160 - God’s Covenant with David–Part 1 [B]

God’s Covenant with David – Part 1
2 Samuel 7:1–16; 1 Chronicles 17:11–14
Samuel Lesson #160
January 29, 2019
www.deanbibleministries.org

Opening Prayer

“Father, it’s just such a great privilege to worship You by studying Your Word, to be refreshed by Your Word, to be challenged by Your Word, to be informed and to have our thinking radically reformed by the content of Your Word.

“As we study Your Word, we understand that it gives us a framework for understanding all the issues in life. That builds a framework for application, that we might think first and then live secondly for You, that we may honor and glorify You with everything in our lives.

“Father, tonight as we continue our study in second Samuel, focusing on this very important passage that introduces the third unconditional covenant to Israel and its significance for the past and, primarily, for the future, we pray that You would help us to understand what Your Word is revealing to us in its significance as we go forward. We asked for guidance on our thinking in Christ’s name. Amen.”

Slide 2

Open your Bibles with me to 2 Samuel 7.

We’re going to look at God’s covenant with David.

Slide 3

Just a reminder of where we are contextually: the structure of 2 Samuel is thematic; it is not chronological. I’ll say more about that probably next week. I’ll talk a little bit about it now.

The first 10 chapters are very, very positive. They are organized around the theme of God blessing David and bringing a unity, then an expansion, and then ultimately a military peace to the kingdom of David.

One of the reasons that we know that this comes after some of the next chapters is, when we get into the following chapters, we talk about David’s wars with the Ammonites. But the beginning of 2 Samuel 7 says that “the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around” (2 Samuel 7:1).

The double use of “all” there indicating that this is at a time when these wars with the surrounding nations are over with. But that wouldn’t be true if this were chronological. It’s focusing on God’s blessing to David.

In the second division, it focuses on the fact that during this same time, David was disobedient and God disciplined David for his sins, and David reaped the consequences. We see the negatives in David’s spiritual life.

But, because David is a man whose heart is totally focused on God, it doesn’t mean he won’t sin (even as a mature believer, it doesn’t mean you won’t sin). It means that you can recover from sin, and God transforms the cursing into blessing. That’s the theme in 2 Samuel 11 to 20.

Then there are six appendices that evidence the greatness of the Davidic Covenant, which is given in 2 Samuel 7. This is covered in the last four chapters of this book.

Slide 4

In this section 2 Samuel 1 to 10, we look at the first three sections and now we’re on the fourth section.

We saw the beginning of David’s kingdom, from 2 Samuel 2 through 4. Then God giving David control over Jerusalem is in 2 Samuel 5. Then God enthroned in Jerusalem as the ark, the throne of God, is being brought into Jerusalem. That led us to an eight-month study of worship. Then we came back in the previous lesson to begin to look at going forward from that, finishing up with 2 Samuel 6.

Now this evening we’re starting in 2 Samuel 7 and looking at the importance of the Davidic Covenant.

Slide 5

We come to this first verse (2 Samuel 7:1) and this gives us information, that probably David was bringing the ark into Jerusalem, which is the context for chapter 7.

Why does he bring the ark into Jerusalem? Because he wants to build a house for God. He wants to build the temple for God. God, in 2 Samuel 7, is going to say “no, that’s not your role in My plan.”

We know that 2 Samuel 6 sets the stage for 2 Samuel 7. If 2 Samuel 7 gives us this important statement that God has given him rest, a very important word in Scripture, “rest from all his enemies all around” (2 Samuel 7:1), this whole episode of 2 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 7 probably occurs closer to the end of his reign than where it appears here in 2 Samuel 7.

Let’s look at the narrative background before we get down to the down to the details of the covenant itself. We are told in 2 Samuel 7:1–2: “it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside the tent curtains.’ ”.

David realizes that he is established in his own palace, but that God is still in a mobile home. He still is in a temporary dwelling. Nathan understands David’s motivation and his desire and that this is honorable before God. Initially, Nathan affirms David’s desire. He says “Go, do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you.” (2 Samuel 7:3).

