Promises, Promises (2 Samuel 7)

When I was a crumb-cruncher about 5 years old my family went to Disneyland. At the end of a very long day at the happiest (?) place on earth, us kids asked when we could come back. Off handedly, my dad said we might come back when we are teenagers. What was probably intended by my Dad as a vague possibility along the lines of "maybe someday", we took it as a guarantee, a locked tight contract, signed with blood. Dad promised!!! And we remembered that promise, counting off the years until we could go again to Disneyland. Every few years, the kids would remind mom and dad, check in because maybe they had bought tickets, or made airplane reservations. And when our teen years came and went with no ride on the Matterhorn or Space Mountain there was, shall we say, a bit of a let down.

In 2 Samuel 7, God the Father makes a promise to his child David that his throne and kingdom would be established forever. Vs 11b-16 captures the promise:

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

The Least to the Greatest
I love that God chose David to establish an eternal throne. David was the youngest brother in the puny tribe of Judah. He was a scrawny shepherd, picked on and mocked by his family, not the typical training ground for a dynastic ruler. But God anointed the least to be the greatest among men. In vs 8 God makes this point clear:

Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.

Sheep are numbered among the weakest and dumbest animals on the planet (in fact Team Sheep recently got edged out by both Team Mollusks and Team Slugs in a chess tournament). So having "shepherd for 15 years" on David's resume is not a bonus for his royal career track. But the power of God, exercised by countless miracles and acts of divine sovereignty, elevated this flea-bitten sheep boy to head of an eternal royal dynasty.


A Broken Promise?
Except one thing, doesn't it seem like the whole "kingdom enduring forever" part got dropped? I mean, I don't want to get all technical but I don't see a King ruling in Jerusalem today. And with the destruction of the the Hebrew tribal lineage records in 70 AD along with the temple, even if there were a king on a throne today, we could not be assured that he was the offspring of David. Again, at the risk of being nit-picky, God did promise a throne "forever". Which, I know, is a pretty long time but....ummm.... (cough cough isn't cough happening cough cough)

I imagine David looking down from heaven throughout the course of history and trying to remind God about his promise, like I prodded my parents about Disneyland. David strolls into throne room of heaven, fist bumps the seraphim, sings some choruses of "Holy, Holy, Holy" then takes Jehovah aside and points down to Jerusalem, the City of David. "So, umm, Almighty Lord... I don't want to be a pest, and I know you're fairly busy with a few things on your plate, as you sovereignly guiding the destiny of every atom in the universe. But, well, how about, you know, that "throne forever" thing?"

And a few hundred years later when the Babylonians over ran the Holy Land, David might have slipped a note on God's dinner plate:





Then when the Romans reigned in terror in the City of David, crucified Jesus the Messiah who David thought was to fulfill the promise, and destroyed the temple, David might have glanced across to God and tapped his rolex watch.

As millions of Jews were being fed into gas chambers in WWII did David look to the Heavenly Father with tears streaming down his face?

A Promise Fulfilled (Already, Not Yet)
Yet God is faithful, His word is sure, His promises are not void. The promise to David is one that is fulfilled already and not yet.

Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one who was born in the Tribe of Judah, in the line of David (Matthew 1:2-16). When he walked on earth, he said "The Kingdom of God is near" because he is the King of Kings.

The Old Testament records that the Messiah would sit on David's throne and establish an eternal kingdom. Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum wrote an amazing book called "The Footsteps of the Messiah" that carefully establishes throughout all of scripture the reign of the Messiah past, present and future. Dr. Fruchtenbaum notes two keys passages that help us understand the fulfillment of the promises of God to David. The first is Isaiah 9:6-7:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

The second passage is from Jeremiah 23:5-6:

The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness."

When God promised David an eternal throne, David did not realize that the occupant of that throne would be Mighty God himself! The throne is eternal because the occupant is eternal.

Yet, if we are honest, there is still something of a disappointment that it doesn't seem like Jesus is reigning on earth. The Prince of this World, the devil, often seems to have more rule than Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

In the study of Eschatology, things of the end times, Dr. Gordon Fee of Regents College talks about the "already and not yet" of the kingdom of God. Jesus, the King of Kings, has already been born to this world and came to Jerusalem. But his throne is not yet completely established. He still allows nations and peoples to bring wreckage and ruin. The Messiah has already come in partial fulfillment to the Davidic promises, but has not yet returned a second time for the completion of that fulfillment.

The "already and not yet" of the reign of Jesus is also a reality in the lives of individual Christians. Jesus already has saved me and declared me righteous (justification) but I'm not yet completely made righteous, I still sin. So the Holy Spirit is working in me and is in the process of finishing the salvation (sanctification).

For every frustration and disappointment of sin and rebellion both in this world and in our own lives, we can rest on a great hope that God's promise to David will ultimately be fulfilled, and that is sure.

Luke 1:30-33 is an excellent reminder of the promises that are already and not yet:

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

So get your bags packed people, we're going to Disneyland!!!!!!!!!