Reflective Bible Study

As we step forward in our year podcasting prophecies of Jesus, we come to a prophecy that was given to David through Nathan the prophet, and then this prophecy was referenced leading up to Jesus’ arrival in this world. From this prophecy, we get a big overview picture of who Jesus is, and we also see within this prophecy one reason why the religious leaders in the first century believed the Messiah would not die.

Let’s read what Nathan told David and discover how this shapes the understanding of the Messiah in the first century. This passage and prophecy is found in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 8, God tells Nathan:

⁸ “Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. ¹⁰ I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, ¹¹ even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. ¹² When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, ¹⁵ but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” ¹⁷ In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

Within this prophecy, we discover God promising that the Messiah would be David’s descendant, and that God would establish His kingdom that would last forever. One level of this prophecy is that Solomon, David’s immediate descendant, would build the temple. The next level of this prophecy is that a future descendant would ultimately be the Messiah.

On its surface, this prophecy as it relates to God’s Messiah, taken out of the context of other prophecies that describe suffering and temporary death for the Messiah, suggests that God’s Messiah would usher in an earthly kingdom that would last forever. From this foundation, it is a small leap to then believe that this earthly kingdom would militarily overthrow any occupying nation because it had been set up by God.

In contrast, the kingdom Jesus ultimately established could best be described as a spiritual kingdom, and this kingdom would exist on a different level than the earthly kingdoms of that era. While sounding a little idealistic, this hasn’t stopped people from Jesus’ kingdom from seeking political power, or from trying to blend His spiritual kingdom with any of many earthly kingdoms.

However, taking a step back, how can we know that this prophecy relates to Jesus, and not a different messiah figure?

Jumping into the New Testament, into the gospel of Luke, we uncover an amazing reference back to this prophecy in an angel’s visit to a young engaged woman. Reading from Luke, chapter 1, starting in verse 26, Luke tells us that:

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² 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; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Jumping out of the passage here, it is amazing in my mind how Gabriel references back to the prophecy Nathan gave David, while also expanding on it. Gabriel’s message to Mary is that Jesus would be given the throne of David, and that His kingdom would have no end.

However, tucked within Gabriel’s words is an interesting idea that is easy to overlook. Gabriel describes Jesus, the Messiah, as reigning over the “house of Jacob”. In my own mind, I am fascinated at this designation, since a case could be made for any number of other individuals to be included here, such as Adam, Abraham, Judah, or even David himself. It is also interesting that Gabriel calls Jacob by that name, rather than Israel, which was the name God gave him for the last part of his life.

Every part of this message, while having a literal component to it, has a spiritual truth. If God had told Gabriel to say Adam, this would symbolize that Jesus came for the entire human race. While there is an aspect of truth to this idea, Jesus didn’t come for those in humanity who would reject him. By not saying Adam, God makes the distinction that a part of humanity will ultimately reject Jesus.

Instead, God could have prompted Gabriel to say Abraham. However, while God had promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, from the choices Abraham and his wife made trying to help bring about God’s plan, multiple nations were formed, and not all of these nations were equally God fearing.

While I could go on with potential names Gabriel could have included, I think you get the picture.

It is amazing in my mind that Jesus came for the subset of humanity that was the house of Jacob, which included the twelve tribes of Israel, even when the history between Jacob and Jesus was filled with countless failures.

On its surface, it might appear as though Jesus came only for a specific ethnicity or nationality of people, but from reading the gospels, and how Jesus interacted with people, it is more likely that Jesus came for people who were interested in allying with the spiritual house of Jacob, which might be different than the literal group of descendants. Jesus talks about God cutting away parts of His vine that don’t produce fruit, pruning the parts that do, and grafting in parts that want to be connected with Him.

This means that whatever your past happens to be, we can choose today to ally with Jesus and be connected with His Kingdom that God has promised will last forever!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to ally your life with Him. Choose to invite Jesus into your heart and life and let God graft you into His family.

Also, as I regularly challenge you, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. While other people have interesting ideas, always filter what God wants to teach you through the truth found in His Word.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we start this new year off, we turn our attention onto Luke’s gospel. Luke’s gospel is one of my favorite gospels, Luke’s gospel also happens to be the longest of the four gospels, and Luke’s gospel is written with a skeptic in mind. Unlike the other three gospels, Luke’s account of Jesus’ life appears to be written for one specific person who is deciding what to make of all that he is hearing about this person named Jesus. The first four verses of Luke’s gospel describe why he wrote this gospel, and these verses give context for not only Luke’s gospel, but also the angle Luke is writing his gospel from.

It is worth noting that some skeptics and scholars have challenged the idea that Luke’s gospel was written by an early follower named Luke. However, for the purposes of our time in this gospel, we will assume it was written by someone named Luke, whether or not it was the Luke that many people believe or don’t believe was the author.

