One of the commentaries I have been reading as I preach
through 2 Samuel has been Dale Ralph Davis’ 2
Samuel: Out of Every Adversity (Christian Focus, 1999). In his exposition of
David’s covenant in 2 Samuel 7, Davis notes how God’s promise to build a house
[dynasty] for David, including the promise to raise up from David’s line one
whose throne and kingdom would be forever [Christ], could not be
frustrated. The promise was
inevitable. To illustrate, Davis tells a
story about Aeneas Sage, an eighteenth century minister in the Scottish
Highlands:
Mr. Sage, a powerfully built man of
the cloth, announced one Sabbath his intention to hold a meeting for
catechizing the people in the house of a certain laird well-known for his evil
living. When Mr. Sage arrived at the
laird’s door, the latter asked why he came.
Sage replied, ‘I come to discharge my duty to God, to your conscience
and to my own’; which the laird met with, ‘I care nothing for any of the three;
out of my house, or I’ll turn you out.’ The minister simply responded, ‘If you
can.’ There followed a sort of catechism
preparatory meeting with the laird, said to be a very powerful man. Yet when the interchange was over the laird
was lying on the floor with a rope around his hands and feet. Since the laird ‘was now bound over to keep
the peace,’ as Sage put it, the minister called in the people of the area and
taught them the Shorter Catechism, no one—of course—refusing!
Davis proceeds to note that the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel
7 has a bit of “that Aeneas Sage tone about bit.” He explains:
“Yahweh’s kingdom plan is simply unstoppable; he will overwhelm death,
sin, and time to bring it about. And he
has” (p. 80).
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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