November 16 - Prophecy: Ressurection

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:10 ESV) Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10, 11 ESV)

For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ (Acts 2:25-28 ESV)

1000 years before Jesus David prophesied concerning his resurrection. About 300 years later Isaiah prophesied the same thing. The Messiah would not stay buried.

The resurrection was the most pivotal moment in all of history. It changed everything. And it was foretold by a couple of guys generations before the birth of Jesus.

October 29 - Prophecy: Lots & Bones

I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22:17, 18 ESV)

so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, (John 19:24 ESV)

One thousand years before the birth of Christ David foretold some explicit details of our savior's murder. He saw the nature of the bloody scourging which would leave him bloodied and exposed. He saw that the executioners would cast lots for the Messiah's clothing.

David was far from a perfect man or king, but he was called a "man after God's own heart." Not because of his perfection, but in-spite of his imperfections. David was a guy that had the ability to overcome his own hangups and follow God's will for his life. David wasn't perfect, but God used him to prophecy about the coming of another king—a perfect king.

David's prophecies came true. Jesus was scourged until his ribs and bones were exposed. It was horrible. He was killed on the cross, and his murderers gambled for his clothing. And while the specific details of Christ's death are gruesome and tragic, the end result is glorious, and beautiful. That God would use imperfect people to point ahead to the perfect one, sent to rescue us from our imperfection, is pretty incredible!

January 9 - Righteous King

Read: 2 Chronicles 29

And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord , according to all that David his father had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord , the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. (2 Chronicles 29:2-6 ESV)

Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord , the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him. (2 Chronicles 29:10, 11 ESV)

Hezekiah was the 14th king of Judah and the 13th successor to David. He came at a time when the Jews were in turmoil. Idolatry, rebellion, and greed had created a prevailing culture of shameless sin leading to the abandonment of the Temple. Eventually this godlessness led to God's pronounced judgement on the Jews and they were taken away into exile. But not before Hezekiah became king and asserted himself as a righteous man who longed to reestablish God's covenant with his people.

You and I find ourselves in a situation incredibly similar to Hezekiah. The prevailing mindset of our time is not one of Godliness. Idolatry, rebellion, and greed in there many forms still usher the vast population through a life of lostness and tragedy.

Jesus came to change that. He came as a King of Kings. Hezekiah's efforts did not offer a permanent solution to the sin problem of his people, but Jesus did and does. What you experienced yesterday does not have to be your experience today. Allow Christ to guide you into a new, and everlasting, covenant with him.

January 8 - The King

Read: 1 Samuel 16

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7 ESV)

Samuel the Prophet was told by God to visit the house of Jesse and anoint a king to replace Saul who had began to live in disobedience. When the old prophet showed up he was struck by the appearance and presence of Jesse's eldest sons. However, God passed all of Jesse's sons up until Jesse reluctantly introduced his youngest boy David. Immediately God showed Samuel that David was the one meant to be king.

From that point in the story of the Jews an epic tale unfolded. The house of David arose and took a huge role in the historic shaping of the Jewish people, but it wouldn't end with just the Jews. For eventually Jesus would be born a descendant of David. Just as David, the youngest shepherd son of Jesse, was an unlikely candidate for the crown of Israel, Jesus was born into a lowly earthly family.

Often we make judgements about people based on a plethora of preconditioned variables. God looks at none of that. He sees straight into the heart of a man. Jesus was pure in heart and great in faith, though poor of wealth and small in all of the trappings society uses to measure worth and success. We follow a faith established on the person and work of God who came to live as a homeless traveling preacher. When you think about it that way it makes our methods for measuring the success of life seem oh so meager in comparison.