Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, Vol. 1

by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

The first part of this verse comprehends all the benefits formerly enumerated;—the second adds another, which, however, is closely connected with the previous ones. The circumstance that the Lord first gave rest to David, and, in him, to the people, was a sign of his election which could not but manifest itself afterwards in the care for his house. The promise, "The Lord will make thee an house," was to David an answer to prayer, as is shown by Ps. xxi. 3, 5, lxi. 6, cxxxviii. 3. Even the thought of building the temple was a question put to the Lord, as to whether He would, in harmony with His past conduct, give a duration to his house, different from that of the house of Saul.

Ver. 12. "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I shall cause thy seed to rise up after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom."

The הקים does not signify the beginning of existence, but the elevation to the royal dignity. זרע, seed, denotes the posterity, which, however, may consist of one only, or be represented by a single individual. In the parallel passage, 1 Chron. xvii. 11, the words run thus: "Thy seed which shall be of thy sons," i.e., who shall be one of thy sons (Luther). The truth of the promise, "I shall establish his kingdom," became manifest, e.g., in the vain machinations of Adonijah. That the fulfilment of this promise must be sought in the history of Solomon, in whom the difference between the house of David and that of Saul first became evident (instead of, "I establish," in ver. 12, we find, in the second member of ver. 13, "I establish for ever"), is seen from 1 Kings viii. 20, where Solomon says, "And the Lord hath performed His word which He spake; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised." (Compare 1 Kings ii. 12: "And Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was established greatly.")

Ver. 13. "He shall build an house for My name, and I establish the throne of his kingdom for ever."

The general establishment which was spoken of in ver. 12 precedes the building of the temple; the eternal establishment mentioned in ver. 13 follows the building of the temple, or is coincident with it. It is evident, that the first clause of the verse refers, in the first instance, to the building of the temple which was undertaken by Solomon. (Compare 1 Kings v. 19, where Solomon says, "Behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying. Thy son whom I will set upon thy throne in thy stead, he shall build the house unto My name.") We shall not, however, be at liberty to confine ourselves to what Solomon, as an individual, did for the house of the Lord. The building of the house here goes hand in hand with the eternity of the kingdom. We expect, therefore, that the question is not about a building of limited duration. If a building of only a limited duration were meant, such, surely, might have been erected long ago, even in the period of the Judges. The contrary, however, is quite distinctly brought out in 1 Kings viii. 13, where, at the dedication of the temple, Solomon says, "I have built Thee an house to dwell in, a fixed place for Thee to abide in for ever." If, then, with the eternity of the kingdom of David's house the eternity of the temple to be built by him be closely bound up, the destruction of the latter can be only temporary, and the consequence of the apostasy and punishment of the Davidic race,—of which vers. 14 and 15 treat. Or, if it be definitive, it can concern the form only. If the building of the temple fall into ruins, it is only the Davidic race from which its restoration can proceed; the local relation of the royal palace to the temple prefigured their close union. Hence, the building of the temple by Zerubbabel was likewise comprehended in the words, "He shall build an house for My name." It was impossible that the second temple could be reared otherwise than under the direction of David's family. But we must go still farther. The essence of the temple consists in its being a symbol, an outward representation of the kingdom of God under Israel. The real import of our passage then is,—that henceforth the kingdom of David and the kingdom of God should be closely and inseparably linked together. As the third phase, therefore, in the fulfilment of our prophecy, John ii. 19 must come under consideration: λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν]. (Regarding the sense of this passage, and the symbolical meaning of the tabernacle and temple, compare "Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pent." vol. ii. p. 514 ff.) "House of God" is, in ver. 14 of the parallel text, used of the Church, and in parallelism with "kingdom of God,"—a sense in which it occurs as early as in Num. xii. 7.^[5] This usus loquendi is quite common in the New Testament; compare 1 Tim. iii. 15; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Heb. iii. 6. In the first two phases of the temple of Solomon, the house consists in the first instance of ordinary stones,—although, even at that time, the spiritual is concealed behind the material; but in its third phase, the material is altogether thrown off, and the house is entirely spiritual—consisting of living stones, 1 Pet. ii. 5.—That the expression, "for ever," in the second clause of the verse, is to be taken in its strict and full sense, is proved not only by the threefold repetition, but also by a comparison with the numerous secondary passages, in which the duration of the Davidic dominion appears as absolutely unlimited. In Ps. lxxxix., for example, where the promise is repeated, "for ever" corresponds with, "as the days of heaven" in ver. 30,—with "as the sun" in ver. 37,—and with "as the moon" in ver. 38. The final fulfilment of this promise is pointed out by the words of the angel to Mary, in Luke i. 32, 33: οὗτος ἔσται μέγας (compare ver. 9 here), καὶ υἱὸς ὑψίστου κληθήσεται (compare ver. 14), καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τὸν θρόνον Δαυὶδ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ. Καὶ βασιλεύσει ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον Ἰακὼβ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, καὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔσται τέλος.

