then he rejects the segregationist and John Brighton's put in that category as is Mendenhall And he comes up in an idea that this is we must look at it either as segregated or as Integrated but as a specifically one time historical and that to me sounds pretty segregationist Specifically historically politically oriented deal with David. It is strictly a political arrangement that is Made to tie in with and he feels that that's doing best most justice to the Devedic covenant like I said in the biblical Catholic biblical quarterly volume 41 number two you can read it It's a good review of what people have been trying to do and of another failure and trying to deal with the text other than The way the text presents it to us since itself Because just this prayer David that I've just read of course these scholars can say oh, but that's reading That was somebody just putting something in David's mouth to make it look like it's integrated But you got to look at the real historical situation and in the evolving of the situation you pay good attention to history You'll find out that this is a very private and a very family political oriented situation And so the discussion continues Not only between people of different Eschatological viewpoints within the evangelical world But also especially between the evangelicals and the non-Evangelical world We've got something here. That's the high point of all testament revelation then I'm telling you If anybody wants to deal seriously with the text you've got to deal some basic fundamental factors that are related here Going on this revelation in the time of David I called that an Old Testament high point you remember my my sketch that I gave you the different epochs In a way I could have gone way high on the Davidic and then I have The next section the new covenant and then going on to the new testament. There is an expansion of revelation But at the same time I firmly believed that here in 2nd Samuel we have the high point of all testament revelation There is no further new revelation given concerning kingdom covenant and The mediator it's expanded it's explicated it's applied But with David We have the king and when Christ is born he is said to be This son of David of the Davidic house and this is a fulfillment of what was revealed in 2nd Samuel 7 So I'm not surprised that people have a lot of difficulty Understanding 2nd Samuel 7 if they don't see The importance of the revelation given in David's time Well here I have a few sub-points here under this revelation at the high point you have the prophetic involvement Nathan gets directly involved with the royal house Samuel had been there before but now Nathan is Specifically and the only thing we read about Nathan is his involvement with the royal house He's there as a guardian. He's there as a guide He's there as a spokesman on behalf of God and Then you have to see that David who later also and maybe even before this had already exercised certain prophetic gifts David is the recipient of the revelation David is a recipient and by being a recipient of revelation He too is placed in this stage where he can become a prophet and where he can go on and speak authoritatively The Lord has spoken to me as he says in 2nd Samuel 23 and Then David's prophetic responses you see them in prayer the prayer that we read He not only picks up the past He's retrospective. He speaks to the present and he's perspective and he and he picks up God's Future eschatological program and in a few words He sketches out the whole panorama of God's program from creation to the great consummation and Then he turned to the Psalms It's amazing House he Especially in 2nd Samuel 23 the first six verses in Psalm 89 Therein these Psalms he specifically responds to the revelation that's given him and so I repeat No new revelation after David concerning the covenant and kingdom the high point has been reached But it's not filled out. It's not fully Exprocated Turning to David now David the king Many critics find that the text is Hopelessly mixed up because David is a 9 to 3 times According to the text where he was When Samuel was told to go to Jessus house there and Bethlehem David was personally anointed Not the older brothers, but David is given the assurance that he is to be king and As a fugitive he was always aware of the fact that he was the anointed but there was one who had been anointed before him And he understood the importance of being anointed of being elected designated to a position Anointed by all qualified given the authority and And that the anointed had a special relationship with God the king David was aware of what anointed meant Definitely he wouldn't touch saw even though he himself was an anointed one if he had touched Saul the anointed he would have in a way Corrupted his own anointing But he understood what had happened when he was personally anointed he had a bite his time and The Lord would remove Saul so that he would be able to come into place into place Then it's second-sem you to wish for after Saul has been killed in battle Jonathan is gone There's only a few of Saul's house left then the people of Judah anoint David As king second-sem you to verse four he becomes king over the southern aspect Judah and Symmian Benjamin is not yet included as I can as I read the text and Then warfare continues between Saul's house some of the descendants of Saul and Saul's General Agner who eventually turns to support David and then David becomes king over all Israel and he is Anointed now the real anointing was that personal anointing The other two were confirmations for public May put it this way for public purposes The people had were involved it was a people that were Given the privilege of Seeing it and that they could say we have accepted him. We have anointed him But that personal anointing is the basic and fundamental and the other two are basically confirmations With the people's involvement notice how God involved this people in the anointing