God's Promises: David & Jeremiah
Waiting doesn't mean God is unfaithful, Part 2
In Part 1, we got to see God’s initial promises to Adam, Eve, and all mankind with the proto Gospel:
“He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”(Genesis 3:15)
We saw God’s promises to Abraham:
To have his name made great.
To receive the land of Israel.
To father many nations.
That “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
We saw God’s reiterated promises to Jacob, Abraham’s grandson.
Now we will look at the partial fulfillment of these promises and new promises made.
The Promised Land (Quick Summary)
Jacob fathered 12 sons. His son Joseph was sold as a slave to Egypt where he became second to the Pharaoh and saved Jacob’s family and the rest of the Middle East from famine. The Israelites then spent around 400 years in Egypt before Moses was called by God to lead the Israelites to the promised land. God performed awe inspiring miracles through Moses to force Pharaoh to release the Israelites who had been made slaves by the Egyptians.
After crossing the desert, the Israelites reached the promised land, but instead of trusting the God who had rescued them with miracles never before seen, they were fearful and refused to obey God and to enter the promised land. God then had them wander 40 more years in the wilderness until the rebellious adults had all died. Then God miraculously aided this band of shepherds to conquer the land of Canaan and inhabit it, partially fulfilling His promise to give them this land.
After approximately 410 years of judges leading the people of Israel and them repeatedly going astray, God gave them the king they requested, Saul. God gave them a tall and handsome, but selfish and unfaithful king to show them the error of their ways. After showing them their error, God gave them a godly king, a man after God’s own heart.
David
When God spoke His promise (covenant) with David, He reiterated the promises given to Abraham and to Jacob, but added:
“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-16) {emphasis mine}
The first part of this promise was fulfilled through David’s son, Solomon. Solomon sat on the throne. Solomon built a temple to worship God. Solomon was not cut off for his sins at the end of his life when he drifted away from God. Even though ten tribes were taken away from Solomon’s son Rehoboam, Rehoboam remained king of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin and therefore his throne remained.
The final promise, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever,” was also partially fulfilled through Jesus at His incarnation and will be fully fulfilled when He returns for His millennial reign.
“I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Jesus is a descendant of David and His kingdom will be established at the end of the age — a kingdom of believers. “He shall build a house for My name.” Most of the time Israel is referred to as the house of God while the church is referred to as the body of Christ. In the millennial kingdom they will be united into one house, the adopted children which are the gentile church and the natural children which are the Jews who have finally accepted their Messiah. The final kingdom on this earth will be the millennial reign of Jesus (the promised heir of David), and then God will produce a new heaven and a new earth upon which Jesus will reign forever.
Once again, David did not get to experience the complete fulfillment of the promises made to him. It was partially fulfilled in his son, Solomon, but it has taken thousands of years to partially fulfill this promise and we don’t know for sure how long it will be until complete fulfillment.
I had this article all written and submitted to publish and then I read Psalm 89 and felt I needed to append it, but since it was past my bedtime, I’ll keep it short & sweet.
“If his [David’s] sons forsake My law
And do not walk in My judgments,
If they violate My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,
Then I will punish their transgression with the rod
And their iniquity with stripes.
But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him,
Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.
My covenant I will not violate,
Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.
Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David.
His descendants shall endure forever
And his throne as the sun before Me.
It shall be established forever like the moon,
And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah. (Psalm 89:30-37) {emphasis mine}
This passage also talks of God’s covenant promises to David and his descendants. God promises that David’s descendants will be punished if they are unfaithful, but God will never “break off My lovingkindness from him.”
God’s promises are not reliant on human faithfulness, but on God’s faithfulness. “My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness.” God is faithful because of who He is and His character.
Also, there are some Christians who believe the church has completely replaced Israel as God’s chosen people and that all promises to Israel now apply to the church. This is not true. God says, “My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.” Changing who His promises refer to would violate His covenant and alter the utterance of His lips, but it is impossible for God to lie. Believers may be adopted into the family of God, but they do not replace God’s chosen people. These promises still apply to Israel and to the descendants of David.
