Advent 2023: December 5 - Promise

Read 2 Samuel 7.

David has a wonderful idea.  He has finished building his house, which is quite a mansion.  But one day, as he looks out, he sees that God only has a tent.  This is the Tabernacle that Moses built in Exodus 40.
 
He feels shame that God’s house is less magnificent than his own.  So he decides that it is time to build God something that honors God.  It sounds great and even Nathan the Prophet thinks this is a great idea.

Until it is not a good idea.  And God himself is not for this idea.  At night, God comes to Nathan and says, “Go back to David and tell him this…”

God will not allow David to build him a temple.   He has not asked for this.  In fact, God has been fine camping out with the Israelites ever since they left Egypt, some 400 plus years ago.
 
Instead, God has a plan for David.  He will build him a house!  But not a house of wood and stone.  Rather, God will build the House of David, the lines of Kings who will rule over the people of Israel.

And God makes some promises to David about this house that he is building.  It will never fail, David will always have a son to sit on the throne of Israel.  God also promises to make David’s name great.
 
So David will get a dynasty that will last forever and never get toppled and then God even says this, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.  Your throne shall be established forever.”

Quite a gift and promise that God gives.  And from 1010 BC to 582 BC a Son of David always sat on the throne of Israel.

Until the exile.  God’s people were destroyed as God threatened, and David’s line was no longer king.  The surviving members of David’s line survive the exile and return to the land, but they have a foreign king reigning over them.
 
But then, in Luke 1, we read this from the angel Gabriel to Mary, “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God.  And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31-33.

When God spoke this promise to David, Jesus was always in the picture. Even in the exile, God was working out his gracious promise to send Jesus, who is David’s Son and David’s Lord.