God honours His word

Last week we talked about how God has a divine plan, a master plan if you will, for the things He wants to see happen in the world. We talked about how with our yes of agreement and with our obedience we too can be part of that plan. How wonderful to know that the Creator of the universe has a divine purpose for our lives! Even more awesome is how He looks to us to agree with His plan and He does not force His will and His plan on us. We get to choose whether or not we want to be part of it.

We don’t always know why God does what He does, but when we look back at what He has already done, we see just how beautiful and loving He is to all of us. Two weeks ago, we looked at how God made some promises to Abraham and how those promises found their fulfilment in many generations long after Abraham was gone and are still being fulfilled to this present day. God honours His word. That’s what we are going to be talking about in the next few weeks.

Sometimes we may look at the Bible and think God uses “special” people but in fact God uses ordinary people who say “Yes” to His call. Let’s take king David for example. Long before he was king, David was the rut of his family. A nobody to his brothers, and as it appears, to his own father as well, see 1 Samuel 16 and 1 Samuel 17:28. There was nothing special about David save for that He loved God. Isn’t that a relief! The only qualifier for God doing amazing things in and through your life is that you have a relationship with God. A real relationship, not a situationship.

Mark 12:30 says, “‘You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with a passionate heart, from the depths of your soul, with your every thought, and with all your strength. This is the great and supreme commandment.”

Does this mean you have to be perfect. No. God never looks for perfection. We know king David was a little messy, but God still loved him and God still used him! God chose to weave David’s life through the fabric of eternity not because David was “special” but because David was available and open to God using him. King David lived almost 3000 years ago and yet we still talk about him today. A simple yes to God today can change the trajectory of your family line for generations to come.

Anyway, back to God honouring His word, in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 God made this promise to David, “For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline him with the rod, like any father would do. But my favor will not be taken from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’”

This promise is repeated in 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, and we know the Bible does not repeat things for fun, so this is a promise that God wants us to pay attention to. For context, we need to know whether David prayed some sort of prayer or asked for this, but it does not look like he did. If anything, 2 Samuel 7:2 says, “When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, the king summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!”

Wow! What a heart. There was no special prayer, just a desire in David’s heart to do something that blessed God. How many would notice that God’s Ark was in a tent, if they were living in a palace? That their local church is falling apart but they are living in luxury? David noticed and it bothered him. So, in context the promise God made to David was in effect to say, “Hey, don’t worry about building Me a temple. I’ll get one of your kids to do it for me when they are king. Also, because your heart is beautiful and makes Me smile, your kingdom will last forever—not just for a few generations, as it did with Saul. I’ve got you!”

Now we know that king Solomon built God one of the most prestigious temples ever, see 1 Kings 6 and a descendant of David remained on the throne for the years to come. Jeremiah 33:14-15 says this, “Yahweh says, “The time is coming when I will fulfill the gracious promise of good things to come that I made to the people of Israel and Judah: At that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to sprout from David’s lineage. And he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.” God spoke this a few hundred years after the initial promise to David and at a time when things were not looking great for Israel. God does not forget or go back on His word regardless of what our present circumstances look like.

Now without knowing about Jesus, the promise to David probably seemed farfetched. David would have a kingdom that lasts forever, really? Surely one of his descendants will mess it up, right? Yeah… and they did. They dropped the ball multiple times along the way but then came Jesus. The ultimate fulfilment of the promise of God and just like that, David’s house and his kingdom continues to this day and into eternity! God kept His promise, see Isaiah 11, Isaiah 11:10, Matthew 1:1 and Matthew 9:27.

Whatever promise God has made to you, you may have dropped the ball a few times, but for as long as you stay in relationship with Jesus and don’t give up, you will see God’s promises fulfilled. Depending on what the promise is, sometimes the fulfillment happens long after we are gone from this earth, but one thing is true; God always honours His word.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.