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Writer's picturePastor Hans Fiene

Matins Devotion: August 17, 2023

2 Samuel 7:1-17


Something we see a number of times in the Bible is that God is never going to let you win a gift-giving contest. If you offer Him something great, He will always offer you something greater. When Solomon offers God his faithfulness as king by asking God for wisdom, God gives even more faithfulness to Solomon, giving him wisdom along with riches and honor. When Peter tells Jesus that he has and will continue to give up everything to follow him, our Lord responds that those who do this will receive a hundredfold of all he gave up. And in our reading from 2 Samuel this morning, when David offers to build the Lord a permanent house, our Lord responds by promising a better and even more permanent house, the house of the Son from David’s own body, the Son who will rule from David’s throne forever. From a pure heart of faith, David offers to build God a house where He could dwell with His people. In response, God offered David something greater–the promise of the Son crafted from David’s own DNA who Himself would be the tabernacle. He promised Him God in the flesh who would welcome His people into an eternal kingdom where violence, sorrow, and sin could never claim them.


What does this show us? It shows us that you do not have a God who will not love you back. You have a God who loved you first. You do not have a God who will reject your sacrifices. You have the God who sacrificed everything to make you His own. Whenever you offer God the greatest thing you can imagine, He will respond by giving you something unimaginably greater. That’s who He is. You cannot out-give your Father in heaven. You cannot out-sacrifice Him. You cannot out-faithfulness Him. When you give God the greatest of your gifts, He will always give you something immeasurably greater because He’s already given you something immeasurably greater. He's given you the true temple of Jesus Christ, the one who loved His people long before the earthly temple was every build and who loved you long after it was torn to the ground.


Long before you knew Him and loved Him, God knew you and loved you, which is why He gave you the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. And whenever you love Him in response, He will always shower you with love, mercy, and grace beyond imagination.


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