Did God fulfill his promise to King David that his throne would be established forever? The original promise was surrounded by discussion of building an earthly temple for God. King David wanted to build the temple, but God chose that David’s son, Solomon, would instead build the temple. It was then that God promised King David a forever throne.

We can look back and see that what God was promising David was that God would build His own earthly temple through the offspring of David. A temple made of flesh and blood instead of brick and mortar; A temporary temple (body) that we know as Son of God, but was also son of David (lineage). The body (temple) was temporary but the indwelling Spirit was the one and only everlasting Spirit of God. Jesus is the Spirit of God who was wrapped in Son of God and Son of Man flesh. The dad part of that biological “temple” was from God, and the mom part was from David’s lineage through Mary. (We will look at lineage tomorrow.)

Let’s look at the succession of kings on David’s throne.

King David’s descendants who ruled on the throne of Israel were his son, Solomon, and all the kings of Judah after the kingdom was divided into northern tribes and southern tribes. The kings of the southern tribes, Judah, were descendants of King David and were on the throne until 586 BC (about 500 years after King David died). King Zedekiah was the final king of Judah. During Zedekiah’s reign the kingdom of Judah fell to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the (brick and mortar) temple built by David’s son, Solomon, was destroyed.

During the reign of the kings of Judah (David’s descendants), there were good kings and bad kings. A good king was one who followed God’s laws and outlawed the worship of idols and foreign gods. An evil king did not do those things and were often described in the Scriptures as “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord”.

Throughout the hundreds of years of Israel’s kings, God often chose prophets to be His messengers to the people, kings, and other nations to remind them of God’s judgment against those who turn their back on Him and do evil. The people were persistently idolatrous. They were disobedient to God and failed to keep covenant promises. They ignored God’s prophets. They failed to repent. They were cruel and unjust towards the vulnerable.

Despite all of God’s warnings, they felt security as long as the physical temple stood. Enter King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. God allowed the Babylonian king to take Judah into captivity and to destroy Solomon’s temple as punishment for their constant and repeat rebellion.

The brick and mortar temple was destroyed and there was no king on David’s throne. The ark of the covenant (meant to be God’s dwelling place) was never recovered. The brick and mortar temple was rebuilt 70 years later in 516 BC. Judah was then ruled by governors. Like Judah’s kings, Governors Shesbazzar and Zerubbabel were descendants of King David too. It was during that time that the temple was rebuilt. Governors Ezra and Nehemiah were not descendants of King David, but they led spiritual reform and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Then there were 400 years of silence. There was no king on the throne of Israel and there were no words delivered through the prophets. With the hand of God removed, the people were left to be their own gods. How did that work out for them?