Royal Kingdom II- 2 Samuel 1-24

Notes

• An everlasting covenant

God makes His final covenant of the Old Testament with David. He promises to establish David’s kingdom as an eternal and everlasting dynasty, promises that David’s heirs will sit on his royal throne forever. He promises, too, that He will regard David’s heir as His own son.

Be sure to spend some time reading over this covenant oath (see 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 1 Chronicles 17:7-14). These are among the most important verses in all the Bible.

God’s promises here will give shape and direction, hope and drama of the remainder of the biblical narrative - all the way through the end of the New Testament.

Let’s pull apart the several promises of this covenant, and review them in order:

1. The Lord will establish a house for you: "House" means royal dynasty, so this means that David’s kingdom will be a dynasty.

2. I will raise up your heir…and make his kingdom firm: David’s son will rule over his kingdom.

3. He shall build a house for my name: David’s son will build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant.

4. I will be a Father to him and he shall be a son to Me: The son of David will be adopted as God’s own son. This is the first time that the idea of divine sonship is applied to one individual. While God had referred to Israel as His first-born son, no one as yet in the Bible has been called "son of God."

5. If he does wrong, I will correct him…with human chastisements, but I will not withdraw my favor from him: If David’s son breaks His Law, God will send punishments but will never disown him as He disowned Saul.

6. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever: David’s dynasty will never end. There will always be an heir of David seated upon his throne.

• The divided kingdom

There was always a dark underside to Solomon’s wisdom - his insatiable appetites for wealth, power, and women.

He overtaxed the Israelite tribes to finance great building projects and to build up a huge army (see 1 Kings 9; 12:3-4). He took in an extraordinary 666 gold talents every year (see 1 Kings 10:14). It’s interesting to note that 666 is the number of the evil beast in the Bible’s final book, which adds that "wisdom is needed" to understand what that means (see Revelation 13:17-18).

Like his father David, Solomon also had a weakness for women. Remember, that Solomon was born to Bathsheba, the wife David took after adultering with her and then having her husband killed to cover up his sin (see 2 Samuel 11-12:25).

Solomon’s lusts far eclipsed his father’s. Although God’s law forbade intermarriage with non-Israelites, "King Solomon loved many foreign women" - he had 700 wives and 300 concumbines. "And," the Scripture adds, "his wives turned his heart…to strange gods" (see1 Kings 11:1-3).

When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam refused the pleas of the tribes to lessen their tax burden. They rebelled. Ten of the twelve tribes, led by Jeroboam, split-off and established a Northern Kingdom, leaving Rehoboam to reign over two tiny tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the South.

The fracturing of the Davidic Kingdom is a crucial fact that you have to keep in mind as you read the remainder of the Bible, especially the prophets.

From this point out, when you read about "Israel," think: "Northern Kingdom" - the ten tribes who seceded under Jeroboam. Sometimes Israel or the Northern Kingdom will be referred to as "Ephraim" or "Samaria" or "Joseph."

And when you read about "Judah" or "Benjamin," or the "House of David," think: "Southern Kingdom" - the two tribes that continued to worship in Jerusalem.

Summary

• An everlasting covenant
• The divided kingdom

Questions

1. What are the promises in the covenant with David?
2. In 2 Samuel, David was anointed 3 times, in what cities and by whom?
3. In which cities did David reign?
4. Why did David think this was the time to build a dwelling place for the Ark?
5. What was God's response to David?
6. What the consequences of David's sin?

Bibliography

The Covenant with David