WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.280 Second Samuel chapter 7 verses 8 through 17. 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:20.239 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:26.719 And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:32.799 And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:42.880 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:56.159 And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:01.759 Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:13.439 When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.920 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:24.719 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:32.400 When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:40.879 But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:46.239 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:49.760 Your throne shall be established forever. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:56.079 In accordance with all these words and in accordance with this vision, Nathan spoke to David. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:57.519 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:58.719 Please be seated. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:02.640 Welcome to church this morning. 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.040 Happy Memorial Day weekend. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:13.120 We'll remember and thank you as we remember those who have died in defense of our country. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:19.680 What a wonderful thing that we live in a nation where we can gather freely to worship God. 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:21.280 And that was not without cost. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:23.199 So we remember that this weekend. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:26.479 A couple of announcements before we jump into our text. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.759 First of all, welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:35.120 We currently meet in the future home of the Heights Church, which is what the signs say outside. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:41.199 So our building has sold, and that means we are going to be moving soon. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:49.360 Currently, we are able to stay in the building for the next six months, and we're going to be moving to evening services. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:57.759 So the Heights Church, the church that purchased the building, will be moving in doing morning services, and we will be doing evening services. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:01.759 And our rent throughout these next six months is free. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.080 Which I'm gonna say every time that I get a chance to say free rent. 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:08.639 Um because that's very exciting. 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:17.360 Uh as we uh so what that means is that June 9th, we are moving to evening services. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:23.759 We had a vote uh where you could have voted for what service time we are moving to. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:26.240 Are you guys ready to find out when we're gonna be meeting? 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:28.159 Yeah, this is very exciting. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.120 So we're going to be meeting at Well. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:35.680 Oh man. 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:38.800 Um well, you guys will figure it out. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.360 Um so we're going to be meeting at for the podcast. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:43.360 We're going to be meeting at 4.30. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.400 Um 4.30 will be our service time. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:48.560 That was the plurality. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:55.439 Um we had three options, and it was uh the other two uh were were distant, second and third. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:59.120 Um so look, you you have only yourselves to blame. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:00.639 Um 4.30. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.960 I'm actually really excited about that time. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:06.560 Um not for any particular reason. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:08.000 Um but 430. 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:09.919 So June 9th, mark your calendars. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:16.800 June 9th, if you show up for a morning service on June 9th, you're gonna be going to a whole other church. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:28.879 Um so uh sing extra loud and uh introduce yourself and praise Jesus and then go get lunch and hang out in the park for the afternoon and then come to church again. 00:04:29.199 --> 00:04:31.199 Uh that can be your day on June 9th. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:33.040 Um so yeah, it's exciting. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:34.480 We're moving along here. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:39.040 Um the at Redemption Church Denver, we gather in two ways. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:41.600 We gather and we gather. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:50.399 And so if you uh uh you're part of our large group gathering now, and we also gather small in each other's homes throughout the week. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:57.360 So if you would like to be a part of one of those small groups, which we call redemption groups, we have an incredible marketing team. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:11.680 Uh those redemption groups, you can uh join those by going to the Redemption Church Denver app and clicking on or tapping on uh groups and then join and browse for one that's closest to you. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:17.040 Those are starting a new series the week of June 2nd. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:20.240 So that's just next week that that new series will be starting. 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:24.800 So this is an excellent time to join a group if you haven't been a part of one. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:33.120 This series is continuing throughout the summer, and we're going to be going through the Psalms of David to kind of complement the David study that we've been doing. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:46.160 Thought it would be interesting to look at the psalms in our small group, ones that he has written, and we can see how he processed the events that he uh has gone through that we've studied together in our large gatherings. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:48.560 So that is starting the week of June 2nd. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:50.959 Also, our Gotham Fellows. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:56.319 Uh Gotham Fellowship is a nine-month discipleship intensive that we offer as a church. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:04.480 And for the masochists that signed up for it last year, they are not here this morning, they are in Breckenridge on their final retreat. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:06.160 Um it's very exciting. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.639 This is our third core cohort to uh to go through the Gotham curriculum. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:16.079 Uh, if you would like to be a part of that for next year, it goes from August to May. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:21.360 Uh applications will close at the end of this month. