The Promise-Keeping God | 2 Samuel 7

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Chris Ochoa, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. As I begin, I have a question

for you guys. Do you guys have a favorite

Bible verse? Maybe you have it tattooed on

your body in Hebrew or Greek? Maybe you have a favorite Bible

story, a narrative that you go back to over and over and over

again during rough seasons of your life for encouragement.

Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

We do, some of us. Maybe it's the classic John 316

For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son.

Maybe for some of us it's Philippians 413.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

That tends to be the athlete's favorite scripture, right?

Maybe it's Jeremiah 2911. I know the plans I have for you,

says the Lord. The plans for good of you, to

give you a future and a hope. Not for evil.

Something memorable, a Bible story that you cling to,

something that anchors your soul through pivotal seasons in your

life. We all have these scriptures in

our minds. It's interesting that none of us

have Second Samuel Chapter 7 on our list.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

You're probably not even thinking about it, and that's

OK, because honestly, at first glance, it's not on my list

either. It's not high on my list, but it

should be. And my hope after today is to

persuade you to put this passage on your list.

This passage is a crucial, crucial passage to the whole of

Scripture. Today is a turning point in the

Old Testament narrative and in the Scripture as a whole.

This is foundational. I will even go so far as to say

that you cannot understand the rest of the storyline of the

Bible without understanding Second Samuel Chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Lest you think I'm overselling this, listen to this Bible

scholar talk about Second Samuel 7.

When talking about Second Samuel Chapter 7, he says the dramatic

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

and theological center of the entire Samuel corpus is Chapter

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

7, and in fact the most crucial theological statement in all of

the Old Testament. It's today.

What we have here is a around 200 word monologue.

God is monologuing to David just a series of promises, promises,

promises, over and over and over again.

The only other monologue that's this long is when God is talking

to Moses on Mount Sinai, giving him the law in the book of

Exodus. That's the level of Second

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Samuel Chapter 7. Today we're going to study the

Davidic covenant, God's promise to David.

What this is, it's a series of promises that God gives to King

David concerning his future family, a future dynasty.

These promises are going to set the tone, set the expectation

throughout the rest of Scripture for a coming future king that

would descend from David's family.

This king would establish a Kingdom of all nations, and it

would never, ever end. This chapter is going to provide

the outline or the profile of evil of who the eventual Messiah

is supposed to be. It stems from this chapter here.

This is huge. So with that being said, we're

actually going to study this chapter in two parts.

We're going to take our time with this.

We're going to do 2 weeks in Second Samuel, Chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Today's Part 1. We're going to study God's

relation to this covenant, God's relation to this promise.

Next week we're going to discuss, we're going to study

David's response to all these promises.

How does David feel about what's being told to him in here in

this chapter, Chapter 7? So a quick recap.

Where are we? Israel is experiencing a time of

peace and joy like they've never had before.

All of their enemies have been subdued and cut off.

David has been installed as king.

All 12 tribes are united. Remember last week, the Ark of

the Covenant, the Ark of God has moved into its center, the

center of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

Now the presence of God resides in the heart of the Holy Land,

in the heart of Israel, in Jerusalem.

Yet that Ark of God is residing in a tent, in a tent that sets

up our story today. So let's get to it, verse one.

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him

rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan

the prophet, see, now I dwell in the House of cedar, but the ark

of God dwells in a tent. Verse 3.

And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart,

for the Lord is with you. So in a time of peace and with

his enemies subdued, David turns his focus to the internal

affairs of the Kingdom, the eternal affairs of Jerusalem.

The first thing pressing on his heart, it's weighing heavy on

his heart, is to build a permanent dwelling for the ark

of God. He consults the prophet Nathan

and asks how can IA human live in a palace but God the Holy 1

is out there living in a tent. It just doesn't make any sense

to me, Nathan. Nathan responds, and he readily

endorses David's desire. He says, Yep, awesome, I'm with

you on that 100%. Let's build God a dwelling.

So who in the world is Nathan the prophet?

He kind of shows up randomly here in Chapter 7.

Who is Nathan? Well, he serves in David's

cabinet as an administrator. He's a counselor and advisor to

King David. So in First and Second

Chronicles, we actually have hints.

You can go read this, study this on your own time.

In First and Second Chronicles, we have hints that Nathan, he's

actually the chronicler. He's the one authoring First and

second Samuel. It wasn't Samuel because you

think about it, Samuel's dead. Somebody has to write this

stuff. Who's writing it?

