Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 4 * BOOK 63
THE DAVIDIC COVENANT – PART 2
Okay, good to see everybody back. We’ll just go right back to where we left off with the Davidic Covenant in II Samuel chapter 7. Again, for those of you joining us on television, if you’re a new listener, and you’ve just caught our program for the first time, we are not associated with any denomination. We just simply teach the Book as we feel the Lord has led us to teach it. Once in a while I may get a little abrasive; I can’t help that, because the Word of God is. We don’t pussyfoot around with it. If it says something, we’re going to teach what it says.
Again, we always like to thank our listening audience for your kind letters. Now really, we hardly ever, ever, ever get a letter that is less than kind. What a joy it is to open the mail. So, keep those letters coming even though we don’t get them all answered. We can’t possibly do that, but we try to answer if you have a pertinent question, especially with regard to salvation.
Okay, now I think that’s enough for introduction. Let’s go back to where we left off in our last half-hour. We’re talking about the covenant that God made between Himself and King David. Remember that David is merely the forerunner of the whole genetic bloodline that will take us up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, who will then be the fulfillment of all the promises made to the fathers.
In fact, that reminds me, come back with me to the book of Romans. Keep your hand in II Samuel and come back with me to Romans. We referred to this verse a program or two back, but this is so appropriate in view of all these covenant promises, that Paul can write this. Contrary to probably most of Christendom who do not accept the fact that Jesus limited His ministry to the Nation of Israel. My, they can’t swallow that, and they’ll find every little excuse to try and disagree. Most of which is, “Well, what about the Samaritan woman?” Well, Samaritan’s were Jews. They weren’t Gentiles. They were half-breed, but they were more Jew than Gentile. So, Jesus wasn’t dealing with Gentiles when he dealt with the Samaritan woman, He was dealing with Jews. Like I pointed out a couple of programs back, the Gadarenes, on the east side of the Jordan, were the tail-end of the tribe of Gad, as they occupied that area way back at the time of Joshua.
All right, now look what Paul says in Romans 15 verse 8. Again, language doesn’t get any plainer. There’s no way you can twist this to mean something else.
Romans 15:8a
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was (going back to His earthly ministry) a minister of the circumcision….” What does that tell you? That all He dealt with was the Nation of Israel. Now of course, we know from the Gospel account, that He had two exceptions to that. There was the Canaanite woman, and even she had to do a lot a begging before He condescended to her request. Then the other one was the Roman Centurion whose son was sick. Those are the only two in Scripture.
Now, whatever else they try to concoct, the crowds that were fed at the miracles of the fish and loaves, they try to put Gentiles in there. That won’t fly with Scripture. Because you see, and I’ll make the point here in just a minute, let’s finish verse 8 and I’ll make my point, where Paul says:
Romans 15:8
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (That is the Nation of Israel.) for the truth of God, (In other words, because of all of God’s promises and all of His Covenants.) to confirm (or fulfill) the promises made unto the fathers.” Now, how much plainer do you want it? What’s he telling us?
That, in His earthly ministry, He only ministered to the Nation of Israel. He could not minister to Gentiles, because they were not part of these covenant promises, and He was under covenant promise. We are not. So, this is why Jesus never invited Gentiles.
I always like to use the event in John chapter 12, where there were Gentiles among the group gathering for Passover. It was shortly before His crucifixion. He didn’t give them an audience. Philip and Andrew didn’t succeed in getting those Gentiles to talk with Him. He refused it. Why? Well, He gave the illustration “that until a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abideth alone: but if it die, then it will bring forth much fruit.”
Well, He wasn’t just talking about wheat farmers. He was talking about His own death, burial, and resurrection, and that He could not be an object of faith to the non-Jewish world until He had finished the work of the Cross. Now that’s obvious. All right, now if Jesus indeed ministered to Gentiles, and I told somebody this on the phone the other day, then He’s the biggest hypocrite that ever lived. Now, you say, that’s a terrible statement! No. I mean what I said. If He turned around and ministered to Gentiles, after telling the Disciples what He did in Matthew 10 verse 5, how could He? Now, that would be about as double-tongued as a person could get. On the one hand tell them “not” and then He Himself goes and does it. I wouldn’t want to deal with someone like that, nor would you. In fact, let’s look at it for a moment.
Matthew 10 verse 5, now this is at the onset of His earthly ministry. He has just chosen the Twelve. Now, look what He says in verse 5. Now you see, most of Christendom – they don’t want to read this. They get angry, and say, “I don’t believe that!” That’s what I’ve heard them say. Well, that’s your problem, not mine. If you don’t want to believe even what’s in red, then you’ve got a problem! But the words in red are from the lips of the Lord Himself. Now, look what He says:
Matthew 10:5
“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, (Now, from the lips of Jesus of Nazareth.) Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not: (Strong language, isn’t it? But here’s the reason, in the next verse.) 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Now, how in the world could He give a command like that to the Twelve and then turn around and do it Himself? Does that make sense? Of course not
He’s the God of Creation. He’s the God of all righteousness. He cannot be double-tongued. He cannot lie. He cannot be hypocritical. So, on the basis of this verse, I’m adamant. You cannot twist Scripture enough to show me that He ever ministered to a Gentile, except the two. That’s why Paul confirms it in Romans 15:8.
