TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Samuel 7:1-17
[The Lord] remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations. - Psalm 105:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
Human beings have a strong need to remember and be remembered. We build monuments and memorials to people and events that are too important to be forgotten, even when they evoke painful emotions. One recent example of our strong need to remember was the dedication last April of a national memorial to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.

The ability to remember is important, a gift God gives us as beings made in His image. Although our memories are imperfect and selective, God remembers perfectly. And He always remembers His promises. When God makes a covenant with an individual or a nation, He never forgets what He has promised.

King David and his descendants were the recipients of God’s covenant promises. The Davidic covenant we read about today is still in effect, because its ultimate fulfillment waits for the day when Jesus Christ will return and establish His glorious kingdom.

In fact, David’s own reign was a link in the ongoing fulfillment of another divine promise--

God’s pledge that He would raise up a seed, an “offspring,” who would completely and finally defeat Satan (Gen. 3:15). We’ve been tracing the progress of that righteous line from the beginning of creation in Genesis to the moment Christ “became flesh” (John 1:14).

David was arguably the most important human link in this chain, because the Savior’s line carried David’s name. Jesus is the “Son of David” (Mark 10:47).

After Saul’s disobedience and rejection, God had told Samuel that He had chosen David, a man with a heart like His (1 Sam. 13:14). We can see David’s heart for God in 2 Samuel 7, in his desire to build God a permanent place of worship that would be worthy of His glory.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Do you ever feel forgotten, even by those who are close to you?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Samuel 7:18-29
How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you. - 2 Samuel 7:22
TODAY IN THE WORD
If the events of 2 Samuel happened today, the king who was being honored with the promise of an eternal kingdom might call a press conference to announce his good fortune, or throw a lavish party to display the greatness of his royalty.

David did nothing to promote or congratulate himself on being the object of God’s blessing. The Puritan writer John Flavel said, “They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.” David understood who deserved the praise.

This great prayer takes us into the heart and soul of David, and helps us understand why God said this king of Israel was a man after His own heart. David’s first response to the promise of an eternal kingdom was, “Who am I?”

The king’s humility wasn’t forced or phony. David was genuinely astonished that God had chosen him for this honor. “Is this your usual way of dealing with man?” David asked (v. 19). In other words, “Lord, are You always this gracious with people who don’t deserve it?”

David’s humble attitude toward himself was matched by his exalted view of God. The king addressed God seven times as “O Sovereign LORD,” a term that recognized God’s complete authority and right to work everything according to His will. David knew that when God spoke, no one could block His intentions.

We can’t say for sure if David understood that God’s promise of an eternal kingdom meant the Messiah would come from his line. God did speak through David as a prophet on several occasions, as when he wrote of the crucifixion in Psalm 22. But the Old Testament prophets often wrote of things they didn’t completely understand because the fulfillment was hidden from them.

Regardless of whether David could see the final fulfillment of this promise, he knew God had chosen him and his family for a very special purpose.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Sometimes, handling success is harder than handling failure.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Samuel 11:1-27
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan chose his son Ogotai as his successor. Historians say that Ogotai was not the greatest warrior in the family, but he knew how to handle authority and how to handle his brothers. During Ogotai’s reign from 1229 to 1241, the Mongol Empire advanced to its westernmost point.

David knew how to handle his authority in the early years of his reign, and under his leadership Israel enjoyed its greatest days. God subdued all of David’s enemies as He had promised in His covenant, giving Israel rest from those who tried to oppress them (2 Sam. 7:9-11). God showered His blessing on David for the sake of the king and the nation, and for the sake of His name and His righteous line.

Maybe it was this sense of security that led David to let down his guard. His sin with Bathsheba was a devastating blemish on his character, but God remained faithful to His covenant. David became another example of God’s mercy to those in His righteous line despite their failures.

No matter how often you read this sadly familiar story, the tragedy of it comes through each time. This is a real-life example of the stages of sin the apostle James described so clearly in James 1:14-15. David was carried away and enticed by his lust, which caused him to conceive the idea of his sin. Then the act of adultery brought the sin to birth, and by the time this sin was finished it had produced death.