of the king This wasn't something that was just completely imposed upon the people the people accepted David as king and the people of Israel did not accept him the Northern tribes until they were led to and were ready to It's interesting how God takes time to work out his purposes David could have gotten awfully impatient when he was sitting in a cave hiding But God is a God who takes his time From the time that Jesus died on the cross 33 AD There's another 37 years before the temple is removed. He lets that whole generation that grew up with the temple of Jesus day, he lets them more or less adjust to that great That great transition God never seems to be as much as in a hurry as I used to be Once you get little older you start realizing that sometimes you've been wasting unnecessary energy and trying to push God's Caledon and God's schedule No, God has his time and God has his way and God really took care of David But David was in there working to notice that as soon as he's king overall Israel he establishes a royal city Jerusalem becomes that capital and Again, David shows wisdom. We know whereas Jerusalem located right on the boundary between the south and the north Between the tribe of Benjamin's territory and the tribe of Judah Jerusalem had not been actually claimed by either by any tribe yet The Jebusites although once it seems to have been overcome in the time of Of the judges yet it was immediately We take him by the Jebusites and Jerusalem and your Jerusalem is somewhat strategically located if any of you ever have a chance to go visit there You'll see Jerusalem's at a high point go across the river Jordan going top of Mount Nebo in a clear day There is you see Jerusalem and beyond Jerusalem you can see the Mediterranean to the left. You see You can see all the way over to Beersheba to the right You can see the sea of Galilee and and and beyond and the hills and mountains of Lebanon Petruzum's right in center there of that area there Jerusalem highly prominent, you know the Psalmist's song about Jerusalem the royal city So Jerusalem actually was a royal city But as such it could be a symbolic city it symbolized the throne city of God the center of God's throne and And it was a type and that's how we have to understand all references to Jerusalem, especially in the New Testament It is typical typical of the throne Room of God the throne house of God The palace of God Jerusalem Represents the kingdom of God just like Jerusalem represented the whole empire of David and Solomon and of the Davidic house later on So Jerusalem has to be seen as a type pointing to Christ and Christ people and Christ's kingdom Dr. Martin Wengard and has written a book the future of the kingdom that book has been of such help to me Now professor Wengard was one of my professors at Calvin seminary, but he draws Clear lines between a literal and what is often then rather derogatorily referred to a spiritualized exegesis but The you can't take everything in the Bible literally no one will say they can the problem is How much of it is to be taken literally word for word and how much is to be seen as symbolic or typical and Basically having a spiritual intent and I think Dr. Wengard's book the future of the kingdom Somehow another it hasn't received an awful lot of attention other than in the circles. I grew up in where I was educated but I recommend it anyone now Jerusalem also becomes the city of the ark and and The ark continue to play a very important function and in the reading assignment I call the it to call your attention especially to dumbbells discussion on page 143 the Function of the ark. He summarizes it quite well there. Sometimes I wish he wrote just a little bit more in an organized step by step way And yet when you sit down and an outliner you hey, it's there Some of us have a rather good gift of being off the skating we have a way of hiding great precious truths under a certain amount of verbiage We all got to be careful that and all you preachers to be watch out People in the pew soon know if you're patting Trying to pat people on the back and trying to get away with Your lack of study and proper preparation Watch out watch out lady teachers can be that way too now the ark was brought into Jerusalem the Great Emmanuel symbol of God with us the ark ties Sinai where the ark was made That's the point that the dumbbell makes ties Sinai right in with David the King It brings the two together David acknowledges that what was done at Sinai is so applicable and real for him God is the king The ark was the throne of God between the cherubim was the mercy seat God see He David brought God's seat right into Jerusalem and he acknowledged God is the king He wasn't the king God was the king God was reigning over Jerusalem God was reigning from Jerusalem over Israel Judah and the nations that he conquered Another word that that monarchy was to remain in a true sense as theocracy God exercising his sovereign power, but doing it through David the monarch and That's the importance of the ark being brought in Not only that God was with him, but God was there the great king and David also are bringing in the ark brings in the ten commandments brings in the law of the covenant and he makes himself totally submissive Although he didn't always obey it he said the ten commandments, which were in the ark They're my great guidelines for life and for my kingdom and for my reign Well, we'll move on David the king anointed over all Israel brought in Established Jerusalem brought in the ark But he went beyond Jerusalem and it is stated that he was victorious over five nations and they were all immediate neighbouring nations now the Philistines in the Syrians were not directly related the Philistines were in the land Now you can read these victories of David over the Philistines immoral by Syrians Itemite and Ammonite as David going out the conquer smashing them and being the great Lord and You're a corollary to that is that these nations were very