When David speaks of one who “rules justly over men, ruling
in the fear of God,” who then “dawns on them like the morning light, like the
sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout
from the earth”, he is speaking of the rule and reign of Jesus. The everlasting covenant made with his house
is fulfilled in the one who is to come, the Christ, who will come from David’s
line, the lion of Judah. This may be
David’s last poem or public oracle but these are not his final words, those
will come in his death-bed instructions to his son Solomon regarding what he
needs to do to consolidate his power over Israel and the settling of old scores. As wonderful as David was, he was not the
Christ, not the one to whom he refers in this passage.
Jesus speaks prophetically, first regarding the destruction
of the temple which will occur in another thirty-five or so years, and then
regarding what will come for the disciples.
They will be brought before councils, they will be persecuted, and they
will be hated. The good news is that they
will have wisdom in their trials, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit speaking
through them, and the Gospel will be proclaimed to all nations. Given all the other things of which Jesus
speaks, these would likely seem like small comforts. We live in changing times, times very much
like Jesus describes here with wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines,
but such things have always been happening.
Jesus doesn’t attempt to give signs of the end so much as to say that
these things simply are a fact of life on this earth, but they are all the
birth pangs of the new kingdom. We have
one work to do, proclaim the coming of that kingdom and do so in faith no
matter what the circumstances. We have
to be prepared for persecution and rejection, not popularity.
This Agrippa is the brother of Drusilla, the wife of Felix,
and he is a Jew. Not only that, he is accompanied here by Bernice and you
probably assumed she was his wife but you were wrong, she is his sister. There is a twist though. It was widely speculated that their
relationship was more than brother-sister, that it was, in fact,
incestuous. In his Roman position of
authority he had also the power to appoint the high priest of the Jews, thereby
controlling that position and ensuring it to be subservient to Roman
interests. He, therefore, was perfectly
willing to allow Paul to be tried by the council, but Paul had the trump card
of Roman citizenship to avoid that option.
Now, Paul will have an audience with Roman authorities but no one quite
knows what charges may be brought against him.
We must always recall that earthly authorities may have some measure of
power but ultimately there is the power of life only in the one who is
life.
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