It's most likely Nathan. Nathan is the time keeper,

keeping the the meeting notes, if you will, in David's court.

First and Second Chronicles hints that Nathan is possibly

the author of First and Second Samuel.

He's actually a prophet as well, commissioned by God.

Now, what the role of a prophet is, is they are the mouthpiece

of God, the mouthpiece of Yahweh to the king.

Whatever God wants the king to hear.

God would raise up prophets to speak on his behalf.

So as he speaks and advises David, he's actually carrying

the very words of God. And that's a weighty, weighty

thing. That's a scary thing.

Remember last week in Second Samuel chapter 6, we talked

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

about God's nature being holy and about it being glorious.

That term in Hebrew, glory means wait, something weighty.

When you're in the presence of God, it's just like a burden.

It's like a weight on you. This is why all the prophets

that are commissioned by Yahweh to go carry his message, when

they are in his presence, they lie prostate face down because

it's weighty to be in His presence.

Nathan is a prophet commissioned by God.

It's interesting. Verse 4 there picks up a it

picks up an ironic and funny little line here.

Verse 4 says that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan.

That same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan.

What had happened here was Nathan had spoken in haste and

give it David given David counsel.

That was not what God had intended.

So David says, Nathan, look, look at this situation.

I'm here living in this beautiful palace made of cedar.

God's presence, the holy presence of God is living in a

town. We got to do something about

this. Nathan says, yeah, yeah, dude,

awesome stamp of approval. God loves that God, says Nathan.

Not so fast, man, Not so fast. Did you even consult me giving

that word to David? So later on that same night, God

needs to correct the counsel of Nathan.

He says not so fast, Nathan. You see, what happened was

Nathan the prophet was hasty to agree with King David without

consulting God first. Though his intentions were in

the right place. Nathan had presumptuously spoken

on behalf of God. God has a different plan in

mind. Now, have you ever said the

right thing at the wrong time? Join the club.

Or worse, maybe you've said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

You've all been there. Maybe you've brashly given out

seemingly good advice, but in a haste, somebody puts you on the

spot. Hey, what do you think about

doing this? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go, go. Do.

That's kind of what happened with Nathan King.

David the King. Hey, I need your counsel real

quick. Do you think I should do this?

Nathan thinks to himself. Seems right.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Go ahead, do it. We have those moments in our

lives where we give counsel to somebody else that probably,

that was probably not the wisest thing we should have said to

them. And so later on that night, your

head hits the pillow as you're going to sleep, and the

inevitable thought crosses your mind.

Gosh, why did I say that? I should have said something

else that probably wasn't wise. This happens in our lives so

often, and it's OK. As Christians, we are called to

exhort and counsel one another. As a body of believers, this is

what God has called us to do, to exhort and counsel one another.

Inevitably though, we will get it wrong.

Sometimes you and I will give out advice, counsel that maybe

isn't in the right place. Maybe it's more of us speaking,

not necessarily the Lord. Maybe it's more of our thoughts

and not necessarily the Word. We are fallible and perfect

people after all. But that doesn't mean we stop

giving counsel. We will be we will fail you,

especially your leadership here at Bridgetown.

I am but a man and it's been quoted that the even the best of

men are men at best. All of us from time to time get

it wrong with our counsel and advice.

James chapter 3 verse 2 the book of James.

James 3:2

James writes this for we all stumble in many ways and if

anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able

to also rattle his whole body. James is making an ironic

statement saying if you don't say the wrong things sometimes

you're perfect. You're the one exception because

the rest of us say the wrong thing all the time.

James leaves room for humility. Now the difference between a

Christian and a non Christian should be humility.

Humility, admitting we were wrong, confessing and repenting,

admitting we got it wrong. Hey, hey, my friend, let let me

correct what I said earlier. I'm sorry I gave you I gave you

a bad counsel. You know, I thought about it.

I searched the word and and I probably should have told you

something else. Would you forgive me for that?

That's the posture of of the Christian and humility,

proclaiming the word of God. Get this straight, proclaiming

the word of God, what I'm doing up here, what you guys do to

each other in each other's lives.

Proclaiming and speaking the word of God into each other's

lives is a heavy task because the word is holy.

And when we say be careful, when we say, I feel like the Lord is

telling me to do this right now. Just be careful.

You need to make sure it's him because you're speaking on His

behalf and you can really speak into somebody's life and either

build them up or tear them down. Our words should be His words.

