2 Samuel 5–9: A King & A Throne

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 18: Tuesday

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel; and Yahweh said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.’”

–

So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David cut a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; then they anointed David king over Israel. Now David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

2 Samuel 5:1–5 LSB

–

Today’s Bible reading of 2 Samuel 5–9, begins with David finally becomes king over all of Israel after years of civil war. Stop and pray, and ask God to teach you from His Word.

These chapters cover many notable events including war with and triumph over the Philistines, Moab, Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and the Arameans (2 Samuel 5:17-25, 2 Samuel 8); the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6); and David’s kindness to Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan and the only one left of Saul’s household (2 Samuel 9).

The most important event, however, occurs in 2 Samuel 7, when God establishes His covenant with David. David has told Nathan the prophet of his desire to build a house for God, and that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan about the covenant He was making with David.

“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will come forth from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will reprove him with the rod of men and the strikes from the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not be removed from him, as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”

2 Samuel 7:12–16 LSB

–

D. F. Payne writes,

“This passage [2 Samuel 7:1-17] is in many ways the most important of the books of Samuel. David’s noble wish to build a ‘house’ for his God was set aside, and instead God promised him a ‘house’ (i.e. a dynasty); God is no man’s debtor. But more than that, the dynasty was to be ‘for ever’ (v. 16); this was the basis of the Messianic hope, fulfilled in the NT.”¹

In his sermon, The Davidic Covenant, Ligon Duncan said:

“Now in these words [2 Samuel 7:11] and the following, we have the formal inauguration of God’s covenant with David, though the word covenant is not found here. Other passages explicitly state that this was a covenant inauguration. For instance Psalm 89, verses 3 and 4, “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to David, My servant, your seed will I establish forever and build up your throne to all generations.” You will also find that in Psalm 132. So later passages make this clear that this is a covenant inauguration.”

He pointed something out about the throne of David that I had never noticed.

“There is no covenant sign mentioned in the Davidic Covenant as a specific covenant sign. But if there is any symbol of the Davidic covenant, it would be the throne. And let me just give you one example of that. If you would turn with me to I Chronicles 29, verse 22, “they made Solomon, the son of David, king a second time, and they anointed him as ruler for the Lord and Zadok as priest. Then, Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord.” Yes, you read it right. Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord. You see there, what? An identification between the rule of God in Israel, and the rule of David in his seed. And so the throne in the Davidic Covenant functions to epitomize the message of the covenant with David. The teaching of, the prophetic teaching of the covenant of David, points us mostly to an understanding of two things. Jesus, office as king, and Jesus preaching of the kingdom. And that throne both points to the office of David and his descendants as the unique divinely appointed king of Israel, and to the rule of God in Israel, because God is even willing to call the throne of David, the throne of Yahweh.”

This prophecy in Isaiah speaks of Messiah on the throne of David:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6–7 LSB

–

When Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth, he spoke of God’s covenant with David, and David’s throne:

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.”

Luke 1:30–33 LSB

–

Matthew begins his gospel by immediately asserting Jesus is the son of David, and he then gives His lineage as David’s descendant:

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Matthew 1:1 LSB

–

Luke also traces the lineage of Jesus to David. If you look through the Gospels, you will find many instances in which Jesus is called the Son of David. The leaders, the people, and Jesus, Himself, knew that Messiah would be a descendant of King David.

And in the very last chapter of Revelation, in Jesus’ final words:

“I, Jesus, sent My angel to bear witness to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

Revelation 22:16 LSB

–

As God promised David thousands of years ago, “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”

–

Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Golden crown: Clker-Free-Vector-Images. (CC0 1.0)
¹D. F. Payne, “1 and 2 Samuel,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 305.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.