We Have Found the Messiah

...in 2 Samuel 7:12-13

I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

As we have already noted, the moment mankind sinned against God, God stepped in to save man, and did so with the promise of a messianic deliverer who would have victory over sin, death and Satan. With the unfolding of the OT revelation, that light dawned more and more and became focussed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He would be the Son of Eve, and the son of Abraham. Now, according to 2 Samuel 7, he would also be the son of David.

The promises given to David in 2 Samuel 7 form the high water mark of messianic covenant revelation in the Old Testament. All that went before culminated in this; and all of subsequent OT history flows from it. Indeed, all that is in the New Testament has to be understood against the background of this great momentous and climactic revelation of God's purposes of grace and salvation.

Context

The history of God's people up to this point was one of continued rebellion and sin against God. That rebellion culminated in their rejection of God's sovereignty in favour of a king. They wanted to be like the nations around them, but their desire for a king could also be viewed as an impatience with God's purposes. Nonetheless, God permitted their sin and overruled it, accommodating it into his plan for his ultimate glory. But even with Saul on the throne, David, as a young man had been anointed by Samuel to be king. As the OT tells us, Saul was constantly at war with David. But 2 Samuel 3:1 tells us that the house of Saul became weaker and weaker, while David's became stronger and stronger. God is not mocked -- his will is to be done.

There are three important elements of the historical context to 2 Samuel 7 which we must note.

First, David had secured Jerusalem as the seat of his rule. 2 Samuel 5 tells us of how the city of the Jebusites became the city of David. The importance of Jerusalem is apparent throughout the Bible, not least in the fact that the image John sees of the church in glory is of a new Jerusalem, where God and his people are together for all eternity. This spoke of the purpose of God for his people -- to provide them with a place where he would meet with them. This inheritance concept was integral to the covenant concept from the outset.

Secondly, David had secured the return of the ark of the covenant (2 Samuel 6). The ark had for long been held by the Philistines, instead of being located in its rightful place among the people of God. It was a symbol of the presence of God with his people, and the return of the ark was a wonderful confirmation of the faithfulness of the covenant God.

Thirdly, God gave David rest from his enemies (2 Samuel 7:1). This was a time of respite, of favour. It was a time when God's people could enjoy a cessation of the hostilites which had characterised their history for so long. This experience of the peace of God was also an important element in the provision of the covenant promises to David.

Content

The chapter highlights several dramatic elements.

David desires to build a house for the ark, and is encouraged by Nathan the prophet (verses 2-3).

It struck David that there was a contrast between his residence in palatial surroundings, and that of the ark, which had always been in a tent. The desire was a benevolent one, and the prophet was pleased with the king's suggestion.

God reveals to Nathan that David will not be permitted to build him a house (verses 4-11)

In a powerful night-time vision, God expresses his mind to Nathan. First, God had never asked that a house be built as a residence for the ark. David, therefore, had no divine mandate for his suggestion, attractive as it may have been to the prophet. Second, God's purpose in raising David was fulfilled in the honour, glory and dignity of his office as king. And significantly, and in a remarkable reversal of the original plan, God's expresses his purpose to build a house for David.

Integral to the promises of the Davidic covenant is the theme of house-building; not, as one might expect, that David would build a house for God, but that God would build one for David. The emphasis falls on the sheer, sovereign grace of God that is moving the purpose of his salvation along in this fallen world.

God elucidates his plan of house-building for David by focussing on David's seed (verses 12-17)

The heart of the covenant promises is to be found in the pledge God makes to David. How is God to build a house for David? First, by establishing the kingdom of David's son. Second, by raising up David's son to build a house for God's name. Third, by establishing the kingdom of David's son. Fourth, by pledging covenant loyalty to him. This includes the warning that he will chastise David's seed for any breach of covenant faithfulness, but coupled with the promise that he will never turn his back on the house of David. And fifth, by promising that David's throne and kingdom will be everlasting.

It is clear from the OT history that these promises had an initial fulfillment in Solomon. God raised up Solomon to succeed David as king. Where sin had abounded in the adulterous liaison between David and Bathsheba, grace much more abounded, as from that union came the child in whom the promises of the covenant were focussed.

And Solomon did, literally, build God's house. It was to him that the privilege of building the Temple was given. The glory of Solomon's kingdom was enhanced by the glory of Solomon's Temple. Finally, there was a place where God's name could reside among the covenant people.

And God proved his covenant loyalty by blessing the successors of David, although their personal failings were many. To take one example: in 1 Kings 15 we read of Abijam's wicked reign in Judah. God would have had every reason to destroy the kingdom there and then. But we read that it was for David's sake that God showed mercy to his people. He was loyal to his covenant, even when (especially when?) his covenant people were faithless to him.

