2
ND
SAMUEL
Week 11, chapter 7 continued

2
nd
Samuel 7 is a theological feast, which contains some principles and attributes of God that
seem plain enough and even familiar for us, but were apparently not as obvious to David, his
prophet Natan, and the Israelite population in general. Rather (as is normal for humans) they
saw Yehoveh’s nature through the lens of their times and the more or less common culture of
their era. They had some things right and some things wrong but God seems to have been
very patient with them as over and over He teaches them about spiritual matters and His
nature by presenting the lessons in various ways until (hopefully) they are understood and
taken to heart at just the right moment.

So to begin today’s lesson I want to confront you with a largely unnoticed problem that David
and Israel had, that is virtually identical to one that we face today. Do you think that because
we are 3000 years advanced from David’s day that we grasp all that God is? Have we finally
got God figured out? If we do then why is there such vast disagreement between Jews and
gentiles about Yehoveh, and there is an equally enormous schism among the 3000 or so
Christian denominations? Who is right; they can’t all be right? Do you realize that the lens that
you (and I) view God through is not only wrapped up in our 21
st
century worldview, but also in a
uniquely American viewpoint? European Christians don’t view God as we do; Eastern
Orthodox Christians don’t view God as we do. And our personal God-view is further modified
by what part of America we were raised in (the Midwest farmlands, the progressive West
Coast, the traditional South, etc.); it also matters whether or not you were raised in a Jewish or
Christian home, and if you were, which denomination or branch your family adhered to. Our
personal experiences and even the generation we were born into also plays a major role in our
mental picture of God. But we just don’t ever think about it; we go forward on assumptions that
are far more based on our cultural norms and religious doctrines and are in agreement with our
family and social circles than what God has actually said in His Word.

In other words, we need to not only recognize and be understanding of David’s and the
Israelites’ somewhat distorted views of who God is and how He operates, but we also need to
understand that our own views of Him have been distorted and we are all in need of returning
to the only source of truth about the Lord’s attributes and mindset, and His expectations of us,
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that we have available: the Holy Scriptures. How our “heart” feels about it all is Biblically
irrelevant and we are warned that our “hearts” are terribly deceitful; and yet the modern
teaching is mostly to follow our hearts and leave the Bible to Bible scholars and religious
authorities.

One of the major themes, then, in chapter 7 is: HOW is God present with Israel? Or in David’s
mind, by what means and what form is God present with David? Thus the key words are
“dwelling” and “traveling”. The Middle Eastern cultural norms for that era were that a nation’s
god needed a building in which to dwell so that their god could be near to them; thus the
people of that culture built an appropriately grand temple for their god. But what happened
when that nation’s king led the army out to war, or went on a diplomatic mission and ventured
away from the temple where their god lived? The king and his army were probably outside of
their own nation, and therefore outside of the boundaries where their god’s sphere of influence
operated. Even more their god was essentially confined in a temple (somewhat like a genie in
a bottle) and in order for that god to travel and be with his worshippers it was necessary that
the god-image (an idol) be transported by humans (usually priests) to wherever the king and
his army went on expedition. This unquestioned (and unconscious) worldview of the gods of
1000 B.C. therefore was generally how David and the Israelites viewed their god Yehoveh.
Why would they think otherwise? We don’t see much in the Old Testament of the Israelites
mocking or disagreeing with how the other nations viewed the spiritual sphere. We don’t see
the Hebrews explaining to their pagan neighbors the theological error of their Mystery Babylon
religions. How gods operated was not in question; mankind had long ago settled the matter.
The issue was primarily: WHICH god was the most potent and what was the proper way to
worship him?

Thus the all-knowing Yehoveh is able to look into David’s mind (his heart) and see that on the
one hand David is feeling guilty and selfish for not providing his god with at least as nice place
to live in as he (the king) had; but on the other hand David was also motivated by thinking that
God NEEDED a temple and God NEEDED mankind’s intervention to help him get around. Not
only that but also David wanted God to be right there, handy, when he needed His help. So the
obvious solution was the same one that all cultures of that era utilized: build a beautiful Temple
so that God would have a nice, comfortable place to live and therefore David had access to
Him on a moment’s notice. Stuff the genie in a grand bottle. The last thing David wanted was
to have God out wandering about doing something else when David needed a consultation or
to have God being left behind when He went out to battle. Thus getting the Ark of the Covenant
(God’s travelling box) back into his possession was David’s first step.

