Let's again ask the Lord's blessing upon our time in the Scripture. Father, how we do praise You. How we do worship You and rejoice in You. To know that all of our days, not just in this life, but for all of eternity are in Your hands. That we are Your children by grace. that your work stands and it endures and it prevails. You are the God who has kept lovingkindness to David. The God whose covenant has stood. And Father, cause us to be filled with the knowledge of those truths, with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Focus our minds, focus our hearts. Give us grace in this time. Father, I pray that you would lead out my own words, that you would cause them to be effective in the ears of your hearers. Minister to us the gospel. We would see Jesus. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Well, we've come in our consideration of this core theme, core biblical theme of sacred space. Again, meaning referring to the reality, not so much a place, but the reality in which God is present in relation to his creation, notably through and in connection with man, the image bearer, man, the image son. The view of the kingdom first introduced to us in the creation account and progressively portrayed to us as God has promised the recovery and really the fullness of his kingdom in the realization of this great truth of sacred space. And as we've come progressively through the scripture, we have come to what I would consider to be arguably the high point in the Old Testament salvation history as we consider this great truth of God's kingdom and what it really represents. And I'm speaking of the Davidic covenant, a very brief passage, but profoundly important, profoundly significant in God's purpose and in God's revelation of his work in his son. We've seen the significance of David, that God promised to Abraham a kingdom and that God, as he began that kingdom through Moses, and established a covenant with the sons of Israel by which he would administer and fill out this kingdom. He has now come to the point where he has brought that kingdom to its fullness. The kingdom that he promised to Abraham that he has progressively set in front of the sons of Israel. We saw that in David the scepter has been imparted. It has come to Judah as God had promised. And David has brought together and unified the twelve tribes of Israel in a unity that was authentic and one of great solidarity, unified around their devotion to their great king. We've seen that David has also, and it becomes more clear today, has subdued the enemies of God. He has brought stability He has brought a kind of restfulness and peace to the Israelite kingdom. And more than that, again, as we saw last week, God or David has, by bringing the ark of God's presence to Jerusalem, the new capital city, David has symbolically enthroned the King of Israel. He has enthroned Yahweh on Mount Zion. And in that sense, we have the Scripture communicating to us the fact that in David's kingdom, we see a kind of initial fulfillment of the promise of God back in Genesis 3.15. The kingdom was created, the creational kingdom was structured in such a way that God administered His Lordship over His creation, over the works of His hands through Adam, the imaged son. The Father was ruling through the Son. dominion in the context of communion. And we see that realized in David's kingdom. David is the great king of Israel, the chosen anointed son of God, so to speak. And yet he is ruling as God's servant. He is ruling as God's under shepherd, as God's vice regent, if you will. God himself is the king of Israel, and David has established his throne in Jerusalem. That language will be carried forward from David into Solomon, into the kings of Israel, ruling on Yahweh's throne in Jerusalem. And we've seen that these developments are profoundly important, not only as they take us back to the creational kingdom, but even as they're helping us to understand how ultimately God is going to fulfill that promise of Genesis 3.15, how it is that He will restore His kingdom. Now it is that he will fulfill all things. Well, David has done all of this work. He has conquered Jerusalem. He has set out Jerusalem as God's throne. He has built his own palace. He has established unity and solidarity and peace within the kingdom. And his thoughts immediately begin turning to a house for God. A house for God. He has built a duplicate tabernacle, as it were, in Jerusalem and put the Ark of God's presence there. But David is now wanting to build a fixed permanent house for the Lord. And it's a very predictable development because David almost certainly understood God's instruction through Moses in Deuteronomy of the future destiny that would be a central sanctuary. God said, I will appoint a place when you come in and take the land. I will appoint a place. And that's where I will dwell. And that's where the sons of Israel will meet me. And that's where they will worship me and where they will commune with me. I will appoint a place. And David believed Jerusalem was that place. And so having brought the ark to Jerusalem and understanding the promise of a central sanctuary and that Israel would meet God there and that would be the place of his throne forever. David saw it perfectly fitting to build a house for the Lord, a permanent temple, to move from a portable tent, a portable sanctuary, to a permanent structure, a permanent temple. And so we're going to be considering today the Davidic covenant in the context of 2 Samuel chapter 7. And I'd like to read the first couple verses with you where you see this idea coming out in David's thinking and the response of God's prophet, Nathan. Nathan understood the same thing. And so you'll see he's very approving of David's desire. Now it came about, verse 1, when the king lived in his house. and Yahweh had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains. And Nathan the prophet said to the king, Go and do all that is in your mind, for Yahweh is with you. David wanted to, in a sense, testify publicly to what had happened now in terms of