The Davidic Covenant | A Sermon on 2 Samuel 7:1-17

Introduction
One of the things I love about Dalton is being able to look east and see Fort Mountain pointing toward the sky.  You can clearly see it even though it’s 20 miles away.  Driving there takes about 30 minutes because there’s a lot of twists and turns on the way.  Though you can clearly see the mountain peak, there’s a lot you can’t see between us and the mountain.

That’s the way God’s story in the Bible is too.  There are mountain peak moments that are easy to see, but then there’s a lot of twists and turns in between.  The five covenants of God we’ve been studying highlight the mountain peaks of Scripture.

I challenge you to memorize these five covenants.  In the beginning of the story, Adam and Eve disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit, which caused them to fall out of relationship with God.  And the fall inflicted deep and deadly spiritual wounds upon them and all creation, corrupting the nature of everything that God started as perfect.  But God didn't give up on us.  Over the course of thousands of years, God set about rescuing humanity and creation from sin.  The five covenants are the main steps of that process.  Starting with Noah, God sent a flood to wash away the world and start over.  Then, God called Abraham to leave his homeland and go to the promised land where God would multiply his discendents into a great nation and make Abraham a blessing to all the world.  Then, in the Mosaic covenant, God gave His rules for living to a chosen people to the Israeltes so they would serve as God's representatives so the whole world would know Him.  Today, we will learn about the Davidic Covenant. and next week we will study the New Covenant through Jesus Christ.

2 Samuel 7:1-2
¹ When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, ² the king summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!”

What is David talking about here?  You may remember that when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt they became nomads wandering in the dessert, God chose to live in a tent too.  He instructed the Israelites to build Him a sacred tent called the Tabernacle where they could meet God and worship Him.  But by David's time, the people lived in cities with houses.  But God still lived in a tent.  So David thought, "That's not right.  God needs a house."

But something else may have been going on too.  David was worried about his legacy.  And when he looked around at the kings of the surrounding territories--Egypt and Mesopotamia--these royal families built great monuments and temples.  David was trying to secure his legacy by doing the same thing.  S David says, "I will build my God a temple too."

2 Samuel 7:3-17
³ Nathan replied to the king, “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴ But that same night the Lord said to Nathan,

⁵ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord has declared: Are you the one to build a house for me to live in? ⁶ I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. I have always moved from one place to another with a tent and a Tabernacle as my dwelling. ⁷ Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people Israel. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’

⁸ “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! ¹⁰ And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past, ¹¹ starting from the time I appointed judges to rule my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.

“‘Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! ¹² For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline him with the rod, like any father would do. ¹⁵ But my favor will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’”

¹⁷ So Nathan went back to David and told him everything the Lord had said in this vision.

What’s Really Going On?
Just on the surface of things, this is already a fascinating Word from the Lord.  David wants to build God a house.  That’s no small thing!  How do you build a “house” for the infinite, almighty God of the universe.  Issaiah 66:1 says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.  Where is the house you will build for me?”  God doesn’t need a house.  But we often want a house where we can put Him and keep Him and meet with Him (and maybe then walk away and keep somethings separate from Him for a little while).

God Humbles David
On the surface, God humbles David.  God reminds David of his humble beginnings as a shepherd. God took David from the fields and appointed him as the leader of His people.  David’s royal position is not of his own making but a result of God’s divine choice and guidance. Every one of David’s victories is a testament to God’s power.  God grounds David in humility, teaching him to rely on God rather than his own abilities or ambitions, and reinforcing that God is the true architect of Israel’s future.  (Don’t we all need to be reminded to be humble from time to time—to remember that our success—or failure—isn’t totally up to us.  Success comes for the faithful from God and God should receive the glory.)

God Establishes David’s Dynasty
But though this rebuke, God also establishes David’s dynasty.  God is gracious and, through some ironic wordplay, God basically says, “You’re not going to build me a house.  No, I’m going to build you a house!”  When David said house, he meant a temple but when God said house he meant would build David’s dynasty.

