The Coming Messiah VI: The Davidic Line of Immanuel

The Immanuel Passages in Isaiah and the Need to Listen Carefully

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder, and we are again looking at the Immanuel passages. We find these in the book of Isaiah, starting with chapter 7, verse 14, where we read of the coming of a virgin who will give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.

Now, we know that that's Jesus of Nazareth, and you know, immediately when you hear a passage like that, in a sense, you want to kind of, with your invisible hand, you want to shoot your hand up and say, wait, wait, wait, I know this person.

I know Jesus Christ. And then, if you're not careful, you just fill in the rest of the sermon with all the facts that you already know of Christ. There's nothing wrong with that, but the problem is, then we become the teacher of the class, and we don't get to listen to Isaiah, and the slow and careful way that God has designed for Isaiah to reveal to us things about Jesus that not only people in his day needed to understand, but we need to understand.

The Davidic Covenant and the Promise of an Everlasting King

Now, last week, we got to chapter 9, verse 7, where we read that this Immanuel would govern over all the world, his government would bring peace, and there would be no end of the peace or the rule of this king, because he would sit on the throne of David.

And we've been asking ourselves this question, why do we see in chapter 9, again in chapter 11, and then in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and we find that in the Gospels, we find it in the book of Acts, we find it throughout the epistles, why is this connection between Immanuel, or Jesus, and David so critical for us really understanding the heights and the depths of God's faithfulness, and his zeal in keeping his word to us?

Well, last week we looked at this whole issue of the biblical covenants, where God initiates an agreement with a person, and through that person, all those that that person represents are impacted. God made a covenant with Adam, later with Noah, and then we have Abraham, we have Moses, we have David, and so we got all the way up to David.

What did we learn from the covenants, these great contracts of mercy, where we have, you know, through each one of these, it's like they're a window looking into the unfolding of redemption. Well, we learned when God spoke to Adam and Eve after their sin, that a rescuer would come and crush Satan, the serpent.

That rescuer would be wounded by the serpent's seed, those who reject God would hate this coming rescuer, but while they bruise his heel, he would crush the serpent's head. That would be a fatal wound, and we know that that person is, therefore, human.

He will come from Eve. When we get to Noah, we see that God promises that in spite of man's self-destructive tendencies in sin, God would preserve earth and not allow man to self-destruct, and nor would God pour out his wrath again in the way that he did in the flood.

God would preserve humanity so that this great plan of redemption would be accomplished. He will not let earth come to an end until he is finished doing what he plans to do. And then, in the covenant with Abraham, we see that this Savior will not just be human, but he will be from Abraham's coming family.

He will be a Jew. He will not just be a Jew, but he will be a king. When we come all the way, then, to David and the covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel chapter 17, what we learn is that this rescuer will be a Jew.

He will be a king. He will be of the tribe of Judah. He will also be from the family of David. And so, when we read this account where Nathan the prophet gives the covenant details to David in 2 Samuel 7, we find not only what kind of a person Emmanuel will be, but we find what things he will do, because in this great covenant that God makes with David, the ultimate fulfillment of this covenant is not David.

It's not even the first son of David, Solomon. It is the son of David, Jesus of Nazareth. And that's what we'll try to look at today, but in order to hit these things, we're going to have to go very quickly, and maybe you can take time later in the week to go back and study it for yourself.

Now, I want to read you the passage that contains this covenant, and then we'll just draw out some highlights for our look at Christ. In 2 Samuel 7, verse 8, we read this, Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David.

What's the therefore? Therefore. Well, David has established himself as a king. There's peace in the land. Everyone recognizes this is God's chosen man. So now that he's safe and he's built a palace for himself, he looks at the tabernacle and he realizes that God's Ark dwells in a tent, and God's King dwells in a beautiful palace, and he feels that this is inappropriate, and he wants to gather the material and build a beautiful temple for the worship of God at the heart of the nation in Jerusalem.

When he tells the prophet Nathan this, Nathan, like a good preacher, says,. That's a great idea. Go do it. God is with you. But that night, Nathan, in a vision from the Lord, is corrected. David is not the man that God has chosen to build the temple.

It will be David's son, Solomon, that will build that physical temple. So God sends Nathan back with that answer, but in that answer, much more is said. He goes on to say this,. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel.

I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. I will also appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may live in their own place, and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them anymore as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel.

And I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you, a lineage, a dynasty. When your days are complete, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, 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 correct him with the rod of men, and the strokes of the sons of men.

But my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, for your throne shall be established forever.".

The Davidic Covenant in Solomon and the Kings After Him

So that's the Davidic Covenant. Now, it has application in Solomon, obviously, as the son of David, or as the offspring of David, who builds a temple, and it has application in every king that follows in that line.

But the ultimate application we're going to see is in the work in the person of Jesus Christ, of Emmanuel. Well, what are the promises that are given? What are the privileges that will be enjoyed as the Davidic kings walk with God?

Now, they can be forfeited when the kings do not walk with the Lord, but if the king walks with the Lord, what can we expect, and ultimately, what will be accomplished? Well, first, it says that there will be a kingdom given, a throne established, which will have no end.

Psalm 89 talks about this in verse 3. I have made a covenant with my chosen, God says. I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your seed forever, and build up your throne to all generations.