But “that night the word of the Lord” (2 Samuel 7:4)—which is a technical term in the Scripture. This always announces a prophetic message to a prophet. It’s an interesting study to trace through the use of that terminology. It probably would catch a better nuance if we translated it “the message of the Lord”. There are other aspects to that we’re not going to go into right now.

But this is talking about this new revelation from God to Nathan. He gives him a different message for David. He says, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house—in a permanent dwelling place—“since the time I brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but I have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ” (2 Samuel 7:5–7)

In other words, God says “I understand this idea, but I’ve never mentioned this, a permanent dwelling place, to any of the leaders of Israel since leaving Egypt. Why do you think you should be the one to build this house?”

Then in 2 Samuel 7:8, He tells Nathan “this shall you say to my servant David”. This is what immediately forms the background for understanding the Davidic Covenant. God is going to give a reminder of what God has done for David. We find this to be true in some of the covenant context, especially if the covenant is the type known as a suzerain/vassal treaty. That’s the Mosaic Covenant. We’ll come back and talk about that type of covenant a little later on. But the beginning of that is a historical preamble.

There a lot of scholars that think that all of the Pentateuch, or at least through Numbers, is based on that covenant structure from the Ancient Near East. It was a covenant that was a common form in the Ancient Near East. It was between a king and a vassal, or subordinate king, a client king.

What would happen is the great king, the suzerain, would begin by rehearsing historically all of the things that the great king had done for this vassal king, before getting into what the king would promise to do in the future and what the terms of this new contract would be. This is something similar to that because what God is doing is reminding David of what God has done for him, and that David has a special place in God’s plan.

In the second part of 2 Samuel 7:8 we read God saying “the Lord of hosts,” emphasizing his role as Yahweh-Sabaoth, “the Lord of the armies”. It emphasizes His sovereignty over history and sovereignty over His creatures. He said, “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.”

Just as a side note, whenever God is speaking in the Old Testament about “My people”, for example, in 2 Chronicles 7:14, a verse that is often quoted today by people who want to use that as a spiritual application to America: “if My people who are called by My name …” It has no reference to any other group than Israel. It’s not “oh, well, we can apply that”. No, we can’t because the whole structure of 2 Samuel 6 and 2 Samuel 7 is an answer to Solomon’s prayer to God based on the Mosaic Covenant.

God had promised in the Mosaic Covenant that if His people disobeyed Him, that God would discipline them, even to the point of taking them out of the land. So, Solomon prayed “if You do that, also remember Your promise in the covenant that, if they turned back to You, You will restore them to the land.” God’s answer is “if My people who are called by my name repent …” In other words, if they turned, “then I will restore them”.

You’ve got to understand it contextually. It has nothing to do with America. It has nothing to do with any other nation in history because no other nation in history has a contractual relationship with God other than Israel.

Now there’s a better passage for that idea over in Jeremiah where God says, if any nation repents, or turns back to Me, then I will bless them (Jeremiah 18:8). That has a universal application, but 2 Chronicles 7:14 does not.

A funny story about that is that Tommy Ice and I were working through that, as young pastors, and coming to the same conclusion. When we wrote our book on Spiritual Warfare, we used that as an illustration of bad hermeneutics.

Not long after that, sometime in the mid-1990s, he was asked to speak in chapel at Liberty University. He decided to speak on that verse as an illustration of bad hermeneutics.

He did not know that that year Dr. Jerry Falwell, who was the president Liberty University, had chosen that verse as the “life verse” for the University that year, to pray for the spiritual renewal of the nation. So, Tommy got up there basically called Dr. Falwell a hermeneutical heretic. But that is the kind of thing that happens every now and then, when we put our foot in our mouth.

We see that again and again. You can trace it all the way through Kings and all the way through Chronicles. Every time God says, “My people,” He is always talking about Israel. He is never talking about Church Age believers. He’s never talking about Gentile Old Testament believers. He is always talking about “My people Israel,” as it is stated in these verses.

He reminds David that he took him “from the sheepfold to make him ruler over My people, over Israel” (2 Samuel 7:8). He said, “I been with you wherever you have gone.” (2 Samuel 7:9). That’s the first thing He says.

