The Covenant with David: Luke 1
Read: Luke 1:26-38
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He filled them with good things, and at the height of creation, He made His image-bearers—a man and a woman. They were to tend, care for, and rule over His creation, reflecting God to the world as His priest-kings. But, they failed. A pattern thus emerged that the humans who followed them would continue all the way through to the present time.
As a result of their failure to properly honor and worship their Creator, they lost the promise of the life God had for them. They lost the relationship and perfect communion they had with the One who loved them above all else. Further, they opened the door to sin and broke God’s creation that He had called good.
While there had to be consequences for their actions, God also provided a way for humans to once again enjoy communion with Him and have access to a forever life through Him. He gave the man and woman hope. In what has come to be called the protoevangelium, the first gospel, God promises that He will send One who will deliver them from their sin (Gen. 3:15). This verse essentially establishes the curse humans have brought upon themselves due to their rebellion against God (namely, death) since they broke the covenant with God. However, the verse also establishes God’s promise for a Deliverer. With these words, God put the covenant of grace into effect.
What followed was millennia of people failing to live up to God’s standards of holiness and faithfulness. With the brokenness of our world, could we expect anything different, though? Throughout those millennia, God was at work building His plan for the promised Deliverer. He chose individuals and nations to fulfill His overarching purposes for mankind. He made promises even when those to whom He made promises broke their word to Him. And through it all, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, He continued to reveal ever more about His promised Deliverer. The covenants God made with the people of Israel have taught us that.
The final Old Testament covenant that painted the clearest picture of all was God’s covenant with David. God promised David a great name, a dynasty that would be forever, and an eternal kingdom. But then David and his line failed, as so many before had done and so many after would still do. So Israel was left wondering, how can God’s promises to David possibly be fulfilled? Where would this supposed Messiah come from? Would God even keep His word?
Finally, Israel returned from exile, diminished but still a remnant of the Jewish people who could bear witness to God’s faithfulness. God’s Deliverer still didn’t come, so they waited.
They waited for half a millennium more in the time of silence—400 years where God’s prophets no longer spoke as His mouthpiece. They waited, not knowing that God quietly and patiently was building His stage for just the right moment in time.
That moment finally came when Rome was becoming a dominant world power. Israel was now known as Judea and had become a vassal state to Rome. They had a king, but he was a corrupt puppet for Caesar. The people still longed for a Deliverer. They hoped for the just and righteous king promised in the prophets. They hoped for deliverance from Rome.
God, of course, had something a little different (and a lot better) in mind, so He finally broke the silence. And the first words God gave man after 400 years of nothing? “‘Do not be afraid…your prayer has been heard’” (Lk 1:13). Words of comfort and promises fulfilled. The angel who came bearing God’s message was speaking specifically to the priest Zechariah and promising a miracle. What a way to break the silence.
However, God’s messenger was not done. He had one more message to deliver. When God broke the silence, He did it in a big way. The angel went to a young woman, a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was of the line of David (Lk. 1:27). And these are the words he told her:
“‘You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end’” (Lk. 32-33).
Finally, the time for God’s Deliverer had come. The eternal king He had promised David was at hand.
But this King would not come as a conquering warrior king. No, He would come as a baby. He would have to grow up like any other mere human. He would not be impressive in any way (Isa 53:2). His own would not recognize Him. He would weep over His own saying, “‘If you knew this day what would bring peace’” (Lk. 19:42), but He would bear the punishment for our peace (Isa 53:5) just so God’s covenant of peace could finally be established (Ezek 37:26-28).
God would fulfill the promise He made to Adam and Eve. God would fulfill the covenant of grace that was reaffirmed to Israel through multiple other covenants. He promised to be their God, to dwell with them. And it was so.
Jesus, Immanuel—God with us, came into the world. As John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). But, “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (1:10-11).
In Jesus, God gave the world His long-awaited Deliverer, but the world did not recognize Him. They crowned their King with thorns and raised Him up, not in honor but in shame (or so they thought) on a cross to experience humiliation and defeat. Yet what people intended for harm, God intended for good, and three days later, He raised His Son up, too, because death could not hold the perfect Lamb of God. Where Adam and Eve had broken God’s law, Jesus upheld it perfectly. Where God demanded obedience and perfection, Jesus alone delivered. So God “rais[ed] him from the dead and seat[ed] him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:20). And it is through Jesus alone, that we are also reconciled to God because Christ in His mercy applied His righteousness to us (2 Cor 5:21). This is the King we had been waiting for.
God fulfilled His covenant with David in a spectacular way, and He’s not done yet. Christ must return once more, and in that day, He will return, not as a humble servant, but as a conquering king. Then, we will see the covenant finally and completely fulfilled.
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Author’s Note:
Please realize that the resource list is a work in progress, and not all the sources listed are ones that I necessarily used or heavily considered in the development of this series. A variety of schools of thought may be represented. I am not intentionally promoting one theological system over another. I also recognize that there are multiple approaches to studying covenants, and I am not here to promote one over another. My goal is to present a basic understanding of the various covenants and how they progressively reveal God's overarching plan of salvation for humanity.
