Samuel 1 & 2: Jesus is the Seed of David
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PREACHING CHRIST THROUGH THE BIBLE |
Samuel 1 & 2: Jesus is the Seed of David
2 Samuel 7:11b-16:
“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
I am sure that you have heard of the musical Hamilton that came out on Broadway in 2015. It opened with critical ac claim, was sold out for several months and won almost all of the theater and literary awards at that time (including 11 Tonys, Drama Desk, Pulitzer Prize for drama and even the Olivier when it opened on the West End in London). It is the story of the American founding fathers and their struggle to establish a nation.
My favorite character in the play is King George III. He was the King of England at that time and of course, him and his army were at one point, the protagonist in the story. The character was made into a sort of a comic relief but I find him witty and he steals the spotlight whenever he comes out. He has a song where he talks to the American people to give his sentiment on the rebellion that was happening. From his point of view, still talking as the King of the colonies, he gives this advice as the mon arch of the land:
'Cause when push comes to shove
I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love
This is a good illustration of the main problem with most of the monarchical form of government (headed by a King). Kings exercise total power and influence and for them, the people exist for their pleasure--they are not ruling to serve the people. But this morning, we will be talking about a different kind of King. A King instituted by God himself (through a Covenant) to serve his children and to accomplish God’s purpose for our world.
I. The Context for the Covenant
We are continuing our year-long journey of discovering Christ in all of the books of the Bible, both Old and the New Testaments. Today, we will be looking at the two books of Samuel. Due to the limitation on the time, we will just go through the main themes and events. It may seem like I will be going through the events very quickly since a lot of things happened in the books. But they are an exciting pair of books and I invite you to read them when you get the chance. But first, the background. As was discussed in the past weeks, the Lord had raised up judges for the Israelites to act as: God’s messengers; leaders to settle disputes; and commanders in battles against the other tribes. Samuel was the prophet used by God to transition the form of leadership from judges to kings.
Samuel’s mother was Hannah who vowed to God that if she had a son, that son will be dedicated to the Lord as a Nazirite (someone who voluntarily takes a vow of consecration, like Samson). So when Samuel was a kid, he was brought to Eli, one of the last judges in the Old Testament. Samuel was to serve in the shrine at Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
His prophetic blessing was established when he was made to relay the wickedness of the sons of Eli and the destruction of Eli’s dynasty. The Lord talked with Samuel during the night. In the morning, he was hesitant on reporting the message to Eli since it was not news a father would want to hear. But Eli asked Samuel to honestly tell him the Lord’s message. Upon finding out, Eli accepted that the Lord should do what’s right to Him. When all of Israel heard about the story, it established Samuel’s reputation as a prophet of the Lord.
A. The Loss of the Ark of the Covenant
In the Old Testament, there is perhaps no religious artifact more important than the Ark of the Covenant. It was created as per the Lord’s instructions to Moses to house the two tablets of the 10 Commandments, Aaron’s rod and a pot of manna. It accompanied the Israelites in their wanderings in the desert and for these previously-enslaved people who were just rebuilding their relationship with God, it served as the only physical manifestation of Yahweh on Earth.
The Ark of the Covenant was also instrumental in major battles that Israel won to claim their promised land. Led by Joshua, when they arrived at the banks of the Jordan river, the Ark was used as the signal for the people to advance. The river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters, and it remained dry until the Ark left the river after the people had all passed.
In the Battle of Jericho, the Ark was carried round the city once a day for six days with armed men and seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams' horns. On the seventh day, the seven priests again marched around the city with the Ark seven times. After a great shout, Jericho's walls fell down and the Israelites were able to take the city.
This gives us an idea how important and dear the Ark was to these people. In the 4th chapter of first Samuel, the sons of Eli decided to take the Ark into battle. Their reasoning was, just like in Jericho and the Jordan river, the Ark will assure them of their victory. But they were heavily defeated and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. So what was wrong with their reasoning? Why didn’t God provide them with victory?
First, they were wrong in their attempt to manipulate God. They thought that because the Ark was important to God, He will be inclined to give Israel victory. Surely God will not let the Ark be taken in defeat. Well that’s using human logic and we have to be careful when we rely on that. Here are 2 verses that warns us against using human logic to try to manipulate God:
Proverbs 14:12:
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
Isaiah 55:8-9:
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
You may be thinking that surely, I will never manipulate God. But have you ever thought of doing something for God so he will honor a request? I will go to church today, so God will help me in my exam. I will give extra today, so God will bless me with the car I want. These are just examples of ways people try to manipulate God.
Another reason why God did not give Israel victory was they put their trust on things, not God. It is not the Ark that will give them victory, it will be the Lord if that was His intent. What the Lord wants is for us to trust and obey him, then He will take care of our just rewards.
Psalm 37:5-6:
5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.
