Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
If you reflect on the history of your country, wherever you live in the world, you probably can name some historical heroes. Men and women who accomplished great things which helped shape the history and culture of your country. Who are they and what did they accomplish? For the nation of Israel there are many such people of course but today, as we continue our 30-day journey toward Christmas, I’d like us to consider how one particular man in the Old Testament pointed forward to Christmas and Jesus, perhaps more than any other.
The six-pointed Jewish star is named after him and often the city of Jerusalem bears his name. He was the second king of Israel, and you may recall Joseph and Mary headed to Bethlehem to register for a census because they were born into the lineage of this King. You know who I’m talking about, don’t you? David, the son of Jesse. We first meet him as a young lad out in the fields tending his father’s sheep, almost forgotten. Samuel, the prophet we discussed yesterday, had come to Bethlehem, at God’s direction, in about the year 1025bc, for only one purpose. God had said to Samuel: “I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1 Samuel 16:1) Jesse had a family of many sons, yet after reviewing them, Samuel was a bit confused, for as each stood before him God said to Samuel ‘NO, he is not the one’! God said to Samuel “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)So, Samuel asked Jesse “Are these all the sons you have?” To which Jesse almost apologetically responded, ‘There is still the youngest, but he is tending the sheep.” And you may recall when young David came in from the fields, God whispered to Samuel “Rise and anoint him, this is the one…and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David.” (1 Samuel 16:12,13) I wonder what you see already in young David that points us forward to Christmas, my friends?
If you know David’s story, you may recall even as a teenager God’s hand was upon him and while visiting his brothers serving in King Saul’s army, he saw Goliath and heard the giant mock God and God’s people. (1 Samuel 17) The Spirit of the LORD stirred deeply in young David, and he volunteered to go out and fight that well-armed, experienced, giant of a man… and with only a sling shot and one stone, God enabled David to kill mighty Goliath! That battlefield scene is a picture pointing forward to Christmas, for as Jesus came to earth His life began in the most humble of circumstances, born in a Bethlehem stable and raised as a refugee in Egypt for a while. But His adult life mission was to defeat the giant of evil Satan and all his demons and every person living under the strong influence of the kingdom of evil and darkness. In the months and years following that remarkable defeat of giant Goliath, David did something amazing… he served King Saul humbly and obediently and he deflected any praise or glory offered to him by people who were impressed with him, by turning that praise to God. Do you see how that attitude points us forward to Jesus? Do you remember how Jesus responded to those confused by His humility and His tenderness toward the needs of others? Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) And the apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to urge Christians to be a people who should “…have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, rather He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:5-8)
Through those years between the time young David had been anointed to be future King, till the time he actually ascended to the throne of Israel after the death of King Saul, David lived as a man rejected and even hunted down to be killed by King Saul, even though David served King Saul faithfully and saved the King’s life more than once. Was that a picture pointing forward to Christmas and King Herod’s vicious attempt to kill young Jesus? Does it remind you of how Jesus over and over was rejected by the very people who should have most enthusiastically welcomed Him? Remember John wrote this about Jesus: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to those who were His own, but His own did not receive Him…” (John 1:10,11)
When David finally did become King of Israel, he was the first of the God selected royal line of Israel. His son Solomon was the next great king of Israel, and you may recall that even though the nation of Israel divided into two kingdoms, the royal line of David continued, even during the years of captivity.
During those years God raised up a prophet named Micah, in about the year 700bc, who brought a series of messages from God to His people which included this very clear prophecy about the coming Messiah: “But you, Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2) That was 300 years after David had lived and led the united kingdom of Israel. But God was making it clear that when God would send Messiah, He would be born in Bethlehem, the hometown of David! You may recall it was this prophecy which the advisors to King Herod used to clarify for Herod and the Magi from the east, where the ‘king of the Jews” was to be born. (Matt. 2:5,6)
Finally, when the angel Gabriel came to earth with God’s Christmas message, about 1000 years after King David reigned, Gabriel said to Mary “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The LORD God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever, His kingdom will never end.“ (Luke 1:31-33) Jesus was born into the royal family line of King David, and while Jesus came as Savior for the entire world, He came first to the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob. Have you ever considered this: Jesus, God the Son, came to bring God’s truth to the entire world, and now with language translations and modern technology there is almost no place in the world that does not have access to the Gospel of Jesus!? Jesus came to die an atonement death so anyone in the whole world could be saved from their sin, yet Jesus never traveled more than about 100 miles in any direction from Bethlehem, the birthplace of both David and Jesus! But over the centuries, followers of Jesus have taken His Christmas story and His life message the Gospel to the farthest extremity of our planet! And wherever the story of Jesus is spoken, the story of David is included as an important Old Testament hero whose life pointed forward to Jesus!
I’ve often wondered what it was like for both Jesse and Joseph to help their young sons grow up knowing they would be Kings anointed by God! Here I’ve found a great Christmas song that helps us consider all this from the perspective of Joseph, the man God called to be husband to Mary and earthly parent to infant Jesus…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Samuel 16, 17.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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