To Nathan it seemed logical that David should build the
house of the Lord just as David proposed, so his initial reaction was, “Go for
it.” What seemed a good idea wasn’t
because it wasn’t God’s idea or plan. We
can do a great many things that seem like they are surely God’s will but if we
don’t do them in His timing it will never work out. Nathan received word that this was not to be
David’s work or his prerogative. The
Lord, however, promises David in covenant that his son will reign and that his
house will be established forever. We
know that Jesus is the son of David in that He came through the Davidic line
and that His kingdom indeed is forever, the Lord is faithful to His covenant
promises.
Who woulda thunk it?
Mary, a woman of whom we know so little, a young woman who seems to have
been an insignificant member of the Davidic line, is the favored one who bears
the Messiah. Elizabeth, married to a
priest who met with an angel in the holy place, whose own son was so
dramatically announced to the world, receives her kinswoman with great acclaim,
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And
why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth’s own joy in her pregnancy was
eclispsed by the joy she experienced at the visitation of Mary. Mary’s song, the Magnificat, has been part of
Christian worship for centuries and rightly so.
The Lord had chosen the humble young woman to bear His child, the
Messiah. Surely this would mean reversal
of the world’s systems and expectations.
The promise is being fulfilled, but it won’t look like what even Mary
thinks.
We are to be upside down people because of the grace we have
received. We are no longer to be those
who are driven by sinful passions and desires but to be, as Paul repeats over
and again in this letter, self-controlled.
We can be self-controlled because we have help, we have the Holy Spirit
which Paul says was richly poured out on us.
We are heirs of the promises made to David, heirs of the covenant of
life. The reversal is not of the world’s
order, it is a reversal of the people of God, we are those whose own lives are
reversed by grace, mercy and forgiveness, the curse is gone. The new creation begins with us when we
receive Jesus, we are to be changed, made new, and harbingers of what is to
come. Let us rejoice in our salvation!
Father-like, he tends
and spares us;
well our feeble frame
he knows;
in his hand he gently
bears us,
rescues us from all
our foes.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Widely yet his mercy
flows.
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