Jeremiah
By the time of Jeremiah, the nation of Israel was gone and Judah was corrupted beyond recognition. The fulfillment of God’s promises seemed impossible, but God’s promises are faithful and true. God spoke to Jeremiah to remind him, that although Judah and Israel were being punished, ultimately, God would fulfill all His promises. He begins with these tender words:
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said, “Alas, Lord God!
Behold, I do not know how to speak,
Because I am a youth.”
But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
Because everywhere I send you, you shall go,
And all that I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
For I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.
Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
See, I have appointed you this day …” (Jeremiah 1:4-10a)
First God tells Jeremiah that He loves him so much that He formed him in his mother’s womb for a special purpose, to speak His judgement and blessings on Israel. God comforts Jeremiah when Jeremiah fears he is unworthy of the great task God has for him. God promises to be with Jeremiah and to help Jeremiah fulfill His will.
As Christians we are similarly told that God created us for His purpose and His blessing and He will be with us, empowering us for whatever tasks He has called us to do.God promises that despite Israel’s nonstop rebellion, He will be gracious and “not be angry forever.”
Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not look upon you in anger.
For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a master to you,
And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,
And I will bring you to Zion.’ (Jeremiah 3:12-14)
God will always fulfill His promises even if that means calling His people home from the ends of the earth where they are scattered “one from a city and two from a family.”
God promises to call both Israel and Judah back to the land promised to them all of the way back in time of God’s promise to Abraham. There is a partial return, after Judah’s 70 year exile in Babylon, leading to a rebuilding of the temple for a second time. We are in the middle of another return to Israel that began when Israel was recreated in 1948 and is continuing today. Despite the fact that the people of Israel are being barraged with rockets, drones, and missiles daily and are at risk of being attacked by suicide bombers and terrorists, God is calling His people home for His big finale.
I believe these continuing verses refer to Jesus’s second coming and the millennial reign of Christ.
“Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance. (Jeremiah 3:15-18)
This passage isn’t just a call back to the promised land. This is another promise of God. “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.” After Jesus’s first coming, He made things clear about His plan of redemption for Israel and for the gentiles. He made clear His promise to bless all nations through Himself, a descendant of David, Jacob, and Abraham, to whom the promises were given. He demonstrated how His laws for the Jews pointed them to God’s ultimate plan.
It is actually ironic that the “shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding” are most likely Christian believers who are returned to earth to reign with Christ during the millennial kingdom. Gentile Christians were enabled to have a relationship with God through the Jews and then God will use those gentile Christians to shepherd the Jews back to God, so we can all worship God together.
It won’t be until Jesus’s second coming and His thousand year reign that “they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord.’” It won’t be until Jesus’s second coming and His thousand year reign that they will not “walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart.” God will finally make the full land of Israel a land of peace and prosperity for the Jews, but also to all the nations of the earth.
But at the time of Jeremiah’s prophecy, God is promising punishment and hardship now to teach His people to be faithful and to trust God’s faithfulness.
Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.
“It is an enduring nation,
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose language you do not know,
Nor can you understand what they say. (Jeremiah 5:15)
Due to Israel and Judah’s rebellion, both nations are taken away by a foreign nation into exile. Jeremiah, in particular, prophecies the 70 year exile of Judah in Babylon and their return to the promised land. God promised Abraham and Jacob (Israel) the land of Israel (previously Canaan) and He always keeps His promise, so He always brings them home in ways that are hard to comprehend.
Relatively near the end of the 70 year exile in Babylon, God had Persia conquer Babylon and then a Persian king, not only allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, the walls, and the temple, but also he funded the return to Israel and returned the gold, silver, and bonze temple implements. What conquering nation does something like that? It was clearly all God.
God may delay His promises, but He never cancels them.
For this the earth shall mourn
And the heavens above be dark,
Because I have spoken, I have purposed,
And I will not change My mind,
nor will I turn from it.” (Jeremiah 4:28)
When God makes a promise, it is as good as done.
Trust Jesus.
your sister in Christ,
Christy
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