God’s promises are the foundation of our faith. If we dig the roots of our lives deeply into the rich and wonderful promises of God we will grow strong in Him and will live fruitful lives for His glory.
God’s promises should make us confident as we remember that He is always with us, that He will bless us, that He will establish His kingdom, etc. From these roots of confidence in God’s Word should grow a vibrant passion for God’s glory. God’s promises fuel our worship and our worship fuels our lives.
God’s commands help us focus on His purposes – staying on target with God’s desires and plans, submitting our will to His. And this whole process enables us to bear fruit for the Lord by the power of His Spirit. So it is essential to our Christian lives that we rightly understand the promises of God.
This Sunday we study God’s covenant promises to King David. From our vantage point 3,000 years later we can see how they were fulfilled first in Solomon, then in Jesus and now in us!
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Solomon was the first son of David who reigned on his throne but Jesus was the ultimate Son of David. Jesus paid the price of redemption so all of us could become a part of the family of God!
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Solomon built the temple, Jesus’ body was the temple (torn down but rebuilt in three days through the resurrection!) and now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit!
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Solomon reigned 40 years over Israel. Jesus announced His kingdom in His preaching, confirmed His power through miracles and then proved His ultimate authority by rising from the dead!
From David’s limited vantage point he could not have known the full meaning of God’s promises to him.
God promised David a family, a temple and a kingdom that would last forever. All of these were initially fulfilled in Solomon but quickly in Solomon’s reign it became clear that he would not be the ultimate fulfillment. Solomon was not the ideal eternal king. All of the kings of Israel who followed, even the best ones (like Josiah and Hezekiah), raised hopes of being the King foretold. But all of them failed to fulfill these expectations.
Until Jesus!
Now as we look back on these wonderful promises we can see how they were initially fulfilled in Solomon, again fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming and still to be completely fulfilled when Jesus comes back. Jesus is already reigning spiritually at the father’s right hand. When he returns Jesus will reign physically on the throne of David in Jerusalem.
Reflect this weekend on the word of the Lord to David: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 2 Samuel 7:12-13