The biblical books of Samuel and Kings are considered “former prophets.” They are both built on a theme: The House of David. The house of David is not one of the tribes of Israel; it is the descendants of David. Why is there so much in these books about the house of David? The answer to that question is one of the most inspiring truths in the Bible!
I want to show you a scripture that really got my attention in a way it never has before. I believe this scripture has a very profound meaning for all of us and for our understanding of the house of David.
1 Kings 12:16 says, “So when all Israel saw that the king [Rehoboam] hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.”
The people of Israel had a terrible attitude about the house of David.
Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, had just imposed some cruel demands, and the people revolted. When he sent Adoram, his chief tax collector, to deal with the problem, they stoned him to death. Rehoboam fled.
Verse 19 makes this profound statement: “So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.” Israel had a bad attitude about the house of David. The people were not just rebelling against Rehoboam. They didn’t rebel against Judah. They didn’t rebel against Jerusalem. God says they rebelled against the house of David. There is a big difference.
And Israel is still rebelling against the house of David unto this day!
I believe this verse has about as much depth as any scripture in the Bible.
The Scepter Promise
Genesis 49 is an end-time prophecy about the modern-day descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel. In verse 10, the prophecy of Judah—whose descendants are the Jews—is what is called God’s “scepter promise”: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [speaking of Jesus Christ ] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
The first part of that promise is that a Jew would rule on the throne right down to the Second Coming of Christ. Herbert W. Armstrong explained it this way in The United States and Britain in Prophecy: “Of course, it is well understood that the scepter went to Judah and was handed down through the Jews. King David was of the tribe of Judah. All succeeding kings of David’s dynasty were of the house of David, tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ was born of the house of David and the tribe of Judah.” The second part of that promise is Jesus Christ, who is also from the house of David, bringing salvation to this world.
That Davidic line of kings continues to this day, and it is about to culminate in Jesus Christ Himself returning to Earth to inherit the throne of His father David! (Luke 1:31-33).
The house of David has a built-in vision. Understanding this vision will bring more inspiration and joy into our lives.
That scepter promise makes David’s dynasty, the house of David, much more important than something physical. This is what Israel rebelled against. God commanded that Israel’s kings come from the house of David. We must not be casual about this because this is the very throne that Christ Himself is going to sit on.
We need to understand this truth better. David’s throne is really God’s throne!
People don’t pay much attention to that throne because they have rebelled against the house of David unto this day. They rebel not against a wooden chair, but against the house of David and God.
Anciently, the people of Israel rebelled against David’s house and set up Jeroboam as their king. Jeroboam turned away from the throne of David and from God. The Israelites didn’t have the Holy Spirit, but they still lacked faith in God even by the letter of the law. They wouldn’t stay loyal to the house of David, where God promised to keep His focus and His power.
It’s true that Rehoboam was a sinful king. But did his sin justify Israel rebelling against the house of David to follow a different king? Look what David had to put up with when Saul was ruling for 17½ years! He was loyal to Saul, the man whom God had anointed to be king, for all those years—even when Saul was trying to kill him!
Just as ancient Israel rebelled against the house of David, the nations of Israel today do as well. And spiritually, most of God’s people are rebelling against the house of David. His lukewarm people, the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14-22), have rejected the key of David teaching, and they refuse to proclaim the message about the throne of David, the very throne Christ will sit on with His kings and priests forever! That is staggering! How could anybody lose contact with something so dazzling?
In their own carnal, rebellious minds, they don’t fully understand why they hate the house of David and The United States and Britain in Prophecy.
God makes two unbreakable covenants in Jeremiah 33:17-18: first, that a seed of David would always be sitting on the throne of Israel, and second, that there would always be a priest, backed by supporters, proclaiming the message about that throne. That message is this world’s only hope!
God has forcefully emphasized to His Church today that He wants us to focus on the house of David physically and spiritually.
The nations of Israel are rebelling against the house of David in the letter of the law, but spiritual Israel is rebelling against the house of David spiritually. Rebelling by the letter of the law is bad enough—but rebelling by the spirit of the law jeopardizes your eternal life!
