The Davidic Throne and The Kingdom – Lorraine Cruikshank

[Ron McGatlin]

The Davidic Throne and The Kingdom – Lorraine Cruikshank

The Scriptures record that God made a covenant with David concerning an eternal throne and rule in an eternal kingdom. Let us go back to II Samuel and read about the covenant and see exactly where the promised King is sitting on the covenanted throne today .

 

The Commitment to David. In II Sam. 7:12-13, God, speak­ing to David through the Prophet Nathan, declared: “And when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy Seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build an house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of His king­dom for ever.”

Ps. 89:3-4 recounts God’s review of this cov­enant with David: “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant, Thy Seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne unto all generations.”

Antici­pating the fulfillment of this promise in Christ, the Spirit, by Daniel the Prophet, asserted “In the days of these kings [the Roman emperors] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed nor will it be left to to any other people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” (Dan. 2:44-45; cf. vv. 34-35).

Likewise, the second Psalm: “Yet [despite the raging of the heathen and the opposition of Israel] have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:1-9).

That the promise to David did not apply to Solomon, David’s immediate son – except perhaps in a typical sense – is apparent from I Kgs. 1:5-40. There it is recorded that Solomon, upon the orders of his father, was crowned king over Israel and Judah before David died. But the King promised in the covenant was to be “set up” after David was to die. This King, of course, was Christ, Israel’s Messiah and God’s Son, who was to die for the sins of the world, be raised from the dead, and exalted to “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Heb. 8:1).

JESUS SPEAKS OF HIMSELF AND HIS KINGDOM

Jesus speaks, before he goes to the Cross, of His coming again in His Kingdom which was fulfilled on the day Pentecost which now had fully come when the Spirit of the Glorified Christ rested upon His disciples.

And Jesus speaking, “some of you standing here will see the Son in his kingdom coming.” And again Jesus speaking, “the kingdom is within you, it does not come with the observation of the eye”.

Matthew 16:28

28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Luke 17:20

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The Fulfillment in Christ. That such was and is the case was made abundantly clear by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Ghost and guided into all truth, he at that time proclaimed the coronation of Christ as King–on David’s throne. By way of comment on Ps. 16:8-11, which he cited as envisioning the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle had this to say:

Acts 2:29-33 “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the Patriarch David, for he is both dead and buried, and his sepul­chre is with us unto this day [thus, the condition of the promise to him was fulfilled (II Sam. 7:12)]. “Therefore, being a Prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ. God has raised this Jesus to life, andvwe arecall witnesses to the fact.” “Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,” [the Spirit of the Glorified Christ] Peter concluded, “He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:29-33).

Appealing to another Psalm, Peter further clinched the case for the Kingship of Christ, pursuant to the covenant with David: “For David is not yet ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool [Ps. 110:1-5]”.

“Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ” (vv. 34-36). Paul made the same application of the Davidic promise to the Lord’s resurrection. In Acts 13:33-34, he declared that “the sure mercies of David,” as promised in the covenant, and alluded to in Isa. 55:3, had their realization in the resurrection and the Lord’s exaltation to God’s right hand.

The Futuristic Expectancy. The special relevancy of these truths to our day stems from the grievous confusion and error on the subject that is widely taught and imbibed. Multitudes of religious people are not content with the Scripture’s numer­ous representations of Christ as now reigning upon David’s throne as Christ dwelling within the believer thus bringing His Eternal Kingdom within the believer. Instead they expect Him to return to earth in the future and set up a visible throne, from which He will then rule the world that now is.

Men have said, and are saying, that God’s covenant with David meant that there would always be a member of David’s house on the physical throne. The Jews were ensnared by that doctrine. They read into the prophecies their own expectations, and they looked for a Messiah who would literally deliver them from the yoke of the Roman empire, and give them freedom from political bondage. Therefore, when the Messiah came as a spiritual Deliverer, they rejected Him and nailed Him on the cross.

When you get to the truth of the matter, there is nothing in prophecy, there is nothing in the law, and there is nothing in the Psalms that even hints at Christ’s taking over a literal throne on earth. The Word of God apprises us that David’s perpetual or eternal kingdom was to last to “all generations.” By study­ing Bible history, you will find that after Zerubbabel, no prince of David’s house ever sat on the physical throne of David, but the de­scendants of David sank into obscurity for over five hundred years, until Christ was born of the seed of David. Thus, was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, that a “Rod” should “come forth out of the stem of Jesse,” and a “Branch” should “grow out of his roots” (Isa. 11:1).

God deliver us from the erroneous teaching of a second­ chance theory in a “thousand-year reign” of Christ upon the earth, which is associated with the futuristic expectancy of Christ’s physical rule. This would be a physical reign apart from the believer, outside of the believer. These scriptures are to be revealed in a spiritual manner as Christ dwelling and ruling within the believer while yet upon the earth apprehended by a “mature faith”. This maturity is represented by a thousandfold just as fullness is represented in a hundredfold.

Now is the time of the throne of grace and mercy (Heb. 4:16; cf. Ps. 89:2-4). “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2; cf. Isa. 49:8).

If you are going to find mercy from God, you are going to have to do it now­, now, while Christ is on the throne of mercy.

Lorraine Cruikshank
cruikshanklj@gmail.com

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