Christmas looks back and forward to and through David

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Sunday, December 20, 2015
Jeff Lampl  

Christmas looks back and forward to and through David


 
“The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you:
hen your days are over and you rest with your fathers,
 I will raise up your offspring to succeed you,
who will come from your own body,
 and I will establish his kingdom.” 
2 Samuel 7:11-12 (NIV)  

In about 1,000 BC Israel got its 1^st King, Saul.  He was succeeded/supplanted by David.   In the above passage God (through the prophet Nathan) promises David that God will establish His forever Kingdom through his son.   We know that David’s son (by way of Bathsheba through adultery) was Solomon.  

But we read on:  

“He is the one who will build a house for my Name” 2 Samuel 7:13  

We also know that Solomon did indeed build Israel’s first temple to God.  

“and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.  But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.  Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'"                 

2 Samuel 7:13-16 (NIV)  

Forever?   But we know that didn’t happen!   After Solomon came civil war, the secession of the north from the south, the destruction of the north by Assyria and the destruction of the south by Babylon.  After Solomon Israel had never again been an independent nation until 1948 AD.   

This section of scripture predicts both immediate and distant history.   David is told that the temple will be built by his son, Solomon, and that Solomon will be punished just like Saul was (Solomon did fall as if punished by the rod of men).   This is a prophecy referring to the immediate history of the day.   

However, “I will be his father and he will be my son” is a typical Old Testament Messianic prophecy.   Both the geneology of Luke and of Matthew trace Jesus’ lineage right through 

King David.     

Why does this matter?   These prophecies (hints) of Jesus birth, death, resurrection, Lordship, and eventual Renewal of the world, tell me that God has a plan that he began, is working, and has written us into it.   We are not the victims of randomness, rather, regardless of the degree of difficulty of each our lives, our lives have meaning and purpose and a calling to join God in his purposes for His Good World.

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