Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 3 * BOOK 63
THE DAVIDIC COVENANT
Now, we’re going to move on into the next segment of the covenant promises, which we call the Davidic Covenant. Remember, for it all makes sense, if you’re going to have a nation of people, what do they have to have? Well, they have to have a homeland. All right, so we established all that, through what we call the Palestinian Covenant, in the past couple of lessons.
If you’re going to have a nation of people within a geographical area of land, if you’re not going to have anarchy, and you’re not going to have everybody just doing their own thing, what do you have to have? Government. So, from day one God has been looking forward to the time when this glorious kingdom would not be a democracy, but it would be under the rule and reign of a King. So consequently, Israel started out under what we call the theocracy, under the judges where God ruled the nation through judges. But again, according to His own Sovereign design, even though Israel did it in an attitude of rebelliousness, what did Israel demand? A king.
We want a king like everybody else. Well, okay, that was all again in the divine purposes. So, who was the king that really was the apple of God’s eye? Well, not King Saul. It was David. All right, so now all the promises concerning this Davidic family are under these covenant promises just like the others. It’s a covenant between God and David in particular and the Nation of Israel, secondarily. But it all is looking forward to the time when God the Son will finally rule and reign on David’s throne from Jerusalem.
All right, let’s go back to the beginning of it now. That’s in II Samuel chapter 7, and David is now an old king. It won’t be long until he’ll die and his son Solomon will take over, but the promises of a king are not given to Solomon; they’re given to David. Let’s just start at verse 1 because this all is introductory.
II Samuel 7:1
“And it came to pass, when the king (that is King David) sat in his house, and the LORD has given him rest round about from all his enemies;” In other words, the Nation of Israel and the Kingdom under David had almost reached its pinnacle. Solomon will increase it a little bit, but most of it was by virtue of King David.
II Samuel 7:2
“That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.” So, what’s he talking about? All the furnishings of the sanctuary were still in the temporary tent that was built out in the wilderness. David is now living in a beautiful home, but the sanctuary was still made of goatskins and sheepskins and so forth.
II Samuel 7:3-6
“And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee. 4. And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 5. Go and tell my servant David, (Now remember, that’s the name we’re going to be hammering on.) Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? (In other words, the Temple) 6. Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and a tabernacle.” With that tent being made of animal skins.
II Samuel 7:7
“In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?” In other words, God says, I have never accused the nation of not building me a Temple. He was perfectly content with the little tabernacle. All right, now verse 8:
II Samuel 7:8-10
“Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, (You all know the story of the lad David.) from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel. 9. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.” Now, verse 10:
II Samuel 7:10-11
“Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, (Here, we come back to the land covenant that we just finished.) and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, (Now, you see how clearly all this is put?) and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness (That is the world around them.) afflict them any more as beforetime. 11. And as since the time that I commanded judges (which we just made reference to, the theocracy) to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.” Now, for years I was just as guilty as the run-of-the-mill church member or Sunday School attender and immediately when you see ‘build me a house’ you think of the what? Well, the Temple made of cedar and gold and silver.
Well, now that is implied to a certain degree, that God does have a building of the Temple, although it’s going to be done by Solomon. But when He tells David that He’s going to make of him a “house for his name,” He’s referring to the bloodline. The House of David is not a building of mortar and stone. The House of David is a genetic bloodline going down through the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, who is called in Scripture the “Son of David,” because he’s down through the lineage of David. All right, now always remember that. The House of David is not the Temple. It’s not the house he lived in; it’s that genetic bloodline.
All right, so this is what God is telling him. He’s not that concerned about him building a Temple of wood and gold, but he’s going to have a bloodline, now verse 12.
II Samuel 7:12-13a
“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, (In other words, he’ll die physically.) I will set up thy seed after thee, (Who was Solomon, of course.) which shall proceed out of thy bowels (innermost being), and I (God says) will establish his (Solomon’s) kingdom. 13. (Now we have the Temple in mind.) He (Solomon) shall build an house for my name,…”
That is the Temple that Solomon built, but here comes now something beyond the physical Temple of wood and stone, again, where God says:
II Samuel 7:13b
“…and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” Now, you know that Solomon only ruled for 40 years. Forty years and forever do not mean the same thing.
So, immediately you have to stop and think, well, what are we talking about? Well, we’re talking about a royal family leading to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who will one day rule from Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Since it’s God the Son, the Creator God, that we’re talking about, His rule won’t be limited in years of time, but after ruling and reigning for the thousand years of the millennium, it’ll skip right up into the eternal. Consequently now, let’s just compare Scripture with Scripture. Keep your hand in Samuel, and come back with me to Genesis 1:1. Now, I’m sure most of you know the verse by memory, but it still never hurts to look at it. In Genesis 1:1, we have the very beginning of everything – Creation. But what did God create? Heaven and earth
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Well, goodness sakes, why didn’t God just say, “And in the beginning God created everything?” Well, that wouldn’t suffice, because that’s not the name of the game. The whole name of the game of Scripture is that God is dealing in two areas of human experience, the earthly realm which belongs to Israel; the heavenly realm which belongs to you and I as members of the Body of Christ.