It's a scary task, my friends, but it must be done.

This is what the church does. We encourage, we exhort, we

rebuke, we build up for the sake of the body, for the sake of our

faith in Jesus Christ. It must be done.

Don't shy away from encouraging one another with the Word of

God. So Nathan gives Davidson vowed

counsel. Later on that night God speaks

to him and says, hey, not not so fascinating.

I have a different message for Nathan.

Thank you. Your heart was in the right

place, but here's the message I really need you to give to him.

So verse 5 picks up. God says to Nathan, go and tell

my servant David. Thus says the Lord would you

build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house

since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to

this day. But I have been moving about in

a tent for my dwelling and all the places where I have moved

with all the people of Israel. Did I speak a word with any of

the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people

Israel saying, why have you not built me a House of cedar?

Here God redirects the desire of his servant David.

He asked a rhetorical question. God asks David, you're trying to

build me a house out of out of wood.

Really, David, have I come ever complained to you about my lack

of accommodations? David, don't you remember who I

am? You see, God reorients David's

vision and he invites David to have a grander vision of who he

is and the role that God, God has called David to play in his

plan. The first thing I want you to

notice, in God's response to David, he calls David my

servant, my servant. David, I want you to note the

tenderness of God, the relationality between God and

David. He loves David, he loves David.

This is a term of endearment and loyalty, relationality.

He calls David my servant. He does my will, He does what I

ask. Unlike Saul before him, he

follows my words. The only other time before this

where God calls somebody his servant, it's used of Moses, my

servant Moses. David is now getting called by

the same term, my servant David. This will then this phrase, my

servant David will become the standard for Israel and judges

future kings down the line. You'll see this repeated in the

prophets, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah.

You'll see these lists of kings who either do something good or

do something bad. And there's this repeated

refrain that king so and so did not walk in the way of my

servant David, or that king did walk in the way of my servant

David. He becomes the standard by which

all of Israel's kings are then judged.

My servant David, I want you to note the tenderness of God to

him. He's not rebuking David.

He goes, oh, David, David, I know your heart.

I know you want to build me a house, but let me show you who I

am. Let let me redirect the plans I

have for you. So God in a house, just think

about that. God calls David to your grander

vision of who he is. Do you remember last week,

Chapter 6, the the saga with Uzza in the ark?

As the ark was moving, they moved on the cart when they

weren't supposed to. The ark is about to tip over and

fall because the oxen that are pulling the cart stumbled.

Uzza, one of the priests, in a haste, goes to touch the ark to

save it from falling over. Immediately.

He's dead. Why?

Because he, an unholy person, just entered sacred space, the

sacred space of a holy God, and he's killed instantly.

You remember that the Ark of God didn't need protection.

The ark of God, the presence of God didn't need protection.

Rather Israel and all of humanity needed protection from

the ark. The ark can take care of itself.

The presence of God can take care of itself.

Remember the theme of holiness, David, you say what?

Why is why is my God sitting in a tent?

God says, let me, let me tell you who I am.

Now I'm going to spoil a little bit of the story because we

won't get there soon, maybe 1-1 day down the line.

But First Kings chapter 6 and eight, I'm spoiling the story a

1 Kings 6 · chapter mention

little bit. David is going to have a son

named Solomon. David is David's son.

Solomon is going to build the temple.

He's going to build a dwelling for the presence of God.

Now here's an interesting thing, you can read this, read about

this dedication of the temple in First Kings chapter 6 through 8.

1 Kings 6 · chapter mention

Here's an interesting thing. When Solomon builds the temple

and dedicates it, he does a 7 day celebration of dedication

for the temple and it lasts 7 days.

So they build the temple and there's a seven day dedication

week. On that final day, the ark of

God comes and rests and it dwells in the temple and it says

the temple is filled with his glory, God.

On the final day, the ark of God, the presence of God comes

to rest in the temple. Here's the interesting thing.

Why 7 days, Solomon? Why 7 day?

A7 day celebration for the dedication of the temple.

What else is 7 days creation? You see what Solomon's doing

here? It's he's marrying.

Creation week. Creation week.

Now let's go back to the creation narrative.

Genesis chapter 1 and 2. There's a seven day creation

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

cycle, 6 days of activity, and then one day of rest, the

Sabbath where God rests, where God looks at everything and says

it is good. What that day of rests means.

When God rests, it's he's pleased with His creation.

He settles in and He begins to rule.

Creation is then filled with His glory.

