Day: July 6, 2024

Saturday, July 6, 2024

“And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there” (1 Kings 11:36 KJV).

What is this “light” the LORD God has for David in Jerusalem?

Jerusalem was the capital city of King David’s kingdom: “And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem” (1 Kings 2:11). The LORD had declared, “Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel” (2 Chronicles 6:5,6). This corresponds to today’s Scripture.

Going back to 2 Kings 8:19, we observe: “Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.” This context is how wicked Jehoram, a great-great-great-great grandson of David, was the new King of Judah (and Jerusalem) who perverted the nation with sin: “[16] And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. [17] Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. [18] And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab [a king of Israel in the north]: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD. [19] Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.”

Though the nation or kingdom of Judah was evil under Jehoram, God would spare it so as to leave a “light” to David and his descendants….