And to that line of erroneous human thought that so dominated David’s era and before, here is
what the Lord says through the prophet Nathan:
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2Sa 7:7-9 CJB
7
Everywhere I traveled with all the people of Isra'el, did I ever speak a
word to any of the tribes of Isra'el, whom I ordered to shepherd my people Isra'el,
asking, "Why haven't you built me a cedar-wood house?"'

8
"Therefore say this to my servant David that this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'I took
you from the sheep-yards, from following the sheep, to make you chief over my people,
over Isra'el.

9
I have been with you wherever you went;………………”

Let me be clear: not everything David and the Israelites thought they knew about Yehoveh was
wrong. But for the previous several centuries the Torah had been slowly and steadily set aside
and the Priesthood had drifted into irrelevance; so divine truth was hard to come by. We
moderns have no such excuse and yet we find ourselves in the same condition as those
ancient Israelites. While the King of Israel and the High Priest were supposed to have a copy
of the Torah, and vowed as Israel’s leaders to follow it, few if any other folks had a Torah
since to create even one was a monumental and expensive effort. All they knew about God
was what they learned from everyday life and from what their leaders told them. But for us
(especially in the West) God’s Word is available at virtually no cost and no danger. I don’t
know of a Christian or Jew who doesn’t have a Bible. Yet Christianity and Judaism both suffer
the same condition as did Israel in David’s day: what is taken for unassailable divine truth
often turns out to be manmade traditions created by various religious leaders who are reacting
to current political or social realities. What we take for Godly enlightenment is often custom and
political correctness that is dictated by behaviors and attitudes that characterize our
contemporary culture and thereby allows us to blend in without undue notice.

Not that this is necessarily accomplished consciously on our part; rather we often believe what
we believe because that’s just how it is and to question it is to disturb an otherwise
comfortable situation; we live in blissful self-assurance that all is well between ourselves and
God. Besides, if all seems well what would be the catalyst that would even cause us to re-
examine our cherished assumptions?

This is just one of the several reasons why Bible Scholars, Jewish and Christian, marvel at 2
nd
Samuel chapter 7. It is truly a Torah within a Torah. Hidden just under the surface is yet
another attempt by Yehoveh to present some important divine truths to the King of Israel and
His people in hopes of penetrating that thick veil of mankind’s evil inclination, which prefers
our ways to God’s, and our unfettered personal liberty to His commandments.
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Let’s re-read a portion of 2
nd
Samuel chapter 7 to continue today’s lesson.

RE-READ 2
ND
SAMUEL CHAPTER 7:10 – end



The Lord says that contrary to David building Him a house that He will build David a house;
this is not literal but rather a play on words. House in Hebrew is beth and it means a number of
things. First it can be a dwelling place just as we typically think of a house, a place of
residence. It can also refer to a place where a certain activity (secular or religious) is known to
take place (a house of prostitution), and in another sense it can mean a family or a dynasty.
Here while David is thinking in terms of constructing a building the Lord is thinking in terms of
constructing a permanent dynasty.

So in verse 12 Yehoveh tells David that after he dies, the Lord will establish an everlasting line
of rulers of Israel from David’s family. It is interesting and informative that the words used to
speak of David’s death are, “When your days come to an end and you sleep with your
ancestors”. The honorable death of a righteous man and the aftermath are couched in words
that reflect the understanding of death and the afterlife in the Middle East and the entire known
world in that era. It’s only that what the Israelites do not appear to have known yet is that the
place where the righteous Hebrews resided after their physical death was not Sheol but
Abraham’s Bosom. Abraham’s Bosom is where the righteous dead waited for the Messiah to
come and through his own death cleanse them to a far higher degree of purity than their own
pious behavior ever could, and thus give them passage out of their underground chamber and
into Heaven.