That was true not only in the death of Uriah, the innocent victim of David’s fast-growing callousness toward his sin. The child David conceived with Bathsheba also died as part of God’s judgment (2 Sam. 12:14). And the fallout didn’t stop there.

After hearing Nathan’s story of the poor man whose only lamb was stolen, David indignantly said that whoever would do such a thing deserved to die, condemning himself with his own words.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The danger of falling into sins is always present because the world bombards us from every side every day.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 2:1-4; 9:1-9
Observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements. - 1 Kings 2:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
Being a ruler in the ancient world could be dangerous to a person’s health. Leaders often had plenty of rivals and enemies who were ready to kill them. That’s why many kings and emperors used food or wine tasters to protect themselves from poisoning. Chinese emperors even ate with silver chopsticks believing that silver would tarnish if it touched poison.

This was the kind of world David’s son Solomon lived in when he assumed the throne of Israel about 970 B.C. In those days the kingdom of Israel was at the height of its magnificence, and the nation had more than enough enemies who would have been glad for the chance to bring Israel down.

But God’s faithfulness to David and his line made enemies and military threats irrelevant. That’s because God promised to subdue and erase all of David’s enemies if the king would walk before Him in obedience and humility.

David did indeed walk righteously for a number of years, then stumbled badly in his sin with Bathsheba and suffered for it the rest of his life. But he remained a person whose heart was in tune with God’s, which became quite obvious in David’s dying charge to Solomon. Today’s verse is the heart of David’s wise advice.

David reminded Solomon of God’s promise to preserve his royal line, and God Himself repeated to Solomon the covenant He had made with David. This happened after what was probably the spiritual high point of Solomon’s reign, the construction of the great temple in Jerusalem. If you have time to read 1 Kings 8, you’ll be blessed by Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication.

At the end of that prayer, Solomon told the assembled Israelites, “Your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time” (1 Kings 8:61). Like his father David, Solomon followed the Lord with that kind of committed heart--at least for part of his forty-year reign. But as we’ll see tomorrow, the wise king foolishly allowed his heart to be turned in a different direction.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God says He will honor those who honor Him (1 Sam. 2:30), a principle that holds true for any people in any generation.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 11:1-13
Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today... following other gods and serving them. - Deuteronomy 28:14
TODAY IN THE WORD
A landmark restaurant in Beijing, China, still uses silver chopsticks like those Chinese emperors once used to avoid being poisoned (see yesterday’s study). The China Club was originally built to house a prince and became a symbol of Chinese imperial rule. After the Communist revolution, the club’s dining rooms served Communist leaders like Deng Xiaoping. The building survived China’s violent Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and today it is a favorite meeting place of Beijing’s new elite. One writer says that in light of all the changes China has undergone, the China Club “encapsulates the whole history of 20th-century Beijing.”

The history of the China Club reminds us of the radical changes that Israel’s monarchy went through in the later years of Solomon’s rule, and beyond to his successors. Although the monarchy survived for a long time after Solomon, the evil kings far outnumbered the good ones. But through it all, God preserved the line through which the Savior came.

Verse 1 of today’s reading marks a major turning point in biblical history. Most of Solomon’s ridiculous surplus of wives were given to him to seal political alliances, but this was still a violation of God’s command not to marry foreign women.

The outcome of these marriages proved the wisdom of God’s command. These wives brought their false gods with them, and Solomon became an idol worshiper.

It was bad enough when the king gave his heart to the wrong wives. It was much worse that he gave his heart to the wrong gods--even Molech, “the detestable god of the Ammonites” (v. 5) who demanded child sacrifice.

God reacted in righteous anger to Solomon’s sin, and the judgment was severe. God’s covenant promise to David was the only reason his family did not completely lose the kingdom.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Even though our world is vastly different from Solomon’s, we are vulnerable to the same sin of allowing people and things to turn our hearts away from God.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 12:1-15; 14:21-31
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. - Galatians 6:7
TODAY IN THE WORD
Dr. Henrietta C. Mears, the late Bible teacher who founded Gospel Light publishing in 1933, once wrote: “The ambition of most Christians, so far from being an ambition to have nothing, is, on the contrary, an ambition to have a vast number of things; and their energies are all wasted in the vain effort to get possession of these things.... Some store up a long list of works done and results achieved.”