So it is possible to see a literal and immediate fulfillment of the messianic promises of the covenant with David in the life and reign of Solomon. But does that exhaust their significance? And what of the promise that David's throne would be for ever? Has God reneged on that particular pledge?

Not at all; for the ultimate fulfillment of the promises was in the Lord Jesus Christ -- the promise was not simply that God would establish David's son after him, but that he would establish his seed. The consummate fulfillment was that one great messianic figure would come, as David's heir and successor, and as the Saviour of the whole world. The prophets realised this. Isaiah 9:6-7 spoke of the one who would be called Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace, and so on, sitting on the throne of David his father. The prophetic view was that the Messiah would enter in to the Davidic promises, as the one who was the promised king.

The New Testament registers this for us in various ways.

Consider, for example, the words with which the NT opens: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham..." (Matthew 1:1). These words, introducing the genealogy of Christ, do more than head a list of names. They link the subject of the passage -- Jesus Christ -- to David and Abraham, because when God made covenant with them, Jesus was in his view as the one who would ultimately fulfill the purposes of his salvation.

Consider Jesus' description of himself in Matthew 12:42 as a greater than Solomon.

Consider Paul's assertion in the opening words of the letter to the Romans, where he speaks of Jesus Christ who "was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power..." (Romans 1:3-4).

And consider John's record of the words of Jesus in Revelation 22:16, when he said "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star".

It is no exaggeration to state that the New Testament, from beginning to end, reminds us that the promised heir, the messiah on whom the covenant promises focussed, was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom poor, needy sinners could come and cry out "Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:47-8).

David's reaction is one of thanksgiving and praise (verses 18-29)

Immediately, David registers his sense of deep thankfulness. "Who am I, O Lord? What is my house, that you have brought me to this point?" It is the reaction of one who is aware of great favour and blessing having been bestowed, and who knows that the gift of covenant mercy is altogether a gift of grace.

David also realises that the promises have significance far beyond his own lifetime. He says "you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come" (verse 19), and adds, "and is this the manner of men, O Lord God?". This last question is probably a mistranslation. In an important article in the 1974 volume The Law and the Prophets, OT scholar Walter Kaiser suggested we should translate it as "And this is the charter for humanity, O Lord God", recognising that what God was intimating to David was really a blueprint for the salvation of mankind. In that light, we realise that this high water-mark of covenant revelation and promise is really the supreme undertaking on the part of God regarding the salvation of his people: he will provide a son of Eve to crush the serpent, a son of Abraham to be a blessing to the Gentiles, and a son of David to rule over an everlasting kingdom.

Consequence

What are some of the consequences of these great messianic pledges?

First, they gave David a reason for hope. In spite of all that he had ever done and been, there was a personal hope for him in this: God had made with him an everlasting covenant (2 Samuel 23:5). The pledge to raise up his seed was a personal guarantee of God's grace extended to David. It was all he needed as he faced the end of his life. And we too, with all our personal failings and sins, can find security and peace in the same undertakings of the same covenant.

Second, they give us a context for understanding the psalms. It was as the 'sweet psalmist of Israel' (2 Samuel 23:1) that David was placed as king over God's people. The psalms he wrote were a hymn-book provided for those within the kingdom. They were to be the praises of those who acknowledged David's God, and pledged loyalty to David's son. As such, the psalms are of importance and significance for the church in every age and generation.

Third, they help us to see the importance of Solomon in the Old Testament. When, for example, we read the Song of Solomon, what do we find there? Simply a love story? If so, why is the lover a king? And why Solomon? Would not any man do? Or any king? The fact is that since it is Solomon's song, the status of the lover is raised because of the place Solomon occupies on the throne of his father David. We can read the Song of Solomon and know that a greater than Solomon is there. If it is true that Christ is in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27; John 5:39), then we are warranted by the covenant with David to find him set before us in places which speak of Solomon -- not, obviously, in his failings and sins, but in his faithful discharge of the office of king over God's covenant people.

Fourth, they help us to understand the role of Jesus Christ. He is the messianic king, as he is the messianic prophet like Moses, and the messianic faithful priest. Descendant of David, he is also David's root (Rev 22:16). All that God ever pledged to David was rooted in Christ. And all that Christ ever became was the result of the Davidic covenant. We can read the great events of 2 Samuel 7 and say that here, "we have found the Messiah", whose throne now in glory is the everlasting throne of David, and whose name, according to the promises given to the king's son in Psalm 72, will endure for ever.