Romans 15:8
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (Nation of Israel), for the truth of God, (And what was His purpose?) to confirm (fulfill) the promises (all these covenant promises, not made to the Gentile world, but -) made unto the fathers (to Israel.)“
All right, now let’s go back and pick up–I think we can almost spend the rest of the half-hour to finish the covenant made with David – the Davidic Covenant. Let’s start where we left off in the last lesson a moment, and then we’re going to move ahead through Scripture. II Samuel chapter 7 and we left off in verse 16, where God, speaking through the prophet Nathan remember, says to David:
II Samuel 7:16a
“And thine house (Your royal bloodline that’s going to go down through the centuries of time, leading up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.) and thy kingdom shall be establishedforever before thee:” I alluded to that in the last program. That means that when the millennial reign is over, we skip right up into the eternal, where, again, we have a “new heaven” for the Body of Christ, and we have a “new earth” for the Children of Israel.
II Samuel 7:16b
“thy throne shall be established forever.” If I understand language, forever doesn’t mean forty years, and that’s all David ruled. That’s all Solomon ruled. Each ruled for forty years. I think all three of them did – Saul forty, David forty, and Solomon forty. But that’s not forever, that’s just a little tiny segment of time.
All right, now let’s jump up to Psalms 89, and let’s jump in at verse 18. All of these verses, of course, are with respect to God and Israel.
Psalms 89:18a
“For the LORD…” Now remember, I’ve taught in times gone by that the LORD, as it’s capitalized in the Old Testament, is a reference to Jehovah. Jehovah is the great I AM. And the I AM is Jesus of Nazareth – God the Son.
Psalms 89:18
“For the LORD (God the Son) is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our (What?) king.” See, now Paul doesn’t use that kind of language for us. He doesn’t say that the Lord is our King. He says that the Lord is the Head of the Body. But here is that constant reference of Israel’s earthiness.
Psalms 89:19-22
“Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. (Now, He comes back to King David.) 20. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: (That is as King of Israel.) 21. With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him. 22. The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.” David was a man after God’s own heart. In spite of his sin, David knew how to beg for forgiveness, for one thing.
Psalms 89:23-25
“And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. 24. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn (That is his rule as king.) be exalted. 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.” Oh, oh! Now we’ve got to stop and think again, don’t we? Could David do that? Could David place his foot in the sea and the other one in a river? No. That’d be beyond his human ability. So, now who do you suppose we’re thinking about? Christ! The second David, The Son of David! The One who will finally rule and reign on David’s throne. All right, now this is the beauty of Scripture, see?
Psalms 89:26
“He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.” Now, do you see why I said it was God the Son? David couldn’t be the object of salvation to anybody. David was human.
Now, I told you I was going to bring out something before the afternoon was over, here’s the opportunity; it comes to mind. The other day, somebody sent me a clipping from a newspaper, I guess it was from one of the Columbus Ohio papers. Some professor of religion at Ohio State University made the absurd statement that there had never been any difficulties between one religion and another or one person and another, until you got to the Apostle Paul.
Now wait a minute! Wait a minute! Paul wasn’t the first one who divided people, Jesus did! Didn’t He? The minute Christ began His earthly ministry He started separating those that hated Him from those that loved Him. So, number one, that smart professor doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Paul wasn’t the first. Jesus was. But on the other hand, here’s the absurdity of it all. Have you ever stopped to think – was there any controversy between the pagan religions of Buddha, Confucius, and Shintoism? Was there ever any conflict between them? Not that I’ve ever read in history. Now, they may have political difference but not on the basis of their religion. You know why? If you don’t have an ounce of truth, you’ve got nothing to argue about.
Now, I’ll jump it right up to our present day. Have you ever seen a spiritually dead church have a split, unless it’s the color of the carpet? But what causes splits? When there’s a disagreement on the truth of the Word of God. Yes, there have to be times when there has to be a separation. But see, whenever you have some entity that is totally lacking in Biblical truth there’s no room for argument. There’s no dissension. So, in that regard, the old boy was right. No, the pagan religions never argued one against the other, because they had nothing to argue about.
But now, when the Apostle Paul follows in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, you bet he caused controversy. The Jews, on the one hand, detested him, because he was now bringing up something that was contrary to Judaism. But the Lord did the same thing. So, the Apostle Paul was not the first to bring dissension. He was simply the first to come out with this glorious plan of salvation based on what he just said in Romans 15, for himself, “the truth of God.” Now, The truth of God, that’s something to argue about. I had an interesting letter, and I’m sure the old boy won’t mind my referring to it. He’s a listener down in Houston, and he writes a note almost every month. Well, the last letter he wrote, he was visiting his son out in Oregon, and his son just insisted that he go along to church with him. He said, “Son, I’m afraid that I’ll hear things I can’t agree with, but okay, I’ll go.” So, he went to the Sunday School class with him and he said, “Les, the first thing that Sunday School teacher said was that the blood of Jesus wasn’t Divine, it was just as corrupt as any other human being.”