Do you see what's happening here at the correlation?

Here is the payoff. Here's the correlation.

Like the temple taking a seven day dedication week.

The creation narrative is a 7 day dedication week, if you

will. What the scriptures are saying

is there's a correlation. All of creation is God's temple,

All of it. He reigns over everything and

the creation is full of His glory.

First Kings chapter 8, verse 27 in his prayer of dedication,

1 Kings 8:27

Solomon says this. But God will you indeed dwell on

the earth. Behold, heaven, and the highest

heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house I've

built. David, don't you see?

You're over here like the presence of God is in a tent,

David says. Oh, God says to David, David,

everything. You see the wood that built your

palace, I own that. That's mine.

I've never once complained about my lodging.

He calls David to a grander vision of who he is.

The earth is filled with his glory.

All creation is his. Now what I want to call you to

Bridgetown Church. I want to call you to a grander

vision as well. A grander vision of who God is

and what He wants to do with us. His church here at Bridgetown.

I want a grander vision of Bridgetown.

Admittedly, right now we are a church in transition.

It's been an interesting couple months.

Is it? Has it not been?

Now a question I have for you. Do we believe that Bridgetown's

best days are still ahead of us? Amen.

Or do we find ourselves looking back at the church's past in

fondness saying those were the days if we could just go back to

that, everything would be perfect.

Bridgetown, I want to call you to grasp of the bigger vision of

what God wants to do with your life and with Bridgetown Church

here. He has a role for you to play

here. He loves you so much and He's

called you in some way to worship here, to receive from

him, from him here, to serve here.

We have many opportunities to serve here.

He's not yet done with this church.

So no moping, no moping about the past.

We pressed on for the future. We must have hope that God still

has future grace yet to pour out in our lives as a church.

So we want to move together with a grander vision of who God is

and have an expectation of wonderful things from him for

this church. He is the faithful promise

keeping God. And that's what the Davidic

Covenant is all about, the faithfulness of God, the promise

keeping God. This is what he does.

He promises things and he brings it to pass Why?

Just because he does? That's what he does.

Let's move on to the actual body of the Davidic Covenant.

Verse 8. God continues in his monologue.

Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus

says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from

following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people

Israel. And I have been with you

wherever you went, and I've cut off all your enemies from before

you. And I will make for you a great

name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will

plant them so that they may dwell in our own place and be

disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict

them no more, as formerly, from the time that I have haunted

judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from

all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to

you that the Lord will make you a house and will stop there.

Right now. God reminds David of his

faithfulness in David's life. You see, David's whole life from

the sheep fields to the throne room has been providentially

ordered and provided by the will of God.

God then begins to make a series of promises to David that God

himself will fulfill. This is called the Davidic

Covenant. This is an important text of

Scripture. Again, like I said in the

beginning, this text, these sets of promises change the shape,

change the way that we interpret the rest of Scripture.

The storyline now revolves around these promises.

How is God going to be faithful to these promises that he's

making to David? He puts his name at stake.

How does he do that? So first, let's back up a bit.

This word covenant, what does that mean?

It's a theologically loaded term covenant.

Really all it is. It's the Lexan Bible Dictionary

describes it this way. It's a sacred kinship bond

between two parties ratified by swearing an oath.

An oath is a promise and more. It encompasses one's entire

life, and two are bound together by certain stipulations.

So what is a covenant? It's a promise between two

parties where something is put at stake, where two parties are

not just speaking these promises, but they're putting

something on the line to fulfill this oath.

Essentially, something valuable is put at stake in this

agreement. An example of a covenant is

marriage. Marriage is a covenant.

It's a covenant between a biological man and a woman

before God and all the wedding attendees.

When you go to a wedding, you're not just there to observe and

go, oh, it's so beautiful. What you're doing is you're

holding them accountable. You're holding the man and the

woman accountable. You made a commitment in front

of God, in front of all everybody here that you're going

to be faithful to one another in sickness and in health until

death do you part. Marriage is an example of a

covenant. Now, covenants during this time

in the ancient year E, they were typically made between two

parties in the presence of a divine deity, much like the

wedding attendees are the witness to the marriage.

Two parties in the ancient year E would make a covenant, and the

Witness would be their divine God, whoever that is.

There's specific parts to this covenant.

There's the preamble. The preamble is all right.

Who are the two parties who's making this covenant, right?

There's a prologue. A prologue is the history of

what's happened. You think about any good

wedding, they tell the story about how they met, how they

came to be, what the engagement was like, how they got here.