The second thing He says is, not only have I been with you, but I “have cut off all your enemies from before you.” (2 Samuel 7:9). That reaffirms that what is stated in 2 Samuel 7:1, that this is a time when David has defeated all of the national enemies of Israel, as well as his personal enemies.

Thirdly, God says, “and I have made you a great name, like the name of the great men on the earth” (2 Samuel 7:9). This is talking about how God has built his international reputation.

In 2 Samuel 7:10, He says “not only have I done this for you, but in addition to doing this for you, I have done this for My people.” We have that phrase again “for My people Israel”. “I will appoint a place for them,” which is, of course, the land. This a reference to the land covenant.

When we get into talking about covenants, we’re going to stop and review what we’ve learned in the past and put this Davidic Covenant within the framework of the biblical covenants.

One of the things to remember is that each subsequent covenant builds on information, and builds on factors that are present in earlier covenants. It doesn’t redefine them or reinterpret them, but it takes the information that is there in those covenants and, with the new information in the new covenant, builds as sort of an intersection, an interdependence.

By the time you get to finishing all of the covenants, you realize that there is, especially in the three great covenants that expand the Abrahamic Covenant (the Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant), they all come to fulfillment at the time the Messiah comes. That is when they are all enacted.

They are interdependent. When we get to the end of the Revelation on all these covenants, you realize that you can’t have a situation where one or another comes into effect without the others. They are interdependent and their provisions lace together in a remarkable way.

So we have the introduction an aspect of the Land Covenant when God says “I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them” (2 Samuel 7:10). This all implies something yet in the future. He isn’t saying “I have appointed a place there and I have planted them there”. That is yet future.

That planting in security only occurs once the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant and the Land Covenant all come into effect at the same time—at the end of the Tribulation when the Messianic King returns to the earth.

He then says, “that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more.” (2 Samuel 7:10) That tells you that this is not something that has been fulfilled yet. It is all future when they’re restored to the land, and no longer will they be displaced from the land based on the fifth cycle of discipline.

Then He adds, “nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously.” (2 Samuel 7:10). That phrase “sons of wickedness”, we’ve studied this idiom in Hebrew before. In applying an attribute to somebody, if they were a murderer they would be called the “son of a murderer.” They are reflecting the DNA heritage of being a murderer. That’s the idea.

If somebody’s a fool, they would be called the “son of a fool.” If they are divine, they are called a “Son of God.” That’s the import of that imagery.

Often, though, in the English it doesn’t translate those phrases. It will often just say you’re “a fool”, or “a murderer”, and you don’t realize that what it’s actually saying in the Hebrew is “son of a fool” or “son of a murderer” or the Old Testament version of SOB, “son of Belial”.

“Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness ...” (2 Samuel 7:10) Here we learn that this title of being a wicked person is directly related to being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. This is a characteristic of a wicked person.

In the Old Testament, a wicked person is not just a believer who sins. A wicked person in the Psalms is frequently contrasted with the righteous. This confuses a lot of people because it looks like it’s talking experientially, but the only way we know who is righteous in the Old Testament is by going back to Genesis 15:6 that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

So the categories in the Psalms of righteous and wicked reflect believer versus unbeliever, but sometimes the believer can act like an unbeliever and act like a “son of wickedness.”

Here it’s talking about these unbelievers who have rejected God’s plan for Israel and they are anti-Semitic. They oppress Israel and then in 2 Samuel 7:11, He says, “since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel.”

That’s an important time reference because this occurs just after the conquest, which is covered in the Book of Judges. It takes us back to, not the Exodus, not to the conquest, but to just after the time that the Israelites, the 12 tribes, had moved into the land and conquered the land. From that time, He has not given them rest. “Since that time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies” (2 Samuel 7:11).

From the time of the Judges, until this time when God says to David, “I have given you rest from your enemies”, now He says, “Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.” Part of what is going on here is that God is going to establish a house for David.