Just a last note on this event. The Arc was captured by the Philistines, but it did not mean that the Lord was defeated. Everywhere the Philistines brought the Arc, havoc reigned on that land.
B. Kingship
It is also in Samuel where Israel demanded that they be given a King instead of being led by judges the Lord had been providing for them. What is the difference between a King and a judge? Why was Israel adamant in getting a King instead of continuing to have judges? In terms of roles, there was not much difference. Generally, both kings and judges were to lead Israel against their enemies and establish a judicial system for the nation. The difference lies on who would really be leading the nation of Israel. Let us look at Isaiah 44:6. This is God talking to Jacob, one of the Jew’s patriarchs.
Isaiah 44:6:
“This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty. I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.
During the Old Testament, God wants to be the King and Redeemer of the Israel nation. He set that nation apart as ‘kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ and He considered them His ‘treasured possession’ in Exodus 19. As a ‘favored’ nation, God himself will lead Israel and He was doing it through the judges. Contrast that to the motivation of Israel for wanting a King.
1 Samuel 8:5:
5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
These are the people talking to Samuel to let them have a king ‘such as all the other nations have.’ They wanted a King to be like other nations. All the while they were the holy nation favored by God! They’d rather have a human king leading them than the Lord, because that was how the other nations had it.
What about us? Are we more concerned with being like the ‘others’ rather than following what the Lord wants us to do? An example would be: are we more concerned with being part of popular movements or fads without considering if it is in line with God’s law? Have we considered if it aligns to the all-encompassing directive of God (to love other people and share the gospel with them)? Let us not lose sight of God just because of our desire to be like other people.
God took the people’s request as a rejection. On 1 Samuel 8:7, he told Samuel that ‘it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.’ The Lord tried to warn the people what will happen if they have a human King but the people are still adamant about it. So God allowed them to select Saul as the first king of Israel. The Bible will tell us that the Lord’s warning came to pass and Saul was such a disaster as a King.
Let this be a warning for us that sometimes the Lord allows our request, even if it is not the best for us, because of our hard-headedness. I guess sometimes, we want to learn lessons the hard way. Let us pray that we will have the proper discernment when it comes to our requests to God.
II. The Conception of the Covenant
Israel’s second King, in contrast to Saul, was anointed by God. Unlike Saul, who would stand out in a group of people as the most charismatic, David did not even stand out amongst his brothers when Samuel asked Jesse to show his sons. Good thing that God reminded Samuel to look at the heart and that helped Samuel to recognize David as the next King. So Samuel anointed David, a lowly shepherd, to be the next King after Saul.
If God did not want Israel to be led by a king, why did he anoint a successor to the first king? The answer is it was always God’s intent to give Israel a king, but just like we discussed, the people’s motivation was not right and the timing was also premature. If we look even at the first book of the Bible, we will find this promise of God to Abraham.
Genesis 17:6:
I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
Also in Deuteronomy, there was already a mention of kings for Israel.
Deuteronomy 17:14-15:
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.
David would be that first King whom the Lord had chosen himself and David ushered what was recognized by historians as the Golden Age of Israel. He unified all the tribes of Israel, defeated external enemies and crushed the Philistines. We will not even add here his defeat of Goliath since that was before he became king. He recovered the Arc of the Covenant and made Jerusalem the capital of the nation.
He was also an accomplished musician and poet. In fact, he wrote most of the book of Psalms where we will see his love for the Lord and his struggles as a king and follower of God. His devotion and passion to obey God was so evident in the Bible that Samuel even commended him as a ‘man after God’s own heart’ (Samuel 13:14). Did that mean that David did not fall into sin?
That’s a negative. We know the story of Bathsheba who David had an adulterous relationship with. To try to ‘fix’ the situation, he had Bathseba’s husband sent to the front lines to ensure that he would be killed. Did his sins, did his adultery and murder disqualify him to be used by God? The answer is a qualified NO. As long as we honestly repent of our sins, the Lord will forgive us and we can continue to have a relationship with Him. That is what’s called the Lord’s grace. It is Him who chose to grant grace to us. We do not earn it due to what we have done or how perfect we are (which as humans in this world, would be impossible).
That brings us to God’s covenant with David, which is also known as the Davidic Covenant. First, let us understand what is meant by a covenant. According to Christianity.com, the word covenant came from the Hebrew word berith which means ‘a cutting.’ How would the word covenant be derived from something being cut? It turned out that in the Hebrew tradition, covenants are ratified between two parties by cutting an animal into two. The idea is if one of the parties reneged on the covenant, he can expect to share the faith of the animal. So a covenant is an agreement that is more solemn or serious than a basic promise and if it is coming from God, as did the Davidic Covenant, we can definitely guarantee that it will come to pass.