That's a prologue. Then there's certain

stipulations. Do you promise to be faithful to

one another? Do you promise to be there for

one another? Certain stipulations.

And then afterwards, part of the covenant, there's there's

blessings and then there's curses.

Blessings and curses. Israel is unique among the

ancient near recent cultures. Here's why.

Because God himself, the divine deity, is the one that

establishes covenants with people.

Usually the two parties are humans, like kings.

Usually it's a conquering king and the king that's conquered

the conquering king says I won't destroy you.

If you make a covenant with me, you're going to bring me all

your tribute. OK, OK, I got it.

I got it. Usually it's 2 human partners in

the presence of the divine deity.

Israel's unique What happens when that divine deity himself

makes a covenant with humanity? It's different.

He binds himself with humanity through these promises.

People often say I swear by heaven and earth, or I swear to

God. Think about it, though.

If God, the divine deity, is the one making covenants, who does

God swear by? I swear by myself.

We get a hint. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13.

Hebrews 6:13

Listen to this. For when God made a promise to

Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he

swore by himself, surely, saying, I will bless you and

multiply you. And thus Abraham, having

patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in

all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the

promise His unchangeable character of His purpose, He

guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable

things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled

for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to

the hope set before us. Do you hear what Hebrews is

saying? When God makes a covenant with

somebody, when he makes a promise, He puts his character

on the line, who I am. That's why chapter 6 last week

we talked about God's holiness. That's his divine nature.

Everything else originates from that stems from His Holiness.

When God makes a promise to somebody, he puts His name at

stake, and He's passionate about His own glory.

He will bring to pass what He's promised because his name and

his character is at stake. And if he's holy, completely

good. There are some things God cannot

do. Did you know that?

He cannot lie, He cannot not be himself.

He's 100% truthful, He's 100% pure, He is holy.

So when God makes a promise with somebody, He puts His character

on the line, I will bring it to pass because it's not just

affecting you, it's affecting me and my worship.

It's going to happen. Now, what are covenants

biblically? I want you to think about them

like mile markers on your journey, mile markers on our

journey from here to San Diego. You get the like.

I think San Diego or Vegas or Arizona, wherever you're going,

you'll pass these signs that say Vegas 100 miles away, Vegas 50

miles away, 25 miles away. I want you to think of biblical

covenants like that in the Scriptures.

They reveal God's plan of redemption and how he's going to

reconcile Israel and the nations together.

He's going to redeem and reconcile all of humanity to

himself. That's what biblical covenants

are, promises that God makes throughout the biblical

storyline to fulfill his purpose of uniting heaven and earth,

uniting Israel and the nations, uniting humanity with himself.

Once again, we have at least 4, you can count at least 4

covenants in the biblical storyline.

For you Bible nerds out there, do you know what they are?

Abraham the Abraham, the covenant.

You're going to be the father of many nations, right?

There is one to Noah even before, before that, that I'm

never going to flood the earth again, be fruitful and multiply.

We have Moses, the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai.

I'm going to be your God. You're going to be my people.

Here's the blessings for obedience.

Here's the curses for disobedience.

And then here we have the Davidic covenant and it's all

coming together on your journey through the Scriptures.

These mile markers are weaving the same story.

They're leading to one destination and his name is

Jesus Christ. This chapter is pivotal and

understanding who Jesus Christ is.

So God is in control. God is in control.

Some things I want you to notice.

Who in the preamble is represented in this covenant?

God and his servant David. OK, prologue the history.

God says here's what I've done for you, David.

I've took you from the fields as a shepherd boy from the pasture.

I took you and then I made you king.

There's no way all you can get 12 tribes to unite on anything.

I can't get 12 people to agree on anything, let alone 12 tribes

of thousands of people to agree. Yeah, that guy's a king.

It's a unanimous vote. It's a miracle.

God says I made you king. What I want you to notice is the

I statements. Here's the strange, amazing

thing about this covenant. Usually in covenants of the

ancient eries there's two parties that agree to do

something. And this covenant, there's only

one person doing it. It's God.

What has David done up to this point to merit or earn these

promises from God? Nothing.

He's done nothing to earn this blessing from God.

You imagine David's story. Remember, Nathan is probably the

one writing here. I imagine.

Have a vision with me, if you will.

I imagine how the writing process went.

Nathan, his recorder says. Hey, hey, King David, can you

can you tell me how did this all start, man?