See, that’s why everything that Paul says, concerning you and I as believers, is heavenly. And everything that we’ve been seeing concerning the covenant promises of Israel is earthly. You can’t mix them. You keep those two entities separate and this Book just opens up like a sixth-grade reader. Not quite, but just about. But that’s the problem with most of Christendom. They’ve got it all mixed up.
All right, now let’s just go back and from Genesis 1:1 let’s go all the way to the next to the last, I think Revelation 21 and verse 1. Here we come all the way from the beginning of Scripture to the last of Scripture, which is the onset of eternity. Time, as we know it has ended, and we now jump up into the eternal. But look at the language, it hasn’t changed a bit.
Revelation 21:1a
“And I (John says) saw a new heaven and (What?) a new earth:…” Well, goodness sakes, like with Genesis 1:1, why didn’t John just see a whole new everything? Because God keeps them separate. Even in eternity, God is going to keep the earthly operation separate from the heavenly, and I can see no breakdown anywhere in Scripture that that will ever end. God will always deal with His covenant people Israel on an earthly basis, and He’s going to deal with you and I as members of the Body of Christ on a heavenly basis.
All right, now let’s just go back and see what Paul says. Whereas we have been looking at Israel and all their earthly promises for the last several programs, let’s just see how Paul puts it so far as you and I are concerned. Let’s start first with Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, and again language is so plain. You don’t have to spiritualize this. You don’t have to sit back and wonder, well, now what in the world does this really mean? Well, it just means what it says.
Ephesians 1:3a
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us…” Now, when Paul uses those kinds of pronouns, he’s not speaking about himself and Israel, he’s speaking about himself and members of the Body of Christ, predominately Gentiles.
Ephesians 1:3b
“…who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the (Earth? No! Where?) heavenlies….” In the heavenlies. This is where all of our future lies. We’re not looking for earthly promises. We’re not looking for an earthly king. We’re looking for the Head of the Body, who’s going to call us up unto Himself. All right let’s see, I just had another one over in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 20. This is as simple as English can make it.
Now, I know a lot of people wonder why I stick with the King James. Well, I’ll tell you what, I read another interesting article the other day in a Jewish magazine, really a secular Jewish magazine. It’s usually political. Naturally, it’s conservative, or I wouldn’t read it. But, this particular Jewish writer was comparing the writings of antiquity of the Old Testament and how perfectly it was in accord with the King James, not with the NIV, not with any of these others. But it was word for word in accord with our King James.
I, again, just about hit the ceiling, and I sent the article up to my brother, and I said, “See! I’m not just knocking on dry wood. This is real!” So, this is why I stick with this King James, because I still say it’s the most accurate, and don’t ever let somebody tell you it’s hard to understand. That’s a bunch of smoke and mirrors. It’s just as easy to understand as any other translation. All right, but look what it says in verse 20.
Philippians 3:20a
“For our conversation…” Now, here’s where it’s good to have a marginal help in your Bible, the other word for conversation here is citizenship.
Philippians 3:20a
“For our citizenship is in (The covenant promises? No! Where?) heaven;…” That’s where we’re already located. Our citizenship is already established in the heavenlies. See how different this is from the promises made to Israel?
Philippians 3:20b
“…from whence also we look for the Savior,…” Not the King. Now, I know that shakes people up, but I can’t help it. I’m going to go by what the Book says! I don’t care what these Sunday School quarterlies say. To me, most of them are pitiful. But here the language is so plain. We’re not looking for a King; we’re looking for the Savior. Who, in another portion it says, is the Head of the Body. That’s what we’re looking for.
Philippians 3:20c-21a
“…look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (And look what He’s going to do for those of us who are heavenly connected.) 21. Who shall change our vile body, (This body that’s prone to sickness and death and pain.) that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,…” Now, do you have to be a seminary graduate to understand that? What does it tell you? That when Christ returns and gets ready to take us out into the eternal abode that He has for us in the heavenlies, we’re going to have bodies like the one that He arose with from the tomb and the one that He ascended back to Glory.
Now, this all hit home to me as, just yesterday, I had a lady call, and some of these things tear my heart out, but when she was young she had had an abortion. She almost started weeping before she finished telling me. But in the meantime, she had become a believer. She has become a listener to our program, but anyhow, she said, “Now, Les, if I understand you right, you feel these aborted babies will be in heaven.” “Yes, I think so.” She said, “Well, what size or age will they be?” Well, I took her to this verse. Now, what does this tell you? No matter who we are when we get into the heavenly abode, we are all going to be the age of Christ at the time of His ascension, or His resurrection, however you want to put it, and that will be what? Thirty-three
My, I just told my son yesterday that if it wasn’t for the awful condition of the world I could just wish I were thirty-something again. There’s nothing like thirty-something. Well, that’s what we’re going to be. We’re going to have a body like His resurrected body! I don’t have to tell you what He did in those forty days after resurrection. He went right through the wall without benefit of door or window. In a split second He was clear up at Galilee. He was walking on the road to Emmaus. He went in and sat down at the supper table with them and suddenly He’s gone. When He was up there and the men were fishing, He had what waiting on the shore? He had bread and fish – breakfast. The best breakfast, I’ll bet, that was ever served to a human race. That’s the kind of a body He had, and we’re going to have one just like it.