The house of David ought to unite the Church of God today. Shortly, it will unite this whole world. All people are going to unite around David’s throne, which is God’s throne. Yet the Laodiceans want no part of it! Not one of those groups even wants The United States and Britain in Prophecy. They are rebelling against the house of David, the only thing that will bring this world peace, joy and hope.
The Key of the House of David
Isaiah 22:20-25 contain an end-time prophecy that God has revealed a great deal about to us—about Eliakim. Verse 21 says the man who fulfills this role “shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” There is a spiritual and physical application to these scriptures, but we look mainly at the spiritual today.
The “house of Judah” here is the faithful Church of God. You could say it is “the house of the Jews.” We are Jews—spiritual Jews! And this man is a father to Judah.
Verse 22 says of this man, “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” We must look at the key of the house of David spiritually also. God has given Eliakim a key to this royal house. What does that mean to you?
If we have a key of the house of David, Eliakim and his supporters must go inside that house. Isn’t that logical? That is the main message of that key. Those who marry Jesus Christ will share David’s throne with Christ. They will be kings and priests who are descended from David spiritually—from the spiritual house of David. They are not just spiritual Jews: They are Jews of the line of the royal house of David!
The house of David is already here in spiritual embryo.
The Laodiceans say they are Jews, but God calls them liars (Revelation 3:9). Fifty percent apparently are going to keep saying it until they are destroyed forever in a lake of fire. The other 50 percent will change after they face death and finally admit their error.
In this end time, God has sent two apostles to help His people focus more on this truth. Both of these men descended from the house of David.
We always must look to the king or queen who sits on that physical throne, and proclaim the message about that throne. But God’s government is not on that throne, or in any nation around this world—which is why the world is about to fall apart. God’s government is only here, in His Church, on the spiritual throne!
Jeroboam’s Rebellion
Let’s return to the story in 1 Kings 12. Once the northern 10 tribes rebelled, Jeroboam wanted to make sure they never returned to the house of David. He hated that house, and was concerned that if the people continued to travel to Jerusalem to make sacrifices in the temple, they would go back to Rehoboam (verses 25-26).
This attitude in Jeroboam and the people led to what I believe is the greatest disaster in the history of Israel up until the time right ahead of us. Israel was conquered and lost its identity because of it.
We have to really love what God is doing. Jeroboam’s rebellion wasn’t just about the house of David: It was against God! Anyone who starts going down that route will end up in the biggest calamity of his life! Most of God’s people today are heading in that direction.
Here is what Jeroboam did: “Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (verse 28). This was the biggest lie he could have possibly told: that these golden calves were the gods that delivered Israel from Egypt. Jeroboam knew what he did was wrong, but a lot of people in Israel wanted to believe it. What do we have to do with the house of David? they reasoned.
Jeroboam even changed the feast days to be one month later: “And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made” (verse 32).
Where did this rebellion lead Israel? To this very day, the nations of Israel still rebel against the house of David and God—they still walk in the way of Jeroboam—and they are about to go through the worst trouble and greatest suffering this Earth has ever experienced!
The Laodiceans are also rebelling against the house of David, and they face the worst disaster ever in any Church of God!
If we leave the house of David, expect physical and spiritual catastrophe.
This is not something you can take lightly. God is very serious about the house of David!
Jeroboam Caused Israel to Sin!
1 Kings 14:15-16 contain a prophecy about Israel being smitten, rooted up and scattered. These verses say that God “shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.” Jeroboam sinned, and he made Israel sin. Leaders can do that. This man turned Israel away from the house of David and God. The same thing happened in the Laodicean Church in this end time: The leaders turned the people away from the house of David and God!
Look at the results. The Laodiceans are wandering around and fighting each other. They’re divided, and they keep shrinking and doing virtually no Work. That is the price for going the way of Jeroboam!
What a contrast with God’s faithful remnant, those who will not give up on the throne of David and remain loyal to that throne and the Ruler who is about to sit on it! God keeps blessing us, and we are filled with wonder and joy!
The Way of Jeroboam
The chronicle of those northern 10 tribes that departed from David’s throne is absolutely terrible. It is filled with tragedy of every stripe, brutal politics, usurping and murder. It vividly shows the consequences of disloyalty to God’s throne!
