Scripture
“I tell you that I will build a royal house for your family.’
~I Chronicles 17:10, NIrV
Quote
Jesus is the ultimate Promise Keeper.
~Ya’akov
I am reading through the books of history this month and earlier today I read I Chronicles 17 where David says, “Here I am, living in a palace that has beautiful cedar walls. But the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.“ David’s desire was to build the LORD an elaborate Temple but that was David’s desire, not God’s. I love the ensuing conversation between God and David through the prophet Nathan. The following is the LORD’s response to David request to build Him a house. This is the JEV, Jack’s everyday version. It is a paraphrase….
The LORD…“I don’t need a house. Have I ever complained about the tent. If you build Me a big fancy house, the Israelites will worship the house instead of Me. I have a much better plan; I am going to build you {David} a house. I know, you just moved into a brand new house but I am not talking about a house of stone and cedar, I am talking about a family, a huge family–so big we will call it a kingdom. I am talking about a Royal House. You are going to die but this house I am talking about is going to live on long after you are gone. I going to build this house through your son, your descendant and it will be house established forever. I will make this kingdom secure.”
Obviously, David and the Jews thought that Solomon would fulfill the promise but this is not the case. Solomon built a Temple of stone, cedar and gold. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. God never intended to fulfill the promise through Solomon. There is only one who can fulfill this promise and that is Jesus. The house He built was Himself, Jesus was God’s Temple. Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He is not talking about Herod’s temple, the one the Jews worshiped, He was talking about His own body. Witnesses at His trail said, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made by human hands. In three days I will build another temple, not made by human hands.“ The Jews were focused on the wrong temple, they were looking at the one made of stone by human hands but Jesus was the real Temple.
I am relatively certain that Paul and Apollos used this passage to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. There is only one way that God could fulfill the promise He made to David, and that is through Jesus. Jesus is the key piece of the puzzle. A part from Jesus, the promise to David means nothing. It was never about a temple of stone or Solomon on the throne but Jesus all along. God didn’t come up with this plan in the middle of the stream, His plan has always been Jesus. So Jesus is not plan B, He is the plan, the only plan.
We had 21 at our Senior Adult Fish Fry. Some of our folks were disappointed in the turnout but I was just thankful we had enough to eat the fish. June said it was good and she doesn’t throw praise around loosely. I want to thank my team: Daryl and Tina Jones and Ray and Darlene Williams. I have asked Tina and Darlene to help me because I can’t get folks to come. They suggested we try a BINGO night with lots of prizes. We may even have pop corn and pizza to go with it. Remember, BINGO is not gambling unless you pay to play and we don’t charge. If you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to share them with me.
Dian Penney is having surgery Monday morning at CRMC [6:00]. This is not a procedure or a test, it is major surgery. PLEASE pray for Dian.
REMEMBER: Those who have the will find a way and those who do not have the will find an excuse.