“And David said to Solomon, his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: the for the Lord God, even my God, will be with you; He will not fail you, nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.”
David’s dream had been to build a temple for the Lord, but the Lord would not let him build it. This task would fall to his son and successor, Solomon. David had gathered materials for the building of the temple, but it would be left up to Solomon to have it built.This verse is David’s last bit of advice to Solomon before his death. He was reminding Solomon about his responsibility of building a temple for the Lord. He was encouraging him to finish the work that he (David) had started. David gave Solomon some promises from God to encourage him to build the temple. First, David encouraged Solomon to “be strong and of good courage.” This would be advice not just for building the temple but for serving as the king of Israel. It is good advice for us too. We need to be strong and courageous in our day. He advised Solomon to “fear not, nor be dismayed (discouraged).” Fear and discouragement are dangers that we face every day. David knew that fear and discouragement would keep Solomon from following through with the building of the temple. We need to be aware of the presence of fear and discouragement in our lives as well. Second, David promised Solomon that God would be with him in this great work, and in all of his work as king of Israel. This is one of the great promises of the Bible. We will have to go through a lot of things that might cause us to be afraid and to be discouraged, but we have the promise that we will not go through those days alone. God will be with us through everything that we go through in life. We like to think that God will always take us around the problems of life, but the promise is not that we will never experience problems, but that when we do, God will be with us. One of the great promises of Jesus to His disciples was that He would not leave them alone when He ascended to the Father, but would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them in life. We need to grasp this promise for ourselves. WE ARE NOT ALONE! Third, David promised Solomon that God would not fail him as he built the temple. David knew that God would not fail him, because he had taken David through some rough places in his life. When he was just a boy, the Lord enabled David to slay Goliath. David had to run from king Saul for a long time before he himself became the king of Israel. Some of David’s psalms reflect God's care and concern during this time. David also had to escape from his son Abasalom, who tried to rend the kingdom from him. God had not failed David in any of his trying times in life, and he wanted Solomon to know that God would also not fail him. Fourth, David promised Solomon that God would not forsake him while he finished the work “for the service of the house of the Lord.” (God would not forsake Him after the building was finished either.) We also have the promise of Jesus that He will neither leave us nor forsake us in our service to Him. We need to ask ourselves at this point what it is that God wants us to finish before we leave this earth. God has work for every Christian; therefore, we need to find out what it is and do it. We can do whatever "it" is in faith, because the Lord will not forsake us. Will you take all of these promises personally, and know that they are for you as well as for Solomon? Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|