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King David and the Covenant
The covenant that God makes with David, also known as the Davidic Covenant, contains a series of promises to David and Israel, the most important being that the Messiah (of the New Testament) will come through the House of David. This is the promise of a Redeemer that the Jews were to look forward to and recognize by the signs, as given through the various prophets, such as Isaiah. God promises that the Messiah will establish a kingdom that will have no end, thus making a connection between the rule of David who is after God's own heart to the reign of Christ the King who will rule over men's hearts. God also describes how Solomon will come and build a House for the Lord while simultaneously conveying a deeper message about the Son of God: "I will be his Father, and he shall be My son," says God to Nathan, who receives this message for David (2 Sam 7:14).
The covenant takes place in Jerusalem, where David wishes to build a temple for the ark. When God says that David's son will be King, he is making a two-fold reference, to both Solomon and to Christ. The dwelling place of the Holy of Holies is to be both the tabernacle of the church of Christ, where Christ becomes bread and wine, and the temple that Solomon builds, which prefigures the Christian temple. David's house has a spiritual significance that is matched in the physical by the temple that houses the ark. David's house is Christ's kingdom, a spiritual kingdom. Essentially and most importantly, however, the covenant is about the Messiah, though it addresses other key points as well, and it is unconditional in the sense that it is a display of God's faithfulness and does not depend upon any action of His people. The Messiah will come because He has been...
Another key point is that God assures Nathan that David will have a son who rules after him who will build the temple: "I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name" (2 Sam 7:12-13). This key point transitions into a third, and most important key point, namely that the House of David will live forever because through it will come the Messiah, (2 Sam 7:13-14) who is called the Son of David in Matthew 21:9.
David was not a direct, bloodline descendent of the kings -- but, rather, a spiritual descendent of Abraham, and in this sense he is a good prefiguring of Christ, who is a spiritual father to all (Johnson). And as Fulton Sheen notes, it is in this manner that Christ represents David, who was an obscure shepherd who rose to be King: Sheen observes that Joseph, the foster-father of Christ, was the "obscure descendant of the great King David" (15), so the literal connection between Christ and David is more importantly expressed in terms of humble origins and spiritual purity. This connection is equally important in laying the foundation for the signs for the Messiah's coming because while the temple that Solomon builds is grand and magnificent, the Son of God is a Galilean -- an outsider according to…
Works Cited
Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. NY: Harper, 1987. Print.
Kaiser, Walter C. The Messiah in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zandorvan,
1995. Print.
McKenzie, S. King David: A Biography. UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
III. The Abrahamic Covenant: This too is an unconditional covenant characterized by: God gave to Abraham a promise of a great national which is inclusive of all the lines of Ishmael and Abraham's two other sons Isaac and Benjamin. This is founding Genesis 8:21-9:17. IV. The Davidic Covenant: In this covenant God says "Thou has said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: "I will
Israel's celebrated prophets, Isaiah is the king. The writings which bear his name are very profound and the prophecies from his book are all about faith. One great theme found in Isaiah is the theme of salvation by faith. It's about faith in God's promise to carry out salvation through his son, the virgin born Immanuel, which means "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14). The term Immanuel is a definite
Israelite history and religion from the patriarchal period to the second temple contains a number of covenants, laws, prophecies, moral lessons, relations with Canaanite culture and larger empires like the Roman Empire (which eventually tore down the second temple under Titus). The history of the Israelites is contained within the pages of the Hebrew Bible or the scripture of the Old Testament, as Christians call it. This information reveals an
Judaism and Christianity The religion of Judaism is one that goes back centuries and includes a description of the creation of the world, as found in the Book of Genesis. According to Judaism, the world was created by God, Who also created man in his own image. Being Christian, my religious tradition actually builds on the Judaic religious tradition. It refers to the Scriptural books pre-Christ as the Old Testament, and
Jerusalem Located east of Jordan River, the holy city of Jerusalem and its historic sacred atmosphere rest on the hills of the City of David. Its significance has spanned centuries -- millennia, in fact. Today it is viewed as a spiritual home to Christians, Jews, Orthodox and Muslim religions. Wars have been fought over it, and God Himself has been condemned to death there by a Roman prelate and the
Furthermore it is with Isaiah that one first becomes acquainted with the idea that the Messiah would die. "And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." The passage clearly predicts a Messianic figure who dies, in order to bring peace to the multitudes. "Out of the anguish of his