2 Samuel 7:16-17 And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever.… Apart from the fact that the kingdom in the form in which David's descendants ruled over it, has long since crumbled away, the large words of the promise must be regarded as inflated and exaggerated, if, by "for ever" they only mean for long generations. A "seed," or line of perishable men, can only last for ever if it closes in a Person who is not subject to the law of mortality. Unless we can with our hearts rejoicingly confess, "Thou art the King of glory, O Christ. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," we do not pierce to the full understanding of Nathan's prophecy. All the glorious prerogatives shadowed in it were but partially fulfilled in Israel's monarchs. Their failures and their successes, their sins and their virtues, equally declared them to be but shadowy forerunners of him in whom all that they at the best imperfectly aimed at and possessed is completely and for ever fulfilled. They were prophetic persons by their office, and pointed on to him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. |
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