We’re just two weeks into the semester. I don’t know what baggage you’re bringing here with you or where your heart is at right now, but I hope these words meet you wherever that is.
This summer I started reading 1 Samuel and have been rolling from there. Today, I want to share a story with you from a little later down the road in 2 Samuel chapter 7, in a moment with David that often gets overlooked.
To give a little background, at this point, David has been king for a little while now, but he’s already been through a lot. God has taken him from the youngest and least important son cast aside to work the fields, to a face-off against a giant, and later against his predecessor Saul, and then against the other many enemies of the Israelites.
And what’s God’s next move? To have a little talk with David.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.”
2 Samuel 7:8-9
God starts out by reminding David of all He has done for him, and the places he has been rescued from. Next, he makes a promise. But not just any promise…
“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. I will be to him like a father, and he shall be to me a son…but my steadfast love will not depart from him“
2 Samuel 7: 12-13,15
Father, son, an established kingdom, it sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This is the first mention of this promise which will be repeated over and over again throughout the old testament like an anthem from a weary and desperate people crying out for a savior.
And that savior, He came. He fulfilled the words above, an answer to the generations of cries for a solution to the brokenness and disarray.
Let’s go back for a minute though. Put yourself in David’s shoes. David was alive around 1000 BCE. That’s a full THOUSAND years before Jesus, the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.
Imagine receiving this incredible word from God, an incredible covenant being made, but having no clue when or how it will come about. It maybe feels so familiar to you, as you sit stuck or unsure of what the next step is in the confusing, always changing and moving time known as college (and just life in general!).
But God’s promises are unchanging and permanent.
“Forever, O Lord, your word
is fixed firmly in the heavens.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations.”
Psalm 119:89-90
These are words we can depend on people! The one thing that won’t let us down! And God promises us, the people called Christians after Jesus has died and risen, these same promises as he did to David so long ago.
“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Romans 8:10
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9
“But as it is, [Jesus] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
Hebrews 9:26b-28
“…nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:39
These are true words, true statements about salvation, God’s unfailing love, peace during trials, and the day we are still waiting to see – the return of Christ and the reuniting of creation and creator. I pray the Holy Spirit works in your heart through these in ways my words never can.
Lastly, I want to look at David’s response to all of this.
“And King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And what more can David say to you? Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you‘”
2 Samuel 7:18, 20, 22
David does two things.
1) He immediately humbles himself before God.
2) he immediately praises God.
I think this is what our response should be too.
If you trust that God is good and in control and the giver of all the things, then we can rest in his promises and his word, and we can respond in this same humility and praise.
These words and truths don’t make all the scary parts of life go away, but I hope they do give you a little perspective and hope and faith in a God who won’t let you down or give up on you when other things and people do.
It took 1000 years for God to fulfill the promise he made to David, so know that just because you don’t see the end yet doesn’t mean The Lord has left your side.
A song I love by Sandra McCracken repeats this line,
“If it’s not okay, then it is not the end. And this is not okay, so I know this is not the end.”
Yes, it’s not okay, but know and trust and muster up the courage to believe this is not the end of the story.