This ambition to have and to experience all of life’s pleasures helps to explain the downward path of Solomon’s life and kingdom. Of course, his efforts to amass things weren’t vain in the sense that he never got what he went after. Solomon was so rich he could say, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure” (Eccl. 2:10).

But Solomon’s attempts to fill his emptiness were futile because he allowed his heart to be turned away from God. The seeds of disobedience Solomon sowed produced a painful harvest in the next generation, as his son Rehoboam split the kingdom into two nations. From that time onward, the name Israel would refer to the northern kingdom, made up of ten tribes, whereas the tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the southern kingdom of Judah.

Rehoboam’s insolent, uncaring attitude toward God’s people might be dismissed as youthful arrogance except for one important factor. God was at work in the situation, carrying out His announced judgment on Solomon by tearing the kingdom out of his hand and giving it to one of his subordinates (1 Kings 11:11). That person, Jeroboam, was among the people who asked Rehoboam to lighten the load.

Besides the fact that Rehoboam was the object of God’s judgment, his attitude was probably also an influence of his mother Naamah (1 Kings 14:21). She was an Ammonite, the longtime enemies of Israel about whom the Mosaic Law said, “No Ammonite . . . or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation” (Deut. 23:3).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Rehoboam’s refusal to listen to Israel’s elders, and the disastrous results, remind us that we need to be surrounded by godly advisors.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 16:1-14
If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm. - Psalm 37:23
TODAY IN THE WORD
Dr. Mark Bailey, who serves as the provost of Dallas Theological Seminary, recalls a conversation he had with a colleague on the faculty of Southwestern College in Phoenix, Arizona. “[We] discussed the statement of Paul in Philippians 1:21, 'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ An application I took away from our conversation has stayed with me for now close to twenty years. Whatever I lose in death isn’t really worth living for.”

The stories of Judah’s kings in the years after David and Solomon certainly illustrate the value of living for something beyond this life. Some of these rulers in the godly line of the Messiah did notable things by human standards.

But the Bible doesn’t measure Judah’s kings against a standard of human accomplishment. The most important thing that could be said about each king was whether he was faithful to God, doing “what was right in the eyes of the LORD” (1 Kings 15:11). In other words, only what these leaders did for eternity--for God and His glory--really mattered in the end.

King Asa, the grandson of Rehoboam, is a good example of this. He enjoyed a long reign of forty-one years, longer than either David or Solomon. Asa was so committed to restoring the pure worship of God that he rid the land of the idols his

predecessors had allowed to enter. As Scripture says, “Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life” (1 Kings 15:14).

One revealing incident from Asa’s reign is the story of his great assembly and sacrifice to the Lord in Jerusalem. The result was a spiritual revival in the land and years of peaceful reign for Asa (2 Chron. 15:1-19).

Unfortunately, Asa did not finish quite as well as he began. During his war with Baasha, the king of Israel, Asa turned to the king of Aram for help rather than to the Lord. When Hanani the prophet rebuked Asa, the king turned on Hanani in a rage and imprisoned him.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Asa’s furious reaction to Hanani reminds us that telling someone the truth can be a risky experience.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 22:41-50; 2 Chronicles 17:1-10
O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. - 2 Chronicles 20:6
TODAY IN THE WORD
In his book, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, former president Dwight D. Eisenhower told about an incident early in his military career when he dealt with an officer who had been caught cheating in a game. The man tried to deny his actions, so Eisenhower showed him the proof and told him he could either resign or face court-martial. The man resigned--and despite pressure from the offender’s congressman to reinstate and transfer him, Eisenhower refused. The officer’s guilt was clear, and Eisenhower didn’t want to send a cheater to another commander.

Imagine the negative attention such a case of firmness and adherence to principle might attract in our “no-fault” culture. Eisenhower, not the cheater, would probably be skewered publicly. But despite society’s efforts to lower the standards, we are responsible to the God whose laws do not change.

