There was an ancient prophesy given to one of Jacob’s sons by the name of Judah, but I share it with you, I want to tell you something about Judah. Judah grew up under the faith of his father Jacob. No doubt that he heard the stories of how God met him and wrestled with him all night and how afterwards changed his birth name to Israel. My guess is that when Judah was a child, he may have asked: “Daddy, where did you get that limp?” What we know of Judah, was that the faith of his mother and father was not enough; Judah needed his own encounter with God.
What you need to know about Judah was that even though he was warned by his father that God forbade His people from marrying Canaanite women because they would turn his heart away from God, Judah married a Canaanite woman anyway (Gen. 38:1-2). Judah fathered three sons with his Canaanite wife who all grew up to be evil men. The oldest of Judah’s sons was Er for whom Judah found a wife for by the name of Tamar. However, before Er and Tamar could begin a family together, God killed Er because of how wicked he had become; the same thing happened to Judah’s second son. Tamar was without a husband and therefore in her mind, was without any hope; in the culture and time Tamar lived, to be childless and a widow essentially was to be left vulnerable with only two options: prostitution or death (read Genesis 38 for the full story).
After Judah’s wife died and Tamar heard that he was going up to Timnah to shear sheep, she dressed the part of a prostitute and sat in a place Judah would see her (v. 14). Tamar’s plan worked out as she hoped; Judah saw her and paid her for sex (vv. 15-16). What is even more disturbing about the whole encounter Judah had with Tamar was that she was believed to be a “cult prostitute” which gives us some sense for Judah’s religious convictions. The result was that Tamar got pregnant by her father-in-law and gave birth to twins. To be fair, there is much more to Judah and Tamar’s story, and Judah eventually does the right thing after he found out that it was his daughter-in-law that was pregnant with his children, but what led up to the twins that were born to Tamar was one big mess! Yet, it was to Judah that God promised the following:
As for you, Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. “Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares to stir him up? ‘The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.’” (Genesis 49:8–10)
Guess who is included in Jesus’ family tree? Perez, one of the twins born to Tamar. Seven generations after Perez, Boaz was born who would marry Ruth, and together they would have a son (Obed), whose grandson would be named David. If you examine Jesus’ family tree carefully, what you will discover are highly dysfunctional people who made a mess of their lives. If you think you made a mess of your life, you will find great company in the Bible of people who have done the same who experience a God who entered into their mess.
The Type of House David Wanted to Build
Of all of Israel’s kings mentioned in the Bible, David is the one king by whom all other kings are compared. David is the one king of whom God identified as, “A man after My heart, who will do all My will” (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22).
Some of the highlights of David’s life include the courage to face the giant called Goliath when all of Israel’s army, including Saul as their king, were afraid to fight him; David fought the giant with a sling shot, five smooth stones, without any armor, and with one of the greatest lines in scriptures:
“You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you and remove your head from you. Then I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that this entire assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will hand you over to us!” (1 Sam. 17:45-47)
David was just a teenager when he defeated Goliath; it would not be for another 10-15 years before he would officially be installed as king. As king, David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, he brought back the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, and through war brought peace to his nation. The one thing that David longed to do but was not permitted to do was to build the temple that his son Solomon would eventually build in his stead. In 2 Samuel 7:1-16 we are shown that although David was a good king, he was not the king Israel, or the world, needs. It is David’s desire to build a house for God that sets up what is known as the Davidic Covenant. To see the significance of how 2 Samuel 7:8-16 helps us understand the point of Advent, we need to be aware of verses 1-7,
Now it came about, when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I live in a house of cedar, but the ark of God remains within the tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.”
But in the same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, “Go and say to My servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Should you build Me a house for My dwelling? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; rather, I have been moving about in a tent, that is, in a dwelling place. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”
Do you know what David is really requesting permission to do? In these verses, David is doing what all the other kings were known for doing. The kings of the nations believed that if they built a house for their god(s) then their god(s) would bless them by establishing the king’s power, reign, and successes. God’s response to David shows us that Yahweh is not like the other gods of the nations. In fact, the God of Israel is very different!
Every god of every other religion demands something of its worshipers that the worshiper has no power to achieve because for every other religion, divine blessing is conditional. This is the evidence that the gods of such religions are really not gods at all. The reason why God told David that he was not permitted to build a house for Him is ultimately because with Yahweh, divine blessing can only be unconditional. In other words, the blessing is entirely dependent upon Him because we have no power to do it ourselves. Timothy Keller in a sermon on this passage, pointed out something Eugene Peterson said about David’s request that makes sense of the unconditional promise of God that follows David’s request: “I think David was just about to cross over a line from being full of God to being full of himself…. If any of us develops an identity in which God and God’s grace is less important to who we are than our own action and performance, our ability to represent God’s kingdom is utterly ruined.”[1]
So, God said no to David’s request to build a house for good reason! God doesn’t need a house like the other gods because Yahweh is the one true God! So, instead of building a house for God, God would instead build a different kind of house for David, and the building would not be a literal building but a dynasty where God will pour out His grace upon David’s descendants unconditionally. Timothy Keller said it this way: “He says: ‘I promise to make your descendants a dynastic kingship, and I will so graciously and unconditionally commit myself to them, regardless of their merit, regardless of their pedigree. I will so graciously and unconditionally commit myself to them that neither death, sin, nor time will break my commitment.’”[2]
Do know how God will do it? According to 2 Samuel 7:1-16, God will do it through two principles that Timothy Keller called the Incarnation Principle and the Grace Principle.
