As we close out the study of 2 Samuel and enter the study of I Kings, King David is dying. He speaks some final words of wisdom to his son, Solomon whom God has chosen to follow him. There is a sadness of tone, as we remember the turmoil brought about during the last years of his reign. Turmoil and conflict, consequences and reminders of David’s own frailties and failures. Yet in it all God proved faithful to His promises. Around us and throughout history there have been the rise and fall of Kings and Kingdoms. We watch an unending tempest within our own country with the conflicts of our leaders. Presidents come and presidents go leaving indelible marks in our society. Yet, amid the tempest of earthly kingdoms, our steadfast rock is Jesus. God remains faithful to His promises.
There are throughout scripture both conditional promises from God and unconditional promises. We see this clearly displayed in the life of David.
Unconditional Promise
Even before David’s sin with Bathsheba, God presented this unconditional promise to David.
12 When your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind, 15 but My favor shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’ 2 Samuel 7: (NASB)
This promise remains unchanged by David’s sin. God will accomplish all that He has planned and promised because of His Grace. What changed because of sin? Joy and peace were replaced with turmoil and sadness. David watched the conflicts among his children, the suffering of the people and must of remembered how his own failures injured those around him.
Despite that God did not fail to keep His promise. Through the line of David came Jesus our steadfast rock. God was faithful throughout history. His unconditional promise to the world and to David was true.
Our Steadfast Rock is Jesus
Alistair Begg in his sermon on 2 Kings wrote:
Well, what the Bible is making clear is this: that God has pledged himself to fulfill his covenant promises, in spite of the individual disobedience of any particular king. In spite of. At the same time, on the pathway of those individual kings, there will be for them no enjoyment of God’s covenant blessings when they are disobedient. When they’re disobedient. It’s not their obedience that establishes the covenant. [1]
And yet, there are those conditional promises. If this, then that. We see this in David’s speech to Solomon.
As David’s time to die drew near, he commanded his son Solomon, saying, 2 “I am going the way of all the earth. So be strong, and prove yourself a man. 3 Do your duty to the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, 4 so that the Lord may fulfill His promise which He spoke regarding me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful about their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and all their soul, you shall not be deprived of a man to occupy the throne of Israel.’ I Kings 2 (NASB)
Is there a man on the throne of Israel today? NO. This was a conditional promise. If you do all that God has commanded, you and keep all his ordinances.
Our Steadfast Rock is Jesus
The covenant promise of God from all of eternity… Actually, you know, way back in Genesis, what, 17, when the word of God comes to Abram, and he says, “You know, you’ve got a great future in front of you, and kings will come from you”—that’s Genesis 17. Here they come! First of all, Saul: gone. David: marginal. Solomon: on his way. God has pledged himself, so that when the King comes riding on a donkey, “gentle and lowly in heart,” all of these bits and pieces are seen to be fulfilled. But for the time being, we need to recognize that this is important. [2]
The King who would fulfill the covenant promise through the lineage of David, our steadfast rock is Jesus.
So, what can we learn from this?
God is faithful. He will keep His covenant promises. If we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, everything is ours to hold. But, even then, there are conditional promises. Those have to do with our joy and peace. Do you have joy and peace today? What is standing in the way?
Psalm 1 (NASB) says:
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
Amid the Tempest of Kings and Kingdoms
David prayed for God to restore the “joy of His Salvation”. It was the joy lost due to his disobedience. His salvation held firm and God drew David back every time he fell. The same was true of Solomon. He wrote Ecclesiastes saying “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” concluding that all that really matters is:
13 The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12 (NASB)
Some final verses to guide us—Our Steadfast Rock is Jesus
4 I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus…. 8 Hewill also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I Corinthians 1 (NET)
I Thessalonians 5: (NASB)
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.
II Thessalonians 3 (NASB)
But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; Hebrews 10:23
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1 (KJV)
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2
Words from Alistair Begg
I encourage you to follow the link and go to his site Truth for Life and listen to this sermon in its entirety as well as his many others. He says it much better than I can.
Church conferences abound on all kinds of subjects—you know, “How to develop your programs,” “How to engage in the culture,” all good stuff. Very few of them are actually convened on the subject of Jesus Christ, you know: “We’re going to have a conference on Jesus. And we’re going to have a conference on obedience.” No, no, we want to have a conference on programs, developing the personality of the leader, the political things, and so on. But didn’t we read this in 1 Samuel? Didn’t the word of God come, “To obey is better than sacrifice”?[24] Just straightforward: doing what God says.
And isn’t it quite amazing, and yet ought not to be particularly surprising, that when we read these records, when we meet these people—and Solomon, we’re about to see (well, we’re not, actually, but you can read on)—even the best of God’s servants only make it by grace? The best! They only make it by grace. How do you finish well? By grace. How do you keep going? By grace. “Oh, you mean you can just disobey, and he just does grace?” No, no, no. His grace causes our hearts to say, “I delight to do your will, O God.”
My obedience to my married vows didn’t create the covenant of marriage. But I can’t enjoy the covenant of marriage without obedience to my marriage vows. Your obedience did not bring you into a saving relationship with Jesus. That’s grace, start to finish. But our continuance is not outside the narrow path he calls us to walk.
You see, actually, David’s story is marginal. None of our ministries—none of our ministries—are very impressive this side of heaven. They’re not. They’re really not. Which is good, for two reasons. Because it deals, then—when we recognize it humbly—it deals both with our conceit, and it deals with our despair. When we realize that it is all on account of God’s amazing grace, then we’re not going to do the survey thing like David at the end of 2 Samuel so that we can go, “Wow, you see, the things… Ooh!” No. Because only God makes things grow.[25]
But at the same time, when you go home, and you sit in your room, and I sit in my room and say, “We’re not really making a dent in this place. We’re not really making much of an impact in the vastness of greater Cleveland. Oh, we have little groups, and we have different things.” And the Lord says, “Hey, it’s not about you and your groups. It’s about me and my glory. Go ahead and plant. Go ahead and water. Grace will make it grow.” When a church family gets that, it really changes everything. It really changes everything—gets rid of spiritual snobbery, gets rid of judgmentalism. Because everybody’s life is a mess. Some are just messier than others. But it’s all mess.
You say, “Well, that was very encouraging. Thank you.” No, I want it to be encouraging. I want to say to you… Because then where do you run? You run into the arms of God. You run into the arms of God.[3]
Alistair Begg
[1] Alistair Begg, “Death of a King-Part 1” (sermon, September 11, 2022), https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/death-king-part-one/
[2] iBid
[3] listair Begg, “Death of a King-Part 1” (sermon, September 11, 2022) https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/death-king-part-one/
DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD? He is our only Hope in Life and Death! Our Joy is found in Him.
Therefore if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord: I urge you today. Go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. There is nothing more important than this; because He is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, I urge you to seek Him today.
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©Effie Darlene Barba, 2023
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. Furthermore, I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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New King James Version (NKJV)
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