I don\u2019t really keep up with the royal family. I don\u2019t like watching period dramas or princess-themed Christmas movies. And to top it all off, politics stress me out. There, I said it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Needless to say, kingship is truly a foreign concept to me. Though it isn\u2019t part of my vernacular, and certainly not my daily life, it was for the people whose stories we find in Scripture. From the poetry of the prophets to the narratives of the New Testament, the theme of kingships runs throughout the pages of Scripture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
God\u2019s people longed for a king, and the Lord did give them one. Several, in fact. For generations, Israel had what they thought they wanted. Yet their longing was never satisfied. Bad kings led to personal, and sometimes national, destruction. Good kings, though flawed humans too, provided them relief, success, and direction\u2014for a moment. No matter how impactful their reign, they all ended up just like David\u2014\u201cboth dead and buried\u201d (Acts 2:29), to put it bluntly. And still, after each successful king who died and unfaithful kings who failed, the same generationally transcendent longing for an earthly ruler came. Their desire for a king, though misunderstood and misplaced, wasn\u2019t entirely wrong. We were all created to live under a King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 22 recounts the countless efforts of the Sadducees and Pharisees to disprove Jesus as Messiah by questioning Him about the law. Their efforts failed, time and time again. Then Jesus asked them a question instead. \u201cWhat do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?\u201d (Matthew 22:42). Jesus knew his audience. What they ultimately wanted in their Messiah was a king, so their natural answer was \u201cDavid\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Jesus, the prophesied and long-awaited King, stood before those who had spent their lifetime waiting and watching for Him, they failed to recognize Him. Surely this man couldn\u2019t be both the son of David and the Lord of David\u2014that would make Him their Messiah. And this guy wasn\u2019t the king they had expected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though many kings in the line of David lived lives and reigned in such a way as to point to Jesus\u2019s coming, none of them possessed His identity that set Him apart. Jesus is our resurrected King who will \u201creign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end\u201d (Luke 1:33).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us probably haven\u2019t spent our days looking and longing for a king\u2014at least not in the ways we\u2019re used to thinking about them. But aren\u2019t we all, at the most pure and basic level, longing for someone to reign over our life who knows what\u2019s best and knows no end? That\u2019s the King we were made for. Let\u2019s find peace in His reign today.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t really keep up with the royal family. I don\u2019t like watching period dramas or princess-themed Christmas movies. And to top it all off, politics stress me out. There, I said it. Needless to say, kingship is truly a foreign concept to me. Though it isn\u2019t part of my vernacular, and certainly not my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":71561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent2024"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71574],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"PEACE IN HIS ETERNAL REIGN<\/b>
\r\nby Hannah Little<\/i>
\r\n
I don\u2019t really keep up with the royal family. I don\u2019t like watching period dramas or princess-themed Christmas movies. And to top it all off, politics stress me out. There, I said it.<\/p>
\r\n
Needless to say, kingship is truly a foreign concept to me. Though it isn\u2019t part of my vernacular, and certainly not my daily life, it was for the people whose stories we find in Scripture. From the poetry of the prophets to the narratives of the New Testament, the theme of kingships runs throughout the pages of Scripture.<\/p>
\r\n
God\u2019s people longed for a king, and the Lord did give them one. Several, in fact. For generations, Israel had what they thought they wanted. Yet their longing was never satisfied. Bad kings led to personal, and sometimes national, destruction. Good kings, though flawed humans too, provided them relief, success, and direction\u2014for a moment. No matter how impactful their reign, they all ended up just like David\u2014\u201cboth dead and buried\u201d (Acts 2:29), to put it bluntly. And still, after each successful king who died and unfaithful kings who failed, the same generationally transcendent longing for an earthly ruler came. Their desire for a king, though misunderstood and misplaced, wasn\u2019t entirely wrong. We were all created to live under a King.<\/p>
\r\n
Matthew 22 recounts the countless efforts of the Sadducees and Pharisees to disprove Jesus as Messiah by questioning Him about the law. Their efforts failed, time and time again. Then Jesus asked them a question instead. \u201cWhat do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?\u201d (Matthew 22:42). Jesus knew his audience. What they ultimately wanted in their Messiah was a king, so their natural answer was \u201cDavid\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
As Jesus, the prophesied and long-awaited King, stood before those who had spent their lifetime waiting and watching for Him, they failed to recognize Him. Surely this man couldn\u2019t be both the son of David and the Lord of David\u2014that would make Him their Messiah. And this guy wasn\u2019t the king they had expected.<\/p>
\r\n
Though many kings in the line of David lived lives and reigned in such a way as to point to Jesus\u2019s coming, none of them possessed His identity that set Him apart. Jesus is our resurrected King who will \u201creign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end\u201d (Luke 1:33).<\/p>
\r\n
Many of us probably haven\u2019t spent our days looking and longing for a king\u2014at least not in the ways we\u2019re used to thinking about them. But aren\u2019t we all, at the most pure and basic level, longing for someone to reign over our life who knows what\u2019s best and knows no end? That\u2019s the King we were made for. Let\u2019s find peace in His reign today.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"12","scripture":"Isaiah 9:1-7, 2 Samuel 7:8-16, Isaiah 11:1-6, Luke 1:32-33, Matthew 22:41-46, Acts 2:29-36","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}