- The Incarnation Principle: God does not need a building because He intends to dwell with His people.
- The Grace Principle: God will do what only God is capable of doing apart from any help from any other person.
Thank God that He operates on these two principles and in such an unconditional way! Everything seemed to be going great for David up to 2 Samuel 7, but just four short chapters later he will commit a sin so horrible that had God’s covenant with David been conditional, all hope for an everlasting Kingdom would be lost (see 2 Samuel 11:1-12:31). David is only a shadow of the kind of king that would come, for the One to sit on David’s throne would indeed be the One to Whom belongs the obedience of the nations (Gen. 49:8-10), and He would come to reign forever (2 Sam. 7:14-16).
The Type of House God Would Build
The King promised to, and through, David, would not come for at least another 1,000 years. The mess David made of his life would be overshadowed by the greater mess Solomon made of his life. Within the years between David’s life and the news of Jesus’ birth were centuries of idolatry, exile, and the oppression of empires. About 500 years of silence would follow the last Hebrew prophet until a certain poor couple engaged to be married. Through it all, God was unconditionally committed to His promise of a King through the line of Judah and He was moving empires, cultures, and structures in His time, through our mess, to accomplish His purposes for our good and His glory!
The news would first come to a virgin and then to her fiancé, both were descendants of David. God’s principle of incarnation and grace would come together in one Person in a way only the true God was capable of doing, and the news would be delivered by an angel:
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God.
There are seven qualities about the child who Mary would miraculously give birth to:
- He will be the Son of David. (v. 31)
- He will be the Savior of sinners. (v. 31)
- He will be great. (v. 32)
- He will be divinely the Son of God. (v. 32)
- He will be the King of kings. (v. 32)
- He will reign sovereignly over the nations. (v. 33)
- He will reign forever. (v. 33)
So, what does advent mean for you? What does advent mean for the world? How is any of this the great news the Bible says that it is? Here are seven reasons why this is good news wrapped up in the news delivered to Mary by the angel:
- As the Son of David, Jesus is fully human. The mess that makes up His family tree serves as reminder of the kinds of people He was born to redeem. Jesus was born to enter into your mess not to leave you there but to deliver you from your sin.
- As the Savior for sinners, Jesus, a qualified and able savior to remedy the problem of mankind. Because Jesus is the Son of David, He qualifies to be the kinsmen redeemer as a member of the family that is the human race. Jesus, as the fully human savior, understands you more than you can ever know.
- Jesus is great because He is no ordinary king. He is the One of Whom the prophets spoke about long ago! He is the One of Whom Jeremiah wrote about: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord Our Righteousness.’” (Jer. 23:5-6). Jesus brings to the table of your sin a grace greater than all of your offences combined.
- Jesus is divine because He is truly the Son of the Most High, not in the way you are a son or daughter, but because He proceeds from God the Father. Jesus is divine because before he took on flesh in Mary’s womb, He was for all eternity… always the Son. The apostle Paul put it this way: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:15-16). Jesus as the fully divine Son of God is not only willing to save you from your sins, but he is able to save you from your sins.
- Jesus is the King of kings in that He is truly the Son of David and at the same time the Son of God. He is the King of Israel and the redeemer because He is, “the first and the last” (Isa. 44:6-8). Jesus as the King of kings, calls those He saves to follow Him as the King over your life.
- Jesus will reign sovereignly over the nations; His Kingdom will not be limited to the twelve tribes of Israel, for it was prophesied long ago: “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom” (Isa. 9:7). Jesus, as the Sovereign One, is the only One who brings the kind of peace you were made for.
- Finally, Jesus’ kingdom will have no end in that He will reign forever and ever. As King over the nations, there will never be a moment when peace will recede, abate, or climax, for it will always increase as will the joy of His people. We are told that on that Day, “the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 51:11). Jesus, who was born to redeem as far as the curse of sin is found, it the only One who can give you rest for your soul.
Mary’s response to this news is understandable: “But Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin” (v. 34)? It is in the angel’s answer that we again see the principles of incarnation and grace at work: “The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God” (v. 35).
What is the incarnational principle? It would not be a temple God would build, but instead He would tabernacle among His people through and in the person of His own Son, which was the plan all along! God would enter into the mess of sinful humanity.
What is the grace principle? There was nothing Mary brought to the table that obligated God to bless her with the Child promised long ago to Whom belonged the obedience of the nations. It was all unconditional grace through the powerful work of God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the person of Jesus Christ.
