THE DAVIDIC COVENANT

THE DAVIDIC COVENANT

 This covenant consisted of a reaffirmation of the regal terms of the original Abrahamic covenant; with the further provision that these covenanted rights will now attach permanently to the historic house and succession of David; and also that by God's grace these rights, even if historically interrupted for a season, will at last in a future kingdom be restored to the nation in perpetuity with no further possibility of interruption (2 Sam. 7:1-16; 2 Sam. 23:1-5; 1 Chron. 17:1-14).
 Here again, as in the case of Abraham, the Davidic covenant is both unconditional and irrevocable, for the one is simply a more detailed extension of certain features of the other. According to the words of the Holy Spirit spoken through King David, who was also a prophet, the divine covenant with him was "an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure" (2 Sam. 23:1-5). It was this historic assurance that, in the face of national failure and calamity, kept the light of hope burning in Israel; so that Isaiah could look back to the "everlasting covenant" given by a sovereign God, "even the sure mercies of David" (Isa. 55:1-3). The "children" of David might indeed "forsake" the law of God, as they did subsequently over and over - and in that case God would "visit their transgression with the rod" of chastisement - but God's covenant with David "shall stand fast." God has sworn by His own holiness, "I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me" (Psa. 89:20-37). Please read Jeremiah 33:15-26 and observe that this irrevocable covenant with David is linked historically to the promises made to the people of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Jer. 33:26).