The David Covenant (2 Sam 7; 1 Chron. 17) is one of the OT covenants of promise. Like the other promise covenants, this one announces what God will do. God’s commitment to the announced course of action in no way depends on any subsequent human actions. Nor will God take back his covenant oath if his people are disobedient.
Like the other covenants in the OT, this one is prophetic, focusing on the end of history, when a ruler from David’s line will be established “on the throne of his kingdom forever” (7:13, 16). Like other OT prophecies, this predictive promise has immediate as well as distant application. The immediate application is to Solomon and the other descendants of David who will occupy the Jerusalem throne during the centuries of the monarchy. The distant application is to single descendant from David’s line, in whom the promise will find its fulfillment. This individual, who by right or ancestry will have a claim to David’s throne, will be more than a mortal man, for his reign will continue into eternity’s “forever.”
It is because of this promise to David that Luke and Matthew take such care in tracing the genealogy of Jesus. For Jesus Christ, who is of David’s family, will at the end of time, when all God’s promises are kept in their fullest sense, reign over the universe forever and ever.