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.399 So midnight on the 31st. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:28.399 Um, probably like early morning on the first. 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:31.120 But uh applications will close then. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.240 So we've got about two spaces left. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:38.720 Um so if you would like to be a part of that, get your applications in quickly. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.120 All right, so there's some big announcements. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:46.959 Let's go ahead and pray, and we'll get into our text for them uh for the day. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.720 Father, you are a covenant-keeping God. 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.839 Your love is steadfast because you've promised that to us. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:01.040 And we see those promises in your word. 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:20.399 I pray that as we look at such a promise today, that you would make it a bedrock of our hearts, so that our lives might be provided with a context so that we know what we can stand on that is certain, and what we can look forward to that you will do. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:24.720 Lord, in our lives that type of certainty is so rare. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:30.800 That type of comfort seems impossible to have, and yet you offer it to us. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.800 So, Father, open our hearts that we might see that in your word today. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:36.480 We lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:37.360 Amen. 00:07:39.279 --> 00:08:20.319 So it starts off with Adam, and with his, he goes sideways, and then he has some sons, they go even more sideways, and uh things start to go crazy in the world, and so God sends a flood, and then there's Noah, and God makes a covenant with Noah, and then his sons continue on, and then there's Abraham, and Abraham has his sons, uh Isaac and Jacob, and uh one of Jacob's sons ends up through this incredible turn of events in Egypt, the second highest in command in the land of Egypt. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:31.839 And in uh that time, the rest of the family comes and joins him in Egypt, and then for 400 years they grow as a people in Egypt, but they're enslaved. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:45.120 And God comes and he rescues that people after 400 years from their time in Egypt, and he brings them out under Moses through the Red Sea, and he says, I'm gonna bring you to a promised land. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:54.000 And when he when they're on the way there, they go and they uh uh scope out the promised land and they get scared. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:57.360 And so God says, All right, more wilderness for you. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:28.320 And then they move into the promised land and they live in this time as sort of discordant tribes where they're cycling through this movement of uh being oppressed by someone in the land of Canaan and then crying out to God and God sending someone to rescue them, and then they rebel against God again, and then God sends someone to rescue them, and then they rebel again, and God sends someone to rescue them, and they go through this cycle until one day they ask, can we have a king? 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:35.360 And then they get a king, and the way that they asked for that first king was a rebellion against God. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.279 It was a way of saying, God, we don't want you to be king over us. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:42.720 We want to be just like all the other nations. 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:49.360 And so that first king God gives them is a king who is just like all the other nations. 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.039 That's King Saul. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:56.720 But then God gives them a king of his own choosing. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:06.559 And he anoints a young boy named David, and David's life becomes no less complicated than the history of Israel. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:23.919 It's full of turmoil, full of strife, full of an incredibly painful journey towards the throne, but then one day David is king, and the nation is united, and they're at peace. 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:39.679 So what is it that holds this strange history of a very dysfunctional family who becomes a small tribe, who then becomes a nation? 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.120 What is it that holds that history together? 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.039 It's God's covenants. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:53.440 It's the promises that God has made to his people. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:11:00.240 Today we're going to look at God establishing a covenant with David. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:11.279 David sits finally as king in this moment where he is receiving the benefits of the promises that God had made to his ancestors. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:17.519 And in this moment, God sees this covenant that he has made and he gives David a new covenant. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:24.399 It's like the other ones, but it expands upon them and it looks forward to something even better. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:28.720 We worship a God who makes promises to us. 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:37.039 We worship a God who identifies himself with us by entering into covenants with us. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:45.279 And it's those covenants, those promises, that uphold our relationship with God. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.039 We do not worship a vague God. 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:56.080 We do not trust in some disposition or some whim that God may have. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.600 God doesn't call us to move in faith towards him like that. 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.799 We worship a particular God. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:07.840 One who says, I make this promise to you. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:10.559 Believe this thing. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.039 You will see it happen. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:18.399 Today, God makes that type of promise. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:25.679 So we're moving quite a bit ahead from where we were last week. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:29.840 Last week we saw that Saul was killed and David lamented. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:36.879 This week we jump ahead six chapters, and we're just gonna move to where David becomes king. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:47.600 So the process of David becoming king after Saul died was actually a whole other set of very complicated circumstances. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:52.879 So Saul's sons died with him in battle, except for one. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:13:00.000 One son who we hadn't heard about, who just sort of came on the scene late, was a son named Ishbasheth. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:06.799 And Ishbasheth immediately becomes king of the northern part of Israel. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:12.720 And David is made king of the southern tribe of Judah. