The Davidic Promise: Three Options for Jewish Interpreters

 The promise that God gave to David, that he would always have a descendent of David upon the throne, is a sticking point for Jewish theology because the throne of David was physically destroyed when the Romans leveled Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and then squashed the hopes of regaining the territory when the Bar Kokhba Revolt was finally put down in A.D. 136. 

The promise first appears in 2 Samuel 7.

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

There are, as far as I can tell, only three ways to interpret this promise.

1. It's a false prophecy. The Bible is not really the Word of God and this is just a prophecy that was given to encourage an exiled people but it utterly failed in the end as the Jews were without a king as soon as Nebuchadnezzar destroyed what remained of the city in 587/86 BC. The monarchy was officially destroyed and never restored.

2. The promise is contingent upon Israel's obedience and since they are not obedient, the promise is never fulfilled. 2 Chronicles 6:16-17 seems to suggest this, and it is what some Jewish interpreters might point to in order to make sense of the problem.

16 Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ 17 Now therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David. 

3. As containing both contingent and non-contingent elements to it. The contingent elements are not fulfilled and never can be since God already did not have a Davidic king on the throne since the time of the Babylonian Exile. The non-contingent element must be fulfilled.

The problem is that the original command seems to have both elements in it. It seems to be both contingent upon Israel's obedience and a promise that will be fulfilled by God so that the promise is not contingent upon Israel's obedience. In fact, in the midst of Israel's disobedience, God restates the promise in Jeremiah 33 as follows.

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ 17 “For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.” 19 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 20 “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, 21 then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.” 23 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The LORD has rejected the two clans that he chose’? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. 25 Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26 then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.” 

In other words, the covenant is not contingent upon Israel's obedience, since God has said that His promise to David here is unbreakable. What are we to make of this? Chronicles seems to suggest that it is contingent and Jeremiah seems to suggest that it is not, but has two different promises in it. But notice also that there seem to be two promises here rather than just one. The first seems to suggest that the throne will be filled with succession after succession of David's offspring. This promise extends to the Levitical priests always having offspring to minister as well. The second promise that is parallel, however, refers only to "one of his offspring" to rule. Now, this could simply mean that one of his offspring will be chosen successively, but again, we know that this did not happen. So we are left with two options here. Either the promise is contingent on Israel's obedience and they were not obedient, and haven't been for the past 2500 years, or the promise has an aspect that is both contingent upon the people's obedience and not contingent at the same time. In other words, Israel will always have a Davidic king on the throne from the time of David into eternity (as long as the Hebrew word is understood to mean that) as a reward for their obedience, but if they disobey, God will still bring about His promise to David, but through the singular Messiah who will reign forever.  

The Jewish interpretation must now see that the contingent aspect of the promise is over. God did not continually place a descendant of David upon the throne. In fact, in the Jewish system, God never put another descendant of David upon the throne after He gave this promise in Jeremiah. Foreign kings, governors, high priests, and the Herods ruled over the throne, but never a Davidic king again. 

According to the New Testament, however, He did choose one to rule over Israel and when rejected as their king, He expanded Israel to include anyone within the entirety of the world who would receive Him as their king. Christ reigns over Israel, the throne of David, and has for the past 2000 years. He is the offshoot of Jesse, the branch of David. God has fulfilled His promise by establishing Him over the throne of David and has fulfilled His promise to expand David's throne to the ends of the earth (Zech 2:11-12; 9:10).