And so verse 12 begins a section of this chapter that is prophetic in an even larger sense than
it seems at first glance. The prophecy is that the Lord will set up one of David’s sons to rule
after David; this is a divine promise so it will not fail. Several things will happen, including the
building of a house (a beth) for the Lord, by this son of David. What we need to see is that this
is a prophecy for both the near future and the far future for David. As is so typical for Biblical
prophecy, this foretold event will happen and then it will happen again! The key word in these
next several verses is “forever”. In Hebrew there are two phrases that are properly translated
into “forever” in English: ad’olam and le’olam. The term means eternal, everlasting, no
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ending, perpetual. It can also mean until the end of the age; but in the Bible “the end of the
age” means “until the end of the age of man”. And that means that humans are no longer in
our present form, and even the present heaven and earth are exchanged for something else.
So we don’t have to wonder about what the Bible means by the term “forever”; it means
exactly how we commonly take it to mean.

Seven times the word “forever” is used in 2
nd
Samuel chapter 7. Seven is the number of
perfection or perfect completion. It is perfect wholeness. The use of “forever” 7 times is by no
means an accident or coincidence. We must always pay close attention to Biblical numerology
because it carries great meaning with it. David’s dynasty will rule forever, meaning that there
is a component to it that MUST go beyond the physical. David’s dynasty brings about perfect
completeness to God’s plan of redemption. This of course speaks of Messiah, the gateway
into everlasting redemption and rest.

Verse 13 explains that David’s son (and it does not say which son) will be allowed to build the
Lord a Temple but notice an interesting nuance in the way it is explained: it does NOT say that
David’s son will build a house for “Me” (for God), it says that he will build a house “for my
NAME”. It is God’s NAME that will reside there, not God. It is God’s reputation and (in some
mysterious sense) His attributes that will dwell there. God the Father, Yehoveh the Godhead,
lives in Heaven, not on earth and certainly not in a Temple built by human hands (even though
the opposite is what all humans took for granted about the desire of gods).

But the logical question arises, why can David’s son build a Temple but David is prohibited?
This is a question that 1Chronicles 22 (a parallel account of this same story) seems to provide
some answers. Turn you Bibles to 1Chronicles 22.

READ 1CHRONICLES 22:7 – 10


David shed much blood; he was the warrior and so Yehoveh would not allow David to build the
Lord a Temple. However Solomon, Shlomo (which means peace because it is taken from the
root word shalom), will be allowed to build the Temple. David won the Kingdom through great
bloodshed, and Solomon maintained the kingdom in peace and prosperity. Notice also in
1Chronicles that the Temple is NOT for the Lord Himself to dwell in but it is for His NAME to
dwell.
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2
nd
Samuel chapter 7 verse 14 adds even more fascinating information. The Lord says that the
He will be a father for David’s offspring and that the offspring will be a son to the father. The
mind spins as we think about all the ramifications. The first one that comes to mind is that
Yeshua is called the Son and God is His Father. Yet the phrase, “I will be a father to him and
he will be a son for me” is a well attested adoption formula. When a man adopted a boy child
(whether a relative or someone from outside the family) these were the words that were
spoken as more or less a vow to seal the change in status of the relationship.

One of the great examples of this (and I think very appropriate for our circumstance) is when
the Patriarch Jacob adopted Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manessah) away from him.
Why would Jacob do such a strange thing? How must Joseph have felt having this forced upon
him? It wasn’t terribly unusual for a head of household to adopt the children of a deceased
brother; but to adopt away your grandchildren from their own LIVING father? And for no stated
purpose? And here we find the Lord doing a similarly strange thing in saying that David’s son
will be adopted away from David and he will become essentially the Lord’s son. And
interestingly we find that David’s descendant Joseph (of Joseph and Mary) was the earthly
father of Yeshua but Yeshua was essentially adopted away by the Lord God as His spiritual
son.

But we also have to understand the Biblical relationship (based on the Middle Eastern cultural
relationship) between a father and his son. A father’s rule is absolute, but at the same time a
father shows great mercy to his son. The son is afforded great privileges by the father, but the
son also has great duties and obligations in return. So since Yehoveh will be the father of
David’s son then that son (who is ruling Israel) will be under God’s personal authority. The
son will be ruling in his father’s name. And his father will NOT be David, but rather the Lord
Himself, just as Joseph will not be the father of Ephraim and Manessah but rather it would be
Jacob.