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.679 So David is over one kingdom. 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:24.639 And through a long series of events with a lot of intrigue, David the good guy has a bad guy who's his second in command. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:29.360 Ishbasheth the bad guy has a good guy who's his second in command. 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:33.840 It's very complicated because life is very complicated. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:46.000 And what happens is a group of people, uh actually two people who are in the northern tribe with Ishbesheth. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:54.320 They trick Ishbasheth and they behead him and they bring the head to David and they say, Look, your enemy is now dead. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:14:00.559 And David says, Do you remember what I did to the guys who killed Saul like this? 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:04.240 Who thought they could garner favor with me? 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:08.159 I had them executed, and David did the same to them. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:17.039 And so the elders of the northern tribe of Israel, they come to David and they say, Look, things are going good in Judah. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:21.440 Things are going bad in our northern tribes. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.159 You should be king over us. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.159 God has anointed you king over all of this. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:41.039 And so for the first time in Israel's history, it goes from this loose collection of a lot of intertribal warfare held together by this vague memory of past promises to their ancestors. 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:47.600 And now, under David, for the first time in its history, it's a unified kingdom. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:53.200 Just as had been promised in Canaan. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:59.600 This is a climactic moment in the history of Scripture. 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:04.720 So we'll jump in to 2 Samuel 7, 1 through 3. 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:21.360 It says, Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan, the prophet, See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:26.799 And Nathan said to the king, Go do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:30.000 Now we've got to press in on that first sentence. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:30.879 It's so important. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:37.519 Now, when the king lived in a house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, D.J. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:52.960 McCarthy, a Bible scholar from the 60s, he says that this term rest from all his surrounding enemies, he says this is practically a technical term in the Deuteronomic writings for Yahweh's ultimate blessing on Israel. 00:15:53.279 --> 00:16:00.080 This is a phrase that means God has ultimately blessed Israel. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:03.200 It is now in this moment realized. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:28.399 David's terrible experience of his ascent to the throne and this odd intrigue that brought him to the United Kingdom, they're there. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:30.559 They are there. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:33.279 They're in the land of Canaan. 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:41.039 They're surrounded by peace for the first time. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:47.840 It's a technical term for God's ultimate blessing on Israel. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.440 If you've been waiting for finally a climactic moment, this is it. 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:56.240 This is it. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:03.200 And so David tells his prophet, look, I'm finally situated now. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.880 I'm in a permanent location. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:11.039 The kingdom is in a permanent location. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:17.039 But the ark is still located in a tent. 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:25.759 The same type of tent we would use when we were wandering around in the wilderness, when we had no place, when we weren't a nation. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:33.440 And so it's set on David's heart to make God's presence with his kingdom permanent. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:36.960 So that they would be united together. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:48.720 And Nathan, a friend of David's and his prophet, said a phrase that he probably got used to saying to David, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:51.680 Says, yeah, you're probably right. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.640 You've been right a lot before. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:01.440 And God's response, however, is actually kind of strange. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.920 Because you'd think God would say, like, yeah, make it permanent, make my dwelling permanent with you now. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:06.559 That's great. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.119 David, your heart in this is so incredible. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:12.480 And then God has this strange response to David. 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:20.720 In 2 Samuel 7, verses 6 and 7, God, through Nathan, says this in response to David's desire. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:28.079 He says, I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.000 But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:46.319 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.599 I feel like if I were David, I'd be like, come on. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.720 God's like, I never asked for this. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:19:01.839 Did I ever, the whole time we were wandering in the wilderness, was I ever like, oh guys, build me a cedar house instead? 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:14.559 What God is pressing into here with his response is he's describing these two aspects of God which are so hard to hold together, they're impossible to fit together into one person's mind. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:19.680 He's describing his imminence and his transcendence. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:32.079 He's describing that he is here with us and that he is completely other than us, totally beyond us, in a way that we could never access. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:43.440 He describes his transcendence in the way that he responds to David, saying, Look, you think you, a mortal, could build a house for me? 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:49.200 You think that you could build me a house, and I'd just move in. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:55.039 That's the way you think this relationship is structured, that you're the one who builds things for me. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:20:00.720 But then the way that he describes it is in the pattern of his imminence. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:08.160 It's in it's by describing the closeness that he had shown to Israel throughout their whole wilderness experience. 