Reading… and Thinking

    The word of God came to Nathan, saying, “Go and tell David My servant, ‘Thus says the LORD, “You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in…
    I tell you that the LORD will build a house for you. When your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

— 1 Chronicles 17:3-4,10-14 (NASB)

In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the “Son of David” (by my count) 23 times, beginning with the very first verse of the New Testament. In Matthew 1:1, Jesus is introduced as “the son of David, the son of Abraham”. This wasn’t just to indicate he was Jewish!  He was the son of Abraham, that is the promised seed, the subject of what Peter calls “exceedingly great and precious promises” – promises that have been extended to include us. And, Jesus was the son of David, once again the promised seed, the subject of the promises God made to David in the passage we’re looking at this week.

Based on these promises from God, every Jewish scholar and every faithful Jew for the past 3,000 years has understood that the Messiah would be the “Son of David”. When Jesus was referred to in this way, it was a declaration that he is in fact the Messiah.

When Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of Messiah, the angel referred specifically to the promised Son of David, and he mentioned several features of the promise. What exactly did God promise?

• Although David wanted to build a house for God, God said He would instead build a house for David. Not a literal building, but a dynasty.
• After David died (“you go to be with your fathers”), God would set up one of David’s descendants on David’s throne. The first, partial fulfillment of these promises would be David’s son Solomon. But Solomon was put on David’s throne while David was still alive – so he couldn’t be the entire fulfillment.
• The son’s kingdom and his throne would be established, then God amplifies and says it would be established forever! Solomon’s throne was established, but obviously it wasn’t forever.
• This son would be the one to build God a house. In the preliminary fulfillment, Solomon built a fabulous temple to God. But the greater fulfillment was the building of a spiritual house by Jesus. This is referred to in the New Testament in Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 2:4-5, and several other places.
• The promised son of David would also be God’s own Son. This was viewed in a spiritual sense, but Gabriel makes it clear that Jesus was to be literally God’s Son, and this fact is reinforced over and over throughout the New Testament.
• God’s favor would never be taken from this son. In Solomon’s case, this meant God didn’t take the kingdom away from him, in spite of Solomon abandoning God. In Jesus’s case, there was no failure such as Solomon’s, and God’s favor remained on Jesus without interruption.
• There is a repeat of the eternal nature of the promise – the Son would be established in God’s house, and in God’s kingdom, forever. And again, the Son’s throne would be established forever. This point is emphasized by Gabriel, and it is the root of the New Testament teaching of “the good news of the Kingdom of God”.

So what does all this mean? It means that, as foretold in both Old and New Testaments, Messiah (Jesus) will sit on David’s throne, with his capital in Jerusalem. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed King, and he will rule over Israel, and over the entire world, forever. Literally. This is one of the great themes of the Bible. It is the gospel message proclaimed by John the Baptist, by Jesus himself, and by the apostles. It is the Christian hope!