Verses 11-13 say, “[I] will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings! ¹² For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name.”  And we know that is exactly what happened, just as God said.  David’s heir, Solomon, was the one who would build God’s Temple in Jerusalem.  But’s that’s just what’s happening on the surface.  Something deeper is also happening.

God Promises the Messiah
God is not just talking about David’s literal son Solomon here.  God is also talking about a “son” who will come from David’s royal lineage—the Messiah.  In verse 14, God says, “I will be his father, and he will be my son.”  Who is God’s son?  Jesus!

And in verse 13, God said, “And I will secure his royal throne forever.”  Who rules on the throne forever?  Jesus!

So on the surface, God is telling David that his son, Solomon, will build God’s Temple—which he did.  But on a deeper level, God is telling David (and everyone), another man will come out of David’s royal line whose Kingdom will last forever who will build God’s eternal Temple.  Jesus referred to this in the New Testament when His detractors demanded a sign and He said:  “Tear down this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it.  They thought He mean the physical Temple in Jerusalem and that he was crazy because the Temple took decades to build.  But Jesus was talking about His body.  And remember, that’s what happened:  they tore down Jesus’ body (the True Temple) and in three days, God raised it again. 

Will God Be Faithful?
This is quite a covenant promise!  Now, it is one thing to make a promise.  It is quite another to see it through.  Will God keep His covenant promise?  Let’s look at the history to see.

Things start out well.  David remains on the throne until his death from old age.  His son Solomon ascends to the throne, has a long peaceful and prosperous rule and also died of old age.  (Always a good thing for a king to die of old age and not after a rebellion or a enemy attack).  And, Solomon builds God’s Temple in Jerusalem.  Then, after Solomon, Israel has a civil war, but despite lots of struggles, a descendent of David’s royal line remains on the throne in Jerusalem (the southern Kingdom) for four centuries until the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem & the Temple in 586 BC and they dragged the Jews into exile.

“But, I thought God said David’s royal line would last forever.”  Yes.  That is God’s promise.  According to the Word of God, the Bible, the royal line of David did not end after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem.  Through the miraculous power of God, the line of David’s royal descendants
survived the exile of the Jews in Babylon and continued through the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments right down until Jesus was born. Jesus, the Messiah, was born of the virgin Mary, who was the last descendent of King David.  Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, was also a descendent of David.  And fulfilling God’s covenant promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:14 when God said, “I will be his father, and he will be my son”, Jesus is the Son of God, conceived through the Holy Spirit.

That’s Quite a Story. Is it True?
That’s quite a story.  But is it true? [pause]
Well, that’s what you have to decide.  That is where faith comes in.  Do you believe it or not?

Some do not believe it.  Some think this is all just a myth, too incredible to be true.  Carl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.”  In other words, Christianity is just a drug we use to dull the pain of suffering in an injustice world.  But I say, look at the transformative power of genuine faith in Christ. Rather than being a drug to dull the pain, Christianity addresses the root causes of human suffering—sin, brokenness, and alienation from God—and it offers hope, purpose, and redemption.

Looking back over the last 2,000 years since Christ was born, died on the cross, and rose again, we see the power of faith in His Eternal Kingdom.  It inspired Christians from Polycarp in 2^nd century Smyrna to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1945 Nazi Germany to Martin Luther King, Jr in 1968 America to live by faith and stand up against tyranny and injustice and work to bring God’s Kingdom on Earth.  Against all odds, they stood up for truth and justice, grace and redemption, and they won!  Even in death, they won!  And faith in Christ has helped countless others boldly face the struggles like loneliness, the death of loved ones, illnesses like cancer and addiction, all in hopes of Christ’s eternal Kingdom to come.  And people who should be defeated and destroyed are victoriously renewed against all odds.  So yes!  I believe!

