"'And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever'" (2 Samuel 7:16).
Generations after God promised Adam and Eve that a savior would come and restore what they had ruined, King David reigned over the land of Israel. He was the second king but the first of his line, and he loved God with all his heart.
God was pleased with David, and He sent the prophet Nathan to the king with a special message. In this message, God promised that David's line would never end. One of his own sons would ascend to the kingship after him, and from generation to generation, his throne would endure.
But the kingdom of Israel failed. Under David's grandson, it split into two, and finally the line of kings ended. The people of Israel were subjected to foreign rule, and they would never again be the great nation they had once been.
Yet though human folly had once again brought ruin, God's promises had not failed. He had told Adam and Eve that He would send a savior, and He had told David that his line would never lack a king.
When the angel Gabriel came to a young virgin in Nazareth and told her that God had chosen her to be the mother of the promised savior, he also told her that her child would be a king. "'And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,'" Gabriel announced to Mary, "'and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end'" (Luke 1:32-33).
Mary was a descendant of David, and her betrothed was descended in a straight line from the kings. God had not forgotten His promises! He would fulfill every one of them.