the accomplishment of the fullness of the Israelite kingdom. The promise of a central sanctuary had come to pass. In his mind, we were to that time. The kingdom is now established in a solid way. It is secure. David is on the throne. The tribes of Israel are unified. And it's time now to build God such a sanctuary. David understood that his throne was now in the new capital of Jerusalem. But David ruled under God's kingship. And so it was appropriate to him that his own throne would be overshadowed by Yahweh's throne. David has enthroned God in the city of David. David named the city after himself, and yet he has God himself as the true king. in the city that David himself presides over. Nathan understood these things and saw an appropriateness in what David sought to do. But if you note in verse 4, God had a different plan. Now it came about in the same night that the word of Yahweh came to Nathan saying, Go and say to my servant David, thus says the Lord, thus says Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, are you the one who should build me a house to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this very day. But rather I've been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I ever speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, with one of their leaders, those who I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why haven't you built me a house of cedar? God says David will not build a house for me. And more than that, he says, have I ever asked for you to build me a house? Have I ever asked for that? Well, there's a reason for that. There's a significance in that that we will discuss as we move along. But God says David will not build me a house. And in fact, God uses that intent on David's part as the very springboard for announcing his own determination regarding David and David's future and the future of the Israelite kingdom. David will not build Yahweh's house. To the contrary, Yahweh will build a house for David. Let's keep reading. Verse nine, I have been with you, David, wherever you have gone, I have cut off all your enemies from before you and I will make you a great name like the names of the great men who are on the earth. And this harkens back again to the Abrahamic covenant, the Abrahamic promise, a great name. Abraham would be great and the people to come from him would be great. And David is to be given a great name. And I will also appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them anymore as formerly. Now, keep that promise in mind as not so much just for today, but as we move through the series. Because this will not be realized in David's life, this will not be realized in the Old Testament history. Even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. You've had affliction. You've had disturbing. You've had perturbation. You've had agony. You've had onslaught from nations around you. But I will give you rest from all your enemies. And Yahweh also declares to you, David, that the Lord, Yahweh, will build a house for you. He will build a house for you. Well, what I'd like to do, first of all, before we look at the particulars, is establish a framework for this covenant. Because without a proper biblical framework, we really can't understand, certainly, the fullness of what it is that God is pledging to David. If we just strictly treat these verses in a vacuum, we don't really understand what it is we're looking at. So I'd like to establish a framework. First, very briefly, a historical framework. This covenant comes at the very apex of David's kingship. Now what I mean by that is that preceding chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, what precedes the covenant is the long and agonizing ascent of David to the throne of Israel. incrementally, first over Judah, then over all of the twelve tribes. But on the leading side, the back side, is this ascent to the throne. And the agony, as it were, of David in establishing the kingdom, his own ascent to the throne, and then his consolidation of the kingdom. Extending it to the bounds, and it's not quite there yet, but establishing the secure boundaries of the nation of Israel. And David has come to the high point of his reign. He is enthroned in Jerusalem over all the house of Israel. On the other side of this, on the side that is to come, not the very first thing, but a very quickly coming thing that will happen with David and his reign is that event with Bathsheba. And that is the singular event in David's kingship in the sense that that initiates the decline of David's kingdom that leads ultimately to its demise. And so on the one side, we have ascent to the pinnacle of glory. On the other side, we have the beginning of descent and decline that will ultimately lead to the end of David's house and throne and kingdom. This comes at the very apex of David's kingship. But as well, even as it comes at that high point of David's reign, his desire also, the text associates his desire to build a sanctuary throne, a fixed sanctuary for Yahweh, with the fact that God has given him rest on every side. That's the way the author of Samuel begins. Now, it came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side. Well, as you read through even God's kind of preamble to the covenant, he says, I will give you rest from all your enemies. I have and I will. But beginning in chapter eight through 10, we see David's continued warfare with the nations around him. So how can it be said that he has peace on every side from all his enemies, and yet you'll see him continue to fight battles with surrounding nations, leading up to the Bathsheba episode? Well, some have said it's just all that the writer of Samuel is saying is that this was a relative rest, not absolute, but relatively speaking, God had given him rest on every side. In other words, the kingdom is substantially at peace, substantially established. Others see it as a kind of prolepsis, which means a reading of a future fulfillment back onto the present, as if it were presently true. And some of God's statements would tend to lend