Eternal Hope at Christmas

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