The Covenant Made With David To Be Realised In The Re-Establishment of the Kingdom of Israel Under Christ

 WE have seen that " the promises made unto the fathers, " in remote Old Testament times, form the groundwork of the scheme which God is developing through Christ.

Of these, orthodox religion takes no cognizance. Who ever hears of them in modern sermons, or religious tuition of any kind?

We now propose to consider another matter, having an equally essential reference to the scheme, and of which there is a similar entire absence in all systems of modern religion.

We refer to the covenant made with David, which may be considered in the light of a clause in the greater covenant established with the fathers, settling an important matter of detail which is covered by, but not expressed in, the older general promises on which the whole scheme of God's purposed goodness towards mankind rests.

The fact that God made a covenant with David, having reference to Christ, is placed beyond all doubt by the statement of Peter on the day of Pentecost:-

" Therefore.....being a prophet, and knowing that GOD HAD SWORN WITH AN OATH TO HIM, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, HE WOULD RAISE UP CHRIST to sit on His throne " (Acts 2v 30).

Preliminary to a consideration of the subject, we invite attention to the following further elusions to the oath referred to by Peter:

" I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations " (Psa. 139v 3, 4).

" The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, He will not turn from it: of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne " (Psa. 132v 11).

" My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and HIS THRONE AS THE SUN BEFORE ME'' (Psa. 89v 34-36).

" Of this man's (David's) seed hath God ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus " (Acts 13v 23).

" And hath raised up an horn of salvation for US IN THE HOUSE OF HIS SERVANT DAVID, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began " (Luke 1v 69, 70).

These quotations of Scripture establish the facts - first, that God entered into some pledge or undertaking with David, king of Israel, to uphold His kingdom in an unlimited future; and, second, that the pledge, covenant, or oath had reference to Jesus. David's " last words " (II Sam. 23v 17), confirm this conclusion - HE HATH MADE WITH ME AN EVERLASTING COVENANT, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire. " The identity of this covenant with that referred to in the Scriptures quoted above, is evident from the immediate context:

" The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel quake to me, HE THAT RULETH OVER MEN must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God, yet " .

Then follows the declaration first quoted.

David was an old man when he penned these words by the Spirit, and it is evident that, to the mind of the Spirit, the covenant was not realised in the state of things prevailing at the time. Solomon, a young man of promise, was about to ascend the throne, but although David himself recognised in this a preliminary fulfillment of the covenant, it is evident that this was not the event contemplated. The Spirit in David points forward to a period when it would be fulfilled in the rule of one who should rise upon the world like a morning without clouds; and when " all David's salvation and all his desire " would be accomplished in connection with that great event. This did not come to pass in David's day. We have the testimony of the words immediately succeeding those quoted. David's house was not at that time in the position guaranteed by the promise: " Although my house BE NOT SO WITH GOD, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant. "

Solomon's reign was doubtless the meridian of Israel's glory; but it was not a morning without cloud - it was not the realisation of the covenant. Solomon sinned and led Israel astray, and ultimately dealt injustice to the nation. David's salvation was not in any sense secured in Solomon's achievements. Contrariwise, his crown was tarnished and his kingdom rent, through the perversion of a son who departed from God, multiplied wives, and turned aside to the worship of heathen gods. His very name was brought into abhorrence with the bulk of the nation, through the oppressions of one who falsified the expectations created by the commencement of his royal career as the wisest of men.

It was not to such a feature that " the last (spirit) words of David " had reference as the consummation of " the everlasting covenant " in all David's salvation and all his desire. There was visible to the mind of the spirit, in the dim distance, far beyond the days of Solomon, the form of one whose name should endure for ever-who should descend like the gentle rain upon the new mown grass, diffusing life and fragrance, in whom men should be blest all the world over (Psalm 72v 17), who, while the destroyer of the wicked, the conqueror of kings, the avenger of injustice, should be a refuge for the poor, a shadow from the heat, a covert from the tempest, and rivers of water in a dry place (Isaiah 32v 2).