I'm writing a biography about you.

How did how did you get here, Nathan?

Dude, I don't even know. There I was.

It was like a Tuesday morning. I was herding the sheep, trying

to count them. There's Billy, There's Frank.

There's Stephanie the sheep. I know why a sheep would be

called Stephanie, but that came in my mind.

I'm just hurting. I'm working on my sling,

tightening it up. And then all of a sudden I look

in the distance and my father's servant is running out toward

me, toward in the field, screaming at the top of his

lungs. David, David, you need to get to

your father's house now, quick, since somebody's here and it's a

very important person from from the Kingdom and they they want

to meet with you. So I'm like, OK, I stopped what

I'm doing. I herd the sheep back to the

home and I meet this man and he looks at me and he starts

weeping. He starts crying over me.

He takes out this flask of oil and he just pours it on my head.

And he, he tells me, David, you're going to be the king.

God has chosen you. Can you imagine what that must

have been like for David? I I was just herding sheep.

I don't know what I did to deserve this exactly.

Each and everyone of you. Here you have a David story, a

moment you don't know when, a moment where God broke into your

life and you weren't looking for him.

This is the kind of God that you serve, the God who seeks you

out, who longs for you, who takes the first step, if he

will, makes the first move. It's up to us if we want to

respond to that love or not. Is it not wonderful, a wonderful

truth to know that God is in control of the direction of our

lives, Every minute detail and unexpected situation that we

experience, It's not unexpected to Him.

Nothing surprises him, and He is never out of the loop.

You and I can entrust our lives to the Creator of heaven and

earth who owns everything. He numbers the stars and he

erased the lilies and he knows what your upcoming work week is

going to be like, and he's going to be there with you.

Do you believe that? And why does he do this?

For his glory and the joy of his people.

That's why he does all of this. Here's the most amazing thing

that this promise ends with here in this, in this portion.

Moreover, the Lord says, the Lord declares to you that the

Lord will make you a house, David, and this is a play on

words here. It's a play on words in Hebrew

because the word house can mean many different things.

So God's using a play on words. He's such a funny, funny God.

He says, David, you wanted to build me a house, a temple, a

building to localize me. That was David's expectation

that God says, no, I'm going to build you a house, which is the

same word in Hebrew, but that word also means dynasty.

You want to build me a house, brick and mortar, but I'm

calling you to expand your vision.

I want to build you a dynasty. I have a different expectation

for your life. And then our endless talking

heads today, our endless stream of talking heads.

If you are a big sports fan, you'll know there's always this

term thrown around called. They always talk about a

dynasty. You know, are the Dodgers a

dynasty? Well, they got to win five more

to be a dynasty in my book. Are the Warriors in basketball a

dynasty? Well, they didn't match the

Bulls, Jordans, Bulls and Pippins Bulls.

There is this. If you're a sports fan, you know

that all these talking heads talk about they throw on this

term dynasty. Well, let me tell you, this

dynasty that God promises David will never end.

It's not about championships. It's literally unceasing.

Again, God calls David to a grander vision.

Last week, I ended it with the point that I said that I had

hoped to demythologize David a bit, to demythologize him in

your mind. Here's why I wanted to do that.

Here's the payoff. David is human, just like you

and I. He's just like us.

God called him when he wasn't looking.

Do you believe that God is working in your life still, just

as he was working in David's life?

Or do you say, Oh no, I'm not like David?

I, I, I can't defeat giants. Well, neither could he.

He didn't throw the stone in the perfect direction at the perfect

angle. God guided that stone to defeat

Goliath. There's no feasible, logical way

it should have worked, but it did because God says it's going

to work. You are just like David.

He's just like you, and all God has called David to do is

believe. Be faithful to me.

Let's pick up in verse 12. The promise goes on.

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your father's

David, you're going to die. I will raise up for your

offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and 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 to him a father, and he shall be to me His Son.

When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of

men, with the stripes of the sons of men.

But my steadfast level will not depart from him as I took it

from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

This is it. This is the foundational moment

in the story of Scripture, the Davidic covenant.

God has made a series of promises that He would establish

David's dynasty beginning with his offspring.

That there would one big common offspring whose Kingdom will be

established and it will never end.

There are 6 promises that he makes here in the Davidic

Covenant. Six of them.

Some of them have already been fulfilled, but not all of them.

Here's the three that have already been fulfilled.

It says God promises I will make your name great.

That's already happened. You remember?