themselves to that sort of a conclusion. But I think those understandings miss the point because, again, they take simply these words and they don't put them within the bigger salvation historical context. What God has done to this point. You can't understand this context of rest on every side if you don't understand where God has brought his kingdom, where he's brought the outworking of his promise to this point in time. And what I mean by that is that the writer's concern was not so much with just a statement of the state of affairs in David's kingdom at that point in time. Oh, by the way, David was at rest. His kingdom was at rest at this time. That's not the reason that he brings it up. His concern is to establish the very crucial context for not just David's desire, but God's determination concerning David. What's going to happen? What the covenant really is about? What it represents? It provides the foundational context for the covenant. These words, now, the Lord had given David rest on every side from all his enemies, is a virtual restatement of a part of Moses' discord to the sons of Israel, if you turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 12. It's reiterated in different places, but this is a foundational place where this is stated. And the context here is that again, Israel is on the plains of Moab, they're about to go in and take the land. And God is now telling Israel what to expect when they go in and take the land. What it is that God is going to do and what it is that that will obligate them to. How it is that they're to respond to what it is that He will do. And basically what this is wrapped up in is God's intention, His promise of a central sanctuary. A fixed, localized dwelling place. in connection with Israel's conquest of the land and his own dwelling in their midst. The appointment of a future fixed dwelling place for his name. Deuteronomy 12, let's pick this up at verse 5. And again, he's telling them that they're to destroy the high places of the nations. They're to tear down their religious settings, their ritualistic high places. Tear down their icons, tear down their images. Verse five, but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes to establish his name, therefore his dwelling. And there you shall come and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your free will offerings, the first born of your herd and your flock. There you and your household shall eat before the Lord your God and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, which is every man doing what is right in his own eyes. Now, Israel will do this. This is the theme of judges, right? Every man doing what is right in his own eyes. But God says when you get in and you take the land, you're not to do that. For you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. In other words, when you come to this place of rest, you are not to do whatever is right in your own eyes. You are to serve the Lord with your whole heart in accordance with the sanctuary that he appoints in the place that he establishes it. That's where you meet him. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God has given you to inherit and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security. Then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God shall choose for his name to dwell. There you shall bring all that I command you. Your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, contribution of your hand, all of your choice vote of offerings with which you will vow to the Lord. The reason that the writer of Samuel gives you this context is he wants you to connect the Davidic covenant. First of all, David's desire to build a house for God, but ultimately what God pledges to David. He wants you to connect that with what God told Israel back when they were preparing to go into the land. He wants you, the reader, to make that connection. He wants you to see that. In other words, he wants you to understand that the Lord's word to Israel through Moses about a central sanctuary, about a place where they would go to meet with God and commune with him as covenant son with covenant father. The way in which they would structure their life with God in the land, that is to be fulfilled in the Jerusalem temple that David sought to build. That's the connection he wants you to make. That's the connection that he wants you to make. And so David's aspiration to build a temple for God drew upon God's promise of a central sanctuary. But again, David's desire saying, now is the time. This is the city. God has given us rest. He's done what he said he was going to do as the context for the building of a central sanctuary. And I want to do that now. But God uses it as the springboard to tell David what he's going to do for him. that David will not build this house. And at the heart of God's disclosure to David is the understanding, and we'll see this, but at the heart of what God is telling David is that the central sanctuary, which lies at the center of all this, a place where God meets with his people and they commune with him. That the central sanctuary, which is really a core feature of the kingdom itself, the promise of the kingdom, The kingdom, again, is about sacred space. It's about where God dwells in relation to his creation, exercising his lordship in the context of his communion with his image Son. Man, the image Son. And the central sanctuary, the place where men meet with God, is the heart of that. And what is going to be revealed to David by God is that the fulfillment of that promise of a central sanctuary is not going to be realized in a physical temple in Jerusalem. That's where this is ultimately going. The Lord is about to reveal to David that the true fulfillment of a permanent dwelling place for him in the midst of his people, a place where they meet him, a place where they encounter him, a place where they worship him in truth, in righteousness. It would not be in connection with a physical building. It would come in connection with a house that he would build for David. It's not going