2 Samuel 8:1-2 – A Much Needed Chapter
If we knew what was going to happen in the future, it would affect what we do here and now. There are always people trying to work out what’s going to happen next. But our problem in many areas of life is that we don’t know where life is going, so we just have to guess. But there are some areas of life where people are pretty confident about where things are going. For example, they’re confident that history is only moving in one direction, and so there’s a desperate fear of being on the wrong side of history. The good news is that we do know where things are going. It is possible to be on the right side of history. We see that pictured for us in this chapter.
If this chapter is just a list of the achievements and victories of some ancient king, then it doesn’t have much to tell us about where history is heading. But if David’s role in Scripture is to give us a pattern and a picture of ‘the prince of princes Christ Jesus the son of David and his spiritual kingdom’ – then it actually has far more to tell us about where history is heading than TV news or the opinions of experts. David is God’s anointed – God’s messiah. But he also points us forward to God’s ultimate messiah, Jesus Christ. The advance of David and his kingdom in this chapter isn’t here merely for our historical interest, but to give us confidence about the advance of Jesus’ kingdom. That Scripture-fuelled confidence is something we desperately need, because from our perspective it often looks like things are all heading in the wrong direction, rather than the right one. You could easily get the impression in this world that to invest your life in God’s kingdom is pointless because it would be like trying to bail out a sinking ship. So this is a much-needed chapter.
Questions
- Who does David point us to?
- What might we be tempted to think from the state of the world?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks that Christ’s Kingdom is advancing.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.