His throne shall be established forever
Wed, 22 November, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
11 “When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’”
David wanted to build a temple for the Lord. But God stops David, for David was a man of warfare. However, God promises that Solomon will be allowed to do what David is forbidden. Solomon will build the temple that David was not allowed to build.
What do we learn from this?
God sometimes stops us from doing something. We might think of some wonderful think we can do for God. We can have the best of motives in our service for God. But for some reason, God closes the door on what we intended. It doesn’t work out. The new church plant fails. No body attends the Bible study we tried to organize. The person we are praying for and witnessing to remains hostile to the gospel.
We wonder why God closes these doors. Why wouldn’t He give success to these well intentioned plans? Usually we will never know.
But take heart. If God doesn’t allow something, it is always because there is something better. He is always working everything for our ultimate good and for His glory. In David’s case, it is easy to see that God’s promise to establish David’s kingdom forever is a much greater honor than for David to build the temple. Usually we don’t have something as clear as that replace our fallen hopes. But God is working, even if we don’t see it. God has something better than we can imagine, and in eternity it will all come to fruition. It might require suffering now, but it will be worth it all in the end.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Solomon was granted the privilege withheld from David. Solomon built the temple. So in a small way, Solomon was the fulfillment of the promise God makes here to David. He shall build a house for me. Solomon built that house.
But clearly, this promise goes beyond Solomon. I will establish his throne forever…. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.
This is the promise God makes that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come from the line of David. Jesus Christ is the son of David who will sit on the throne forever. He is the eternal King. He is the one established on David’s throne forever.
