“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” (2 Sam 7:12-16).
Those who seek to deny a connection between God’s promise to David in the Hebrew Bible and Yeshua in the New Testament argue King Solomon fulfilled this promise since he was, after all, the son of David who built God’s house. This promise to David includes Solomon and other kings from David’s house to a certain extent since the promise also assumes that David’s son will commit iniquity (verse 14). But if Solomon is a part of this promise, how can we defend the claim that the “son of God” in 2 Samuel 7:14 refers to Yeshua, the Son of God, in the New Testament?
The best defense of the NT’s use of the OT is always the OT’s use of the OT. We know that OT authors long after Solomon regarded this promise as Messianic. Let’s consider, for example, Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7 [5-6], a passage written almost two hundred years after Solomon. This prophecy is directly related to 2 Samuel 7 since it is filled with direct citations and allusions. “For to us a child is born, to us a SON (see 2 Sam 7:14) is given…. On the THRONE of David AND OVER HIS KINGDOM TO ESTABLISH IT (see 2 Sam 7:13, 16) … from this time forth AND FOREVERMORE (see 2 Sam 7:13, 16, 24-26).
The similarity of wording between these two passages is too exact to attribute it to chance. In no uncertain terms, the prophet Isaiah tells us that neither Solomon nor any other kings are the “son of God” who will reign upon David’s throne forever. When the New Testament authors identify Yeshua as the Son of God who will inherit the throne of his father David they are not ripping the words of 2 Samuel 7 out of context. Instead, they are faithfully reading the promise in 2 Samuel 7 in the light of other Messianic interpretations of that passage within the OT.
And though God’s Son is currently seated at the right hand of the Father (see Psa 110:1), we continue to affirm God’s promise to Mary which is itself a reiteration of God’s promise to David, that Yeshua, son of David, Son of God, will return and reign upon David’s throne forever. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