to come through a house that David will build for God. It's going to be realized through a house that God will build for David. Not a dwelling, but a royal dynasty. A royal dynasty that's associated with a chosen descendant of David. So Moses' words to Israel that we just read were to find their true fulfillment beyond ultimately the Israelite theocracy, beyond the Israelite kingdom, in an everlasting kingdom ruled by one of David's sons. That's where this is going. So the writer has now bound together in just these few verses three crucial considerations that respect Yahweh's kingdom, the kingdom that he's promised and its implication for this idea of the recovery of sacred space that was lost in the fall. The principle of estrangement that has come, distance, alienation. The first thing that he revealed, the first consideration is again this idea of the centrality within the kingdom of a fixed and permanent sanctuary where the sons of the kingdom will encounter and worship and be with their God. The idea of the central sanctuary as fundamental to the kingdom of God. That's the first thing that he brings out or that is a part of his consideration. The second is that that central sanctuary will find a near-term fulfillment in the Jerusalem temple. But beyond that, the third thing is that the ultimate fulfillment in relation to David's house and the royal seed, that the ultimate fulfillment is in relation to David's house and the royal seed that he's promising. In other words, the fulfillment of the sanctuary, the fulfillment of that promise will come in connection with a seed of David. He will build the house. He will establish that central sanctuary. So just in kind of a summary in establishing this framework, the Davidic covenant historically joins both halves of David's reign. It comes at the pinnacle of His reign. So it conjoins what's on the front side and what's on the back side. But in the same way, it also conjoins the previous salvation history leading up to this point and what comes after it. That's why I say this is the focal context in many ways in the Old Testament's revelation of God's salvation in Christ. It looks backward. That's what the author is doing even when he takes us back to Deuteronomy 12. He's saying that the Davidic covenant implicates that promise or draws upon and will act to fulfill that promise way back in Deuteronomy. The Davidic covenant is set within the Mosaic theocracy. In other words, God made a promise to Abraham, a promise that would be fulfilled in Abraham's seed, that finds its focal point in the fact that in Abraham and his descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed. He promised Abraham a kingdom. a royal line of descent and a domain over which they would preside. And God now has begun to implement and even administer that promise to Abraham at the level of the nation of Israel through the Mosaic Covenant. And we've seen all that. I don't want to belabor that today. The Abrahamic Covenant is realized and administered at the first level in the Mosaic Covenant. And the Davidic covenant is set in that framework. David is a man under the law of Moses. He's a part of the Israelite theocracy. We haven't set the covenant with Moses aside. This is set within the covenant with Moses. And so it presupposes and it builds upon and it draws from all of the covenants, all of the revelations that have come to this point. It's pulling all of that in as a point of convergence. But it's also preeminently forward-looking, as we will see. The terms of the covenant show that it's forward-looking. God is taking the promise of his kingdom and the way it's been realized in relation to David, and he's projecting it out into the future. He's projecting it out into the future. So, as all of the prior salvation history has converged in David, so everything beyond David will refer back to him. It will have reference to him. It will presuppose him and the covenant that God has made with him. And you'll see this in the text, that from this point in the scripture, All of the rest of Old Testament salvation history focuses preeminently on David and the covenant with him. It's not forgetting Abraham. It's not forgetting what God taught through Moses. It's just all of that has been taken up in David and his covenant. So now the text focuses on that. The fact that another David is coming. As the kingdom begins to go away and be dissolved and will eventually be destroyed, the promise is always, I will remember my mercies to David. I will remember my covenant with David. I will keep my word to David. We read Psalm 89. We didn't read the whole Psalm, but it's said again in the context of God's chastening, God's wrath, God's displeasure with Israel. And yet the hope is always God will remember. He won't forsake his faithfulness to David. And throughout the prophets you see this promise of David will come, David will come. The issue with David becomes central. So that the hope of the kingdom from this point forward is bound up in God's enduring faithfulness to David. The hope of the kingdom as the text deals with it from this point forward is bound up in God's enduring faithfulness to David. David understands that so that if you look even at verses 18 and 19, David's commentary on what God has promised him shows how he understands what God has told him. And I just want to read a couple of verses of that. Then David the king went in and sat before Yahweh and he said, Who am I, O Lord? And what is my house that you have brought me this far? And yet even that was insignificant in your eyes. It's not enough that you brought me here. You have a future plan. You have spoken also of the house of your servant concerning what? The distant future. The distant future. My version says, and this is the custom of man, O Lord God. But it really better reads, and this is Torah for man. One man put it this way, Torah, again not meaning law in terms of a collection of rules, but instruction. The mind of God revealed, Torah. This is, I think the best idea is this, David recognizes that what God is promising