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:18.160 He says, I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling in all the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:25.200 This completely transcendent God, who, when you say, Let me build you a house, says, You think you could build me a house? 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:31.680 Lived in a tent with a group of people that are wandering around in the wilderness. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:40.319 God's response is this gentle rebuke that shows these two sides of our God. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:43.440 His closeness to us. 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:45.759 Are you in the wilderness right now? 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:47.920 Are you just wandering around intense? 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:48.880 Do you have no place? 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.720 Does your story have no coherence or no meaning seemingly? 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:54.720 I'm with you in that. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:59.680 Okay, God, then I I will do, I will do something for you. 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:01.680 I'll create an enclosure for you. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:04.400 Then you will definitely be with me. 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:06.799 No, I'm not that type of God. 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.880 You could never create something for me that would be a sufficient home. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:14.559 And so God does this sort of twist. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:20.400 And he makes a new covenant with David right after saying this. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:24.880 And it basically says, David says, I'll build you a house. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:26.559 That way you'll be with me permanently. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:30.000 And God says, You build me a house, I build you a house. 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:32.400 That's the way it goes. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:34.799 You wanna, you think you're gonna build me a house? 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:36.960 I'm gonna build you a house. 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:43.359 So this Davidic covenant, the covenant of David. 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:45.920 That's what we're going to explore. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:48.160 O. 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:58.160 Palmer Robertson, another excellent theologian, who really has helped me so much in piecing together these covenants of God. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:21:59.759 In his book, The Christ. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.000 Of the covenants describes the Davidic covenant like this. 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.440 This is what we're looking into. 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:18.640 He says, in the Davidic covenant, God's purposes to redeem a people to himself reach their climactic stage of realization, so far as the Old Testament is concerned. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.799 Under David, the kingdom arrives. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:29.279 God formally establishes the manner by which he shall rule among his people. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:33.359 That's what we're about to look at. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:41.279 So God moves in to establish the manner that he's going to bring his redemption to the world. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.759 He does it in this covenant with David. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:52.160 So God begins through Sam through Nathan in 2 Samuel verses 7, 8 through 9. 00:22:53.279 --> 00:23:10.960 It says, Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:18.559 And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:24.000 Look at the way that God introduces himself to David. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:29.759 It's so personal. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:37.279 It's his own work in David's own life story. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:48.079 I think if we were to introduce God, if I were, I would, I would likely say something, you know, I would say what I learned in school. 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:50.480 I would say, he's the 3-0 God. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:54.079 He's omniscient, he's omnipresent, and he's omnibenevolent. 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.039 And you know, you know what that God means to me? 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:01.279 Basically nothing. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:09.440 But that's not the way that God expects us to know him. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:18.880 In a way that's saying to God, let me build you a house of these categories, and then I'll just be able to put you in those things. 00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:23.279 God says, Build me a house, let me build you a house. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:30.319 And so he introduces himself to David in this way where he says, Do you remember the sheep? 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:35.200 Remember in your father's house, you would go and you would tend to the sheep? 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:37.279 That's where I met you. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:43.440 And I took you from that place and I made you to be prince over my people. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:48.000 And do you remember all the enemies that you faced on that journey? 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:49.279 Do you remember all the hardship? 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:52.079 Do you remember the hiding in the caves? 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:54.000 I was with you. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:58.799 I've been with you in those places. 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:03.440 Is that the way that you would describe God if somebody asked you? 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:13.279 When you reflect back on what does it mean to be in a covenant relationship with the Lord of the universe, do you think, I'll tell you who God is. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:20.240 God is the one who, when my parents were getting a divorce and I felt like I had no one to turn to, he was with me. 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:21.920 I made it. 00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:30.400 God is the one that when my future fell apart and I felt like the story was over, he was God, you know who that is? 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.119 He's the one who threw that, he was with me. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:56.960 When I was kicked out of school, when my marriage ended, when my friend died, when I finally made it through all that difficulty and was able to finally have a business that cash flowed or whatever your thing is, he he was with me that whole time. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:08.559 I can see it in all these places where something that shouldn't have worked did, where something that should have crushed me really, really hurt, but somehow I wasn't crushed. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:13.519 He's with me. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.559 That's the way God introduces himself to David. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.839 He draws himself intimately close to his own story. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:29.359 Oh Robertson, he says this. 00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:36.559 He says that the heart of the Davidic covenant is the Emmanuel principle. 00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:40.720 Emmanuel means God with us. 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:45.519 This is the heart of the Davidic covenant. 00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:49.200 That God would be with us. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:52.640 This is our hope. 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:59.759 That through these trials, through these hardships, that we wouldn't be alone. 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:03.680 But God would be with us. 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:15.519 So then after that introduction, God lays out ten promises to David, each beginning with God saying, I will. 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:17.519 It's a lot to read. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:22.079 So I just broke down the ten promises into ten bullet points. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:29.599 The first promise that God makes to David is he says that I will make a great name for David. 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:32.559 He will have a name like the great ones of the earth. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:34.799 Think Alexander the Great. 00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:36.640 That's a name that lasts. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:40.000 David is at least in that category. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:47.119 God promises that he will appoint a place for his people. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.039 They will have a place in the world. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:54.319 There is no more wandering in the wilderness. 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:58.400 There is no more loose collection of warring tribes. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:02.400 There is one nation together in a place. 00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:06.480 God will plant them so they will last. 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:09.440 They'll be established here. 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:12.480 You know when you just moved to a city? 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:14.720 You know when you just moved to Denver? 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:17.759 And there was that series of time where people said, How are you doing? 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:20.880 And you said, I'm just, you know, trying to get settled. 00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:24.960 He's saying they'll be in a place and they'll be settled. 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:30.799 I don't know that there's such a thing as, oh, I finally feel settled now. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.480 I never recognized that moment when we moved to Denver. 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:38.400 But God is saying there will be that time. 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:41.440 You will be planted. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:46.640 Fourth, God will give them rest from their enemies. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:54.960 No longer will they live in fear, but they will live in safety, at rest from the constant warfare. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:29:03.200 Five, God will build David a house, and he will establish his dynasty. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:17.920 God always one for a play on words, flips David's use of the term house for a building, and he turns it into, I will build you a house, which means a dynasty that will last forever. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.480 Sixth God will raise up David's offspring. 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:29.440 Seventh, God will establish his offspring's kingdom forever. 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:35.519 How different from the way that he worked with Saul. 00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:48.559 He comes to David, a particular person, and he says, I will establish the dynasty of your offspring, your offspring's kingdom, that will be established forever. 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:50.480 It will never go away. 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:55.839 Eight, David's offspring will build a house for God. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:29:59.359 Do you see the turn? 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:01.039 I'm gonna build you a house. 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:03.200 You build me a house, I'm gonna build you a house. 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:06.240 And then the house that I build you will build me a house. 00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:09.920 That's the way God structures it. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:14.000 Ninth, listen to this. 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:18.640 God will be to David's offspring a father. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:23.599 And his offspring will be to God a son. 00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:28.960 And like a loving father, God will discipline his son. 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:34.240 Ten. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:41.680 God will not remove his steadfast love from David's offspring. 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:56.079 You know, when you are in love, you make promises and you try and find ways to expand them. 00:30:58.079 --> 00:31:00.000 I'll love you forever. 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:04.960 My wife always says, I love you to the moon and back times a thousand. 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:06.799 Isn't that adorable? 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:11.200 Times a thousand? 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:14.000 That's so many times. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:20.400 It's like maybe like once to the sun. 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:23.200 So I don't know why we don't just say that. 00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:36.960 And what we want to say is this love is gonna last forever. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:41.680 What we want to say is this has a house. 00:31:42.640 --> 00:31:44.319 It's permanent. 00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:46.480 This won't move. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:50.160 God can actually say that. 00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.640 When God makes that covenant with us, it's like He's makes this marriage with us. 00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:04.720 And he says, I will never remove my steadfast love from the house of David. 00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:08.079 I'll never remove it. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:17.680 God bears this promise out in history. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:24.880 David has this incredible dynasty after him. 00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:38.880 For four hundred years, there is not there is someone from the line of David who sits on the throne in Judah for 400 years. 00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:43.920 Now, you probably aren't don't have a lot of dynasty comparisons in your head right now. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:45.839 So here's a few dynasty comparisons. 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:49.759 The average Mesopotamian dynasty, 100 years. 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:53.119 So David's is 400 years. 