It reminds us later of what Daniel says of the great kingdom of God that he is establishing, in contrast to the earthly kingdoms which God is throwing down. In Daniel 2, in verse 44, we read this,. In the days of those kings, the kings of the earth, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people.

It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Later in Daniel 7, you remember we see the vision of one like the Son of Man meeting God in His absolute glory in the clouds, and He comes unashamed, face uncovered, and He is given a kingdom that will spread and cover all creation, and it will never end.

No successor and no borders in the kingdom of Emmanuel. Well, what is the Son of David to do? His rule will provide peace and rest and prosperity. If a nation is constantly under attack by other nations around it, then the prosperity of that nation is destroyed.

You can't focus on business, you can't do international transactions, you can't, you know, go about your normal week and do the things that it takes for the bank account to fill up, if you're constantly having to deal with the assaults or the attacks of another nation.

But if there is rest, if God gives a nation peace and safety, then it can focus on the day-to-day things, and there's prosperity. And certainly that was, in some measure, fulfilled under Solomon. Before David ruled over all 12 tribes, there were times where God did give protection.

He brought them into the land, they were under the judges, but if you go back and read Judges, you realize that sometimes some of the tribes were under attack by enemies, and other tribes were safe. But never in the book of Judges do we see this wonderful prosperity, where all the tribes are under one king, and all the tribes at once are safe.

Christ the Temple Builder and the Living Temple

But we do see that in the promises made to David, and they are being fulfilled. In Solomon, Solomon's age was a golden age, and under Solomon, all 12 tribes saw prosperity. Next, God promises that through the Davidic king, his presence would be in the midst of his people.

That is, that the descendant of David, the son of David, would build a temple. And again, we see this in Solomon. And when Solomon builds this wonderful temple, and then prays at the dedication of the temple, he mentions the fact that God had promised this long before.

It was not the Mosaic covenant, but the Davidic covenant that provided for a temple to be at the heart of the nation. Now, while Solomon built a beautiful temple, and stood there with a nation under his rule, peaceful and prosperous, a highlight, really, in Old Testament history, God zealously keeping his word, that is a very pale picture of what we see Christ do.

Now, before we go and look at how Emmanuel fulfills this, I want to look at the expectations, not of God, but of the king in this Davidic covenant. What was expected of David's descendants? Well, basically, it's obedience.

You remember back in Deuteronomy 17, when Moses said, you're going to go into the promised land, and one day you will have kings. And when you have kings, this is what they are to do. When they are enthroned, they are to write out, completely, by hand, a copy of God's Word, of His law, and they are to do it in the presence of an appointed priest.

So the priest could come back to the people and say, our new king, who has just been crowned, has finished writing out the Word of God, the Law of God. He knows what God expects. He is to learn it, he is to practice it, he is to rule by it.

Have you ever noticed that in the Old Testament, no godly king feels free to make new laws, to change the law? You know, we don't have the Code of Solomon, or the Code of David, or the Law of Hezekiah, because God's law was the guide.

So the Davidic king must know, and do, and rule by the Law of God. Now let's bring this down to Jesus Christ. How does Emmanuel, connected with this throne of David, how does Emmanuel, the Son of David, how does he fill out the picture that we have in the Davidic Covenant?

Well, first of all, His Father has established for Him an everlasting kingdom, and He has placed Him as a ruler, not only of all of Israel, not only of all of the earth, but of all creation. We see this in Philippians, where Paul says that God has given Jesus at the end of His great work of redemption, He has given Him a name above every name, Lord.

We see in Revelation 5, and later in Revelation, Christ ruling at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all creation. The government of all things is on the shoulders of Emmanuel, and Emmanuel, as His work is completed, is seated in heaven beside His Father.

God gives Him a that has no border, and it will never end. But what does the rule of Emmanuel guarantee for every one of His subjects? It guarantees a kingdom that provides rest, or peace, or safety. Rest and peace between us and our God.

Ultimately, not just peace within, but peace everywhere. In the new creation, Christ will rule over all, and there will be no possibility of strife or sorrow. This kingdom will be an unshakable kingdom.

This kingdom will provide a temple where God dwells in the midst of His people, but not in Jerusalem, in a physical building, where God symbolically dwelt in the Holy of Holies, causing His glory to dwell there.

But you know that Christ is the temple builder. He is, even now, completing the Davidic Covenant. He is building a living temple, Paul says in Ephesians, where Jew and Gentile are brought together, and so to speak, we are cemented together with every other believer from the New Testament, and the Old Testament, and every believer that is yet to come.

And as one great living company, we are not just the family of God, or the bride of His Son, but we are the temple, the living temple, and God will dwell among His people. When you read Nathan's words to David in 2 Samuel 7, and you find these wonderful things hinted at, just little pencil sketches now, but later in the New Testament, so wonderfully not only accomplished, but explained, go back in your mind to the promise of Emmanuel.

He will sit on the throne of David. He is, chapter 11 says, the branch that grows off of Jesse, like David. He is the root system, the cause and creator of Jesse, and the sustainer of that Davidic line.

He is everything, and part of what we know about Him comes through understanding the unfolding of redemption through these wonderful covenants.