Jehoshaphat knew the importance of obeying God’s law, a lesson he apparently learned well from his father Asa. The writer of Kings was able to give Jehoshaphat the all-important commendation that “he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” (v. 43). There are more details about this king in 2 Chronicles.

Today’s reading describes the spiritual revival Jehoshaphat led. The king even sent teachers out to all the towns of Judah to instruct the people in God’s law. God honored Jehoshaphat’s devotion and rewarded Judah with a period of peace (2 Chron. 17:10), a remarkable thing in a time when kings’ favorite pastime was attacking each other.

Jehoshaphat wasn’t perfect in his obedience--which should come as no surprise. He made an alliance with Jezebel’s husband Ahab (2 Chron. 18–19), probably the most notorious leader the northern kingdom of Israel ever had.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God gave a great word to Jehoshaphat just before the battle he won with praise: “The battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chron. 20:15). That’s why praise as a battle strategy made good sense.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Kings 18:1-12; 20:1-11
The eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. - 2 Chronicles 16:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
We are tracing the ancestry of Jesus Christ from the Garden of Eden to the manger of Bethlehem. But we haven’t said much about what happened to the northern nation of Israel after David’s kingdom was divided.

Israel’s 200-year record from the division until its conquest by Assyria (931-722 B.C.) wasn’t good. Assyria’s victory (2 Kings 18:9-12) ended a period during which twenty kings ruled. All of them consistently disobeyed God.

Judah fared better, producing several worthy kings such as Hezekiah, our subject today. Maybe that’s why the southern kingdom was not finally conquered until 586 B.C. Hezekiah was said to be the best of Judah’s kings during this period (v. 5).

This king’s commitment to the Lord was unusual for someone only twenty-five years old. He certainly had a lot of work to do in ridding Judah of its idolatry. His years on the throne included dire threats from the most powerful army on earth, and amazing miracles of deliverance and healing. While Israel was being humiliated by the Assyrians and judged by God, Judah was strong under its godly young king.

Assyria wasn’t content with its conquest of Israel, however, and came against Judah. At first Hezekiah paid tribute to the Assyrian king

Sennacherib. But the Assyrians came to Jerusalem anyway, and when Hezekiah refused their demands they made threats that would have terrified anyone familiar with the brutality of the Assyrians.

But Hezekiah humbled himself before God and consulted the great prophet Isaiah (19:2), mentioned for the first time at this point in the narrative. God assured Hezekiah of victory, then took direct action. His angel killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night, and Sennacherib returned home, only to be assassinated (19:35-37).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The events of the divided kingdom are an example of Paul’s important statement, “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God” (Rom. 11:22).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Chronicles 33:1-20
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. - Habakkuk 1:13
TODAY IN THE WORD
The story is told that during the Revolutionary War, a minister named Peter Miller had a neighbor who hated and ridiculed him. But when his unbelieving neighbor was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, Miller walked to the camp of General George Washington to plead for the man’s life. Washington listened to the plea, but said he didn’t feel he should pardon Miller’s friend. “My friend!” answered Miller. “He’s not my friend. He’s my worst enemy.” Washington was so surprised by Miller’s actions on behalf of an enemy that he granted the pardon. Miller took the pardon to the condemned man, and his life was spared.

That’s a wonderful story of grace, and it applies to the life of Manasseh, the longest-serving and most evil king to rule over Judah. It’s hard to believe that Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah, about whom the Bible says there was no king before or after him who did so well at doing right.

It’s safe to say that no king before or after Manasseh did as much evil as he did. Not only was this man Hezekiah’s son, but he ruled with his father as co-regent for about ten years before taking the throne.

Manasseh ruled for a total of fifty-five years, and he did irreparable damage to the nation. God said that because of all the sins Manasseh committed against Him, He would punish Judah with the same standard He had used against Israel and the dynasty of Ahab. Judah would also be sent into exile (2 Kings 21:10-15).