him really is his instruction concerning the destiny for man. That's how big this is. He says, you've brought me this far, but that was insufficient. That wasn't even fully adequate in your sight. You have promised me things concerning the distant future. This is the manner in which human destiny will be fulfilled, is what he's saying. That is huge. And so the Davidic covenant looks backward by taking everything into itself to that point, but it also projects everything forward in such a way that it becomes the point of reference from this point forward. This instruction, David is saying, defines the manner in which human destiny will unfold. This is the all-important framework for the Davidic covenant. If we don't understand this framework, we won't understand the gravity, the depth of what it is that God is revealing here, and why I can say this is the focal point of Old Testament salvation history. Well, let's look briefly at the components of the covenant, and I'm going to move quickly for the sake of time today. This is one of those times when I can entrust you all to the notes. and let you do some of your own study. But again, in context, fundamentally, the Davidic covenant reflects back on David's desire to build a house for God. That's the contextual basis for what God reveals to David. David wants to build God a house. And in the same way, the central feature of the covenant is God's declaration that he's going to build a house for David. And as you go through this covenant, and I'll read that section to you in a second, what you'll see is that God is using this term house in relation to David with a double meaning. David wants to build a physical sanctuary for God, a house. And God says, I'm going to build a house for you. But David dwells in a cedar palace. God doesn't have to get out his hammer and nails and build David a place to lay his head at night. God is going to build David a house in the sense that he's going to build for David a dynasty and a dominion, a royal kingly line, a dynasty, an enduring dynasty, and a dominion, a kingdom, a house for David. House as dominion and dynasty. And in doing this, God first promises in connection with this house, he promises David first a son, a son in whom his own reign will be continued after his death. Verse 12, when your days are complete, David, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you. I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him. He will be a son to me. And when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But my loving kindness, my has said my faithfulness, my relational faithfulness and integrity. I will not take from him. Just as I had taken it from Saul before him. Another true David. Remember David's permanent anointing. Another son of David who will be a son of God, who God will never disrupt or sever that relationship. His faithfulness to that one will endure. The son that is to come. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. The parallel passages in 1 Chronicles 17. You can look at that on your own. Very, very similar. There's one point in particular of distinction that I want to bring out as we go along. But there's the essence of the covenant. And the first thing in building David a house that God promises is a son, a descendant of David, in whom his own reign would be continued after his death. David's going to lie down with his fathers at the appointed time. But like David, this seed will also be Yahweh's beloved son. A son in whom God has said will remain forever. His covenant faithfulness, his relational integrity, his relational faithfulness to this son will never be taken away. A son by divine determination. If he commits iniquity, I will do this. I will chasten him, but I will never remove my loving kindness from him. A son by divine determination. dynasty. But also, the building of the house involves God establishing this son's throne and kingdom forever. He says forever. And it's in that way that God would grant to David an everlasting dominion. By establishing the perpetuity of his royal dynastic house, he would perpetuate into eternity, forever, David's kingship, David's kingdom. And yet God says that he will not allow David's desire to go unrealized. David wants to build God a house and God says, you won't build me a house, David, but this seed will. He will build a house for me. So God does say that this son will build a house for him. And again, this idea of house is layered with multiple meanings. The obvious first reference is what? Solomon. Solomon will build a house for God in Jerusalem. And if you read the references, you see that David told Solomon, God, before he died, he said, Solomon, God picked you. He wouldn't let me build the house. I've done the preparation. I've gathered the materials. I've done the preparatory work, but God said you will build his house in Jerusalem. So there is a first reference in Solomon in the building of the actual temple. But as with David's house, so God's house also involves these ideas of dynasty and dominion. A kingly line and a kingdom, a kingship. And the covenant is not specific in this regard, but David understood, again, that God's promise pertained to the distant future. It did pertain to Solomon, but he also understood it looked to something beyond Solomon. That's why he can say, this is Torah for man. This is the instruction for man. It looked beyond merely Solomon. although it included him. And by implication, it also looks beyond the Jerusalem temple. It looks beyond the Jerusalem temple. Now, the sons of Israel didn't fully understand that. And that's why we'll see later on that when God is about to make Jerusalem desolate, when the Babylonians are finally laying siege to the city, they are sitting there, the exiles with Ezekiel and Babylon, saying, the city will never fall. God will not permit the city to fall. It's the place He's put His name. His house is there. And the irony of it is that all the way back in chapter 11, the spirit, the Shekinah of God has left the Holy of Holies and left and flown out of the city. It's