Skip to main content

18. Solomon or Jesus?


2 Samuel 7:4-17, 1 Chronicles 17:1-15
Key Verse: "The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you: when 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. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.
2 Samuel 7:11B-13

Four hundred years have passed since the days of the exodus when the children of Israel wandered in the desert.  Now they have a history.  They have had times of obedience, such as conquering much of the land that God had promised: and times of disobedience, when God had to raise up leaders to bring them back to godliness.  They desired a king, but the first one, Saul, did many things that displeased God and God finally had to remove him from the throne.

Next, God chose a man after His own heart, David, the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah.  David could do it all from leading a battle, to writing poetry and David wanted everything he did to be for God's glory.  Most of all, David was a descendant of Judah, and became a direct forefather of the promised Messiah still to come.

Unfortunately, David also sinned against the Lord by having an affair, murdering the woman's husband and then trying to pretend that God didn't see, but of course, as we know, He did.  God confronted David about his sins through the prophet Nathan and David, faced with his sin, repented and cried out to God for mercy and forgiveness.  David's first son from this affair died in infancy.  Yet God was gracious in accepting David's repentance.  As a result, God blessed their second son, Solomon, out of all of David's children, as the one who would continue the line of descendants to Messiah.  How like our God, to turn tragedy into blessing.

Now, King David, with a heart full of Gratitude to God, wishes to build a temple, a monument expressing how great and awesome God is.  God doesn't need a temple, but, once again, our creator, God, understands David's heart, and offers him this glimpse of the future.

In this passage of Scripture, many believe that God is talking about Solomon because it is Solomon who built the temple that David had hoped to build.  While it is true that Solomon did build David's temple, that temple was destroyed and Solomon's kingdom was also split in two after Solomon's death and did not last forever.

God is referring here instead, to another descendant, to Jesus, and the temple that Jesus would build, the church, which would last forever.  Even the gates of hell would not prevail against what Christ would build, a temple, not built by hands, but by the hearts of those who would claim Him as Lord.  It is through Christ that David's reign can go on forever.

Also, in this passage, God promises to punish the son, but God never punished Solomon for all of the ways that he strayed from obedience to God.  God did punish Jesus, however, undeserved and as unfair as it was.  God punished Jesus for David's sin and for yours and mine.  It is because of that unjust punishment that Jesus is crowned as Messiah, king forever, in the order of Melchizedek, forever and ever.

Hymn: "Once In Royal David's City"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

211. The Sons of Thunder's Request

Matthew 20:20-28 , Mark 10:35-45 , Key verse: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43B-44 In our readings for yesterday, in which Jesus outlined what was about to happen to Him, for His disciples, the passage in Luke ends: "The disciples did not understand any of this. It's meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about." ( Luke 18:34 ) Now, we see just how truly clueless they were. Jesus had laid out a plan before them of pain and suffering and death and now James and John are focused on a promotion. The disconnect is so obvious. It's really not important to know whether James and john came up with this request on their own or if their mother put them up to it. The request was made and James and John thought that they could handle the responsibility that would come with it. What is that saying, "Fools rush in where angels fe...
Post a Comment
Read more

These Boots are Made for Walking

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-15 These Boots are Made for Walking. Of course, I picked that title because it has a reference to popular culture, and it connects with our text today about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” I was tempted to play the video of that song, but it’s really not amenable to worship. If you remember that old song, it was quite confrontational. The singer had a righteous complaint against a boyfriend or spouse who was cheating on her. She’s not going to put up with that, and the song goes on to say, “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!” And that “take a stand” bravado made her a hero! It was a #1 hit in 1966. I mention it because it has one interesting parallel and one major contrast with the message of grace and forgiveness. That parallel is this. God has a righteous complaint against the entire human race for cheating Him out of the loving relationship He desires with us. As the God who created us, he h...
Post a Comment
Read more

186. Ten Healed, Or One?

Luke 17:11-19 Key Verse: Then He said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:19 At last, Jesus has left the crowd behind and again is continuing His journey toward Jerusalem. His path takes Him and His disciples along the border of Judea and Samaria, between the pure Jews, and the hated half breeds of the day. On His way, Jesus encounters an interesting group of people. We only learn the nationality of one of them and, though we don't know the nationality of the others, because Jesus sends them to the priests in Jerusalem we can probably assume that at least some of them are Jews. Isn't it interesting that through leprosy, a disease that causes much suffering, the dividing wall of hatred has come down for the sake of companionship? We encountered one leper earlier on our Journey. Lepers were the dreaded untouchables of the day. Their disease cut them off from all they loved. It was a very lonely life. No wonder these people had ...
Post a Comment
Read more