Now, that’s why I can get adamant. Once in awhile, somebody says, “You’re getting kind of bold.” No, I’m not getting bold, the Book is! The Book says we’re going to have a body fashioned like His glorious resurrected body. Now, these are promises concerning the Body of Christ in our heavenly connection.
All right, now let’s go one book further. Let’s go to Colossians chapter 1. Now who am I to argue with the Holy Spirit who inspired the Apostle Paul to use the word, but I wish he wouldn’t have used the word kingdom, because it confuses. But on the other hand, we have to understand that kingdom is merely a word designating “an economy.” It’s something that is functioning. Okay, but now look what the Word says here. Colossians 1 verse 12 and this is Paul praying on behalf of his Gentile believers up there at Colossi.
Colossians 1:12
“Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet (or has prepared us) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:” That’s us. That’s where we are. We are in a spiritual understanding of the things of the light. All right, now verse 13, God the Father:
Colossians 1:13
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, (That is, the evil of this world.) and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” Now goodness sakes, where is the Son? Well, He’s in heaven. This is not the kingdom promised to Israel. This is that which is promised to us for eternity in the heavenlies. So, everything that Paul writes is in that regard, that as members of the Body of Christ, we are not connected to anything earthly, we are just waiting until we can get out of this place and get to the heavenlies!
And when resurrection day comes, all of our loved ones who have died before as believers, we’re all going to be reunited with the bodies like unto Christ’s resurrected body. We’re going to know one another. Now, there will be no relationships, per se, but we’re all going to be members of that glorious Body of Christ, which Paul then fills up with the term “the Church.”
So anyway, these are the things that we have to understand, that even though all the promises made to Israel are earthly, yet for you and I, the promises are heavenly, not just for time but for all eternity. That’s why I feel, deep down, that Revelation does the same thing that Genesis does, it separates heaven and earth. If God was not going to keep the believer of the Grace Age separate from the earthly people Israel, then why have a new earth and a new heaven? Why not just have one eternal existence? But I think God has it all programmed that when the millennium is finished, we just jump right up into the eternal, with everything pretty much as it was during the millennium.
The only difference is, there won’t be flesh and blood having children and so forth as they were in the millennium, but on the other hand everyone will be in resurrected bodies of whatever sort.
All right, now let’s see where was I? Back in II Samuel chapter 7, weren’t we? Got to go back there for a minute, and then our time is gone, again. These half-hours go too fast, don’t they?
II Samuel 7:13
“He (Solomon) shall build an house for my name, (This is a reference to the Temple on the Temple Mount, but now it jumps over into eternity.) and I will establish (Or at least the millennium, let me back it off that far. We’re going to the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of His thousand-year reign.) I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Now remember, what throne did Solomon sit on? David’s throne. So, it reverts back to King David, and that’s why all of Scripture refers to Christ as the Son of David. He will rule one day from the throne of David, which was on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Now, those of you that were with us last week when we were in Israel, you’ve got a vivid picture of all that don’t you. How that Mount Zion is about a half-mile or three-quarters of a mile south of the Temple Mount. It’s not on the Temple Mount, it’s south. That’s why it helps so to get over there. You know, whenever somebody’s been there with us, that’s the first thing they say. In fact, Pete just told me a little bit ago, “All of a sudden it just makes this Book come alive, when you can vividly see where all of these various things are located.” All right, so back to our text, verse 14, God said:
II Samuel 7:14a
“I will be his father, and he shall be my son….” Now remember, He’s not just talking about David now, He’s not just talking about Solomon, He’s talking about Israel. Israel is the “son” that God is so interested in.
II Samuel 7:14b
“…If he commit iniquity, (Now, you know that can’t be a reference to the Son of God, because He can’t commit iniquity. It has to be God’s chosen people) I will (What?) chasten him….” He won’t break the covenants, but oh, He’s going to bring chastisement. Isn’t that Israel’s history? Sure it is.
My, as we went through the book of Isaiah, what was the constant warning? “If you don’t turn from your wicked ways, I will bring in enemies, and you’ll be hearing languages that you don’t understand.” Well, it was a warning. But they would not listen. And what happened? The Babylonians overran them. It wasn’t long before the Medes and Persians overran them. The Greek empire overran them. They were under constant oppression for thousands of years, but it wasn’t God withdrawing His covenant promises. He was chastising them. Big difference
II Samuel 7:14b
“…If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men,…” He would bring in foreign powers to subject them to heavy taxation, they would take their crops, they would take their children. Now verse 15:
II Samuel 7:15
“But (Flipside, even though God will chastise, even though it may take centuries of time…) my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.” Saul was the perfect example of an unbelieving king. You know the end of Saul. It was a horrible end.
All right, so God isn’t going to treat the Nation of Israel like He did King Saul. Israel is always going to be in the place of mercy and the ability to be restored to full fellowship with their Jehovah God.