00:32:53.359 --> 00:32:58.400 The longest Egyptian dynasty was 250 years. 00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:04.240 This outstrips any other ancient Near Eastern dynasty. 00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:07.920 Nothing comes close to the dynasty of David. 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:11.200 But it begs a question, right? 00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:14.000 It ended. 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:42.319 After four hundred years, the nation is so deeply rebellious that they receive this highest of discipline from the Lord, and they're sent into exile, captured, moved into Babylon, and they lose that permanent home. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.599 They lose the king on the throne. 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.240 The dynasty is over. 00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:51.759 So what does that mean? 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:56.319 What does that mean of God's covenant promise to David here? 00:33:56.720 --> 00:33:58.079 What do we do with this? 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:08.480 Well, the key thing to see here is that David's covenant, God's covenant with David is both a culmination and an anticipation. 00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:18.000 It is a culmination because this is a covenant that builds upon the covenants that God had made with Abraham and Moses. 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:34.400 David is not just the origin point for a promise that will continue on into the future, but where he stands, he is the benefactor of promises that God had made to other people in the past. 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:39.280 God promised Abraham, I will make you a great nation that will bless the world. 00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:44.000 Your people will be as the sands of the sea, and they will live in the land of Canaan. 00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:45.760 I'm going to give you that land. 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:51.840 And there David sits, king over a united nation in Canaan. 00:34:53.119 --> 00:35:00.960 God tells Moses that you, I will be your God, you will be my people, here's my covenant, here is my law. 00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:04.239 Live according to this, and you will have life. 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:08.159 And if you don't live according to this, then you will have death. 00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:12.719 They are benefiting from the life that they had received. 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:21.199 But in the same way, they don't uphold the law. 00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:26.800 They don't uphold the law of the covenant that God had made with Moses. 00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:30.800 And so there were two sides to this thing. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:38.559 And so God disciplines them as they are under the law and he removed the kingdom from them. 00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:44.800 But it is not just that he is, that this is the culmination of other promises. 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:49.840 This is also the anticipation of a promise that is yet to come. 00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:54.400 This promise builds throughout the history of Scripture. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:36:03.360 And we see other people beginning to hope even in the midst of exile, which is when this next scripture is written. 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:20.159 Even in the midst of exile, they are hoping in this fact that although we no longer have a place, although we are deeply under the discipline of the Lord, the Lord will not remove his steadfast love from us. 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:22.239 And it will look like something like this. 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:32.480 In Isaiah 9, verses 6 through 7, Isaiah looks forward to something that draws from the same language that's in this covenant that God makes with David. 00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:48.159 He says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:36:48.960 --> 00:37:05.199 Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. 00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:09.199 The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 00:37:09.679 --> 00:37:13.760 See, in the Davidic covenant, he looks forward to something. 00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:18.559 And that's that there will be an offspring of David. 00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:26.320 An offspring of David, who God would say, David's son, your son, they're going to be my son. 00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:39.679 And your kingdom, David, this particular kingdom is going to be my kingdom in a way that no other sons on earth are, and no other kingdoms on earth are. 00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:41.440 These are going to be mine. 00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:57.199 And God makes that promise to them, and then all of a sudden in Isaiah, while they're in exile, he looks back on this scripture and we hear a description of someone who is a son of David and called mighty God. 00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:06.639 Now these two things put pressure on these aspects of these covenants. 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:11.519 And when we look back through the covenants, the conversation is often framed in these terms. 00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:16.079 Is it a covenant of works or is it a covenant of grace? 00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:32.960 The Davidic covenant is often framed as a covenant of grace, which means that there is nothing that the person can do to remove themselves from that covenant structure, because God puts all of the responsibility on God Himself. 00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:40.960 A covenant of works is typically thought of like the Mosaic covenant, the covenant with Moses, which is here's the law. 00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:45.760 If you uphold this side of the covenant, then you will be blessed. 00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:50.000 But if you don't uphold this side of the covenant, then you will be cursed. 00:38:50.159 --> 00:38:53.360 But this is an oversimplification of the conversation. 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.960 And let me bring that a bit more down to earth. 00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:01.760 Here's how that conversation pans out in your own life, reflectively. 00:39:02.239 --> 00:39:07.920 Am I saved because of my obedience, or am I saved by grace alone? 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:16.480 Can I rest in God because of the work that He has done, or am I still contributing to my own rescue in some way? 00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:20.639 Or I may never rest in a land of peace without enemies. 00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:25.760 That's the way that conversation feels personally. 00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:33.679 But again, that very helpful author, Robertson, he makes this distinction between two things. 00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:35.039 These are big words. 00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:37.119 I couldn't think of a better way to say them. 00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:38.480 I'm sorry. 00:39:39.360 --> 00:39:43.119 These are two things that we see in the covenants. 00:39:43.280 --> 00:39:46.880