Ver. 14. "And I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me. If he commit sin, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. Ver. 15. And My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I caused it to depart away from Saul, whom I put away before thee."

Wheresoever God is, in the Old Testament, designated as Father, there is a reference to the deepest intensity of His love,—a love which is similar to that of a father towards his son. (Compare remarks on Ps. ii. 7.) Sonship to God has this significancy here also, as is shown by what immediately follows, where, in explanation of it, the promise of indestructible love is connected with it. But this relationship, in its highest and closest form, cannot exist betwixt God and a mere man. It is only when the Davidic family is viewed as centring in Christ, that the words can acquire their full truth. To this, the quotation in Heb. i. 5 points: Τίνι γὰρ εἶπέ ποτε τῶν ἀγγέλων, Υἱός μου εἶ σὺ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε; Καὶ πάλιν· Ἐγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς πατέρα, καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι εἰς υἱόν; The depth of meaning which is contained in these words appears plainly from their expansion in Ps. lxxxix. 26: "And I place his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. He shall call Me thus: Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. And I will also make him My first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth." The sonship accordingly implies the dominion over the world, which in Ps. ii. 7-9 appears, indeed, as inseparably connected with it.—If the race of David commit sin, it shall be chastened with the rods of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. Ps. xvii. 4 distinctly and unambiguously designates corrupt actions—walking in the ways of transgressors—as "the works of men." (Compare 1 Sam. xxiv. 10; Hos. vi. 7; Job xxxi. 33, xxiii. 12.) Hence, the rods of men, and the stripes of the children of men, are punishments to which all men are subject, because they are sinners, and at which no man needs to be surprised. Grace is not to free the Davidic family from this common lot of mankind, is not to afford to them the privilege of sinning. The mitigation only follows in ver. 15, in which the close resumes the beginning: "I will be a father to him." But this mitigation must not be misunderstood by being conceived of as referring to the individuals. Such a conception of it would be opposed to the nature of the thing itself, would be in opposition to 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, where David says to Solomon, "If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; and if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever:" and would be against history, which shows that the rebellious members of the Davidic dynasty were visited with destroying judgments. The contrast is rather thus to be understood: sin is to be visited upon the individuals, while the grace abides continually upon the race,—so that the divine promise is raised to an absolute one. The commentary on it is furnished by Ps. lxxxix. 31 seq.: "If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments ... then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But My loving-kindness will I not withdraw from him, nor will I break My faithfulness."—The words from "if he commit sin" to "children of men" are awanting in the parallel passage. This omission is intended to make the continuance of the mercy appear the more distinctly, and to show, as indeed is the case, that the main stress is to be laid upon it. We cannot for a moment conceive that any unworthy motive prompted this omission; for the Chronicles were written at a time when the chastening rod of the Lord had already fallen heavily upon the Davidic race. There would have been stronger reasons for adding the words than for omitting them, inasmuch as, under these circumstances, they were full of consolation. It is just upon these words that the penman of Ps. lxxiv. dwells at particular length.

Ver. 16. "And thine house and thy kingdom shall be sure for ever before thee, thy throne shall be firm for ever."

The extent to which this prophecy of Nathan bears the character of a fundamental one, appears from the circumstance that almost every word of the verse under review has called forth an echo in later times. נאמן sure, certain, constant, occurs again in Ps. lxxxix. 29, compared with ver. 38, and in Is. lv. 3. The sure (constant) mercies of David, spoken of in the last of these passages, shall be bestowed upon the people of the covenant, in the coming of Christ, by which the perpetuity of the house of David was most fully manifested. The נכון, constant, firm, occurs in Mic. iv. 1, and the לעולם, for ever, in Ps. lxxii. 17, lxxxix. 37, xlv. 7, and cx. 4. The saying of the people in John xii. 34, ἡμεῖς ἠκούσαμεν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου ὅτι ὁ Χριστὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, refers, in the first instance, to our passage, and all the other texts quoted may be considered as a commentary.

It is certainly not the result of mere accident, that the twelve verses of Nathan's prophecy are divided into two sections of seven and of five verses respectively, and that the former again is subdivided into sections of three and four verses. Its closing words, "The Lord will make thee an house," are farther expanded in vers. 12-16.