David already has his palace. We have to understand that “house” stands for something more than just a physical dwelling place. It’s a double entendre. House not only stands for the physical house, but it stands for a dynasty that is established for a family, or for a person. That is what the promise is: that God is going to establish for David a house, a dynasty.

Then in 2 Samuel 7:12, “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” So, this became the foundation. When we go through the Davidic Covenant here, look down to 2 Samuel 7:16, which is a summary statement. It says “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”

Those are the three key elements of the Davidic Covenant: that David is promised an eternal dynasty, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne.

Now that can only happen one of two ways. The first way is for David to have an eternal succession of heirs, or for him to have a finite number of heirs that ends with someone who is eternal. This sets that stage that the ultimate fulfillment of this is going to be in a person who is eternal, an eternal King.

But before we get into all of that, what I want to do is stop and make sure we understand the basics of covenants and the significance of these of these covenants, and a little background.

First of all, in terms of a covenant, it has a general definition. A covenant is a legal instrument. It is like a contract. For example, if you are buying a house, you enter into a mortgage contract with a lender. There are certain terms that are part of your mortgage agreement.

Your next-door neighbor may get a loan a week or two before you or after you, and the terms of his loan may be different. He may have a shorter term. He may have a different interest rate. You can’t look at his terms and say, “His interest rate is less so I’m going to pay his payment.” You can’t do that. You have to pay what is written to you.

Even though a lot of mortgages are boilerplate, by that I mean they’re basically the same language, it’s those key elements in terms of the term of the contract, and the interest on the contract, and maybe the points that are paid at the signing of the contract that differ from one person to another. You can’t take one person’s contract and apply it to yourself.

In other words, you can’t take a contract that God makes with Israel and then apply it in the Old Testament to Gentile nations or apply it in the New Testament to Church Age believers, or to Gentiles in the New Testament.

In fact, if you do an analysis of all the judgments or condemnations on the Gentile nations in the Prophets, if you read through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they all have these oracles, these “words of the Lord,” against Moab, Ammon, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and everything else, all these other nations. You’ll notice that nations are never held accountable for anything that is distinctive or unique to the Mosaic Covenant.

They are never punished, as Israel is, for violating the sabbatical year. They are never punished, as Israel is, for idolatry in the sense that is stated in the first and second commandments. They are punished for their rejection of God, which is part of the universal covenants that we’ll see from the very beginning of Genesis, based on what I call the Creation Covenants.

Gentiles are always held accountable for the things that are distinctive to the Gentiles, or universal, not for anything that is distinctive to Israel. That would be holding somebody else accountable for somebody else’s contract. Or, as some people have put it, you’re reading your neighbor’s mail, and assuming you have the same obligations that they do and you can apply that to yourself. You can’t go pull out your neighbor’s mortgage statement and apply it to yourself. Yet that’s what a lot of Christians do, they read “the mail” to the Jews and they try to apply that to themselves.

So, a covenant is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties, especially directed towards performance of some particular action. These had various accepted conventions in the Old Testament.

I always asked the question “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Last week I saw something that said “what came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, I went to Amazon and I ordered a chicken and an egg, and we’ll see which comes first.”

What came first: God’s communication of stipulations to man, or man’s idea of a covenant? That’s really an important question. I believe that it is God’s actions in Genesis 1 that are covenantal. They are not called a covenant. In fact, the first time that we have the word “covenant” appear is in Genesis 9. There’s no mention of the word “covenant” beforehand.

But I always believe that if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, that it’s a duck. To say that, I want you to turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis 9, and we’ll look at the Noahic Covenant.

Now, it’s pretty standard in a lot of circles to talk about the Noahic Covenant as the first covenant, and to reject the notion that there are previous covenants. But let’s look at what Genesis 9 says. This is the covenant with Noah, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ ” (Genesis 9:1).

That’s the initial statement that orients the covenant. If you’ve read your Bible starting in Genesis 1 and you’ve read it through to Genesis 9, have you read, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” before? Yes, it goes back to the very first chapter when God creates the man and the woman, and He gives them that same command.