The third king over the 10 tribes was Baasha. This man actually served as God’s instrument to correct the house of Jeroboam, it says, “Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger” (1 Kings 15:30).
However, before long, Baasha fell into the very sins for which Jeroboam was punished (verse 34). In 1 Kings 16, God sent him a strong message of correction. God started by saying, “Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel …” (1 Kings 16:2).
What a supremely important point to remember! God was disgusted with this man’s behavior, and reminded him: Remember what you are! You were just dust—you were nothing! Yet I put you over my people! Now, look what you’re doing with this power I’ve given you. I gave it so you could use it to turn Israel to God, to this throne and this house—yet you’re betraying that calling!
People of God, we are the lowly of the world. We are dust! Yet look what God has given us. He is exalting us to be the greatest royalty on Earth—in the house of David forever. That is His plan! We must never forget that we are just dust—and that is all we will ever be apart from God. But look what God is doing with dust! It is truly miraculous what God does with dust!
Also in that verse, God condemns Baasha because he “walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins.” This became the pattern among this cursed people that turned away from the house of David. They continued to walk in the way of Jeroboam, and to suffer for it.
God promised to destroy Baasha’s family (verse 3). Baasha’s son Elah reigned only a short time before he was murdered by his servant Zimri, who then seized the throne (verses 8-10). Zimri was only in power for a matter of days before the nation revolted against him. He set fire to the king’s palace and died in it—and God again pinpoints the reason for his untimely end: “For his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin” (verse 19).
The next king, Omri, was even worse. “But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboamthe son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LordGod of Israel to anger with their vanities” (verses 25-26).
Then came Ahab, Omri’s son. Look at God’s assessment of his reign: “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam,” that he married Jezebel and began worshiping Baal (verses 30-31). Stupid Ahab! He thought it was just a light thing to follow the way of Jeroboam! But it is no light thing! God cannot condemn it strongly enough!
In Israel today, people still think it’s a light thing to walk in the way of Jeroboam. Well, yeah, I know what it says in the Bible, but it’s no big deal to go my own way. It’s just a light thing. You’re just too fanatical in your religion!
God strongly condemns that attitude! It is not a light thing when we turn in the way of Jeroboam. It is going to bring the greatest disaster in your life ! That’s no light thing!
People simply don’t see the terrifying endof their decisions. They are too shallow spiritually, and they just don’t believe their own Bible!
So Ahab married Jezebel, and I suppose she was worse than Solomon’s 900 wives! She was one mean woman, and had a stronger will than Ahab, I am sure. Verse 33 says that under her influence, “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”
Do you realize that we are witnessing the same scale of evil in Israel today? God is provoked! The people of Israel are so evil! Is there any evil that they can imagine in their minds that they won’t actually carry out? They’ll commit any evil and then publicizeit for all the world to see! And they consider it just a light thing! But when they get through the nightmares that are coming, they won’t think that any longer.
The Elijah Work
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah comes on the scene. What does God expect him to do? The same work we have today. We are the Elijah work. What are we supposed to do?
Elijah means “my God is God.” Everything else is just false religion. You may think that’s a light thing—but God disagrees. It’s not a light thing, and God will hold anyone who thinks that accountable.
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Elijah had real spiritual power and authority! He must have been obeying, following and serving God! What a message he had for a nation that was walking in the way of Jeroboam and rebelling against the house of David.
Nobody could command such authority today except one who is doing the Elijah work.
Those of the spiritual house of David must take this same message to Israel today. Just as He did anciently, God is about to correct Israel with Assyria.
What followed was an epic showdown between God’s prophet and hundreds of false prophets of Baal. Elijah asked the people of Israel a profound question: “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). They were on the fence. They thought they were religious and following God, yet they were walking in Jeroboam’s way. Elijah exposed the error of their thinking, and showed them that it would lead to a grievous captivity.
Elijah mocked these people for their false gods (verse 27). How did they respond? By crying out and actually cutting themselves so their blood gushed out! (verse 28). Clearly, they were sincere religious people: Nobody would cut his flesh like that if he wasn’t sincere! But sincerity clearly does not make false religion right.
