Though we wish to live under prosperity and peace, this will come from Jesus and not any human ruler.   #daybydaylw   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   2 Samuel 8 ends with a summary of the atmosphere in the God’s kingdom of Davidic rule—justice and equity for all. In other words, order and peace was brought to every place that David ruled. How are we to think of these events, and what relevancy do they have to us? That is our goal when it comes to studying the Bible. We want to do the best we can in understanding the text as it was presented to that first, original audience. And then we want to understand whatever we have learned there in light of the entire Bible, in order to help us know what this passage means for us today and how we are to apply it. I will tell you what we better not do with this. I will tell you what we must fight against when it comes to its relevancy for today. We must fight against inserting our name where we see the name of David. But that is what we want isn’t it? The LORD gave victory to Clif (Mary, Becky, Larry, Mike, Keith) wherever He went. We are naturally tempted to take up David as our great example and say, “If I want to defeat the enemy then I must be righteous and humble like David was, and then God will give me victory and success wherever I go! But we can’t do that with this passage. David is never intended to be our example, or our hero. In just a few short passages David will be the one pulling the levers that lead to adultery, manipulation, and murder. No, David is not our example. There is another feature here that we must remember that will keep us from grabbing this passage and personalizing it too ourselves in the wrong way, and that is this—David is being presented to us as a king chosen by God, and is acting in his role as king of Israel. but we are not kings over nations. So we have to be careful to understand the text correctly. But when we do read this, it does make us long for a king that has this type of success rate doesn’t it? Especially today! “Pease LORD, deliver unto us a leader that is half of what David is!” We want to belong to a kingdom, that is characterized by victory and success and wealth and justice and righteousness. We all crave this and agree that this is the type of canopy we wish to live under! But who can bring us these things? And this is where the story gets oh so good. You see, there were promises made to David in chapter 7, but there were also promises made to God’s people in chapter 7, and the promise was for an Anointed One to come after David’s death, to sit on David’s throne forever and His kingdom would reign forever. And this kingdom to come was longed and spoken of all throughout the OT, especially Isaiah. And it is Jesus who is the Greater David. Jesus is the One who is the substance to David’s shadow.