The extent and variety of Manasseh’s sins are stunning. He undid Hezekiah’s reforms, and offered his own sons as sacrifices. If there was any form of idolatry to be practiced, or any evil person to be consulted, Manasseh did it. He even set up an idol in God’s temple in Jerusalem. It’s no wonder Manasseh and his people paid no attention when God tried to speak to them (v. 10).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
It’s hard to imagine that it took as much of God’s grace to save “ordinary” people like us as it did to forgive Manasseh.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Kings 22:1—23:3
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. - Psalm 119:11
TODAY IN THE WORD
This spring the Field Museum in Chicago hosted a special exhibit featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings first discovered in 1947 by a young Bedouin shepherd as he explored a Judean cave along the Dead Sea. The excitement and anticipation surrounding these invaluable scrolls has not dimmed in the half-century following their discovery.

Another important discovery was made during the reign of Josiah, the grandson of Manasseh. Josiah became a great spiritual reformer in the line of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah. He was the last godly king Judah would have before its exile to Babylon. The assassination of Josiah’s father Amon, after only two years as king (2 Kings 21:19-26), put Josiah on the throne at the age of eight.

Josiah had reigned for eighteen years when the high priest Hilkiah found the long-forgotten “Book of the Law” (v. during repair work on the temple. Hilkiah knew he had made a vital discovery, so the book was taken to the king.

Josiah’s grief-stricken reaction to hearing God’s Word revealed his deep sensitivity to the Lord. According to 2 Chronicles 34:3-7, Josiah began seeking God when he was only sixteen, and began his reforms at the age of twenty. But apparently God’s law was virtually unknown to his generation. The rediscovery of the law confirmed that the king had maintained unswerving devotion to God (2 Kings 22:2).

But Josiah did more than repent for the past. He led the people in a renewal of the covenant, setting the example by committing himself to keep God’s law “with all his heart and soul” (23:3). The people of Judah then followed his example.

The sad thing is that Judah had already wandered too far from God to prevent His judgment. Josiah’s humility and repentance before God brought His merciful word that Josiah would not see Judah’s defeat himself.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Some of the people we have studied this month got in trouble through bad relationships with unbelievers.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Ezra 1:1–2:2; Haggai 1:1-15
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. - Lamentations 3:40
TODAY IN THE WORD
A beautiful building in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, has recently been reclaimed for its original purpose, and is now home to a thriving Christian congregation. Like so many churches in the former Soviet Union, this church was confiscated by the government and used for other purposes during many of the seventy-four years of Communist rule. The building suffered from years of neglect, and still needs a lot of repair and restoration work.

Many centuries before the Communists formed the Soviet Union, a foreign conqueror swept through a nation and left a house of God in ruins. A little more than twenty years after the death of King Josiah, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar swept into Judah in a final conquest of the southern kingdom.

Most of God’s people were sent off into exile in Babylon in fulfillment of God’s judgment, and the magnificent temple of Solomon was leveled. But the godly line survived in Babylon, and when the seventy years of captivity God had decreed were finished, He kept His promise to restore Israel to her land.

The book of Ezra records the fulfillment of this promise of restoration, as the first exiles returned to Jerusalem in 538 B.C. A man named Zerubbabel was among this group (Ezra 2:2). He was a prince of Judah, the grandson of King Jehoiachin who had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:8-16). We’re studying Zerubbabel today because he was one of the last descendants in the godly line mentioned in the Old Testament.

The prophet Haggai says that Zerubbabel was appointed governor of Jerusalem. The main task of the returned exiles was to rebuild the temple, a job they began with great enthusiasm. But after the temple’s foundation was laid, opposition from the people living in Samaria caused Zerubbabel and the people to stop the work (Ezra 4:1-5, 24).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today’s study finishes our survey of some of the people in the Old Testament lineage of Jesus Christ.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Matthew 1:1-21
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! - Romans 11:33
TODAY IN THE WORD
If your pastor announced an upcoming sermon series on the first seventeen verses of Matthew, most of the people in your church would probably wonder what kind of preaching they were in for. The truth is, though, that if the stories of the people in this genealogy were retold, you’d have enough drama, excitement, and spiritual lessons to fill many Sunday messages.

We’ve read some of those stories this month. Now we’re ready to trace the line of God’s promise to its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Even though some of the prophecies about Christ as the King of David’s line are still future, Jesus is the culmination of God’s promise to send a Savior.

