COVENANT

COVENANT

This covenant covered the time of Kings David and Solomon, when the state of Israel became a major regional power in the East.

It was the time of Israel's greatest triumphs, yet also set the scene for Israel's greatest fall as she forgot God in the midst of the temptations of wealth and power.

From the conquests of David to peace and rest under Solomon, where the seeds of destruction of the nation were sown this surely, was a situation that we can recognise in today's world.

David was promised a descendant who would bring Eternal Life.

We know of Him as being Jesus!

The Lord made a covenant with David that He would ultimately stand by, even though He knew the people would go astray and therefore have to pay the price of losing their nation state.

This confirms a prophecy made through Jacob to Judah around a 1000 years earlier!

Why was this promise made specifically to David? Because God saw David was 'a man after my own heart'

There are seven areas of this covenant which are fulfilled both in Jesus and in the glorious end time church yet to come.

These can be found in:

1. 'Now I will make your name great' (2 Samuel 7:9a)

David became great because he was sold out to God. This promise is an ongoing fulfillment of God's undertaking to Abraham.

Finding, of course, its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

A partial natural fulfillment occurred during Solomon's reign but it is to be completely fulfilled during the 1000 year reign of Jesus upon the earth.

3. 'I will also give you rest from all your enemies.' (2 Samuel 7:11b)

Through David's victories and Solomon's inheritance a period of rest came to the nation of Israel.

4. 'the LORD himself will establish a house for you:' (2 Samuel 7:11b)

In the natural this was fulfilled when Solomon's temple was built. Spiritually however, it is talking of one much greater than Solomon, Jesus Christ, who is building a greater temple for God to dwell in - His glorious church!

During the time of the restoration of the Temple under Nehemiah and Ezra, many who remembered the previous one, wept. But Haggai, in the Spirit, saw the greater temple that was to come in the kingdom age.

6. 'I will be his father, and he will be my son.... my love will never be taken away from him,' (2 Samuel 7:14-15 selected parts)

This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

7. 'I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.’”' (1 Chronicles 17:14)

Confirmed in both the Old and New Testaments:

We complete our study of the major Old Testament covenants as we look at the sacrifice and seal of the Davidic Covenant.

I never cease to be amazed at how the Old Testament, and particularly the covenants, foretold in great detail the life, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.

Thank you Lord, for organising my salvation through Jesus before the beginning of time!

WHAT ARE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The Dead Sea Scrolls were a large cache of ancient texts that were deposited in caves along the Dead Sea sometime before 68 CE. The prevailing opinion is that these manuscripts were placed in the caves (so far, 11 caves have been discovered) to protect them from the ravages of the first Roman-Jewish war. The 1st cave, discovered accidentally by Arab shepherds in 1947, produced 7 intact scrolls and fragments of others. Ten more caves would be discovered over the next 9 years. The last, Cave XI produced the most well preserved and intact scrolls. The largest amount of manuscript material, however, was dug from an ancient floor level of Cave IV in 1952 but were in tens of thousands of fragments representing more than 570 manuscripts. All 11 caves produced, intact or fragmentary, more than 800 manuscripts. There are basically three types of manuscripts, Biblical, apocryphal (or pseudepigraphal) and sectarian (related to the community that produced them). The manuscripts were inscribed on parchment, leather, papyrus, and one tooled in copper. I became acquainted with them in 1948 from photographs in the possession of Dr. William F. Albright. I was just a lad learning Hebrew and had stopped by the office of "Dr. Bill" at Johns Hopkins University, a short walk from my home in Baltimore. He was showing the photographs to Dr. Gus van Beek whose office was next door. He allowed me to sit at the credenza behind his desk and attempt to translate some of the lines of ancient script. After about a half hour of putting words together I was able to recognize a passage from the Book of Isaiah. I will never forget the praise he gave me, even recalling Dr. Van Beek from his office to brag about his 8 year old student.

The manuscripts have had a long and controversial history since then. I always kept up with their study and the progress of publications. The manuscripts became caught up in politics and academic territorialism. A few select scholars had access to the scrolls which were assigned to them for publication in numbers that would have taken them two lifetimes or more. This access gave them power, prestige and the hope that among the vast array of ancient fragments there may have been some very important text that might rock the foundations of academia. None of the scholars wanted anyone other than himself to find some potential "holy grail" among the thousands of fragments. Picture 800 jigsaw puzzles where the pieces were all mixed together with a very small number of puzzle workers. One of the pieces might bring fame, fortune and great recognition. They were not about to release access to this treasure trove. In 1991, other scholars had to literally "hijack" the scrolls, first from an extensive concordance and later from photographs clandestinely deposited for security purposes in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.