Pastor's Sermons

"Does God always keep his promises?"
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Advent	December 22, 2002
Ascension Lutheran Church	Jackson, MS
A sermon by Pastor Tom Clark

Sometimes God's promises take time for us to see how they are fulfilled. Rarely does God work the way we want him to work. Sometimes it seems God forgets what he promised. This was an issue some Old Testament writers struggled with. They remembered the promise that God had made to King David - the promise that you heard read in today's lesson from 2nd Samuel. Listen to it again, slightly paraphrased:

After God had helped him defeat his enemies, David, the king was all settled in his house. One day David said to the prophet Nathan, "Nathan, I'm living in a fine house, but we keep the ark [God's portable throne] in a tent." So Nathan said to the king, "Go for it, your Highness. Do whatever you have in mind, because God is with you."

But that night God came to Nathan, and said, "Listen up, Nathan. Go tell my servant David that I don't want him to build me a house to live in. I haven't lived in a house since the day I lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Instead, I moved about with my people, who kept my ark in a tent. Did I ever complain and ask, 'Why haven't you built me a house?' Now I want you to go and tell my servant David, [clearing throat] 'Thus says the LORD God, "I took you from tending sheep to be prince over my people Israel, and I have been with you wherever you went. I have given my people this land. And as for you, David - instead of you making a house/building for me, I will make you and your line of descendents a house/dynasty."'

[This part was left out of our lesson, but it's important:] "When you die, I will watch over your son, and I will make his kingdom permanent. He will be the one to build a house - the Temple - for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be like a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he does evil, I will punish him through other humans, but I will not take my enduring love from him.

"As for you - the house/dynasty of David - I will make to last forever."

Did you catch the condition that God gave for this house (or dynasty) of David to last? … There wasn't one. God says here, "No ifs, ands, or buts, David. This is God speaking, and this promise of mine is eternal. Nothing you or your descendents can do can change this. I - the Lord God Almighty - promise that one of your descendents will always sit on the throne you now occupy." God did say that if one of them strayed, he would punish them, and perhaps the punishment would be severe, but still the Davidic line would endure.

Only in the last few years have I realized the impact of these few verses and the promise they contained, not just on the rest of the OT, but on the New Testament as well. I did a search this week and discovered that the memory of this promise comes up again and again. It is a major theme throughout the historical books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles, as well as the Psalms 2, 89, and 132. It also appears as a major issue in the prophets Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees mentions it.

OK, back to the story. After David came David's son Solomon. … After Solomon builds the Temple, in his dedication prayer, he says that the promise God made to his father David had a condition. Solomon hears God say, "IF you will walk before me, as David your father walked, … doing all that I have commanded you, and keeping my decrees, THEN I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever." (1 Kings 9:4-5) This wasn't in the original story, but Solomon seems to hear the promise differently.

Now most people remember two things about Solomon: 1) He was wise, and 2) he had many wives. … Well, at least the "many wives" part is true. The problem was that some of the wives were from other lands, places where they worshiped other gods, and they brought their gods and idols with them. (This was a lot more complicated than a Swedish Lutheran marrying a Norwegian Lutheran.)

And though Solomon seemed to have had every intention of worshiping only the one true God, somewhere along the way he also starts dabbling in idol worship.

The biblical story gets more complicated at this point. First, God takes a big chunk of his kingdom away from him and gives it to one of Solomon's lieutenants. (This part of Israel will eventually be referred to as "the lost tribes" - but that's another story for another day.) The kingdom that is left is usually now referred to as Judah.

Still, the promise God made to David endures and is retold. For about 400 years, one descendent after another of David's is crowned king. Usually it is a son following his father who has died. But then something horrible happens. After fending off one imperial power after another, Judah falls to the Babylonians. The king and many of the powerful citizens and artisans are put in chains and led into exile.

God's promise, the line of David enduring forever, is taken captive. And what is worse, it doesn't come out. The last king dies in exile. There is some thought that about forty years later his grandson leads a group of Jews (that's what they are called now for the first time) back to the Promised Land. But somewhere along the way, this heir of the promise disappears.

Where is the heir? What happens to God's promise to David? Had the ones who were first chosen by God so infuriated him that God now had abandoned them, cancelled his eternal, "never-to-be-broken-no-matter-what" promise?

Ever who wrote Psalm 89 struggles to understand what has happened when he writes:

"But now you have spurned and rejected [the line of David]. You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. … (vv. 38-39, 49)

LORD, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?"

However various Jews understood what had happened, they all understood that something had changed. They knew that something they had once looked to as God's protection was not guaranteed. But they still hoped-LONGED-for God to restore the "throne of David."

The one who would do this would be the one God chose, the one anointed like David for the task of kingship. The Hebrew word that meant "chosen/anointed" was "messiah." The messiah that was expected to restore David's throne was expected to be faithful to God-never-failing. The messiah would be strong yet gentle. He would be a leader, the king who would rule over all people-even over the enemies of the Jews. But most importantly, he would be a descendent of David.

The Jews would wait another 500 years for a messiah to come. Various false messiahs would appear, and fade away. Many were waiting. Some had just about given up hope.

But then… the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:26-28, 30-33)

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