Where did David get the cedar wood in chapter 6 to build his

palace From the foreign nations. They gave it to him as tribute

because his fame went before him.

God made his name great. So that's one.

One down. He says I will appoint a place

for my people. The city of David.

He just captured Jerusalem. The ark is now in Jerusalem.

Boom. All 12 tribes are united.

Promise 2 is fulfilled. Promise three.

I will give you rest from my from your enemies.

This is a time of peace. All the enemies have been

subdued, promised to be fulfilled.

These are the already promises that God has fulfilled.

But there are still some not yet promises yet to be fulfilled.

Here's the remaining three. He says I will make you a

dynasty through your offspring. I will adopt your offspring as

my own son and then I will establish that offering's

Kingdom eternally. Some things I want you to

understand and notice about these last three remaining

promises is 1 divine sonship. This relationality between God

and David taken to the next level.

God is saying your offspring. I'm not just going to call them

my servant, I'm going to call them my sons.

They're going to image me a be a reflection of me, my royal

representative to all of my people, Israel.

This is a family term. I'm going to be their God, their

father. They're going to be my sons.

The king is to be a reflection of who I am as my son.

Does that not ring a bell in your mind on who Jesus is?

I want you to notice the covenantal love of God, the

steadfast love of God, he says. Your offspring, they're going to

mess up, they're going to sin, but I will not remove my

covenant to love from them like I did from Saul.

Remember I made I'm making covenant with you.

I'm putting my name at stake. I'm not going to back out ever.

This is called the has said in Hebrew that has said love of God

and it's love based upon a promise and oath.

It's like in marriage the in sickness and in health till

death do us part. This promises oath.

I may continue. God will discipline the House of

David. And if you know anything about

Israel's history, again, like I said earlier, not all kings live

up to the standard of David. God does discipline them.

In the biblical storyline, there's this thing called the

exile. God rejects Israel because

they've broken the Mosaic covenant.

That's those stipulations are still in effect, but it's

blessings and curses. Yet when these sons mess up, God

is still covenant until he bound to the House of David and he

will not reject them. This ultimate undying covenant

to love Jesus chooses his words carefully in the upper room when

he says take and drink. This is my blood poured out for

you. It's the blood of the new

covenant. I'm binding myself with you, and

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I'm covenantily in love with you.

So let's talk about Jesus real quick.

Verse 16. God ends the divided covenant

with this promise, and your house and your Kingdom shall be

made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established

forever. This is an amazing promise, but

one that would not be realized until much, much later.

In fact, we today here at Bridge Town Church, we still eagerly

await for the ultimate consummation of this promise.

We live in the already, not yet time.

We see some of these promises fulfilled, but there's yet

future promises, future grace to to still be realized, the return

of Jesus. God promises David that his

offspring's Kingdom would be permanent and eternal, and his

rule would be established forever.

Now. This is the dual nature of

prophecy. Some biblical interpretation

advice for you. As you read prophecy, understand

that it has an immediate context.

It means something to them, and then it means something to us, a

future context. God does both when he sends

these prophets to speak into the lives of Christians.

There's a future vision, a future context.

Not all promises were fulfilled in David's lifetime, but they

will be fulfilled much later. You see Solomon, he does build

the temple. Solomon is David's son.

He builds a temple for the dwelling of God, but later

literally his grandson, David's grandson Rehoboam.

Because of his foolishness, he does not walk in the way of his

grandfather David. The Kingdom is split into two,

Israel in the north and Judah in the South.

This is the last time that Israel will be will be united

under the kingship of David. Israel will then be destroyed by

the Assyrians in 722 BC. And then in 586 BC, the

Babylonians will come and take Judah into captivity.

Why? Because they broke the

stipulations of the Mosaic covenant.

Those are still in effect. What does this do?

Because these promises God's made to David and they're still

on the line, yet to be fulfilled.

The reason? Second Samuel Chapter 7 is so

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

important. It's because it shapes the rest

of the Bible as it shapes the expectations and a waiting for

these promises to still be fulfilled.

This is why it's a focal point of the prophets.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah 53, the suffering servant

passages talking about one who is to come, who will suffer for

our iniquities. He's ruined for our

transgressions. It's a focal point for these

promises, these messianic promises to still be fulfilled.

That's why do you remember the in the, in the, the nativity

narrative of the book of Luke, the Gospel according to Luke,

there's these two people, these old timers, Simeon and that

Simeon and Anna the prophetess. They're waiting day and night in

the temple, waiting day and night in the temple, fasting and

in prayers and then seeking the Lord.