In the end, Elijah prayed, saying, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel …. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LordGod …” (verses 36-37). This must be our prayer as well. All the truth God has given through Mr. Armstrong and this Church, all the miracles He has performed, are the means by which we can let it be known that there is a God in Israel!
God answered Elijah’s prayer in dramatic fashion! (verse 38). “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God” (verse 39).
Elijah then saw to it that all those false prophets were killed (verse 40). Most people would consider that cruel, but God knows what He is doing. He is going to resurrect those men and work with them at a future time. God is love, and He has His plan for saving all men! How misguided men can be to say God is cruel and lacks love, and to try to tell Him how to do things.
Ahab finally did humble himself, and God responded by postponing the punishment upon Israel. He did bring it to pass later.
A Succession of Sinful Kings
God’s condemnation of several kings that followed Ahab followed the same analysis. He was careful to record one particular detail that all these evil rulers had in common.
Ahab’s son, King Ahaziah, was just as evil as his father had been. “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin … and provoked to anger the LordGod of Israel …” (1 Kings 22:52-53).
Ahaziah’s son Jehoram followed on the throne, and “he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin” (2 Kings 3:3).
Of Jehoram’s successor, King Jehu, 2 Kings 10:31 tells us, “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.”
Jehu’s son Jehoahaz “followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom” (2 Kings 13:2). God in His anger delivered the Israelites to the Syrians, and when Jehoahaz called out to God, God mercifully delivered them. But Israel went right back: “Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin …” (verse 6).
Verse 11 shows that Jehu’s son Joash, when he became king, committed the same sins of Jeroboam. In fact, he even named his own son Jeroboam! (2 Kings 14:23).
It’s no surprise that Jeroboam ii followed his father’s example: “he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam” (verse 24).
Jeroboam ii’s son, King Zachariah, also “departed not from the sins of Jeroboam” (2 Kings 15:9), and was quickly murdered.
The man who killed him, Shallum, ruled only a month before he, too, was assassinated (verses 13-14). His killer, Menahem, “departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam” (verse 18).
Of Menahem’s son and successor, Pekahiah, God says, “he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam” (verse 24). He also was murdered.
The king who followed him, Pekah, “departed not from the sins of Jeroboam” (verse 28). He died by assassination at the hand of Hoshea (verse 30).
Hoshea ended up being the last king of the northern kingdom, and he, too, was evil in God’s sight (2 Kings 17:2).
This is the rebellious, bloody legacy of the northern 10 tribes! This is what happened to the people who turned their back on the throne of David! God took pains specifically to document that virtually every one of the 18 kings who succeeded Jeroboam was guilty of the same sins that Jeroboam committed! Once “Israel rebelled against the house of David,” it never turned it back around! So the tragedies just went on and on.
And how did it end? “In the ninth year of Hosea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria…” (verse 6).
Israel had sinned and would not repent! “Therefore the Lordwas very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only” (verse 18).
Read this entire chapter, which is God’s summary of the whole history. Verses 21-22 say that God “rent Israel from the house of David; and they [the people] made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them.” Jeroboam made them sin a great sin! The people of Israel never should have listened to him. They should have listened to men like Elijah and Elisha, but they didn’t. So God turned the Assyrians against them.
This history is prophecy! It is exactlywhat is about to happen to the nations of Israel in our day!
Who is about to strike Israel? Europe is almost falling apart financially, except one powerful nation. God prophesies in Isaiah 10:5, “O Assyrian,the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation”!
God is coming to correct Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam! Our peoples have embraced that same evil way of life, and a religion that is not taken from their own Bibles. Anybody can prove that.
God says He wants us to live by every word! He will fill our lives with joy and abundance, happiness and wonder if we will just heed what He says. But people will not listen, so He has to correct them.
God is not passive about people living the way of Jeroboam! The Holy Roman Empire is about to be fully formed—and it is going to correct modern Israel in the Great Tribulation!
We can easily see that bad news—but we need to see the hope! This is the lastassault that the Gentiles will make on Israel!
The Spirit of Jeroboam
A prophecy for God’s Church today talks about this subject.
