God is the ultimate promise-keeper!
God made a promise to David. “I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your 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” (2 Samuel 7:11–13, CSB).
The promise to David was two-fold. God promised that David’s son, Solomon, would be king after David. Secondly, God promised David a perpetual kingdom... One from David’s bloodline would rule forever. God kept both promises. David’s great, great, great... grandson, Jesus, is on His throne today, ruling and reigning!
Notice that God didn’t promise that sin would go unpunished. When Solomon sinned, God responded in justice and holiness.
“The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded. Then the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since you have done this and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. However, I will not do it during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of your son’s hand. Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I chose’ ” (1 Kings 11:9–13, CSB)
While giving Solomon’s son a small kingdom in the south, God snatched the northern ten tribes of Israel away and gave them another king, one not from David’s line.
So, here are the names to remember. Rehoboam was Solomon’s son. He became king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, in about 930 B.C.
At the same time, Jeroboam became king of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom survived about two hundred years, until in 722, when they were overthrown by Assyria and carried away into captivity. During those two-hundred years, there wasn’t a single king that followed God’s direction! Not even one!
The Southern Kingdom survived until 586 B.C. when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried its inhabitants into captivity where they stayed for seventy years. Beginning with Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, there were good and bad kings that ruled in the Southern Kingdom. Sadly, “Jeroboam did not turn from his evil ways” (I Kings 13:33, CSB).
But God kept His promise to David. Jesus’ genealogical record demonstrates that from David to Jesus, the family line remained unbroken for almost one-thousand years and the New Testament is clear, Jesus rules today and forever! God is still the ultimate promise-keeper.