That command to “be fruitful and multiply” was a real command that they were supposed to fulfill in the Garden. They were not given sexual capabilities to just enjoy themselves. They were to begin to “be fruitful and multiply” and to produce children under perfect environment in the Garden.

I think that’s one reason why that we can say that they sin pretty quickly. What is a consequence of the sin, of the spiritual death? All of the consequences related to the serpent, to the woman, and to the man ultimately relate to mandates that are given in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

They are to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”, but things don’t work out so well after sin, because now the woman’s pain is going to be increased in childbirth. What we see in the outline of the consequences of sin in Genesis 3:14 and following is that in every area where there are mandates in the perfect environment of Genesis 1 and 2, there is distortion and corruption.

Man was to rule, in Genesis 1:26, rule “over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field” and Eve obeys the serpent. Now there’s going to be judgment on the animals. The serpent is cursed more than the other animals, which indicates that the other animals have also come under judgment.

And there’s a change biologically, structurally, among animals, so that before the Fall they’re all herbivores, and after the Fall, they’re going to develop into carnivores. That’s going to indicate certain changes within their biological structure, with in their dental structure, things of that nature are going to take place. This is reversed in the Millennial Kingdom, so that we’ll go back and lions will eat grass and won’t be eating babies and people and other animals.

The animal kingdom is affected. That initial dominion command is not negated, it’s not removed, it’s just corrupted so that it’s more difficult for man to fulfill that and have dominion over the animals.

He is supposed to take care of, keep and take care of the Garden. But now thorns and thistles are going to come up in the Garden. That aspect of the original statements, the original mandates in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are now made more difficult and corrupted because of sin.

The marriage, where the woman is to be the helper to the man, is now going to be corrupted where the woman wants to exercise authority over the man, and the man wants to fight back and exercise oppressive rule over the woman. This is the beginning of the battle in marriage.

Every sphere that’s addressed in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, is addressed also in Genesis 3. Then those same spheres are addressed in Genesis 9. The command “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” continues through all of these. They all relate to that original Creation Covenant.

I like to talk about it as the perfect Creation Covenant: modification 1 due to sin, and then modification 2 due to further corruption prior to the Flood. In Genesis 9:2 we read “the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, and every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and all the fish the sea.” That dread for man wasn’t there before the flood.

“Every moving thing now that lives shall be food for you” (Genesis 9:3). Initially man ate from the fruit of the Garden. Man, also, was an herbivore. Man was prohibited from eating flesh in what I call the Adamic Covenant in Genesis 3. But now, in the Noahic Covenant, he is allowed to eat flesh, or mandated actually, to eat flesh.

Like I always say, the sign of the Noahic Covenant is the rainbow. But it’s not just because there’s a promise that God won’t destroy the earth by water again, but God’s mandate to eat meat. So, go have a steak. Go have some prime rib. Go eat some fish. That is celebrating the Noahic Covenant.

Also the exercise of capital punishment. That was not part of the pre-Noahic Covenant scenario. But what you see is the same themes carry through in all of these covenants.

Slide 6

I charted it this way. The Edenic Covenant is basically described in Genesis 1:27–28. Genesis 2, to keep and guard the Garden. It’s mentioned in Hosea 6:7.

Slide 7

This is where there is some disagreement. Hosea 6:7 says literally, “But like ADAM”—“Adam” can be the proper name of Adam, or it can also refer to mankind. Some translations will have mankind, some will have Adam. So, some say “see this isn’t talking about a covenant with Adam, it’s just talking about mankind.” The comparison is that Israel has transgressed their covenant, “like Adam transgressed the covenant” (Hosea 6:7). That’s pretty significant that there’s an article there.

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that it’s mankind. Well, when did mankind transgress the covenant? When Adam fell. Either way, you end up with Adam being the first person to transgress a covenant, and there was a covenant in the Garden.

I have developed already that if Genesis 9:1–10 is clearly talking about a covenant, and it has the same stipulations as Genesis 3, and those are related to the same categories of stipulations that you have in Genesis 1 and 2, even though those aren’t called covenants, they all must be covenants if Genesis 9 is a covenant.

