Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. During the weeks of Advent, we have meditated upon the meaning of the three-fold office of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. Today we focus on the kingship of Christ. Of the many titles ascribed to Jesus in holy Scripture, is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16, ESV).[1]
Kingship is not a familiar concept for Americans living in the twenty-first century. After all, it has been quite some time since we last had a king in the United States: 246 years, to be precise. On July 4th, 1776, the 13 colonies declared their independence from England when they rebelled against the authority of King George III.[2] That king left a rather nasty aftertaste in our mouths. We would rather have democracy than monarchy—or at least a democratic republic (to be more precise).
But don’t be hasty! Don’t overlook the fact that a sinful majority can be just as wrong as an absolute monarch. Presidents, senators, and congressmen can be just as corrupt—if not more so—than a king or queen. For in our hearts, all people are corrupt. We bristle against authority and chafe under command. We want to have our own way and be the directors of our own destinies.
This sinful impulse goes all the way back to the beginning of time. Man’s original sin was to rebel against God and reject his authority. Instead of serving God, Adam and Eve wanted to be “like God.” That is, they wanted to be gods unto themselves. As such, all sin is ultimately a rejection of divine rule.
God told Israel as much when the Israelites demanded a king from Samuel so that they could be like all the nations around them. Samuel was a prophet and the last judge of Israel. Samuel felt personally affronted by this outcry, but God told Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Sam. 8:7). Ever since the Exodus, Yahweh reigned as king over his people. But his people didn’t care much for that arrangement. God tried to warn the people that kingship would lead to military conscription, taxes, and forced labor, but they didn’t listen. They wanted an earthly king of their own to go and fight their battles for them.
So wanted to have a king, so God let them have it. He anointed Saul as the first king over Israel. But Saul turned out to be a sad picture of a king. He started out tall and handsome and humble, but he became petty, rash, and jealous. He disobeyed God so many times that the Lord finally rejected Saul as king and sought a man after his own heart to become king after Saul. That man was David, the son of Jesse, from the little town of Bethlehem.
We don’t have time to explore the entire saga of Saul and David in a sermon, but I encourage you to come to adult Bible class to learn more about the early days of monarchy in Israel. That is our focus during our study of 1 & 2 Samuel.
Let’s just say that after many years of living on the run, David finally became king. That’s where our Old Testament lesson begins:
“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 a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.’ And Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you’” (2 Sam. 7:1-3).
David wanted to do something big for God. He felt guilty that while he dwelt in the lap of luxury in a beautiful palace, the ark of the covenant sat in a tent (the Tabernacle). Didn’t the mercy seat above the ark, the throne of God’s grace, deserve a more fitting resting place? David decided to build a temple for the Lord.
David told Nathan of his grand designs, and of course the prophet was excited. What pastor do you know who wouldn’t be excited to have a big donor give an offering to build a bigger, fancier, more attractive church?
But God had other plans. Through Nathan, Yahweh told King David: “Do you want to build a house for me? My ark has been in the Tabernacle—a tent of my own design—for hundreds of years, and when did I ever ask someone to build me a temple? You know what, David? Instead, I am going to build a house for you!”
There’s a great pun that runs through the entirety of 2 Samuel 7. The Hebrew word for house (tyIBææ, ba’yit) has several meanings. In its most basic sense, tyIBæ means a house that you live in. But in reference to a king’s house, tyIBæ indicates a palace. But the word tyIBæ can mean a temple when used for the place of worship for a god. Thus, God’s house is a temple. David dwelt in a house of cedar (palace) and wanted to build a temple (house) for Yahweh. But Yahweh instead wanted to build a house for David.
But what kind of house could that be? Didn’t David already have a house to live in? Yes, but God was still punning on yet another meaning of the Hebrew word tyIBæ which is a royal house or royal family. Yahweh was going to build David into a dynasty!
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house [i.e., Temple] 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 a 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 love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul…. And your house [i.e., dynasty] and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:12-16).
Wow! That’s a lot to unpack. There’s a lot to take in there. But here’s what it all boils down to: after David died, one of his descendants (his “son” or “offspring”) would build a house (temple) for Yahweh, and God would establish his throne forever. If he did wrong, God would discipline, but he would never take away the throne from David’s family. His house (dynasty) would never die out. David’s throne would remain forever.
Those are amazing promises: a throne that would never fade, a kingdom that would never be taken away, and a royal house that would never die. For many years Bible scholars have debated to whom they refer: Solomon or Jesus. In Solomon’s favor are the obvious facts that he was David’s immediate biological son and the very next king after him. Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem. And when Solomon’s lustful heart led him to worship the pagan gods of his many wives, Yahweh did discipline him. He told him that ten tribes of Israel would be taken away from his son Rehoboam. But at least Solomon would live out his days in peace, reigning over a united kingdom.
But Solomon’s throne didn’t last forever, and his kingdom did come to an end. Rehoboam and his successors ruled over a smaller, lesser, southern kingdom of Judah, while the other ten tribes formed a new northern kingdom of Israel. And, as I mentioned in my Sunday sermon about the stump of Jesse, despite Yahweh’s promises, that Davidic throne and kingdom became corrupt and fell into ruin after the kings of Judah worshiped false gods and resorted to child sacrifice. The last king of Judah was Zedekiah, who was carted off blind and bound to Babylon. Surely, this covenant cannot be all about Solomon!
But what about Jesus? Was he a descendant of David? Was of royal “seed” or “offspring.” Yes, the genealogy of Matthew proves that. But did Jesus build a temple for the Lord? Yes, he did, although not in the normal sense. Remember what Jesus told the Jews: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Then John tells us, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (v. 21). Jesus’ Body is the last and greatest temple of Yahweh, a temple that was destroyed on the cross but raised from the grave on the third day. Jesus died and rose again. 40 days later he ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. Christ is enthroned in heaven, and neither his throne nor his kingdom will ever come to an end. They are eternal.
Yet what about the problem of David’s descendent sinning against God and being disciplined (2 Sam. 7:14)? How could Jesus do wrong? He is the sinless Son of God. He never committed any iniquity of any kind! How then can he be the fulfillment of the covenant with David? That is a very astute question and one that must be dealt with.
Here again the New Testament answers our objections. Jesus may not have sinned, but he carried our sin to the cross. He became accursed for us. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). Yet St. Paul pushes the envelope even further when he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Wow! Just wow. Can you get your mind around that?! God made Jesus become sin! The sinless Son of God became sin on the cross so that we might become the righteousness of God. Christ became sin for us, and so he died for us. On the cross, God disciplined Jesus “with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men” (2 Sam. 7:14). And now, by his stripes, we are healed (cf. 1 Pet. 2:24, KJV).
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David. He is the King whose kingdom will never end and whose throne will never be taken away. He cannot die, so he rules and reigns forever in mercy and grace. And after he returns on the Last Day, he will reign with justice as he punishes the wicked and puts the world to rights. Rightly do we call him King of kings and Lord of lords. For there is none other like him.
While often overlooked, This Davidic Covenant has similar significance in our salvation history as the covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 12 and 15). Yet it is more specific, funneling the promise of Messiah from Abraham’s line to the tribe of Judah to the house of David and, ultimately, to Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the King. And that is why the kingship of Christ matters to you.
I want to close with a benediction from the coronation prayer of Psalm 72. This Psalm was likely written for the succession of a Davidic king to the throne of his father. But ultimately—like all Scripture—it points us to Christ. “May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!” (Ps. 72:17). Long live the King! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
[1] All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
[2] Although, one could argue historically that it was actually Parliament that was holding the reins of state.