Look: all kings of Israel were beholden to God as their sovereign. But this promise that
David’s ruling sons would be as sons to God and God would be as their father is a major step
beyond mere royal dynastic loyalty to the God of Israel and vice versa. It was always that God
was to be the Heavenly King and Israel’s monarch was to be the earthly counterpart over the
nation of Israel. Israel’s king was indeed “king”, but God was the king’s king. That is still NOT
the same thing (by far) as a father/son relationship. A father/son relationship is intimate and
involves a far greater degree of love than a king over a king (that is more of a vassal
relationship).

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Thus Israel’s first 2 kings (Sha’ul and Ishbosheth) were legitimate kings over Israel and they
were (theoretically) loyal to Israel’s God, and Israel’s God was their heavenly king. But with
David an entire new relationship was created: a father and son relationship. Or better, with
David’s SON a new relationship would be created. Thus the Lord pronounces in verse 14 that
if David’s son (the next king) does something wrong (breaks the Law of Moses), indeed that
king can expect to punished (just as any King of Israel would expect to have bad things
happen to him if he rebels against God). However the Lord guarantees that that son of David
will NEVER lose God’s grace and never be punished unto destruction. This is to be contrasted
with King Saul who was given no such promise and thus when he was rebellious (as a
rebellious vassal to the powerful king above him), God removed His grace from him and (so far
as we know) Sha’ul was punished to eternal destruction.

But this also says something else that is at once apparent to ancient Hebrews but not so
apparent to a modern Westerner; if the king is punished unto death and God has removed
Himself from that king, then that is also the end of the king’s dynasty. Thus when Saul rebelled
and God took His grace away from him, Saul’s son would take control from a human political
standpoint but he would NOT be given favor by God as Israel’s next king. Grace was not only
removed from Saul but from his possible dynasty. The dynasty of Saul was over forever just as
David’s dynasty was established forever. David was exceedingly aware of this and so the Lord
promises not to ever do with David’s dynasty what He did with Saul’s. Oh, there may be (and
there were) bad kings in David’s dynasty and some of them rebelled and died as a result. But
unlike for Saul’s dynasty, David’s dynasty would NEVER lose God’s favor and have His
graced removed from them. So what happened with David’s dynasty?

The last king of David’s dynasty was Zedekiah and he ruled from 596 to 586 B.C. He was an
evil king that was actually appointed by Nebuchadnezzar so the people of Judah never
accepted him. There would be no more kings from David’s dynasty (or so it appeared). After 6
centuries passed from Zedekiah’s death and no king of Judah rose up to assume the throne,
the Jews of King Herod’s day longed for a miracle that somehow another member of David’s
family would arrive and lead Israel out of Roman oppression and into a never-ending golden
age that they thought of as the Kingdom of God. They called that hoped-for king of the Davidic
line The Messiah. Other Israelites, including most of the religious leadership, had given up
hope for a direct descendant of David and were more than satisfied if the deliverer and future
king who came along was simply Jewish (from the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe). Naturally
such a king would come about at their appointment and they would be that king’s royal court
and closest advisors. God didn’t forget His promise to David even though 600 years had
passed since the last of David’s dynasty (Zedekiah) had ruled. Out of the line of David,
through Joseph and Mary, was born Yeshua of Nazareth. But he was brought into this world in
a most unexpected way, didn’t play the role of an earthly warrior/ king, and so was rejected by
most Jews and especially the Jewish religious leadership.

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Verse 16 speaks of the “forever” nature of David’s dynasty, kingdom, and rulership. The son
and father relationship between David’s ruling sons and Yehoveh is also pronounced as being
forever. And of course we can rest assured that the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is
Jesus, and here is but one passage in the New Testament that not only tells us that but also
makes again that connection between the father/son promise Yehoveh made to David here in
2
nd
Samuel 7 and The Christ who would come 1000 years later.

Luke 1:30-33 CJB
30
The angel said to her, "Don't be afraid, Miryam, for you have found favor with God.

31
Look! You will become pregnant, you will give birth to a son, and you are to name
him Yeshua.

32
He will be great, he will be called Son of Ha'Elyon. ADONAI, God, will give him the
throne of his forefather David;

33
and he will rule the House of Ya'akov forever- there will be no end to his Kingdom."