Now he says, “I’m a visitor there, and I tried to keep my mouth shut, but how could I?” So, he said, “I corrected him.” Well, he said that set the whole class on the edge of their chairs, and the more that teacher said, the more they turned to him and said, “Well, now how about it?” And he told them like it was. So, he said the whole hour he almost became the teacher of that Sunday School class. He said, “I was just having a ball.” On the way home from church he told his son, “Son, I’m sure glad you invited me to church, because I had a good time today.” You know what the son said, “Yeah, Dad, I could tell.”
Well, now you know, it’s letters like those that make our day. But, see, this is what you have to do. You can’t just sit there and let some Sunday School teacher roll out a bunch of rot that is as false as a three-dollar bill. Sit up and say now wait a minute that’s not what The Book says. That’s not true. That’s not right. Now, you don’t have to be nasty. You can be kind, but disagree. Stand up for what The Book says!
Okay, Psalms 89. So, now we’re speaking, not of David, but we’re speaking of the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son, Jehovah in the Old Testament. All right, verse 27:
Psalms 89:27
“Also I will make him my firstborn, (Which is always a reference to Christ.) higher than the kings of the earth.” Now, if you’re a Bible student, the kings of the earth would also include what two, great, Biblical kings? David and Solomon. But this King is higher than David, and He’s higher than Solomon. So, who is it? God the Son
Psalms 89:28
“My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.” Now goodness sakes, we shift gears again. Who is the psalmist talking about? King David. Because God didn’t make the covenant just with Himself, He made it with David. All right, so he says, “my covenant shall stand fast.” Now, verse 29:
Psalms 89:29a
“His seed also (his generations that would follow) will I make to endure (How long?) for ever,…” Then these theologians try to tell us that Israel has long since ceased to exist? That’s what they’re telling people, that the present day Jews aren’t Jews at all.
I’ve got a book at home; no, I think I pitched it. But this guy was trying to write that the present day Jews were offspring of tribes that came out of southern Russia, and then migrated into Europe and then just simply usurped the libraries and synagogues of the Ancient Jews. What a bunch of garbage! Then people fall for that? But our Book tells us that Israel is going to remain forever.
Psalms 89:29b-31
“…and his throne as the days of heaven. 30. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; (or in His rule) 31. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;” Now, that’s a not reference to Christ. This is a reference, again, to David and the Children of Israel.
Psalms 89:32
“Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” Now, that caused a question at break-time. What does the Scripture mean when you have a statement like that? Well listen, back in antiquity, even more than today, if a conquering army overran another nation and especially the Nation of Israel, what did they do to their defeated subjects? Tortured them!
They would rape the women. They would kidnap the children. They would kill the men. Anything else that was worth taking back to their homeland, they would take back as slaves and servants. That’s the “rod of men and the stripes of men” in Scripture, and Israel was constantly warned, “unless you turn from your wickedness, you’ll have foreign languages around you.” Well, what did it mean? Enemy forces would come in and would make life miserable for the Children of Israel. All right, they’ve got the same thing here. All right, verse 32 again:
Psalms 89:32a
“Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, (With chastisement, not by removing their covenant promises, but He would chastise them.) and their iniquity with stripes.” In other words, the suffering of being overrun by an enemy. Now, verse 33:
Psalms 89:33
“Nevertheless (Even though God will chastise Israel.) my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, (That is – David, Solomon, and the Nation of Israel.) nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” God will never give up on Israel! He cannot. Because of the covenant promises again, see? All right, now verse 34:
Psalms 89:34
“My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” But, who could? Israel. All right, now I think we’ve got time enough. This is going to come in our next taping, but nevertheless, let’s jump up to Jeremiah 31. This just confirms what I said concerning the verse in Psalms. God won’t break His covenants. Now, He may bring them to an end, like, for example, the covenant with the Garden of Eden. After the beauty of life in the Garden was destroyed by sin, yes, God ended that covenant, but He didn’t break it before the time.
Jeremiah 31:31-32a
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will (in the future) make a new covenant (Now, that’s the next one up here on the board. The one that is new beginnings, and we’ll cover that in our next taping.) with the house of Israel, (the northern kingdom) and with the house of Judah: (The southern kingdom, the two sticks brought together, if you remember, earlier this afternoon. Now, verse 32, this just says it all.) 32. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;…” Now goodness, what covenant was that? Law! When He gave the Law at Mount Sinai. All right, that’s the covenant He’s referring to. This new covenant will be nothing like that old covenant, now read on:
Jeremiah 31:32b
“…which my covenant they (Israel, not God) brake….” Over and over and over they broke those Ten Commandments. And has the world changed? No. Here we are 3000 years later, and we’re still breaking them every day of the human existence, but so far as Israel was concerned it wasn’t God’s covenant that He broke, Israel broke it, by constantly rebelling. All right, verse 32 reading on:
Jeremiah 31:32c
“….although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:” Did God give up on Israel because they kept breaking the Law? No. Now, that didn’t mean that they didn’t escape chastisement, and I’m afraid they also won’t escape eternal doom. But God never rescinded His covenant promises with the Nation of Israel.