The introduction to the book of Hebrews contains A LOT of quotes from the Old Testament scriptures. It’s become my practice to stop my reading and look up any such quotes to see if any more significance can be gained by understanding the link between original context and the quoted context. An occasion such as this presented itself when I came to the following verse:
Hebrews 1:5
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father?” Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son?”
The second quote being referenced here comes from 2 Samuel 7:14. In context, this verse is part of God’s response to David’s desire to build a temple for God to replace the Tent of Meeting. On one hand, 2 Samuel 7 appears to refer to David’s immediate son, Solomon, who became the next king of Israel and supervised the building of God’s temple. However, here we see the book of Hebrews states that this prophecy of Solomon is also a prophecy of Christ. The implications for Solomon are obvious, but what can we learn about Christ from examining these verses further?
2 Samuel 7:11-16
The LORD declares to you that the LORD Himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.
#1 Notice that it says “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you” after “your days are over and you rest with your fathers.” Solomon’s reign actually began while David was still alive (1 Kings 1:43). According to the genealogy of Matthew 1, Christ actually was a blood descendent of David, fulfilling that He would “come from [David’s] own body.”
#2 When it says, “I will establish his kingdom... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever,” this is obviously a reference to both Solomon as well as Christ. Though Solomon’s physical kingdom has long since perished, the fact that Christ would come through Solomon (again, see Matthew 1) ensured that the promise to Solomon, as with David, of an everlasting Kingdom was met. Though this kingdom has even yet not been established, we should remember that God “calls things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17) – meaning that when God declares that something will be, He speaks of it as though it already were because God is able to accomplish what He declares.
#3 Just as Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, so also Christ was given the task to “build a house for [God’s] Name.” The church of God is the body of Christ, which is God’s temple because God’s Spirit dwells in it. Consider that in Matthew 16:18, Christ said “I will build my church” – Christ is building the house for God’s Name, even to this day.
#4 Although Christ never sinned, the following still caught my attention: “When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him.” Christ did no wrong, but He did take our wrongdoings upon Himself. He was punished for our sins “with a rod wielded by men” and “with floggings inflicted by human hands.” Also, God never took His love away from Christ.
There is quite a bit more that could be said about each of these, and next time I hope to address in greater detail the concept of Christ building God’s house, since this symbolism runs deeply throughout the New Testament.
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