Friday, July 20, 2018

Eternal Witness

Friday, July 20, 2018
I have found my servant David.  I have anointed him with my holy oil.  I will steady him with my hand; with my powerful arm I will make him strong.  His enemies will not defeat him, nor will the wicked overpower him.  I will beat down his adversaries before him and destroy those who hate him.  My faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him, and by my authority he will grow in power.  I will extend his rule over the sea, his dominion over the rivers.  And he will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’  I will make him my firstborn son, the mightiest king on earth.  I will love him and be kind to him forever; my covenant with him will never end.  I will preserve an heir for him; his throne will be as endless as the days of heaven.  But if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating.  But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him.  No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.  I have sworn an oath to David, and in my holiness I cannot lie:  His dynasty will go on forever; his kingdom will endure as the sun.  It will be as eternal as the moon, my faithful witness in the sky!” Interlude  Psalm 89:20-37(NLT)
In a recent conversation with a fellow pastor I was sharing one aspect of God’s call to ministry on my life, a particular aspect of preaching that calls us to the surrendered life.  Here’s what I said:  If you go back and read every one of my sermons, since day one in ministry, you’ll find the theme is repenting of who we have been and surrendering to God’s will. 
Now that is certainly part of Scripture’s content and intent; that we bow before God’s prior claim on our lives and be obedient to His will.  Notice that the promise made to King David is a throne forever – an eternal dynasty, David’s descendants ruling forever. 
But, and there IS a but, and actually there are two of them; they are all about the conditional nature of God’s promise:
The first “but” is concerning future obedience:
But if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their disobedience with beating. 
A reality about the lovingkindness and promises of God is that you’d better handle them with holy hands; even though God’s promises are eternal, and God cannot lie, you cannot behave with impunity towards a holy God and expect Heaven will be silent.  Like the old-time preacher put it – people who get saved and then go on to live like a child of Hell think they’ve got fire insurance; that dog won’t hunt!
The second “but” is a reassurance that chastisement will not cancel God’s promises:
But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him. 
God always has a way to work out his promises, despite our unwillingness to cooperate.
In the case of David, God promised that his descendants would carry out God’s rule forever, even though David messed up, and the Kingdom of Israel, as well as David’s family fell apart for a season.  God, who sees from a much higher perspective than humans, understood this would happen and, even in his original promise to David, promised an eternal witness to this promise. 
The completion of God’s eternal witness of a promise to David (as well as Adam[2]) was fulfilled in a manger.  It seems out of the root of Jesse’s stump[3] the lineage of David, produced a king, born in a manger, the Lamb of God.  And in the cross, Jesus regained the holy ground of the throne of eternal witness God promised. 
Speaking to David, the great ancestor of Jesus, the eternal king, God had said He would never take back his promise – not a single word! 
For You Today
Perhaps you, like David, have messed up some of God’s promises, and you’re feeling the effects of a woodshed experience, the rod of correction.  Don’t mistake that for God going back on his promises to you.  To the contrary…He’s just getting started; His promises are always fulfilled. 
So, surrender; reboot, restart, and live the life!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] Genesis 3:15
[3] Isaiah 53

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