But, each person must decide.  Is it true?  Has God been faithful? 
Did He fulfill His covenant with David in Jesus?  Is Christ the Messiah? 
Is Jesus really Lord of all?  Is He really worthy of all the glory we give Him?

I believe it’s true.  It’s changed my life and is changing my life. 
I know I will spend eternity with God in the Kingdom of God forever.
I know I will see my friends and loved ones who died in Christ.
I know all that is wrong in our world will be made right.  We are already working on it.
And I know that those who reject Lord Jesus will spend eternity separated from God,
for only those who accept Him as Lord can enter into the Kingdom of God.

But that’s my faith.  What is yours?
Won’t you put your faith in Jesus today?  I pray you will.

Covenant Prayer

Preface

Christmas has come.  We’ve celebrated the birth of Christ, but we are still waiting for him to come again as he promised.  The birth of Christ is only part of the story.  The story continues and is marked at every turn by commitment and sacrifice.  Every good thing worth having comes through commitment and sacrifice.  Listen to the extended story of Christ’s birth and childhood.

Slides – Luke 2:21-42

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

²² When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

    you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹     which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

    and the glory of your people Israel.”

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

³⁶ There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹ When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

⁴¹ Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. ⁴² When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom.

Introduction

Many people want their spiritual life to be spectacular—to be filled with passion and miracles and signs and wonders.  They want worship to always be special; maybe that’s why so many only attend church on Christmas or Easter.  People want spirituality, not religion; they want to feel God’s love, but they don’t want to practice religious disciplines.  But that’s not the way things usually work in real life.  We don’t usually have a spectacular spiritual life if we don’t practice the daily commitment of religious discipline.  Furthermore, the signs and wonders of God’s intimate and powerful presence in our lives usually happen when we are in the midst of our daily spiritual habits. 

Mary and Joseph were just ordinary people like you and me, but the Bible also describes them as godly people.  They prayed.  They worshiped.  They study God’s Word.  They were committed to their religious duties.  It was in the midst of this religious life that the Angel appeared to Mary and the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus.  It was in the midst of a godly religious life that the Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to remain committed to Mary, for she was pregnant with the Son of God.  And after the child was born, we see Mary and Joseph continued their religious duties.  They circumcised Jesus when he was 8-years-old, they followed the purification rites according to the Law of Moses, they continued their regular religious duties and even traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem every year. They also trained Jesus to be a faithful Jew.  By the time he was twelve and they took him to the Temple in Jerusalem, he had been studying the Bible (The Torah actually, which was the jewish Bible) and practicing his religion faithfully and knew the Word of God as well as the religious scholars.  Practice makes perfect; that's true in you spiritual life as well as anything else.  And it was true for Jesus too.

In our text this morning, we also see the religious commitment of an old man named Simeon.  He was righteous and devout.  And there was a widowed prophet named Anna, who was 84-years-old.  It says, “never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”  A very “religious” woman, but her determined, daily commitment to religious practice (and also Simeon’s) led to a spectacular, once in a lifetime spiritual experience.  They both get to see and hold and pray with and bless the baby Jesus.

Things Worth Having

Things worth having are worth waiting for, working for, fighting for, and never giving up on.  The biggest, most important blessings in life come through commitment.  We celebrate the special moments of life—when a youth graduates from high school, a young couple get married, the birth of a child, etc.  We flood Facebook and Instagram with pictures capturing these special milestones.  But these moments in and of themselves are nothing if not bathed in deep, daily commitment.  It is not the marriage ceremony or the pictures that matter; it is the love that the bride and groom have for each other that compels them to remain by each other’s side in good times and bad time, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health their whole life long.  We anticipate the glorious birth of a child with a young couple, but the true glory is in the old women and men like Anna and Simeon who have lived a life of deep commitment and sacrifice, raising children and grandchildren, serving their friends, their church, their community. 

Covenant Prayer

Over the last month, I’ve shared about many different kinds of prayer.  We can experience some very special and intimate spiritual time with God through many different types of prayer.  I want to share one more.  It is called covenant prayer.  A covenant is an agreement.  It is a promise between God and His people.  Throughout the Bible, God has promised to care for His people.  And God calls His people to be committed in our relationships too--with people and with God.

