The Davidic Covenant and kingdom did not reach its peak during Old Testament times under David, but his Son, Solomon.
The Temple is built
Following the instructions that David had given Solomon, Solomon had the Temple built. 1 Kings 8 tells us of Solomon having the Ark of the Covenant brought into the new Temple. The priests and Levites also brought the other vessels and furnishings of Moses’s Tabernacle into the Temple. From now on, the Temple would take over from the Tabernacle built in the wilderness.
Yet, we have to pause a moment to ponder the Temple, to see that it was the symbol and sum of all the covenants and all salvation history. The Temple was adorned with pictures and engravings of flowers and animals (in other words, “graven images”), with plentiful gold and jewels in the Temple itself and its furnishings.
– If God had commanded that such “graven images” be in His Temple, what does this say about properly understanding God’s instruction in the Ten Commandments and their numbering of them? (Read Exodus 20:4-5)
Covenant with Adam: The flowers, animals, gold, and jewels called to mind Eden and God’s Covenant with Adam–the Temple was the place to be in God’s rest. Factoid: Even the stream that flowed out of the side of the temple mount was called “the Gihon,” named after one of the rivers that flowed from Eden (Genesis 2: 13; 1 Kings 1:33).
Covenant with Noah: The Israelites were also to see the Temple as a “new ark.” Just as Noah’s ark was a “floating Eden,” so the Temple had intentional likenesses with the Ark. For example, both were built with three levels or decks (Genesis 6: 16; 1 Kings 6:36).
Covenant with Moses: Even the Temple’s location had meaning. It was built it was on the massive rock formation called “Moriah” or “Mount Moriah” (2 Chronicles 3:1). What’s significant about that? That’s where God tested Abraham’s faithfulness and provided a ram (in place of Isaac) for the sacrifice. So the Temple’s location had strong tie-ins to God’s covenant with Abraham.
Covenant with David: And of course, the Ark of the Covenant, which God had Moses build, now moves inside the Temple built by David’s son, Solomon. This shows the Davidic Covenant absorbing and assimilating the Mosaic covenant. From now on, the son of David, heir of David’s covenant, will be responsible to fulfill the Mosaic Covenant.
So, for the ancient Israelite, we can hardly overemphasize the Temple’s importance. The Temple was a standing reminder of God’s covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. To that point, it summed up salvation history and represented all God’s relationships with His people. There was nothing greater than the Temple except God Himself.
Many years later, Jesus would describe His own presence by saying, “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6). When we understand how great the Temple was, we realize Jesus was claiming to be God.
– Discuss: Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:9). How does what Jesus says also show how He fulfill all the Old Testament Covenants?
After Solomon
But there was a dark underside to Solomon: His had insatiable appetites for wealth, power, and women. He overtaxed the Israelite tribes to finance great building projects and to have a huge, standing army (1 Kings 9:12-13). He took in a large sum of 666 gold talents every year (1 King 10:14). (This is ironic as “666” is the number of the beast in the Bible’s final book, Revelation, which “calls for wisdom” to understand what that number means. This was John’s way of sneakily letting the Church know so many years later that Solomon, the wisest of men, still lacked wisdom).
Like his father David, Solomon also had a weakness for women. Remember, that Bathsheba was Solomon’s mother. She was the wife David took after sleeping with her and then having her husband killed to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11-12:25).
But Solomon’s lusts far eclipsed his father’s. Although God’s law forbade intermarriage with Gentiles, “King Solomon loved many foreign women.” He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. “And,” the Scripture adds, “his wives turned his heart…to strange gods” (1 Kings 11:1-3).
When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam refused the pleas of the tribes to lessen their tax burden. They rebelled. Ten of the twelve tribes, led by Jeroboam, split-off and set up a Northern Kingdom, leaving Rehoboam to reign over two tiny tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the South.
The rest is all downhill. Yet, amid Israel’s destruction and Judah’s continual downfall, God sent His prophets.
