Read: 2 Samuel 7:4-29
Key Verse:
Your
house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be
established forever.
(NIV)
King David had been resting. It was a well-deserved rest. He
had been pursued by a mad king, raised a mighty army, and defeated the
Jebusites while claiming Jerusalem as the capital. Not long before he had been
a humble shepherd fending off the occasional predator. Now he was king—God’s
king of a mighty nation. He wanted to do something for his sovereign Lord. He and
Nathan, the faithful and trustworthy prophet, had been sauntering through the
palace the night before and they had concurred that David’s idea of building a
temple to house the ark of the covenant and envelope the presence of God was a
good thing. But that night God revealed another thing he wanted to build—an
everlasting kingdom!
The Israelites had known of and coveted kingdoms around
them—limited kingdoms whose leaders rose and fell with mighty crashes or were
absorbed by greater kingdoms. Now they had their own kingdom, subject to these
same humanistic tides. But they had something no other kingdom on earth had.
They had the One, True, Living God at the helm! God made it clear through
Nathan that he did not need a temple or anything else to prove who He was to
Israel’s neighbors, enemies or even to themselves. He simply wanted to be their
God and live in loving covenant with them . . . forever.
Forever is a long time. David was stunned and humbled by
this revelation. “Who am I? Who are we that You should do such a thing for
us?!” But even then, David did no fully comprehend what God had promised.
Certainly, he understood all the victories God had provided so far. Certainly,
he comprehended that his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons could rule a
dynasty like no other around them. But, could he have comprehended the vast and
everlasting Kingdom of God extended to all nations?
It is doubtful that he could have ever imagined the might
and power that would come through a tiny infant laying in a manger, known by so
few at His birth but confirmed by Father God as the King of the Universe whose
ever-lasting Kingdom would know no end! The
Incarnate King Jesus was the final and complete fulfillment of that eternal
promise to David.
Question: How limited is your understanding of God’s eternal
Kingdom?
Prayer: Oh, Jesus, our King! Thank you for coming to fulfill
an unbreakable promise of an eternal Kingdom in which all peoples of the world
can dwell.
Amen
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2018