Ichabod. The glory has departed. It's a structure. It's a sacramental symbol. But they think the house will never fall. God has established his house forever. He has built this house through Solomon. The city cannot fall and the city sacked and the temples torn to the ground. And in a sense, the same thing is repeated with the second temple in the time of Christ, where the apostles say to Jesus, oh, look at the marvelous buildings. Look at these stones. Look at the glory of this temple. And Jesus said, I tell you, there's not to be one stone left upon another. It will all be torn down. The fulfillment of the promise of a house for God extends beyond a physical building in a physical city. God, I want you to at least catch this much of this, that as it pertains to all of these things so far, the promise of a house for David, the promise of a house for Yahweh, it's bound up in this seed. It's in connection with this promised seed that all the other promises stand and are to be realized. He's the center point of it all, this promised seed. Well again, continuing the overall emphasis on perpetuity in the covenant, foreverness, eternality, forever, forever, forever, God also promises to establish David's seed in his house, in God's house and kingdom forever. Compare the passage in 1st Chronicles 17. First look at verse 16 again of 2nd Samuel 7. God says, and your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. David, David, your house, David, your kingdom shall endure before me forever. David, your throne shall be established forever. That's the way the covenant words end in 2nd Samuel. Look at the parallel in 1st Chronicles 17. Verse 14. But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. The most notable thing about the Davidic covenant is the way it commingles David's kingdom, David's house, David's throne with Yahweh's house, Yahweh's kingdom, Yahweh's throne. They're woven together. And here the point of commingling is in this idea of perpetuity. I will establish, David, your house, your throne, your kingdom forever. But then he says, the way that the Chronicle records it, is God says, I will establish this seed in my house and my kingdom forever. They become not entirely synonymous, but inseparable. And again, recognize the point of connection between these two kingdoms. David's kingdom and God's kingdom, the point of connection is the seed, the promised seed. That's what binds these ideas together. So the promise of a Davidic seed embraced both sides of the covenant. It's the bridge to both sides of the covenant. God promised that I will raise up a seed, David, in whom I will build a house for you. But in turn, this seed will build a house for me. And just as it was with David's house, the ideas of dynasty and dominion are woven into the idea of Yahweh's house. It's not just a physical place. Not just a physical place. Dynasty and dominion for Yahweh's house as well. Again, Solomon comes along, he builds a physical structure in Jerusalem. A kind of partial fulfillment, or a kind of portrait of what fulfillment will be. But the true referent of the promise, which David says this pertains to the distant future. And Peter, on Pentecost, as he looks at David's statement about God not allowing His Holy One to undergo decay, or being abandoned to the grave, Peter interprets David's words in the Psalms in this way. He says, David, being a prophet, and knowing that God had promised to sit one of His descendants on His throne, the Davidic covenant, looked into the future and spoke of the resurrection, and really, by implication, the ascension of the Christ. God has made Him to be both Lord and Christ. Raised up. Seated so the idea of God not allowing his holy one to undergo decay Peter says isn't about David He's in the ground his grave is with us to this day He's understanding that he's speaking in a sense Externalizing himself to the great David to come the great seed to come he will not be abandoned to the grave He will not go undergo decay Because God's promised that his descendant will sit on his throne and so God has raised him up and seated him at his right hand above all power and authority rule and dominion and and made him Lord and Christ. So Solomon will build a house, but the true referent of the promise will come and he will first build a sanctuary, a house for God in himself. A dwelling place for God among men in himself. The true sanctuary of God. But then through him, he will build a house for God. Through him. And this becomes more evident as we move through the prophets. The branch of David who will build the house of the Lord, but in building the house of the Lord, he will draw men from all the tribes and tongues and nations and people, and they will be a part of this building project. As Peter speaks of in first Peter to being built upon him, the chief cornerstone, we are being built up as living stones in him to be a spiritual house, a dwelling of God in the spirit. So Christ fulfilled this promise of a house for Yahweh, first in relation to Himself, and then through Him, by building a house for God that consists of all the people of every tribe and tongue and nation. The dwelling of God becomes the city that is, in many ways, treated in the text of Revelation 21 as synonymous with the bride. The city is the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. So the promise on both sides regarding David's house and regarding God's house are bound up in this one singular seed. The one singular seed. The last thing that I want to talk about very briefly is, again, just this context of peace and rest. The covenant or the fulfillment of this covenant with David is to come in the context of peace and rest. Well, first, the text gives us the historical context for the giving of the covenant as being peace and rest. When God had given David rest on all sides, he makes this covenant. So the historical setting for the covenant is the state of peace and rest. But the covenant also shows that it's a key feature of the fulfillment of the covenant. God says, I will set my people in their