In Amos 7:9, God says, “And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” This is an end-time prophecy, and yet God is still upset with Jeroboam. Why?
The “high places of Isaac” is a coded expression meaning a religion that started right and later rebelled against God. The “sanctuaries of Israel” are the churches of this world.
Verse 10 speaks of “Amaziah the priest of Bethel.” Bethel means the house of God. This is a priest right out of the house of God; it must be our mother church. This is what this man is prophesied to do: This priest “sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.” Here is somebody right out of God’s house saying that.
In Amos’s time, I believe the king spoken of was a different man, Jeroboam ii—but it doesn’t matter. God is talking about Jeroboam, and the spirit of Jeroboam.
There are scriptures throughout these former prophets about how Israel rebelled by going the way of Jeroboam. And what did Jeroboam do? He rebelled against the house of David and God. God talks about Jeroboam here because the people today in Israel are doingthe same thing! Do you want to talk to them about the Feast of Tabernacles? Or about the Sabbath, which is a sign that they are God’s people if they keep it the right way? Jeroboam changed these holy observances and—unto this day—the nations of Israel do as he did! Well, we’ve always done it that way, they say. How foolish can we be?
Here is a priest from what was, at least at one time, the Church of God. And this priest is allied with Jeroboam, who rebelled against the house of David and God. The Laodiceans—certainly the mother church—are making an alliance that tells you that they are also rebelling against the house of David! They are anxious to get away from that house and that throne and what God teaches about it—because they have the spirit of Jeroboam. It’s the same spirit that is in physical Israel.
You can read in Raising the Ruins (request a free copy) of how wcg leaders in the 1970s cut The United States and Britain in Prophecy down to almost nothing and then discontinued it—then did the same thing after Mr. Armstrong died: slashing two thirds of the text, claiming it was too expensive to distribute, and finally killing it altogether. What did they have against that book? It virtually built the Work! That was plainly the spirit of Jeroboam at work.
In a 1992 letter to a wcg member, Joseph Tkach Jr. wrote that “British Israelism” (his term for Mr. Armstrong’s teaching) is “a racist doctrine that sees the British Empire as the kingdom of God on Earth, and the whites as God’s favorite people.” That is a complete lie!
That man said it was his duty to keep Mr. Armstrong’s “errors” out of circulation. That is rebellion against God and the house of David! We had to go to court to win Mystery of the Ages and The United States and Britain in Prophecy.
The Sardis Church also rejected that truth, and God calls that Church dead (Revelation 3:1). The Laodiceans rejected it, and they are dying spiritually! (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Anyone who decides to reject the house of David will suffer the same fate.
We must tell the Laodiceans, as well as the people of Israel, that they are going the way of Jeroboam—and then show them what happens when you do that! Just look at the history of Jeroboam! Israel was taken captive and practically disappeared from this world until Mr. Armstrong came and published the truth about its modern identity. Of course Christ and the first-century Church preached this, but they didn’t reach nearly as many people as we do. God really wants this message to go out most of all in this end time, just before Christ returns to sit on that throne. We must have a big megaphoneto announce that Christ is about to return, and to let people know what the solutionto all their problems is.
“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words” (Amos 7:10). This priest is going to say that the people can’t bear our message. But they are going to have to, for a short span of time. God will ensure that message is broadcast right out of the house of David.
This is not about a book—it’s about the house of David and God, and the government soon to be ushered in on Earth.
We need to understand this, because it is very much about us. It’s about you, and it’s about your qualifying to sit on that throne forever. Look at this history, and how many people have turned away! Most of God’s people are not qualified! But you are the house of David, and this is all about that house. God says He is going to give those kings and priests a rod of iron. They will teach, and people will listen and accept it.
Why the House of David Is So Important
Think of the honor God has given to this man David. As God told him, “I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel” (2 Samuel 7:8). That is a spectacular rags-to-riches story!
Here is the promise God made to this mortal man: “And when thy days 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 stablish the throne of his kingdom FOR EVER ” (verses 12-13).
That is an eternal promise! Why does God emphasize that? Well, David is like a type of all of us. He was a sinner like we all are, yet God drew him into this universe-encompassing royal vision!
