David’s Mystery

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:12

Imagine if God had given this promise to George Washington: “You will have a descendant who will be the president of the United States forever.” Such a promise would be baffling, and its fulfillment would be a mystery—something obscure and arousing curiosity. But anyone who trusted God’s promises would keep track of George Washington’s descendants, watching to see how the strange promise would be fulfilled.

This is exactly what happened with King David. About 1,000 B.C., God told David that he would have a descendant who would take over his kingdom and rule forever. Part of this prophecy found fulfillment in Solomon—David’s son who succeeded him and built the temple in Jerusalem. But Solomon didn’t rule forever. So it was evident that the prophecy ultimately had to refer to someone greater—to the coming Messiah. “David” or the “Son of David” became a messianic title among God’s Old Testament people.

Still, the fulfillment was a mystery. When and how would it happen? For several centuries, David did have descendants who ruled on the throne in Jerusalem, but all of them died.

After the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., no descendant of David ever ruled as a king in Jerusalem again.

Finally it all fell into place when Jesus was born and carried out his saving work. Both genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament trace the human ancestry of Jesus back to David (Matthew 1 and Luke 3). Yet Jesus rules forever as the eternal Son of God. Significantly, Jesus is called the “Son of David” 17 times in the New Testament, indicating that he is the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7.

As New Testament Christians, we know the specifics about this Son of David and his kingdom. We don’t deserve to be in his kingdom because we are unworthy sinners. But Jesus suffered for our sins on the cross. He rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he promises to bring us for an eternity of blessedness. We are in this kingdom by God’s grace through faith.

Lord God, thank you for raising up an offspring of King David just as you promised, and for bringing us into the splendid, eternal kingdom of our Savior Jesus. Draw us closer to him in this blessed season. Amen.

Rev. Thomas Nass serves Martin Luther College
as a professor of Hebrew.