As we have mentioned before, the Arc of the Covenant was recovered by David from the Philistines. So the Israelites brought back the Arc to Jerusalem with much fanfare and thanksgiving to God. But later in the day, David lamented that while he was living in a house of cedar, the Arc was just in a tent. As a response (as conveyed by the prophet Nathan) the Lord made a covenant with King David, the contents of which are shown by our verses for the day.
III. The Contents of the Covenant
A. His Son will Build the Temple
On verses 11 and 12, God promised to David that his kingdom will be maintained after he died and he will be succeeded by his son, Solomon. David was also informed that it will be his son who will build the Lord’s temple and not him. It will be revealed later in Chronicles that it was because David had shed much blood and had fought many wars. The Lord wanted a man of peace to build his temple.
We will also find a warning to the descendants of David, the future kings of Israel. In verse 14, it says that the Lord will continue the father/son relationship with Solomon and the other descendants of David. And by extension, God will also have a close relationship with the nation of Israel. This means the Lord will richly provide for them and protect them if they follow his decrees. But the Lord added in verse 14 that He will use other men to discipline David’s descendants and Israel if they do wrong. ‘I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.’ Sadly, the nation of Israel and their kings chose to disobey God. What resulted was God used other nations to conquer and even exile Israel. But we still see God’s grace even when he was disciplining Israel because of their unfaithfulness. As was mentioned in verse 15, His love never left them and He was sure to rescue and rebuild Israel whenever they repented.
B. The Promise of a Future King Who Will Rule Forever
What is most significant in this covenant is the Lord’s use of the word forever. In verse 13 it says, ‘I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.’ In verse 16, ‘your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ This is one of the basis for the Jewish nation to expect a Messiah and King from the line of David to come and save them from their predicaments. If God promised that David’s kingdom will last forever, surely someone will again come and retake that throne.
This indeed had come to pass with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 1, when the angel appeared to Mary and she was troubled with the news that she was with son, the angel reassured her:
Luke 1:30-33:
30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
On verse 32, it explicitly says that God the Father will give Jesus the throne of his earthly ancestor, King David. Jesus is the culmination of the Davidic Covenant! If you want to see the genealogy of Jesus and how he connects to King David, Luke traced it in the 3rd chapter of his gospel. Note that this trace is through Joseph and using male hierarchy since Israel’s tradition in terms of ruling is patriarchal. This shows that the charge the people of Israel levelled on Jesus, that Jesus blasphemed by saying he is King of the Jews, has no basis since indeed, he is the rightful King of the Jews!
This all happened more than 2,000 years ago, how can Jesus still be king? Because of Jesus’ resurrection he is still actively reigning as King. As what’s indicated on v. 16, Jesus’ ‘house and kingdom will endure forever’ and his throne will be ‘established forever.’ Also, in Mark 16:19, we are told that his current throne is right besides God.
Mark 16:19:
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
So Jesus is the reigning King of the Jews, is He also King for us Gentiles? This was discussed by John Piper in one of his sermons. He said:
“The reason the Davidic covenant is relevant for 20th century American Gentiles is because God's job description which he revealed to David included not just the responsibility to establish a righteous ruler in Israel forever, but also to put that ruler over the church and then over all the world.”
He backed it up by offering the following points:
1. It was agreed upon by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. In this council, Peter related how the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit just like the Jews. Paul and Barnabas mentioned their success amongst the Gentiles and then Peter related “how God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.” Then they all agreed that Gentiles are also cov ered by the gospel in the spirit of Amos 9:11. 'After this I will return and I will build the dwelling of David which is fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up, that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name.'
2. Isaiah 9:7 says “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”
3. Revelations 11:15 says “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord.”
4. Revelations 7:9 indicated that the subject of the King will not only be Jews but people from every tongue and tribe and nation.
To close, we have shown that Jesus is actively reigning at the right hand of His Father. He is waiting for us to make a choice if we want to join His kingdom, or make men or our own selfish desires be our ruler. Remember that our choice has an everlasting consequence. We would either spend eternity suffering in hell or reigning with Him. He even made it easy for us to follow Him. Because of His death, He paid for our sins and because of His resurrection, He conquered death for us. All we have to do is accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
It also does not hurt that our King was the one who personally created us and knows every hair on our head, according to Luke 12. We will not be just one of his subjects. In fact, He wants a personal (that’s one-on-one) relationship with us! He is the one who asked us to lay our burdens on him and promised to provide us with all our needs. If you do not realize it, we are ‘connected’!
To those who already have surrendered their life to Christ, persevere in being faithful to Him even if the world around you is making it more and more difficult. Strive in being successful in the mission your King has given you: to spread the word that the righteous, benevolent and loving King is ready to take anyone back as part of His Kingdom. Remember that in the end, His Kingdom will be the one victorious!
-Bro. Arturo Tumbokon