In verse 18, after Nathan has given God’s oracle to Israel’s King, David goes to the tent and
sits before the Ark (probably with a curtain between David and the Ark). He pours out his
humility before the Lord and asks the rhetorical question, “Why did you choose to give to me,
of all people, such honors”? He goes on to acknowledge that he understands and he believes
God; that God will establish David’s dynasty forever. It is plain that David understands the
cosmic and other worldly nature of such a promise. All kings hoped that their dynasties would
be “forever” but they also understood that in reality the hope was that their family would rule
for several generations. These earthly kings knew that in time conditions would change and it
was inevitable that another family would eventually rule so the game was to keep the throne as
long as possible. David sensed deeply in his soul that this was not what God meant by saying
“forever”. God’s “forever” is not man’s “forever”. Man’s “forever” is by its nature temporal
and temporary; God’s “forever” is by its nature permanent and eternal.

This leads us to verse 19 where David makes a statement that I think has a very deep
underlying meaning, but its plain meaning is greatly disputed by Bible scholars. He says of
God’s plan to establish through David’s SON his dynasty forever, “This is indeed a teaching
for a man”. The problem is that the Hebrew says, “This is indeed a torah for an adam”. The
great Hebrew Sages argue among themselves whether the word adam is meant to be a proper
name (the Adam of Adam and Eve fame), or it is to be considered as a general term meaning
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“man” or “humankind”. The issue for me is the context. If one sees these passages as merely
a political scenario whereby the goal is to make the legal case that David’s family are the
rightful heirs to the throne of Israel that is one thing. But if one sees these passages from the
spiritual side, then it is obvious that this difficult statement by David is Messianic in nature. Yet,
just HOW spiritual is one to take this? From the Hebrew viewpoint, since they do NOT see the
divine nature of the Messiah, then the word adam merely means “man” because they fully
expect a regular everyday man (even though he will be a great leader) to be the Messiah. But
if we DO see the Messiah as incorporating a divine nature then I don’t know how to see the
word adam as anything but the proper name of Adam.

In other words, the Christ is a new Adam (and this is generally agreed to by the Church as a
proper characterization). And the torah (the teaching) about this new Adam is that he will come
from David’s dynasty and rule on into eternity. So, again, as David is praying before the Ark in
the tent in the City of David, he says to God in response to this awesome and nearly
unfathomable revelation that a descendant of David will rule over God’s Kingdom eternally,
“This is indeed a teaching for an Adam”. I have no doubt that David gets it that a new Adam is
coming, that he will come from David’s bloodline, and that this new Adam will have dominion
over the earth in a way that the first Adam could never have imagined or accomplished. But
let’s also be clear: David could not possibly have developed a mental picture of this; how such
a thing could be is not imaginable. David just believed God and took Him at His word. This is
why David was so great in God’s eyes. It was not because David’s behavior was always
proper (he broke the Law in some of the most egregious ways.); rather it was that David
trusted God to a depth that most of us cannot envision.

Verses 21 and 25 also offer us some intriguing double meanings that often occur in prophecy
(again, not either/or but rather “both”). And it revolves around the word “word” (dabar in
Hebrew). David prays to YHWH (and I paraphrase), OK now that you have made this decision
and communicated it to me, then (in vs. 21) I understand that it is NOT for my sake but for the
sake of your WORD that you are doing this. And (in vs. 25) David continues by agreeing with
God in saying, please establish your WORD and do it forever. No doubt on one level “word” is
speaking about the oracle itself that was delivered through Natan to David. Yet on another
level we know that from a theological and Messianic perspective:

CJB
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.

Therefore what is also being said (although I doubt David even comprehended this) was that
God has made this promise to David not for David’s sake but for the sake of the coming
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Messiah, the Son of God, Yeshua, who is the Word. And that David next says (prophetically
and to a degree unknowingly) please establish Messiah, the Son of God, Yeshua, your Word,
forever, eternally. So David is pleading with God to establish his dynasty both physically and
spiritually; both temporally and eternally.

Verse 29 ends this chapter with David closing his prayer by asking the Lord to shower His
blessings upon David’s family forever. Maybe this is how we should all pray, by humbly asking
the Lord every day to, “Bless your servant’s family with your blessing, forever”.

We’ll start chapter 8 next time.
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