Davidic Covenant



Question Response: 

I have been reading through some of the material on your website and I came across the statement, “According to the Bible, the Messiah must be a descendent of David through his son Solomon (II Sam. 7:14; I Chron. 17:11-14, 22:9-10, 28:4-6)”  Before going farther for the sake of position I will post your Scriptures of reference as per your statements.

  "I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:" (2 Samuel 7:14)  

  "And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. [12] He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. [13] I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: [14] But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore." (1 Chron. 17:11-14)

 

  "Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. [10] He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever." (1 Chron. 22:9-10)  

           "Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel: [5] And of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. [6] And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." (1 Chron. 28:4-6)  

My question becomes, “was this promise conditional?”

            "And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee."  (1 Kings 11:38)  

However, Solomon’s well documented walk of obedience with G-d resulted in the following:

 "Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. [12] Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. [13] Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:11-13)

This was clearly a covenant between G-d and Solomon that was conditional and not ordained by G-d’s sworn oath which would have rendered it irrevocable.  We can clearly see from Scripture that ‘forever’ with G-d only means forever when the conditions of the covenant are met.

 In light of the above Scriptures David passed the test of obedience but Solomon clearly failed.  Thus, Solomon willfully broke G-d’s covenant and the kingdom was rend from him.  Even though this rending did not take place during the life of Solomon it nonetheless established that G-d cut asunder His agreement with Solomon concerning his genealogical position in the eternal kingdom concept.  If this ‘cutting out’ did not have spiritual eternal consequences it would have made little sense to have waited until Solomon’s death.  As such, if this rending was to be intended for the natural only, it would be pretty difficult to rend a kingdom from the dead.   

Therefore, was/is G-d obligated to bring the Mossiach (Messiah) through Solomon or was/is there another?  So in the finality what happened or will happen? 


This is a good question...there are actually two issues operating here:

a) the exclusive priviledge of a particular family to be the one from which any legitmate ruler will descend

b) the actualization of that potential with someone from the family actually ruling for example, David was told that all future kings would descend from him and that in every generation, there would be someone from his line available to actually assume the kingship if G-d willed that to be... however, this promise doesn't necessarily mean that from the time of David, there will actually be one of his descendants ruling as King...We see in Hoseah 3:4-5 that at least one long gap in having a sitting king was prophesied...the promise to Solomon that any future King would have to come out of his line was unconditional...However, we see from 2 Chronicles 7:19-22 that the contingent part was the actuality of having one of his descendants on the throne...in the case of disobedience, the kingdom will lose its sovereignty, they may go into exile, the Temple may be destroyed, etc. But, there is no mention that the promise of being part of the Kingly line that began with David would be rescinded...A particular king(s) from Solomon's line could be thrown out of power - but their family still maintains the promise of perpetual Kingly priviledge...no king will emerge later who would not come from the Davidic-Solomonic line.

 

I hope this was helpful,

Rabbi ...


Shalom, 

If I may beg your indulgence just once more can you please clarify the following Scriptures.

“That the Lord may continue his word which he spake concerning me, [David] saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel (1 Kings 2:4).”

         “Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.  But if ye [Solomon] shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: (1 Kings 9:5-7)”

         “If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore (Psalm 132:12).”
 

As you know, ‘House’ here refers to household or family, the line of succession to the throne.  This line ended in Jehoiachin (called Coniah) at the time of the captivities (Jeremiah 22:23-30). 

No man of his seed shall ever reign again in Judah and Jerusalem.  

Thus, I must ask once again, was this covenant conditional?  Please I am not trying to be unkind nor a wizard of contention but, one who is trying to rightly divide G-d’s Word.