They're waiting. It says they're waiting for the

consolation of Israel, the expectation for the one from

these promises, the one who these promises are about to

arrive. And guess what?

On one specific day, they get to see the boy Jesus and hold him

in their arms. He is the consolation of Israel.

Mark chapter 10. I want to read you a passage as

Mark 10 · chapter mention

we begin to wind down Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

We have this story recorded right before Jesus's triumphal

entry into Jerusalem. It says this.

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho

with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind

beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside, and we

had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth.

He began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy

on me. Jesus, son of David, have mercy

on me. And many rebuked him, telling

him to be silent. But he cried out all the more,

Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call

him. And they called the blind man,

saying to him, take heart, get up, for he's calling you.

And throwing off his cloak, He sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you

well. And immediately he recovered his

sight and followed him on the way.

Do you see what Mark's doing here?

Jesus of Nazareth passes by the city of Jericho.

Bartimaeus, a blind man, repeatedly, repeatedly hails him

as the Son of David. Isn't it ironic that a blind man

recognizes Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic

promise? He's blind.

Do you see what Mark's doing? Those who can see, physically

see. They don't know who Jesus is,

but the blind man does and his faith heals him.

And it couldn't be more clearer than Luke chapter one, verse 31

through 33, the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary, you're going

to have a son. You know it very well.

We recited at Christmas time in the nativity story.

Maybe you can see it with new eyes.

Now listen with all your might, Gabriel says, and behold, you

will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call

his name Jesus. He will be great and he will be

called ready. The son of the Most High.

Check that box off the Davidic covenant.

He's the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him

the throne of his father David. Check that box and he will reign

over the House of Jacob Forever. Check that box and of his

Kingdom there will be no end. Check that box.

Luke is crafting A narrative saying he's fulfilling every

remaining promise. It's him.

So this Jesus, he is the messianic king, the one that

fulfills the promise. He is the one that sits on the

throne of his father David. And his Kingdom will never, ever

end. And that's why we are gathered

here today, Bridgetown Church in 2026 because he has called you

just like he called blind Bartimaeus.

And I don't want to invite the worship team up As I wrap up,

we're going to enter into a time of worship and prayer.

But before I do, I want to give you some meditations and

applications to think about. One, have a grander vision of

God. Rich Town church creation is his

temple. He now resides in you.

God owns all of creation and the whole earth is full of His

glory. You need to come with Him, come

to Him. Rather, come to Him with all

your fears, your doubts, your worries, because He can handle

it. He is never in lack of anything

and He is never in our debt, but He's willing to freely give.

He is the source of all that is good, and He calls you to

Himself. He can handle your messes, so

would you come to him #2 God keeps His promises.

He's the promise keeping God. What He declared to you, what

He's promised to you, He will bring to pass, because He's

bound himself to you through Jesus Christ as you've believed

in Him, He's bound himself to you.

Remember that God cannot lie. He can't fail.

He is wholly and completely truthful.

This is why we can say with Paul in Philippians chapter one verse

6, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete

it at the day of Jesus Christ #3 Jesus is the ultimate son of

David. Jesus is the fulfillment of

God's promise to David. In Jesus, here's what happened

at the cross. Here's what the cross

represents. The powers of darkness that

tempt you, that corrupt your heart, The powers of darkness

were dishroned. You no longer belong to them.

In Him, humanity is redeemed from its bondage to sin and the

curse of death. We ought not to be afraid to

die, for death is no longer punitive.

It's no longer punishment. It's a doorway to being with

him. O death, war is your sting.

O grave, where is your victory? That's what the cross does.

In him, Jesus, a new Kingdom has been established.

The Kingdom of darkness, of sin and death has been toppled.

It's over. The Kingdom of light and

righteousness and hope is here, and He invites you, the

believer, to partake in every day.

And those who do not yet believe, would you come and

believe in Jesus? Because you can be added to this

Kingdom? All you have to do is believe.

I ended last week demythologizing David.

What did David do? Nothing.

This is just the kindness, the generosity of God, and this is

how he feels about you today. This week, Part 1 of Chapter 7,

we've talked about God's role in the covenant.

Next week, come ready because we're going to talk about

David's response and let me give you a little sneak peek.

His response is worship. What can I say?

God, I don't deserve this. That's what worship is.

We're bringing our best to God because He's given us

everything. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.