December 15

December 15

Ornament with crown

Yesterday we hung the ornament with a shepherd’s staff.  We talked about David being a shepherd and how Christ is also our Shepherd.  Today our ornament is the crown.  We will be talking about David again, but this time we will talk about David as King and how Christ is our King!  

Our first reading for today is from 2 Samuel 5:1-4.  

 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2 Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them before the Lord at Hebron; then they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.

There are three things I want us to remember from today’s devotion:

Number One:  Christ came from the line of David.

Number Two:  David spoke of the coming of Christ.

Number Three:  David himself is a picture of Christ.  

First, Christ came from the line of David.  Matthew 1:1 says, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  David is included in our Jesse tree because Christ is one of his descendants.  

David is also included in our Jesse tree because he spoke about the coming of Christ.  Many of his Psalms are actually talking about King Jesus!  In Acts chapter 2, Peter quotes David and then explains this to the Jews:  

27 Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades,
Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

28 ‘You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’

29 “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.  (Acts 2:27-31)

Jesus Himself even talks about this in Matthew 22:

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: 42 “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They *said to Him, “The son of David.” 43 He *said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,  44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’? 45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”

Christ would come from the line of David, but David had placed his hope in this coming Lord and King.  

Third, King David is a picture of Christ.  The Bible describes David as being a man after God’s own heart.  Jesus is the perfect picture of a man wholly devoted to God’s will above His own.  

In John 4:34, Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”  

The ornament is a crown, and a crown reminds us that Christ is not just a king like David, but THE King.   

9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11, NASB)

Let’s close our devotion with the hymn, “Joy to the World.”  (#274)

Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing.