Davidic Covenant

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The King Jesus makes the Difference: The Covenant of Grace

Davidic Covenant     2 Samuel 7: 8 – 17

Introduction: Did you enjoy the Olympic?  Today is the final day and I really enjoyed watching those athletes compete to the point of exhaustion.  I always admire those athletes who dedicate to train themselves.  What sporting event do you like? 

When I was in high school I was a captain of sword fighting club.  We practiced about 2 to 3 hours every day after school.  I loved the Samurai stories, i.e. Japanese knights: They committed themselves to the way of the sword.  I remember one of the legends who challenged many master sword men and beat them all.  One day, the disciples of one of the masters tried to revenge: Two hundreds or so against one man.  He was scared and went to one of the Shinto Shrine to pray.  Then his inner voice whispered to him, “You have trained yourself this long, you have relied on your sward all these years, why not rely on your own sward now!” So he stopped praying.  I thought, wow!  That was before I became a Christian.  What do you think?

In CBC pre-Olympic interviews some athletes were asked: How would you prepare yourself.  One of the athletes replied by saying: “Believe in myself!”   Is there any one of you who are involved in some sports competitively?  I am sure you have heard your coach or your friend say to you, “Believe in yourself!”  What do you think?

School is starting and first day makes you nervous and anxious,

especially, when you have a desire to follow the Lord.  You wonder what kind of friends you will make and nervous about how your

friends react once they find out you are Christian.  If you are working you might have a similar concern when and how you express your faith in Jesus Christ.  To live as Christians in this world is not easy.  

I want to encourage you this morning by looking at God’s Grace and His faithfulness. 

Our faith is nurtured by the Grace of God and carried by the faithfulness of God.   

How then can we encourage ourselves by God’s Grace and His Faithfulness? 

In order to get encouragement from God’s Grace and His Faithfulness, we must acknowledge God’s Kingship in our lives. 

So now let’s look at the Grace of God and His faithfulness.

Please turn your Bible to 2 Sam. 7: 12 – 16.

This is called Davidic Covenant.  God made a promise with David.

David wanted to build a temple for the Lord (2 Sam. 7: 1, 2) but the Lord told him that he went out to many wars and shed a lot of blood  (1 Chron. 22: 8, 28: 3).  In Davidic covenant, God promised David that his son will build the house for the Lord and He will establish the throne for him and his kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7: 12 – 16).  So this is obviously pointing to David’s son Solomon (1 Chron. 22: 6).  But also from verse 16, God promised David that He will establish David’s kingdom forever.  When we look at

2 Chron. 21: 7, we can see God kept this promise. 

Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.

Background is this:

There were many kings in the history of Israel, after Solomon, the kingdom was divided into two: Judah the southern kingdom and Israel the northern kingdom.  About 128 years after David’s death, king Jehoram, became the king of Judah after his father king Jehoshaphat who did right in the sight of the Lord (I Kings 22: 43) as his father Asa (I Kings 15: 11).  But Jehoram was a bad king, killed all of his brothers to secure his throne, married to King Ahab’s daughter.  King Ahab was a bad king.  You heard Queen Jezebel, he was her husband.  Jehoram walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 8: 18).  The Lord could have punished him and destroyed his kingdom but for the sake of David, He did not.  The Scripture uses the word “lamp” to express God’s sustaining grace to the house of David (I Kings 11: 36, 15: 4, II Kings 8: 19).  Just like the Olympic torch that kept burning while all games were on.  In the O.T. time, there was no natural gas or electricity, so in order for the lamp to keep burning, someone had to supply oil.  The lamp is the symbol of God’s sustaining grace in His faithfulness.   

See, God did keep this covenant so we have hope today

This is Grace of God in His faithfulness!

But, even this promise, it seems, was somehow vanished away when physical Davidic kingdom was ceased.  In 586 BC, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians.  Since then, no descendants of David ruled the kingdom of Judah.  But the N.T. assures us that this Davidic Kingdom is restored and will be established forever.  Let’s look at the N.T. witness to this promise.  How does the N.T. begin?  Matt. 1: 1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham;”  How about a famous message of Christmas, Angel Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1: 32,

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;  

John 7: 42, John probably quoting from Psalm 89: 4 said,

“Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descen-dants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

Acts 13: 22, 23 

After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’

23             “From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus

How about Paul’s testimony in Rom. 1: 3?

concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

How about Jesus His own testimony in Rev. 22: 16?

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

See God fulfilled the promise He made to David by sending Jesus as a descendant of David. 

“Son of David”   Matt. 9: 27   Two blind men came to Jesus and cried out saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”  What are they saying?  From the perspective of what we are learning, they are saying to Jesus, “You are the promised King, the Son of David the king of Judah who was good, strong and wise, we know you can heal us.” 

The significance of the Davidic Covenant is that the king David was a type of Christ and God promised Jesus the eternal Kingdom which begins on this earth.  Because God kept His promise we have King Jesus who is the hope of the world!    

Through out the O.T. this faithfulness of God is reinforced: (Isaiah 9:6–7); Jeremiah 23:5; 30:8–9; 33:14–17, 20–21; Ezekiel 37:24–25; (Daniel 7:13–14); Hosea 3:4–5; Amos 9:11; and (Zechariah 14:9).   

The New Covenant is the fulfillment of this promiseThis is God’s Grace in His Faithfulness!  

But we should not stop here.  If there is a kingdom there must be a King.  Yes, Jesus is the KING of this kingdom.    We must understand two Kingdoms of God.

A.    Realized Kingdom  (Here Already)

Luke 17: 20, 21   (Luke 22: 29)

Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;

21             nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Also Rom. 14: 17

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So the Kingdom of God is here on this earth at present. 

There is another Kingdom of God the Scripture talks about.

B.    Coming Kingdom  (Not Yet)

Luke 19: 11  Right after the Zaccheus narrative.

While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. 

So it is not here, yet.

Luke 22: 18      At the Passover meal.

for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes

Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to this earth that the Kingdom of God is realized.  He will also bring the Kingdom of God which is yet to come and we are living in anticipation to this “Not Yet” Kingdom.  This present Kingdom of God which inaugurated by the new born King Jesus will continue into eternity. 

Jesus brought the Kingdom of God and He is the King.  This reality brought a great deal of hardships for the first century Christians.  When they came to Christ, they had to denounce the earthly king because they submitted to the Kingship of Jesus.  Jesus was sitting on the throne of their hearts.  But those who refused to do so cried out, “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19: 15

At present, there are also two kingdoms; the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.  There are two kings. 

Jesus IS our King.  Jesus IS the King of this church.

When we honor and obey the King of the Kingdom of light, the world would recognize which king and which kingdom they belong to. 

So we must have a proper knowledge of this King of the Kingdom of Light. 

          The following dialogue appears in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia (1961, MacMillan, 1950, CS. Lewis PTE. LTD).  In “the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Susan and Lucy ask Mr. and Mrs. Beaver to describe Aslan.  They ask if Aslan is a man.  Mr. Beaver replies.

          “Aslan a man? Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the wood and the song of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.  Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts?  Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”

          “Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was man.  Is he-quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

          “That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

          “Then he isn’t safe?”  said Lucy.    “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about being safe?  Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.”[1]

No, we can not domesticate this King.  He is fierce: Fierce against sin.  He will come back with the rod of iron to judge the world.  But He is a good King.   He saved us when we belonged to the kingdom of darkness.  This King is full of Grace and Truth (John 1: 14)

When Jesus the King was crucified on the Cross, He, out of excruciating pain, cried out: “It is finished!”  (John 19: 30)

It was just one word in original: τετέλεσται

This is the word often used in commerce that when debt is paid, they signed this word indicating the debt is paid in full.  This is Jesus the King, His way of saying, “I have kept the covenant You made with Me.   Now Father, You will forgive sins of those who come to me by faith.”  He is the King of universe, but died as a sinner for you and me. 

τετέλεσται: It is completed.  He is a good King.   This is Grace!

Grace is the power to do what we ought to do!  Jesus demonstrated that to us by obeying and submitting to God the Father.  God the Father wanted His Son to be the King of kings and Lord of lords through suffering. 

After listening to this message, one I thing I want you to take home is this: Grace will accomplish what God has planned in your life.

 So now you can understand when Paul said,

Phi. 1: 6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God has begun a good work in you.  Do you believe that?  According to what we learned, He will continue to supply oil so that we can keep burning.  Yes, even in the difficult situation in the school, and hard circumstances at work. 

God made a covenant and promised David to bring the Kingdom of God through His Son, Jesus, and the Grace accomplished that.  God invites us into His kingdom where Jesus is the King.  When we acknowledge this King and obey, He will encourage us and gives us strength to press on: Even when we fail.

Is Jesus your KING?  Can you say, “I have no King but Jesus?”

Then there is another question we should ask:

“Is King Jesus reigning in my life?” 

Grace will enable us to say, “YES!”

          I Tim. 1: 17

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen”


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[1] Wayne Rice “Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks” Zondervan Publishing, 1995, p. 48

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