Isaiah
Isaiah prophesied from about 740 BC to 700 BC. He did his share of criticizing the southern kingdom of Judah for being unfaithful to their covenant with God. However, it’s not the negative words in Isaiah we want to look at. Instead, we want to focus on his hope for the future. Isaiah’s hopes all swirl around the return of a Son of David who will be king over God’s people.
Read Isaiah 9:1-2, 6-7
– Napthali and Zebulun were in Northern Israel, which the Assyrian Army had earlier defeated. What does this say about Jesus?
A few chapters later, Isaiah says more.
Read Isaiah 11:1-5
– What is the “Stump of Jesse”?
– What is the “branch”?
Later in Isaiah, the Lord speaks about this royal Son of David who is coming: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will grasp your hand and guard you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). Isaiah’s words are striking–a person can’t technically be a covenant. One person can make a covenant with another, but a person can’t be a covenant.
Yet, even so, Isaiah records God saying to His Servant, a future Son of David: “I will give you as a covenant for the people.” So, Isaiah foresees a future that includes a New Covenant. However, this New Covenant is somehow going to be God’s special Servant, who is the same person as the Son of David mentioned in Isaiah 9 and 11!
There’s more we can cover in Isaiah, but we want to look at a couple of other prophets.
Jeremiah
Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Jeremiah was so saddened by what was going on in Judah that he mourned in grief over Judah’s turning away from God. And so, most of the book of Jeremiah focuses on that.
Yet, Jeremiah is not all gloom and doom.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
– Speaking about the New Covenant, what specific term does Jeremiah use?
This is the only place in the Old Testament where it uses the exact phrase, “New Covenant.” When Jesus said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood” (Luke 22: 20), He was making a direct connection with this prophecy of Jeremiah.
Every Divine Service, we hear those words repeated. Since every Lord’ Supper is a fulfillment of what Jeremiah promised, it’s worth our time to take a moment to try to understand what Jeremiah was promising. Jeremiah contrasted this “New Covenant” with “the covenant that [God] made . . . to bring [the Israelites] out of the land of Egypt.”
The Old Covenant that Jeremiah referred to was the Mosaic Covenant. The New Covenant would not be like the Mosaic covenant, for they broke the covenant–not only with the golden calf, but many other times in the wilderness.
Jeremiah was saying that, in the future, God would make a clean break with the old, patched-up Mosaic Covenant and start over: the “New Covenant.” How would this “New Covenant” differ from the old? The old covenant was written on tablets of stone. The New Covenant would be written on their hearts. Whatever the New Covenant is, it will be a matter of the inside, not the outside. It will mean an interior change for the people who enter it. This interior change will mean coming to know God: “they shall all know me,” and being forgiven of one’s sin.
Read Jeremiah 33:14-15
Ezekiel
Ezekiel prophesied from about 590 to 570 BC, around the same time as Jeremiah, although he was a little younger than his fellow prophet. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel prophesied that “David,” which means the Davidic king, a descendant of David, would be restored as king of Israel in the future. This would involve a restoration of the Davidic Covenant.
Read Ezekiel 34:25-26
– What does Ezekiel call the New Covenant?
– What Old Testament covenant does the imagery in this passage hail back to?
Read Ezekiel 36:24-27
– Instead of saying that God would write the New Covenant on the heart, how does Ezekiel describe it?
– This gift of a “new Spirit” will follow a sprinkling with clean water, which will cleanse God’s people from their sins. What does this point forward to in the New Covenant?
As we move into the next chapter, we find out that a resurrection will also be part of the New Covenant in the latter days.
Read Ezekiel 36:12-14
Finally, Ezekiel summarizes the “covenant of peace.”
Read Ezekiel 37:24-27
Again, we see the promise of the return of a Davidic King. Even more, this covenant of peace will be an everlasting covenant. Through this New Covenant to come, it will incorporate and fulfill the other covenants God had made, including the earlier everlasting covenants.
… Next week–Jesus!
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