Morning Light – October 20th, 2015: The Davidic Covenant

Morning Light – October 20th, 2015
Source:
http://ift.tt/1LIveEC
Today: [1 Chronicles Seventeen] Today: [1 Chronicles Seventeen] The Davidic Covenant. In this chapter David presumes to build God a house and the prophet Nathan concurs. However in the night God instructs Nathan that David will not build Him a house – on the contrary God will build DAVID a house that will stand forever. This constitutes the Davidic Covenant that you and I are partakers of as kings and priests unto God.
[1Ch 17:1-27 KJV] 1 Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD [remaineth] under curtains. 2 Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that [is] in thine heart; for God [is] with thee. 3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in: 5 For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from [one] tabernacle [to another]. 6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars? 7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, [even] from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel: 8 And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that [are] in the earth. 9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning, 10 And since the time that I commanded judges [to be] over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee an house.
In this chapter we find David in the house that Hiram the king of Tyre built for him. Furthermore David has returned the ark to Jerusalem and set it up in what has become known as the Tabernacle of David. He appointed singers and musicians to surround the ark and sing and worship 24 / 7 praising the Lord and His enduring mercies. Imagine David sitting in his house, perhaps in a portico overlooking the Tabernacle where the ark stood in a cloud of glory surrounded by skilled and anointed musicians and singers. He calls for the prophet Nathan and inquires after building a house for the Lord. Nathan without thinking replies and gives his consent. Notice however that Nathan didn’t say “thus says God…” The following night the voice of the Lord comes to Nathan and instructs him to forbid David to build what is in his heart.
God’s ways are not our ways. It was God’s intention that a house be built but it was not to be done on David’s time table. David was such a special and anointed king that if he had built the “temple of David” instead of the temple of Solomon that was later commissioned the people would have worshipped David instead of Jehovah. This was exactly what happened centuries later when the Pharisees and Sadducees worshipped and honored Moses more than they did Jesus their own Messiah standing before them in the temple.
God tells David through Nathan that David isn’t going to build Him a house – on the contrary God is going to build David a house. Now realize that David is sitting in the house that had already been built for him. So evidently God was not talking about a brick and mortar place of residence. We don’t build God a house – He builds us a house. In fact we are a house builded together of God’s design and construction.
[1Pe 2:5 KJV] 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Again this points to the broader purposes of God that go beyond our individual relationship with Jesus. There are aspects of the Kingdom we cannot seek unless we do so as a many membered body, a corporate house functioning to reflect praise and glory to God in the earth. This is more than religious culture or Christianity as we know it. This is the mystical body of Christ, the Temple of God in the earth which you and I are as we come together not assembled by man but connected in relationship to one another by God each carrying out our assignments – walking worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.
11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go [to be] with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. 13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took [it] from [him] that was before thee: 14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore. 15 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. 16 And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who [am] I, O LORD God, and what [is] mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? 17 And [yet] this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast [also] spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God. 18 What can David [speak] more to thee for the honour of thy servant? for thou knowest thy servant. 19 O LORD, for thy servant’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, in making known all [these] great things. 20 O LORD, [there is] none like thee, neither [is there any] God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21 And what one nation in the earth [is] like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem [to be] his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?
God promises to raise up seed after David specifically Solomon who will in fact build a temple. Furthermore God promises that His mercy will not depart from Solomon as it did from king Saul. Solomon and Saul’s name both mean the same thing. In fact Samuel who anointed Saul and David both and Solomon, and Saul all shared a common meaning for their name – “asked for”. Hannah ask for a son and God gave her Saul. The people asked for a king and God gave them Saul. Who asked for Solomon? After the death of Bathsheba’s first born no doubt David and Bathsheba cried out to God for a redemptive act that would signify forgiveness due to the choices they had made and God not only gave Solomon but three other sons as well to David and Bathsheba.
Here we see the sovereignty of God to reach into the situation where David committed adultery and murder yet out of that union brought for the lineage out of which Jesus Himself would eventually emerge. God is God and He can do anything He wants any time He wants and He doesn’t have to check with anyone (aren’t you glad). There may be those that would discount you and rule you out – BUT GOD. There may be those that say God “will never” do thus and so in your life BUT GOD. Many times I believe God pours out His favor on the very people that judgmental Christians condemn in order to reprove their critical hearts and confound their erroneous judgments.
David comes out of his palace and sits before the ark of the Covenant. He is dumbfounded that God would do such a thing in his life. Nathan speaking through the word of the Lord has laid out David’s generations for centuries – promising to preserve His seed FOREVER – and in fact with the birth of Jesus there sits on the throne of the universe a Davidic king who will never be deposed or removed from power. In theology this is called the Davidic Covenant and it is still in force today with implications for you and I because we are likewise kings and priests unto God in Christ Jesus.
[Rev 1:6 KJV] 6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be] glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
This is not just talking about what happens in heaven one day but what is true of us now in our earth walk on this side of eternity.
[Rev 5:10 KJV] 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
You are a king and priest unto God. You have been grafted in not just to the line of Abraham but to the line of David Himself and the lineage of kings continues in you. God therefore has covenanted with you to fight your battles and give you the favor and the victory that He gave to king David and to his son Solomon and every successive righteous king in that royal line.
22 For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God. 23 Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said. 24 Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts [is] the God of Israel, [even] a God to Israel: and [let] the house of David thy servant [be] established before thee. 25 For thou, O my God, hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him an house: therefore thy servant hath found [in his heart] to pray before thee. 26 And now, LORD, thou art God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: 27 Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O LORD, and [it shall be] blessed for ever.
David ponders the covenantal language with which the prophet Nathan has spoken and declares “let the thing spoken be established…” It is necessary that you and I see what God has spoken of us. It is so important that God raised up minds like that of Paul to write two-thirds of the New Testament to prove beyond any measure that we are the seed of Abraham through Christ and that the Davidic Covenant applies to us by virtue of the blood and body of the Lord Jesus Christ of which you are I are partakers. You are a king. You are a king in a long line of God. The favor of God is on you. The mercies of God will never forsake you. You house is blessed. Your house is blessed forever and the name of the Lord will be magnified in the measure by which He blessed you in such a conspicous way that He name is praised by all those who see His goodness established in your life in the land of the living.