Seeking to Know an Unsafe Savior
If we dare to seek to know Christ in His unsafe completeness, then an essential resource is the life of David, as provided in (but not limited to) 1 and 2 Samuel. For, it is with David that God entered into an eternal covenant, promising that it would be through his lineage that the Messiah (Jesus Christ) would establish a kingdom that would endure forever.
The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Samuel 7:11b-13)
In David we will not find a man who conforms to the 21st century ideals (i.e., pacifistic, narcissistic and perfectionistic) introduced in an earlier post.
As I recently pointed out, it would be a gross interpretative error to simply conclude that any verse describing the life of David can be directly and thoughtlessly applied to problems facing us today. However, this important principle does not free us to simply ignore anything that challenges our conceptions about the human condition or God’s relationship with us or His expectations of us.
It is a purpose of Holy Scripture’s testimony to provide that information, and it is to this testimony that we must submit as Christians. And, by seriously studying the life of David in 1 and 2 Samuel, we are rightly submitting to Scripture’s teaching as we face together the terrible challenges of the 21st century.