The genealogy of Joseph in Matthew 1 contains some familiar names, including Abraham, David, and Solomon. There are other names we hope will be familiar to you after these studies, such as Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah. The point of this list is to establish Jesus’ rightful claim to the throne of David as the legal son of Joseph, who was a “son of David” (v. 20). Notice a couple of interesting things about this list.

It’s obvious the Holy Spirit prompted Matthew not to skip the less attractive “branches” in Jesus’ family tree. Judah, from whom the Messiah’s tribe got its start and its name, was not a spiritual giant. And Judah’s worst ruler, Manasseh, found his way into Matthew’s record.

We pointed out earlier this month that Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba are also included, although Bathsheba’s name is omitted (v. 6). Tamar’s son Perez by Judah was the next in line to carry on the godly seed. Rahab, the mother of Boaz, was a non-Israelite prostitute in Jericho who became a believer in God.

The accuracy of God’s Word is also worth noting. Jeconiah (v. 11) is another name for Jehoiachin, the king of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar took captive. God pronounced a curse on this king, decreeing that none of his offspring would sit on David’s throne (Jer. 22:24-30).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God’s wisdom is certainly beyond our understanding.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Luke 1:26-33
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. - Luke 1:32-33
TODAY IN THE WORD
It may feel like Christmas in July to you after reading today’s passage. That’s not bad, because we have a special reason for reviewing this part of the Advent story today.

Gabriel’s announcement to Mary signaled to the world that God was ready to fulfill His promise of a righteous Seed who would crush Satan. That promise reached from the Garden of Eden to the manger of Bethlehem, from a guilty couple who had just violated God’s first command to a godly young couple who were committed to obeying Him.

Adam and Eve needed a Savior, and so did Joseph and Mary. God extended His grace to a lost race by spilling the blood of animals to cover Adam and Eve, and then He accepted the sacrifice of “righteous Abel” (Matt. 23:35). You’ll recall that Abel’s murder by Cain was Satan’s first attack on the line whose righteous seed meant his doom.

We also learned about several important figures in this line. On many occasions, God identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through David, God established the royal aspect of His righteous line, because the Savior would also be a King with an eternal kingdom. Among His other titles, the promised Messiah of Israel was identified as the Son of David.

In his visit to Mary, Gabriel emphasized this part of the fulfillment of God’s promise.

This was an important statement that God was keeping His word to His people Israel. Jesus came to “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).

The story of Christ’s birth is evidence of this fulfillment. Mary said later, “[God] has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever” (Luke 1:54-55). The priest Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, also testified, “[God] has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:69).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We may not be from the physical line of David, but through faith in Jesus Christ we carry the privileged title of God’s children.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
That everyone may eat and drink,and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God. - Ecclesiastes 3:13
TODAY IN THE WORD
Solomon asks, “What does the worker gain from his toil?” (v. 9). This is one of the questions we hope to answer this month by exploring what God’s Word says about the subject of work. We want to know what we should expect to gain from our work--and, more importantly, what God expects to gain from our work. Martin Luther summarized it this way: “To put it briefly, God wants people to work.”

For most people, work is not a big philosophical issue. As the bumper sticker says, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” We know that if we don’t work, we don’t eat and the bills don’t get paid. Very few of us have the option of not working.

But as Christians, we need to see our work as something more than an exchange of time for a paycheck. God is profoundly interested and involved in what we do to make a living, and that makes work a theological issue. Work is God’s idea, and He even set the example as the first Worker in the universe.

We’re going to tackle the subject from several different angles as we build a biblical theology of work. The studies will follow this basic outline:

1. Purposes for Our Work

2. Problems with Our Work

3. Principles of Profitable Work

4. Practical Advice for Workers

5. Precautions for Workers

6. Praise and Our Work

Ecclesiastes is filled with references to human work--and much of what Solomon has to say is negative. But we should remember that he was writing about life “under the sun” (1:3), life as it appears from a limited, human standpoint. Solomon was also frustrated by his attempts to find meaning (Eccl. 2:1-11).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Whether you spend your days in an office, a shop, a classroom, or at home, the opportunity to work is a gift from our gracious God.