Let us now look at the covenant itself. We cannot do better than quote entire that passage in the history of David in which it occurs:

" And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.

" And Nathan said unto the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee.

" And it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go, and tell my servant David, thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me a house of cedar?

" Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be a ruler over my people, over Israel: and I was with thee wheresoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 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; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as before time, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies.

" Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after, thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever " (II Sam. 7v 1-16).

Now, before proceeding to look narrowly at the significance of these words, it will be well to meet a preliminary objection which is sometimes urged with considerable force - that as they were fulfilled in the reign of Solomon, they cannot be legitimately understood of Christ. That the things affirmed had a parallel in the events of Solomon's reign cannot be denied. Both David and Solomon apply them in this way (see I Kings 5v 5; 8v 20; 11v 38; I Chron. 22v 7-10; 28v 3). Solomon was David's son; God, in a sense, was his Father, for He took him under His special care, and endowed him with a degree of wisdom that made him famous above kings. He sat on the throne of David " before " (that is, in the presence of) David, being elevated to the crown before David's decease, by David's own instructions, and continued after David was gathered to his fathers. He built the temple of God at Jerusalem, according to plans drawn out by David under the influence of inspiration (I Chron. 28v 12-19). He was a man of peace. He committed iniquity and was chastened in the divine displeasure by means of adversaries raised up toward the close of his reign; but God's mercy did not depart away from him as it did from Saul, for he was allowed to reign till death removed him.

To this extent, the covenant with David was verified in the days of Solomon, but to say that this parallel was the substance of the things promised, is to go in the teeth of Scripture testimony, both Old and New. David's and Solomon's application of the covenant, as recorded in the Scriptures referred to, does not interfere with this testimony. David and Solomon may be presumed not to have known its full scope. The prophets generally did not understand the full effect of their words (II Peter 1v 20-21). Paul applies the terms of the covenant to Christ in Heb. 1v 5: " I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. " Peter, as we have already seen, expressly says that the covenant had reference to him (Acts 2v 30). Jesus applies David's language to himself: " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make shine enemies thy footstool " (Psa. 110v i); and furthermore, he says of himself, " I am the root and the offspring of David " (Rev. 22v 16), and that he has the key of David for the purpose of opening that no man may shut (Rev. 3v 7). In the days of his flesh, he was known and described as " the son of David " , the whole nation of the Jews looked for a son of David to be the Messiah; all the prophets speak of him as a descendant of David, variously styling him " a rod out of the stem of Jesse (father of David) " (Isa. 11v 1); " a righteous Branch raised unto David " (Jer. 23v 5); " a child born and a son given to sit upon the throne of David and his kingdom " (Isa. 9v 6), and so on.

It is, therefore, a vain thing for anyone to attempt to avert the application of the " everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, " from Jesus, David's son and Lord, the " greater than Solomon, " on the mere strength of a view taken by David and Solomon, which does not exclude this application, but which merely declares that the covenant made with reference to Jesus was incipiently fulfilled in Solomon.

It may be a question for consideration how it is that a prediction can have two fulfillments, so far separated by time and the nature of the event. The fact is evidence of the comprehensiveness of the divine word, but no disproof of the fact that the prediction in its ultimate and complete bearing has reference to Jesus. This is proved in too many ways to leave room for a moment's doubt.

Assuming this to be settled, let us see, first, how much of the covenant has been fulfilled in the career of Christ, as so far developed; and second, what Christ will have to do at his future manifestation, in order to fulfil that part of the covenant which was, unquestionably, not realised at his first appearing.

The facts bearing on the first point may very briefly be summarised: David's days having been fulfilled, and he being " asleep with his fathers, " Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, of Mary, a virgin, descended in the line of David, and espoused to a man named Joseph, who was of the house and lineage of David. The event was announced by an angel to shepherds in the neighbourhood, watching their flocks by night, in the following language:

" Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord " (Luke 2v 10, 11).

Zacharias, the father of John, notices the event in the following language:

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people; and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began " (Luke 1v 68-70).