Countdown: 13... So much left undone

At the end of King David's life the Kingdom of Israel was at it's pinnacle.  He'd had a long reign over the People of God's Promise and God was keeping His word.  He had promised Abraham a numerous people, a good land and that in both of those things that there would be a blessing to all nations.  If David's reign did not herald the fulfillment of these promises what would?


Still, in David's life there was much left undone and too much done that should have been left uncompleted.  David was a king born in and for the battle; a warrior youth, slaying the mighty Goliath, a man from whom war was never far.  He was a king of passion, and in many ways that undid the hope of him being The Anointed.  David had brought Bathsheba to his bed when she was another man's wife. He had sought to conceal his adultery through treachery and murder but had been revealed by the God of Truth and Compassion.


The Temple was not yet built and because of the blood soaked nature of David's reign God would not allow the meeting place with Him to be built under the regency of Israel's greatest king. David in his gathering of resources and counting of the people only proved that he could stand on the threshold of greatness but tasting it (like Moses before him) would be withheld because of his sin.


He was indeed the anointed and greatest king of Israel but he was not to be its' saviour. Though, in the full reality of who David was, God made him a great promise:

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 2Sam7:12-13

There would be a son of David to sit on the throne of the People of God's Promise forever. Who would it be?  David hoped it would be his son Solomon,

"When David's time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 2 Kings 2:1-4

Despite David's hopes his son Solomon, despite wisdom would end up choosing folly and so set the pace for all the sons of David who followed him.  The age of the kings of God's People would serve as a sad procession of men and women who would sit on the throne(s) but would be far from the hope that God's promise to David had raised.


The Anointed One, the Messiah/Christ [Hebrew/Greek respectively] was not seen in any palace.  Individuals, at their very best, gave glimpses of what the people might have hoped for but those glimpses speak volumes about the impossibilities of that very hope.
Who can sit on a throne forever?  Who but God alone?  Who could be of David's line and live up to this promise, this hope?  Who indeed?


In Bethlehem, in the dead of night a thousand years later, at a politically fraught time when a maniac sat on the 'Davidic Throne' a child is born.  This weak and fragile lump of flesh, this wonder of creation, is The Creator wrapped in humanity in all it's fullness: this child is The Anointed One.


In Him, and in Him alone, will the promise of God to David be made real and even then there is much left undone - for this King, this Son of David, will take his throne by being nailed to a cross as the Atonement for Sin and rising to Life as Lord and Victor over death.


That determination will fashion this child's life and turn the world upside down.