place. I will make them secure. They will no longer be threatened. They will no longer be disturbed. They will no longer be afflicted. I will set them and they will be secure. And this promise becomes huge in the developing revelation of redemption in the Old Testament of this idea that when God brings his kingdom, it will be a time of peace. Every man under his vine, under his fig tree, with no one to disturb him. No more fear. No more conflict. Peace. And so the implication of that is that when God fulfills his promise to David to build an enduring house for him, He will do that by establishing David's throne and David's kingdom in a son to come from him. And when God does that, it will be in connection with the everlasting peace and rest of his covenant people. When God builds the house for David, it will be in connection with the peace and security and rest of his covenant people. So God's securing of David's throne and David's kingdom would affect the securing of the peace and the well-being of the sons of the kingdom. Let me say that again. God's securing of David's throne and kingdom, building a house for David, will secure the peace and the well-being of the sons of the kingdom. It will be said in the same context, at least. And that whole program in turn would be the ultimate realization of God's own kingdom and reign. It's that association of the Davidic promise, the fulfillment of the promise, the house being built in the context of peace and rest. It's that idea, it's that relationship that is the reason God would not allow David to build the temple. If you read in 1 Chronicles 28, David tells his son, I wanted to build a house for God, but he wouldn't let me. Because he says, you're a man of war and you shed blood. And often people think, well, God wasn't pleased with David. He had blood on his hands. He had guilty hands. So God said, no, you can't do this because you're a man of guilt. You're a man of bloodshed. But all of David's bloodshed was in God's name on his behalf. David was establishing the kingdom by destroying the enemies of God. God wasn't displeased with David, but the reason why the bloodshed issue becomes important is because, again, of the typological connection between this house that Solomon would build and the context for it, as those things spoke to, ultimately, the way the son of David would build the house of God. In other words, David established the kingdom and brought in the peace of the kingdom. He secured the peace of the kingdom through conflict, through warfare. But God says, my house is to be built in the context of peace. What David did was usher that in. But now his son, whose own name, Solomon, is related to the Hebrew noun for peace, Shalom. Now peace will mark the kingdom, and that's the suitable context for the building of my house. Because that's how it would be with David's greater son. The house of God, a la 1 Peter 2, is being built in the context of peace. In other words, what you end up having is that this seed of David is here portrayed more in connection with Solomon, who's the immediate referent, but ultimately this seed is even the true David himself. The text refers to him that way. I'll send David, I'll send David, I'll send David. Well, David's been dead hundreds of years by the time Jeremiah's saying that, and Ezekiel's saying that, and Isaiah's saying that. God says, I will send David. The true seed that is promised in the covenant, in a sense, is the fulfillment of David on this side, in that this seed will come and he will secure the kingdom. He will bring the kingdom. He will bring the peace of the kingdom by destroying the enemies of God. And he will do it in the context of his own unjust suffering. We saw before, this is the reason that it was necessary that David take the throne the way he did. Through a decade and a half of suffering, patient suffering, unjust suffering. because he would be brought into the kingship and his kingdom would be established through that sort of conflict, unjust suffering. And in that way, the enemies of God would ultimately be destroyed. But now, having destroyed the enemies of God, his son, the man of peace, ascends the throne of Yahweh and begins to build God's house in the context of the peace secured by his father. So as Christ is the true David who has secured the peace by the blood of his cross, he now builds his house in the context of that peace. Doesn't he? Isn't Christ building his house in the context of peace? He does. There is no more conflict. There is no more enmity. And so I just want to close very quickly by stressing a couple features of this covenant. The most important is the unilateral nature of this covenant. As always, we see this over and over again, one directional, from God to us, from God to men, from God to men. Highlighted again in David's response, which I don't have time to read all of it, but again, verse 18 and following of 2 Samuel 7. David's response to God's oath says, this is the sovereign work of our God. And I can call upon you, God, to fulfill it because you've vouched it safe to me. You've pledged it to me. And I can cry out to you to fulfill what you have promised. David wanted to build a house for God. God told David what he was going to do. Not what David was going to do, what God was going to do. He reminded him of what he had done in Israel's history up to this point. And he reminded him that he didn't need a facility to live in. Have I ever asked you to build me a house? Have I ever wanted a house? It's reminiscent of what will be the closing statement in the book of Isaiah. After this glorious presentation of the servant who accomplishes this work on God's behalf. God says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you're going to build for me? What kind of house can you build for me? What can you do for me? Where's my dwelling place to be that you can secure for me? Hasn't my hand made all these things? And that's how they came into being. The one to whom I'll look, the one for whom I'll have regard. If you want to please me, if you want to do something