NOTES for Sa2 7:1-16

The promises God gave to David concerning his descendants, and therefore his dynasty and the throne of Jerusalem, played a very special role in the history of God's people. And this is not only about ancient Jewish history, though of course it is about that too. It is enough to compare the history of the Northern Kingdom with the history of the Southern Kingdom, the two states that arose in place of united Israel after Solomon's death.

The constant palace coups in the North contrast quite noticeably with the stability of power in the South. That is no surprise: in the North, power was seized from the very beginning by a claimant who had no formal right to the throne. But in the South practically no one doubted the authority of David's dynasty; its authority among the people was so great that even after the exile, when there was no longer any talk of an independent state, David's descendants enjoyed the people's respect.

But there was something else in this divine promise. God promises David that his throne will exist until the end of time. And here the question arose: what is this about? This is no longer history, even long history, since the reign of David's dynasty by historical standards did not last very long: only about five hundred years. Here something greater was clearly in view. It was no accident that the pre-exilic prophets saw the Messiah as a righteous King from David's line.

The Messianic Kingdom is no longer history; it is not for a time, but forever. Yet even if we set aside for now the messianic preaching of the pre-exilic prophets, God's promises were extremely important. They meant that the appearance of the Jewish state, David's reign, and his dynasty became part of that divine design for the world and for humanity which we sometimes call the history of salvation. And here it is not so important what exactly this will mean in history. Something else is important: everything connected with David and his dynasty, and with all his descendants in general, belongs not only to time but also to God's eternity. And therefore to the Kingdom. Forever. In the Kingdom, after all, everything is forever. And everything is in fullness.

The covenant that God concluded with David played a major role in the becoming and the development of the yahvist messianic traditions. At first, as seen, it is about a union-covenant with David, as the founder of the dynasty of Jerusalem. There is nothing surprising here: its history began only with David, if is taken into consideration the fact that neither Israel, nor the Judea were never absolute monarchies, protecting the power to the successors of David would have been something very difficult without God's help. But it is only the earthly historic measure of the covenant concluded with David. Already in the time of the late prophets, they begin to look at it[ the covenant] a little bit differently.

It is not surprising: because the image of the Kingdom of God changes considerably thanks to the sermon, above all, of Isaiah of Jerusalem. Before, the Kingdom was perceived, as a reality purely earthly, politico-religious. And the covenant with David was seen as a guarantee of the fact that one day this politico-religious project, born among the leaders of the movement of the very first prophets, will come true.

But it was already revealed to Isaiah that the Kingdom of God will not be connected with the reforms only, that it is necessary to speak here about the direct intervention of God, about a special revelation, about the plenitude of His presence, such that the people of God did not know before.

Then the image of the ruler of the Kingdom of God changes: it is not longer already a simple "anointed one", as were blessed by the prophets or the priests all the kings of Israel, and after of Judah, they began to look at him, as a special servant of God, a participant in the implementation of His plans, maybe even endowed with the extraordinary capacities - brief, as a anointed one with the capital letter, the Messiah.

And then will begin the gradual transformation of the image of this semi-mythical Messiah into the image of a real Messiah, the One, of Whom the books of the New Testament tell us about. The transformations that will take more than a century, ending only in the minds of those who will meet with Him personally and will join His Kingdom.