Slide 6

So, we have the Edenic Covenant. It’s violated. We have the Fall. Then God modifies that. The basic stipulations “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” are still there.

We have the Adamic Covenant. Then there’s judgment at the Flood. Then the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 9:1–7. That’s still in effect today. Every time we see a rainbow, we’re reminded that that covenant is still in effect today.

But because of the disobedience and corruption that occurs at the Tower of Babel and the move towards internationalism that occurs there, God stops working with the whole of the human race, and now He is going to work out His plan through a specific individual and his descendants.

That’s when we have God entering into a covenant with Abraham. It’s prefigured in Genesis 12:1–3 with the three basic promises that God would give him a specific piece of real estate in Genesis 12:7, that He would provide a seed, descendants, more numerable than the stars of the heavens and the sands of the sea, and that he would be a blessing to the rest of mankind. Ultimately, that refers to salvation, but it refers to many other ways.

It’s a command for Abraham to be a blessing. He was a blessing to those around him in many ways.

Each of these aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant are then further developed by their own covenant. You have the Land Covenant in Deuteronomy 30, that’s reaffirmed in its own covenant. You have the Davidic Covenant, which relates to the expansion of the promise of the seed. Now it’s going to come to the line of David. Then the New Covenant. None of these are fulfilled until the Messiah comes back. They are not, in any way, shape, or form, in effect today.

Chris is going to come up in a minute and speak. He’s written several outstanding books, one on Dispensationalism Tomorrow and Beyond, which is about 400 pages long and is a tremendous upgrade in interacting on the basis of, what we would call, traditional dispensationalism with current exacts and spasms in the church. He does a great job there. He’s also edited a book called Introduction to the New Covenant. He has various different people who wrote chapters in that book, including two chapters by Charlie Clough. That was just outstanding.

As you know, I have this group of pastors that meet online together every Friday morning. Since last May, we have worked through a book on the new covenant, Dispensational Understanding of the New Covenant by Mike Stallard, who was formerly the head of the doctoral program at Baptist Bible Seminary, along with Chris’ book on Introduction to the New Covenant. We’ve got about 20 to 25 pastors who join together every Friday morning.

It has really upgraded all of our understandings on the issues related to the New Covenant. I think most of us were pretty much in alignment with the basis thesis that the New Covenant is only with Israel, and it’s only going to be fulfilled when the Messiah comes. But since the last time I really did a deep dive on the New Covenant, which was about 12 years ago, a lot of discussions went on with the dispensational hermeneutic study group at Baptist Bible Seminary.

I think they met in 2010 and the whole topic was on the New Covenant. There were some things that came out in that discussion and debate. There’s more disagreement over the nature of the New Covenant in the Church Age than any other area in dispensationalism. It was good to read through that book and also Chris’ book and tighten and refine and articulate more clearly the position that I’ve always held to.

But all of these are not fulfilled, and they’re not in any way, shape, or form present today. And the Jewish covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, is a is a temporary covenant.

There are also some other covenants in the in the Old Testament that are not national covenants and we’ll talk about those next time. But this gives us a basic orientation to the covenants, and where the Davidic Covenant fits within God’s plan for Israel. Ultimately that is fulfilled in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ who will come as the eternal King at the end of the Tribulation.

He is not a King until then, and He does not receive the Kingdom until then. So it is not appropriate to refer to Him now, as “King Jesus”, or to talk now about doing things “for the Kingdom”, which is standard, sloppy, evangelical language today. It really doesn’t reflect a biblical view of these things.

We’ll talk about the elements of the Davidic Covenant next time. From there we’ll go into its implications for other areas of theology.

Closing Prayer

“Father, thank You for this time we had in Your Word, to be challenged by Your purpose, Your plan in history, especially Your plan through Abraham and his descendants. And the way You have been faithful to those covenants despite human unfaithfulness.

“Father, we look forward to the return of our Lord to establish the Kingdom as we will be with Him as His body and bride.

“Father, we continue to pray for this church’s congregation. The challenge to grow spiritually and not to take lightly our identity in Christ and all that you have given us. And we pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”