The promise continues: “And thine house [the house of David] and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (verse 16). The big reason God emphasizes that throne is that He is going to sit on it! It’s His throne! God is thrilled about that. The physical kings on that throne are there to pave the way up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, when He will use that throne to unite the world, filling the Earth with blessings and happiness.
You are going to be kings and priests and rule with Christ forever if you’re in that spiritual house of David today. God has a spiritual line of David that’s going to produce the kings to sit on the throne forever! God wants us to get our minds on ruling on the throne of David forever! That is something to get excited about! It truly should make us hyper!
Notice how David responded to receiving this promise from God: “Then went king David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” (verse 18).
David made some serious mistakes, but he repented deeply, perhaps like no one else in the Bible! And he held on to this beautifully humble attitude: Who am I? Who am I to be a part of all of this? Even when Saul was chasing him down and trying to kill him, David thought, Who am I to be the son-in-law to the king? He knew about the house of David and the future of that throne of David. He realized what God was doing with his name. And he said, What is my house that you would exalt my house that way? Why would you do that for me, a lowly rebel who sinned mightily in Israel? He surely knew how to repent and turn it all around. He had to understand then how God exalted his house.
Here are nine points on why our being in the house of David is so important:
1. It helps us realize more deeply who we are and will be for all eternity.
2. It raises our spiritual standard. David was a man after God’s own heart, and that is the standard we should strive for as well.
3. It strengthens our faith. We are constantly reminded of how God’s promises were fulfilled and continue to be fulfilled.
4. It encourages us because we are in the same spiritual house as Christ and David.
5. It impresses on our minds the essential need for our trials and tests.
6. The house of David understanding gives us a built-in vision.
7. The house of David gives us a built-in overview of God’s plan.
8. It helps us to keep our endless glory in our minds. It illuminates the royal and noble calling God has given us.
9. It sharpens our focus on our future reward.
The deeper we learn this lesson about the house of David, the more meaningful those points will become to us.
Strong Warning—Awesome Hope!
Look again at those two covenants in Jeremiah 33:17-18. The first involves the physical house of David, and the second—about God’s priests—involves the spiritual house of David. God’s faithful people are that spiritual house of David today.
Now, if you follow the chronology that follows those covenants in the book of Jeremiah, what do you find?
In the very next chapter, immediately after those two covenants, we start reading about Babylon conquering Judah (Jeremiah 34:1-3). That is only a type of Babylon conquering Israel today. Babylon is on the scene again, and the leader of Babylon is the only economically strong country in Europe, which is falling apart financially. The suffering that this Babylon wreaks on Israel will be ten thousand times worse!
Then what follows after that? Jeremiah chapter 37 talks about Jehucal and Gedaliah, these men who had Jeremiah imprisoned twice and tried to get the king to kill him. These are the two men whose seals, or bullae, God preserved all these thousands of years, and which now sit in the archeology exhibit in God’s house on our college campus. Surely we can see this is a terrible warning to Judah and Israel! When you put the scriptures together with those seals from those princes, and you know what they did to Jeremiah and tried to do to the message of God, it may be the single strongest warning in the Bible!
All this flows from those two covenants, and the physical and spiritual house of David. We are getting ready to replace what Babylon is about to take away. And of course, Babylon itself is going to be taken away.
Those two bullae are a sobering discovery, but we don’t want to overlook the hope. Those men tried to kill Jeremiah, but then Nebuchadnezzar came in and released him. Zedekiah wouldn’t listen, and he had to see his sons die before he was blinded—and everybody thought that was the end of the throne of David.
But no! Jeremiah carried on with the throne of David and the house of David, installing Tea-Tephi on that throne. He carried right on with the great Work of God! God’s Word says that throne and that house are there forever! Believe God!
This is the only hope of the world! Once Babylon is destroyed, there will be a nation of kings and priests to rule this world, and that is why we are here. That is why we are being prepared. This means we need to put out every effort we possibly can to get ready for that most honorable position in that most honorable royal house there ever will be! Are you ready to do that job? Are you ready to rule on David’s throne forever?
From the Archives: Royal Vision, July-August 2012