Hey Mr. Jeffrey,<\/p>\n
I’m having issues understanding II Samuel 7:14. Clearly, it is a reference to Jesus and the kingdom of God, but who is God talking about committing iniquity in this passage?<\/p>\n\t
“The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever<\/em>” (II Samuel 7:11-14).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
David desired to build a temple for God, but God would not allow him to do so. However, God did make a promise to David.<\/p>\n
On the surface, the prophecy is about Solomon and the lineage of David. Solomon did build a house for God. The throne was not taken away from David’s lineage. Even when Jeconiah sinned so greatly that God vowed that none of his descendants would sit on the throne (Jeremiah 22:24-30), God suspended the kingship until the birth of Jesus, who inherited the throne through Joseph, even though he was not physically Joseph’s son. Jesus was a physical son of David through his mother Mary, who was a descendant of Nathan, the son of David. Thus, it was through Jesus that the promise that God would establish the throne of his kingdom forever was fulfilled.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, there are hidden double meanings within this prophecy. It is hinted at because God said, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you<\/em>” (II Samuel 7:12). This cannot literally apply to Solomon because Solomon took the throne prior to David’s death and God is talking about a descendant who would come after David died. “He shall build a house for My name<\/em>” does apply to Solomon, but it has a greater fulfillment in Jesus when he established the church. “I will establish the throne of his kingdom<\/em> forever<\/em>” only applies to Solomon in that Jesus sits on David’s throne eternally, but the kingdom he rules is Christ’s kingdom and not the physical kingdom of Israel. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me”\u00a0<\/em>also applies to Solomon, but in a greater sense, it applies to Jesus who is the Son of God. However, the next phrase only applies to Solomon and his physical descendants: “when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men.<\/em>” The next phrase, “but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him” <\/em>applies somewhat to Solomon, though he and several of his descendants departed from God and were punished as a result. This same phrase again has greater meaning when applied to Jesus. The final phrase, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever”\u00a0<\/em>was only fulfilled through Jesus, though in a sense, it was a continuation of Solomon’s kingdom.<\/p>\n
What we find is that some prophecies can have more than one application. Consider: “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son<\/em>” (Hosea 11:1). This is clearly a statement about Israel’s past, but God, through Matthew, applies a different meaning to the second line: “So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my Son’<\/em>” (Matthew 2:14-15). The double meaning is only clear when someone points it out.<\/p>\n
God has used hidden references to the future, especially references to the Messiah, that are clearly there when pointed out, but without knowing the fulfillment you would miss that it even was a prophecy about the Messiah. These hidden references prevent people from creating a forced fulfillment of a prophecy — you can\u2019t make something happen that you were not aware was supposed to happen. They also serve as proof that the prophecies and their fulfillment came from God. It is just like many modern movies. In movies, a hidden reference to something else, such as another movie, is placed in plain sight but not noticed. These are called “Easter eggs.” Easter eggs are used to prove who created the movie and to prevent copying by inserting references that no one would accidentally make. Modern movies did not come up with the concept. God used it in His book thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n\t
Question:<\/h2>\n
Wow, thank you for pointing that out. I am in total awe of the stellar wisdom of God. I never fully understood that prophecy. Now it makes perfect sense. So God placed certain double meanings in prophecy that didn’t fully reveal everything some of the time?<\/p>\nI heard a preacher point out that it also shows the Lord’s wisdom because it didn’t allow Satan to find out all of God’s plans. Is that correct?\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
I’m sure it served several purposes, but yes, the hidden double meanings would hide details from Satan. Since you can only see them in hindsight, they show that God planned and executed events without the aid of men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hey Mr. Jeffrey, I’m having issues understanding II Samuel 7:14. Clearly, it is a reference to Jesus and the kingdom of God, but who is God talking about committing iniquity in this passage? Answer: “The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. When your days are complete…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[702,169,76],"class_list":["post-4103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-ii-samuel","tag-prophecy","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-some-of-the-prophecies-about-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":0},"title":"Can you explain some of the prophecies about Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that Jesus committed mistakes; it's in II Samuel 7:12-17. I'm guessing it was like, in the day that Jesus, when he was 12, went to the place to discuss with the wise men. His parents noticed He was missing when they were going back home already.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49893,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-some-prophecies-in-the-bible-go-unfulfilled\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":1},"title":"Did some prophecies in the Bible go unfulfilled?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! We live in a predominately LDS community. After six years we have had our first missionaries visit.\u00a0 We have asked them to come back and study, so I have been prepping.\u00a0 In doing so I have been studying Deuteronomy 18 about prophets and applying that to Joseph Smith's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/both-david-and-saul-sinned-and-admitted-they-sinned-so-why-was-the-kingdom-taken-from-saul-but-not-david\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":2},"title":"Both David and Saul sinned and admitted they sinned, so why was the kingdom taken from Saul but not David?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Good day to you. I hope you are well. My question is about two men from the holy Scriptures: King Saul and King David. When Saul sinned against God, God took the kingdom away from him, but when David sinned, God did not take away the kingdom from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46056,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-saul-break-the-commandment-of-the-lord-in-i-samuel-1311-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":3},"title":"How did Saul break the commandment of the Lord in I Samuel 13:11-14?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How did Saul break the commandment of the Lord in I Samuel 13:11-14? He was offering to God. Answer: Saul did make an offering to God, but he did not do it in the manner which God wanted offerings done. It did not matter that Saul felt he was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-david-and-jonathan-show-their-love-for-each-other\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":4},"title":"How did David and Jonathan show their love for each other?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How did David and Jonathan show their concern (love) for one another? Can we act like them too? Answer: \"The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul\" (I Samuel 18:1). They made a covenant with each other \"Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36209,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-nathan-when-he-said-the-lord-accepted-davids-idea-to-build-a-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":5},"title":"What happened to Nathan when he said the Lord accepted David’s idea to build a temple?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have heard a preacher use II Samuel 7:1-17 to try and establish the fact that if God did not ask for something, then He didn't want it.\u00a0 I've even followed their example and used it in one of my own sermons on Bible authority.\u00a0 But I'm having some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}