for me, he says, this is the one with whom I'm pleased. The one who is humble and contrite in heart and trembles at my word. What word? The word of my salvation and my servant. God doesn't need men to build Him a house. He's building a house for David. Over and over again in the Davidic covenant, it's, I will, I will, I will, I will. And then this shall happen, and this shall happen, and that shall happen. What it is that God is going to do. And even though he says David's seed will build a house for me, God says David's son will build a house for me. We know that in the way this is really fulfilled, it's not Solomon doing something for God. The son who builds the house for God is himself Yahweh. God builds his house through the seed of David. It's all God's work. It's all unilateral. It's all unilateral. And again, I think this is the high point of Old Testament revelation in the sense of taking up all of what we've seen, and this now becomes the focal point of what is carried forward leading to the coming of Christ. It's God's faithfulness to David. It's the core presupposition and point of reference in the Old Testament beyond this point. And finally then, what is the implication? The Davidic covenant which ought to be obvious to you by now, becomes the focal point of Israel's faith in the centuries leading up to Christ's coming after this point. It becomes the focal point of Israel's faith. And it's eminently suited to that task because of what's going to come after this. In other words, very quickly after this, David's kingdom is going to start to come unglued. God has promised him a house. But his house will be fractured. The sword will never depart from his house. His kingdom will begin to decline. It will be fractured after the reign of his son Solomon. In Rehoboam, it will split into two sub kingdoms who will war against each other and form alliances with Gentile nations against one another. It's going to all start unraveling and it's going to keep unraveling and keep unraveling. It's going to unravel to the point where what's finally going to happen is God is going to sever David's kingly line in Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 22. David's house, David's throne, David's kingdom, and even the royal line of descent is to be cut off. The Davidic kingdom is going away. And yet God through his prophets, you see this in the exile prophets and really particularly in the post exile prophets, the call to Israel to believe God in the context of impossibility. How can God keep his covenant with David when David's line is severed? There can't be a son of David sitting on the throne through that line of Solomon. There can no longer be one of that line sitting on the throne. And the kingdom is gone. And Israel is in subjugation to the world power. It's all gone. And yet the prophets keep saying, believe God, believe God, believe God. Know that He will keep His word. He will remember His mercies to David. Over and over and over again. They're obligated to believe God in the context of impossibility. Isn't that the essence of faith? Isn't that true of us as well? Oh God, how can I be saved? I did X, Y, and Z. God, how can I know that your consummation is coming when I see X, Y, Z? God, how can I trust you when X, Y, Z? How can I know that you'll keep your word? It seems impossible, God. But that's always been the case. That's why Abraham is the exemplar of faith. He had to believe God when it didn't make sense. Everything to you, Abraham, is bound up in the sun, but now kill him. And Israel will be obligated to believe God for this. Summarizing content, everything is bound up in David, and now it's all going to go away, but God never says it's all lost, he says, trust me, believe me. And who would have known that a son of David would take the throne in the way that he did and will get there eventually? But this is the essence of faith. Faith is the substantiation of things not seen. The Davidic Covenant. It's the heart of God's kingdom promise and it becomes the focal point of everything beyond it. The recovery of sacred space, a dwelling place where God will dwell with his people forever in security, peace, blessedness. Father, I know it's a lot to chew on and a lot in a short period of time, but I pray that You would not let us escape from these things. Not because we have an obligation to have tighter doctrine. Not because we have an obligation to even be better Bible students as such. But because of the glories of Your Gospel, Because it is your gospel that will make us holy. Because it is your gospel that will keep us strong. Because it is your gospel that encourages us. Because as Paul said, it is your power for salvation. Not just conversion, but sanctification, perfection, the ultimate consummation of all things. It is the gospel by which we will be saved if we continue in it. And Father, this is as marrow gospel as it gets. And yet, a generation will come in about a thousand years from this time that we've been considering. And the Son of David will come and they will reject Him. They won't know Him because they didn't know their Scriptures, because they didn't understand the covenant, because just As was the case with their forefathers, they thought that the kingdom promised to David was to be realized in connection with a place and a temple. They couldn't see the kingdom that had come. But Father, I pray that it is not so with us. And I pray that the glories of these things would be forever in our hearts and on our minds, in our lips. That we too might live by faith, believing You, for the consummation that is yet to come. We have the privilege of dwelling in the fullness of the times when the promise has become realized. When the son of David is sitting on the throne with everything in subjection under his feet and yet we must still live by faith. Because we don't yet see in practicalities everything in subjection to him. We have to wait with confidence in the first fruit. that we too will be raised up in that day. Give us that faith. Help us to live by faith. We ask in Jesus' name.