resistant But you can also look at it this way that in spite of what these nations wanted and they were a kind of a rambunctious bunch of people Under David they came under the reign of the mediatorial king David governed over them by being victorious over them and and enormous every instant you read that these people attacked David David conquered them and Then he extended his mediatorial reign over them These nations were all thus under David By God's providential reign in rule these were brought in Under the sway of the kingdom of God They were made part of the empire They ever thought of it that way Here God is fulfilling covenant promises Yes, the people as these nations fight but God overwhelms them Through his servant David and incorporates them under his reign and So David is indeed victorious and David reigns and then we read in chapter 8 verse 14 and there was peace and there was rest And this is also before David was actually Before God made his covenant with David for David was actually made the covenant king God had prepared him for that by giving him rest and peace now this when he gave him peace That does not necessarily mean when we read about in chapter 8 That what's recorded in chapter 8 followed chapter 7 because you have there are Indications of some battles he fought before so the book of second Samuel is not in some sections is not strictly chronological Sequential according to time But if I think a somewhat topical there and when it speaks of peace and rest in 814 you got to think of that as As What God is referring to in second Samuel one when it says that David had rest? So that means that what recorded chapter 8 these victories over these nations Was accomplished before God came to David through Nathan Nathan But it also goes to say that David was a just and righteous ruler 8 verse 15 that's a phrase that we so often just read right over and don't pay any attention to what kind of a king was David oh, he was a man for God's own heart and then we like to stress what a good repersonal relationship he had Hey, but more than that he knew how to be just and he knew how to be righteous He knew how to maintain that relationship with God under the 10 commandments remember to be a right relationship with God you your Bay as well And then you carry out his will and then you're just He ruled according to God's covenant law which he knew he was just and he was righteous and How far did this extend? Well in Psalm 72 we have a description of the Salamanic kingdom that David had basically conquered you know Psalm and ever had fight a fight a battle until later when he became apostate But he inherited the kingdom. There was all the way from the river of Egypt All the way to the great river up in the north the Euphrates river From the Mediterranean Sea right out to the desert He conquered the entire area that God had promised the Abraham in Genesis 15 and I also want you to turn to near my a nine for just a moment and near my a nine Nehemiah makes quite a statement there near my a nine Nehemiah in his prayer Nehemiah nine You are the Lord God who chose Avan Notice how Nehemiah ties this all together and brought him out of the earth the Caldeans named him Abraham You found his heart faithful to you. You made a covenant with him and gave to his descendant the land of the Canaan It's Hittites and Rites bears like JB's I think you're a good site You have kept your promise because you are righteous You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt you heard their cry at the red sea Nehemiah is fully aware that God kept his promise to Abraham God gave a the land that was promised The land that also could not be taken from the Moabites but over which the reign of God could extend No more by the itemites Ammonites Look God has kept his promise. I Therefor have difficulty with people who speak of a Palestinian covenant. I Think of the same as Abrahamic God kept his promise. He's given the whole land to them They didn't keep it because of the disobedience But the reign of David and Solomon extended as far as God promised that it would be That promise has been kept now do the prophets say There he will regain it. We'll look at the prophets in the next couple weeks Now going through the covenant with David 2nd Samuel 7 We know that it's in the context of his building plans David was uneasy He was living in a beautiful palace and God was still in the tent The tabernacle I've been brought in the ark was in a Transitory place and he was in a permanent place and the theocratic king that he is he realizes are things I've turned Toxie turvy so he sees it so he's uneasy and so he says to the prophet I want to build the Lord a house and now notice as Samuel had made a mistake by saying you should have no king Nathan also makes a mistake when he speaks from his own heart Nathan had to go David a second time and correct his message God said to Nathan go to him a second time and say you are not to be the Builder of the temple Because I'm not finished yet with you Again David was rushing ahead of God's schedule God's plan God's program God had said he would establish the seed and he was going to establish the seed line firmly That would come before he himself would take his Fermanent abode in the temple Step by step following step by step that promise of the seed had to be finalized and David's dynasty had to be clearly set out developed moving and then God says Now that the house the family that dynasty is firmly established Now is the time that I take up my permanent abode doesn't mean that God came to live with is with him for the first time no It simply States God's order and I want to point out again notice that the prophetic role is Servio here He has to serve the royal house And he has to be corrected and has to admit that he has not done quite the right thing And by the way if you pick up commentaries and some biblical theologies and some specific studies on the Davidic house don't pay too much attention to these