The Sure Mercies of David

Covenant = strong promise
God made a covenant with:
Adam
Noah
Abraham
Moses
Now, God makes a covenant with David!

2 Samuel 7: 12-16

12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love [mercy] will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' "

• What man lives forever?  v.13 and 14 God is talking about his son, Jesus.  He is the one who will succeed David as an heir and he will most definitely live forever.  Isaiah 9:6&7 describes the coming Christ:  Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given... Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father... he will reign forever on David's throne!  How could David ever have guessed what he was in for?

• Verse 13 God is saying that David's house and God's house will become one!  This sounds like the original purpose for which God created Adam... to rule and reign upon the earth as a perfect representation of the very image of God.  All along God has wanted to unite with man.  He wants to infuse himself into His creation.  Eph 5 talks about the union of man and wife in marriage, but then Paul reveals that he is really talking about Christ and the church.  What kind of mystery is this?  Incomprehensible.  God has made a covenant with a man named David, and he has promised that He will give him a son that will step off of his throne in heaven and enter into the loins of David's off-spring (both Mary and Joseph were direct descendants of King David).  The creator left behind heavenly glory where myriads upon myriads of angels were worshipping him and he stepped into the realm of dust that we call earth so that he could redeem the broken fellowship of Adam.  He wants to rule over creation not merely as God, but as a MAN!!  He is the man, Christ Jesus.

• Verse 15 God will never remove his mercy.  Does the law show mercy?  No.  Here, David is operating under the new covenant 1,000 years before Christ will walk the earth. Isaiah 55:3; alludes to this covenant by calling it "the sure mercies of David."  If you keep reading chapter 55, then you'll see that God is not like us at all for he shows mercy where we would crucify.  He says that even the wicked and unrighteous can be forgiven if they will just call upon His name. This is a radically different promise than the promise given to Moses.  James says if we break one part of the law, we break the whole law.  So, if we are jealous or covetous, we are also breaking the same law that says thou shall not murder.  It is just as bad.  It is all sin. And sin is imperfection, therefore, we have blown our chances of getting to heaven (if we operate under this covenant).  We must understand the people of Israel were founded upon the covenant of Moses.  But Jeremiah 31 states:

 31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD,        "when I will make a new covenant        with the house of Israel        and with the house of Judah.  32 It will not be like the covenant        I made with their forefathers        when I took them by the hand        to lead them out of Egypt,        because they broke my covenant,        though I was a husband to them, "        declares the LORD.  33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel        after that time," declares the LORD.        "I will put my law in their minds        and write it on their hearts.        I will be their God,        and they will be my people.

Hence, the law will no longer be written on tablets of stone, God will write it upon the hearts of his people through the Spirit of His Son, Christ Jesus, and He will empower us to do his will.  We will really love him, and we will no longer operate under the law that was never intended to bring life.