A relationship can only go as far as our commitment to one another.  That’s why a man and a woman decide to get married and promise to love each other until death.  It assures the couple they can trust each other at the deepest, most vulnerable levels of life because they can trust their partner will not abandon them no matter what. 

The same principle applies in our spiritual lives.  If you want a deep spiritual life, if you want to experience the spectacular power and loving presence of God in your life, you’ve got to be deeply committed to God.  If you want real answers to the deep questions of life that go beyond those trite clichés, you’ve got to be deeply committed.  If you want true healing from terrible scars, freedom from heavy chains, or true hope in the midst of hopelessness, you’ve got to be truly committed to the Healer, Liberator, and Source of all Hope.  Why would God cast His pearls before swine who would only trample them in the mud and then break out of the pen to run away to some other field?

Our deep commitment to God is an essential act of prayer that opens up true and deep communion with the One who makes life worth living, who brings answers to our most important questions, who shows us questions we never even thought to ask, and grants us true peace as we walk through life in the midst of His perfect will.

How Will you Be Committed in the Coming Year?

Our Covenant Prayer with God encompasses many areas.  There is the covenant of holy obedience.  God is the rightful ruler of all.  He deserve our obedience, not because of anything He has done for us, but because He is Lord of all.  Will you make a covenant to put obedience to God above yoru family, you nation, your career, everything?  Will you obey even if it makes you look strange or cost you?

There is the covenant of time.  We you make your time with God your first priority?  Prayer, worship, study, and service are important but not necessarily urgent.  There are always other commitments that try to steal your time, claiming to be more urgent that your devotional time.  And the truth is, the sky is not going to fall if you skip church or your prayer time or reading your Bible.  However, over time, we grow weak as we neglect the important religious exercise of prayer, study, worship, and service.  You will always reap what you sow.  And for years, decades, centuries, Americans have been neglecting these critical elements of religious life.  That's why we and our families and our communities have grown so spiritually weak.  Will you make a covenant with God to be faithful with your time?

There is the covenant of place.  We all need to worship, study, and pray in private.  But we cannot only do these in private.  We must also be part of a community of faith.  You cannot be a Christian only in private.  Christianity is a communal experience.  Will you make a covenant to be part of the Body of Christ--to worship and serve the Lord in the Church?  Where will that be?

There is the covenant of preparation. Will you covenant to come to worship prepared to be in the presence of the Lord?  So many people complain, "I don't get anything out of worship when I come to church."  Often times, those are the same people who stayed up extra late on Saturday night and who barely made it to worship on Sunday, who came in late, who sat in the pew the whole time thinking about what they would do for the rest of the day.  They weren't prepared to worship the Living God and they weren't fully present while they were here.  No wonder they didn't feel fed.  Do you realize, in worship, you are in the presence of the Lord of the universe.  He is so deep we cannot fathom Him, so infinite our finite minds cannot comprehend Him--even if we spent years preparing to visit with Him.  And yet, we do so little to prepare to meet Him!  We should at least begin preparing our heart on Saturday evening, get to bed on time, rise early on Sunday with plenty of time to spare, and be prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit's assistance the whole time to prepare us to meet our Lord in worship.  Will you make a covenant with God to be prepared to meet Him regularly?

There is the covenant of resources.  Jesus said, where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.  What you spend your time, energy, money, and resources on show what are your priorities.  Will you make a covenant to put God first with your financial giving, your time, and your other commitments?  For what you are truly committed to makes all the difference in what you receive spiritually.  We receive our greatest blessings through commitment and sacrifice. 

Your Covenant Commitments for 2019

I invite you to consider your covenant commitments for 2019.  I pray you will be fully committed, willing to sacrifice for the Kingdom of God, and thus receive the full blessing God wishes to grant you.