This verse shows that David had a stake in the exhortation he was giving Solomon. The end he had in view was the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to him concerning an unbroken line of kings sitting on Israel’s throne. In the words found here, David showed that he believed that God’s promise to him was conditional upon the obedience of his descendants.
To what promise did David refer? Was it 2 Samuel 11:1–16:23? Indeed, there we have the Lord promising David a descendant who will sit upon Israel’s throne forever. Nonetheless, we may ask whether there was another promise to which David had reference.
We might make mention of Psalm 132:12, which also makes mention of a promise to David and his descendants that points to an eternal kingdom. This is not a prophecy per se, but could it not be a reference to a prophecy given to David outside the record of Scripture?
We ask these questions for two basic reasons. First, there is a marked difference in the form of language in 2 Samuel 11:1–16:23 and the language here in 1 Kings. Second, there is a difference in the nature of the promise in the two respective places.
We deal with the grammatical form first. In 2 Samuel the promise is bound up in one son, while in this verse the promise makes reference to a plurality of sons. This fact bears some consideration. We note that the psalm mentioned above also speaks of plural sons.
The second reason to ask the question goes to the content of the promise as it appears in each place. In 1 Kings 2:4, David spoke of the promise as conditional upon the obedience of his descendants. In 2 Samuel 7:11–16 there is no mention of any conditions affixed to the promise. How are we to account for the difference?
Iain Provan sees this difference as reflective of a tension
in Scripture that we must be content to live with. However, he also suggests that David did not tell Solomon all that he knew about the promise.1
This last comment is helpful, but we wish to invert it from the suggestion that Provan implies. He implies that David withheld the unconditional nature of the promise as given in 2 Samuel 11:1–16:23, but it is possible that David was given the promise a second time and was told about the conditions that would rest upon his descendants. We should, after all, remember that David was also a prophet, as Peter tells us in 2 Samuel 7:11–16. Nothing prevents God’s revelation from being expanded directly to David.
The difference in the number of sons to which the promise referred may also have some bearing upon the question of the nature of the promise. It is common to believe that the promise in 2 Samuel 7:11–16 is a promise directed to Solomon, the builder of the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 5:1–8:66). Yet, Solomon was not the builder of the true temple. That honour belonged to Jesus Christ (Matthew 2:1–23; Luke 2:4; John 7:42), and the promise that he would sit upon David’s throne had no conditions, while the unbroken succession of David’s dynasty did have conditions and was broken in 586 BC. The dynasty would not be restored until the coming of Christ.
We should not let the importance of David’s exhortation to obedience directed to Solomon (and all who would rule descending from David) be lost in considering the builder of the true temple, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is both a serious entreaty and a standard by which the kings that follow David will be judged. Indeed, it is an admonition that the members of the church today ought to take into their hearts. The following is the manner in which Dale Ralph Davis applies David’s words.
This is the point of 1 Kings 2:1–4. Whether it is the Davidic king or the disciple of Jesus, true stability only comes through obedience to the Lord’s commandments. What is true on the personal level also holds for the people of God as a corporate body. Kingdom stability is not anchored in our experience or profession, nor in our education or pedigree, nor in our ministerial achievements, but only in obedience to the clear word we have long possessed.2
4 that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’