Let’s read Luke’s opening words and unpack what we can learn about why Luke wrote this gospel, and what we can take and use as a foundation for our year focusing in on Luke’s gospel. Our passage is found at the very beginning of Luke’s gospel, which is chapter 1, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke begins by writing:

¹ Many have attempted to write about what had taken place among us. ² They received their information from those who had been eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word from the beginning, and they passed it on to us. ³ I, too, have followed everything closely from the beginning. So I thought it would be a good idea to write an orderly account for Your Excellency, Theophilus. ⁴ In this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true.

In these four verses, there is a lot of information that is useful for us to focus in on, but one question many people ask that doesn’t have a great answer is who was Theophilus? Many theories are present, but as I did a quick bit of research, none seemed to stand out more significantly in my mind.

The name Theophilus means “friend of God” or “beloved by God” which I thought was interesting, and this meaning has prompted one theory that Theophilus wasn’t a specific person but a generic term Luke used to direct his gospel at all friends of God.

Other theories include that Theophilus was a Jew from Alexandria, that he was a Roman official, that he was Paul’s lawyer while Paul was in Rome, or even that he was a Jewish priest. While we don’t know definitively who Theophilus was or was not, Luke writes his gospel with skill and clarity to help people on the fence decide that Jesus is worth paying attention to and to clear up confusion regarding what people were hearing Jesus did verses what He did not do.

Verse 4 draws our attention to this detail when Luke tells Theophilus that “in this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true”.

However, before going too far forward with this assumption, we might want to ask ourselves if we can trust Luke?

In Luke’s gospel, we have a number of unique challenges, and while this question isn’t one that is pleasant to ask, it is one we should at least tackle briefly.

When I read this introduction, it is worth noting that Luke is not actually building a case for believing in Jesus. Instead, Luke frames this gospel as being more like a second witness in a case rather than the first. Following Matthew and Mark, as well as some other accounts that were lost in history, Luke steps in as an additional witness to confirm who Jesus was. Repeating verse 4, Luke writes, “in this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true”.

Luke writes his gospel to help confirm the truth about Jesus in the minds of people who were uncertain whether they should believe all they were hearing about Jesus, especially when much of what was being shared seemed hard to believe.

Another question for Luke is where he is coming from when he is writing this gospel, or in other words, what angle is Luke writing from? Is Luke an insider or an outsider when he is writing this gospel, as well as the book of Acts?

While answering this question might take more time than we have left for this episode, Luke steps into the story of the early church in the book of Acts and he is mentioned by Paul in several of Paul’s letters. There are several sections of Acts where the writer switches to using first person narration, while the bulk of Acts is written in the third person.

Some people believe Luke was a Greek convert to Christianity, while other people believe Luke was a Hellenistic Jew, which simply means that Luke was a Jew that had blended aspects of Greek culture and philosophy into his Jewish faith prior to becoming a Christ follower.

However, is Luke writing from the inside perspective, or from an outside perspective for this gospel?

The end of verse 1, Luke gives us a clue. Verse 1 says, “Many have attempted to write about what had taken place among us.” Luke uses the phrase among us, which tells me that Luke is writing this account as someone who is part of the early church. Luke then quantifies who he means when describing the group he is a part of in verse 2 by saying, “They received their information from those who had been eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word from the beginning, and they passed it on to us.”

While Luke is primarily describing the authors of other gospels focusing on Jesus, he also is subtly framing his own gospel about Jesus as he describes all gospel writers receiving information from eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word. However, instead of describing his gospel as being a several steps removed and being based on other author’s work, Luke describes his gospel as being a passion of his that he had followed early on. The first part of verse 3 describes this when Luke says, “I, too, have followed everything closely from the beginning.”

From this framing of Luke’s gospel, we see that Luke is interested in writing a parallel gospel to what was already written as a way of confirming the witness of the other writers. As we will see while moving through Luke’s gospel, many of the events Luke includes parallel the events in Matthew and Mark, but Luke often includes different subtle details, leading me to believe that Luke did his own research on the same events.

As we dive into Luke’s gospel, expect to be impacted by how Luke frames Jesus’ life and expect to be challenged along with me as we focus in on what Luke confirms happened during Jesus’ life and ministry in the first century!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Like I always challenge you to do, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life and open your heart and mind to what He wants to teach you through Jesus and through what the gospels describe Jesus to be. Jesus came not only to give His life as a sacrifice, but Jesus also came to show us what God is like. Luke helps confirm for us if we have doubts whether or not we should place our faith in Jesus.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t let a pastor, podcaster, author, or speaker determine the truth for you. Instead, use the multiple witnesses included in the Bible to make up your own mind. God has preserved and emphasized the four gospels as His record of Jesus’ life, and as we move through Luke’s gospel in our podcast episodes for this year, open your mind to what God wants to teach you through this amazing gospel.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!