people who say that Nathan Without thinking had said to David go ahead and build it without remembering that there was a big clash between the Priestly clans and the the royal clans and That David and that when he got out that David had gotten permission from Nathan to go ahead and build He hadn't consulted with the priests and the priest jumped all over the back of David now This is all read into the story So that Nathan had to go to David and say hey, wait a minute. You better slow up a little bit here You're running ahead a little bit the priests What are the ones that really want to be in charge of building the temple? You're not quite a man to do it this A sheet of that I refer to the other day in his book on David He develops that a length as though he's got an added revelation and He's got real good insight But again, what he's trying to do is he's trying to work out how historically This could be how could Nathan overnight change his mind and the only possibility is that the priest jumped all over him And then he had to kind of keep peace between the royal house and the priestly house I mean if you are a historicist and you want a positivistic historic approach You want to sign and to be a scientific and try to explain everything from strictly human point of view You've got to make some Radical adjustments to the text and that's what these people are doing sad to say no God spoke to David and here's where I Asked you to pay attention to what was right about how the how God's word came to the prophets God spoke to Nathan directly and God corrected Nathan so that Nathan could give God's word to David and not nation's opinion so Nathan's Role comes through and then there is the covenant that is made Now the word bereth Covenant does not appear in this passage but When David toward the end of his life in 2nd Samuel 23 it's recorded what he said And then he said That he Was the anointed of the Lord the Messiah Elohim Yaakov He was the anointed one of the god of Jacob Now he takes the third one of the patriarchs the god of the Abrahamic Isaac Isaac in Jacobin Covenant That God has made me his Messiah his anointed one David saw his place and role and then he goes on to say Rua here there Deved be and the spirit of God spoke by me And there he claims a prophetic anointing the spirit of God use my mouth And I was given the prophetic power and the prophetic word and the prophetic message So what David is saying here is look I'm not expressing personal opinions when I'm saying I am the Messiah The Messiah of the god of Jacob But then he goes on and he concludes that in verse 5 Keylo cane Baty Emel Not so thus is my house with God That is passing and transitory Keyberit Olam Shamli for the covenant that God has set with me is Olam is eternal And he has referred to that which was spoken in 2nd Samuel 7 and he says this is a Barit Olam This is any eternal covenant Some 89 repeats it too Now you remember the argument But the creation covenant because the term Barit does not appear in Genesis 1 and 2 It doesn't appear in 2nd Samuel 7 either But David inspired by the spirit Anointed of God says hey God covenanted with me back there And he made it with my house And that's exactly what we find as we go through this Notice the constituent elements and I have this on the sideboard here First of all there's Yahweh's role a short historical resume What God has done in the past 2nd Samuel 7 Go and tell my servant Now then this is what the Lord Almighty says I took you from the past and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel I have been with you wherever you have gone and I have cut off all your enemies from before you Now and then comes the promises That historical resume the great sovereign the suzerain Establishes himself as the Lord He's in charge as he wasn't the past so he is now And there you have again a beautiful statement of the sovereignty of God who is it indeed the king of creation the Lord of the nations And the God of the monarchy the sovereignty of God And and if you don't want to accept that God established his kingdom when he created and he And he confirmed it when he spoke to Noah saying See time and harvest will always remain I don't know in what setting then you can place this prayer this statement of Nathan Speaking on behalf of God I gave you victory over the nations. I took you from the ship sheepfolds That's all placed within the greater kingdom setting God the king Wasn't struggling he was simply carrying out his royal prerogatives And then the promises six of them the great name Just like with Abraham and as Ray have said hey, we've heard of your fame of Israel seven verse 10 And I have a place and I will provide a place for my people Israel will plant them so that they can have a home of their own That they will no longer be disturbed That they may have rest victory and rest And then 11b He states it very specifically The Lord declares to you the Lord himself will establish a house for you First part of 12 when your days are over and you rest with your fathers I will raise up your offspring to succeed you Who will come from your own body He promises him a dynasty A house from father to son like Abram Isaac Jacob Judah And then Moses comes to the fore and then you have Samuel but from now on there's going to be the dominant one The Davidic house and everything will be in terms of the Davidic house Then 713 there's that promise of the kingdom uh last part of 12 Who will come from your own body and I will establish his kingdom He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of this kingdom forever Promise of the kingdom and finally 14 a And I will be his father and he will be my son Emmanuel and in this context take careful attention to what mr Robertson has written in this book on david son godson page 233 following David son is called godson and godson has to be seen as indeed a human person Through god's specific appointment and divine activity Now how about the curse and blessing dimension when verse 14 b we read that When he does wrong i will punish him with the rod of men with flogging inflicted by men It's a very mild way of saying but i'm not going to forget that there's the curse dimension to my covenant And i'm not in any way saying david it will never happen The flogging's in judgment will not come upon you Your house But notice its flogging It's chastisement punishment Because the house is not to be cut off But it is to be punished and then there is definitely The great promise the great blessing I Will love you but my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from saw there the word I have love It's an all-inclusive term love. I will I have given myself to him. I have given my total Being to him and away god says loving you. I have related myself to you I've placed myself at your disposal From now on you and i are going to be inseparable A marriage was formed here between god and the davidic house and through davidic house with all of Israel my love That's that all-inclusive term i repeat So the blessing is summed up briefly as well as the other side the curse But the thing to note here too is the fact that the continuity of the covenant is so firmly and strongly stressed In verse 16 a Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me your throne will be established forever the house and the kingdom Now if we take this literally As some people Some critics suddenly want to do then indeed we have a severe contradiction in the script because at the time of the exile the Devedic house was removed from Jerusalem and Jerusalem was destroyed but remember though what we read in Luke For unto you is born this day in the city of david a descendant of david there he is That's the royal house That's David's son god's son and so the davidic house disappears as to what i may say from that actual reigning position in Jerusalem over Israel But the o-long that ever ongoingness that god promised is picked up In the gospel is picked up by Paul and by John in Revelation that kingdom is a never ending kingdom Because the son of david the christ of whom salmon was a type two in the first part He is indeed the reigning one It was christ who was reigning and even when the davidic house became unfaithful Isaiah speaks of that and will refer to that Hopefully next week How david sees christ reigning In spite of the a has of the davidic house being untrue and unfaithful Was david responsive? Yes, we looked at his prayer 718 Did he reply with an oath? We can read that prayer in whatever way we feel we should But in a way david puts himself on the line In a way he confirms it in his prayer by saying god this is the way it is It's not an oath in the normal way that they did that he swore and oath But in prayer he fully accepted gods will he fully committed himself the god's program He made himself absolutely submissive And that has all the binding power of an oath the covenant was sealed Now very briefly david as king He was not a perfect man. He was a man after god's own heart But he was a sinner The story with bath fever The killing of uriah is a attempt to cover it up It showed it tells us indeed that he was a sinner And as a father he was a troubled man And one of the problems was that he had too many wives You look at those passages that i have on the board there First samu 25 verses 42 to 44 tells us That he took additional women Second samu 3 verses 2 to 5 and 5 13 tells us of the different women he had as wives And he had children with each of these and that means that each one of these children were half brothers That are listed in second samu 3 2 to 5 Amman the man that calls so much difficulty in his house. Do you know he was david's first born son And Amman had her right to the throne We don't read anything of the second but after amman was gone Absalom was the next one in line So from a point of view you could surely say well in the In the in the custom of the nations and according to the promise god had given to david Absalom had her right to claim the throne and to try it And when he saw that david wasn't going to make him a school regent to try to take over the throne Look i've read justifications For for Absalom's activity he was the living First born david also became a very content stick and man he knew how to admit he was wrong And that's the story in connection with the census He admitted he did things that weren't right I've already referred to him also as the singing prophet second samu 3 and 3 in the Psalms david was the great songster of Israel And the heart of david Is opened up to us as a repentant man psalm 51 psalm 32 as a struggling man psalm 22 as a As a man fleeing psalm 55 But you know when david sings and prophesies through the psalms god is beating david's responses to god in a way are god's revelation to us As to how we too Must face the struggle since and trials of being a servant of god the psalms are personal but they are revelatory Of how god leads his people With the struggles of life concluding david is the great royal mediator We read of david in a couple instances also sacrificing But his priestly work as best he comes through in the way he prays for his people We see that in the Psalms We see him also pleading on behalf of his people when god says he's going to punish them in chapter 24 We've spoken of his prophetic role And that comes through strongly but par excellence He is the ancestor and type in his royal position of Jesus Christ David is the If Moses is the redeemer of the Old Testament He is the King of the Old Testament With the prophetic and priestly offices supporting him Yes, let's take nothing away from Moses. Let's take nothing away from Samuel the looming high and large extensively over it all David no other person has the name david in the Old Testament There's one david David the king Representing the king of creation the lord of the nation the sovereign overall David the royal one He is the pre-Christ ancestor type of the Christ to come